Our Program
Note: All events will be held in German. Please contact us at email hidden; JavaScript is required if you need a translator and we will try our best to provide one.
WarmUp Event
September 28th | from 6 p.m. | Alte Gärtnerei
Kitchen for everyone with an input on basic ideas of the Kurdish freedom movement
Warm-up event
October 1 | 8 p.m. | Zentralkino
Kurdish cinema – “Blackberry Season”
October 6th | 6 p.m. | Café of the Stadtteilhaus Louise
Open Kurdistan Meeting – Current Situation in Kurdistan
October 7th | 7 p.m. | HfBK – University of Fine Arts
Lecture on the genocide of the Kurds in Bakur (Northern Kurdistan/Turkey)
October 8th | from 12 a.m. | Johannstädter Kulturtreff e.V.
Kurdish Culture Day
Opening event on October 9th | 2 – 5 p.m. | Internationlistisches Zentrum Dresden
Exhibition “JINWAR – the village of free women”
October 11th | 6 p.m. | Trinitatis church ruins
28 years are enough! – The ban of the PKK and it’s consequenses for kurds in Germany
October 10th | 7 p.m. | PlatzDa!
“If We Don’t Stand Up for Ourselves, Who Will?” – Organizing women and people of other oppressed genders as an anti-patriarchal perspective in practice
October 12h | 7 p.m. | riesa efau concert cellar
Book presentation: “I wanted to change a lot. From the life of the internationalist Ellen Stêrk”
October 13th | 7 p.m. | Roter Salon at Rausch
Ecology and Democratic Conferderalism
Kitchen for everyone with an input on basic ideas of the Kurdish freedom movement
When: September 28th – 6 p.m. (food) / 7 p.m. (input and discussion)
Where: Alte Gärtnerei, Heidestraße vis-a-vis 21
Speaking: Women Defend Rojava
The Kurdish freedom movement demonstrates a way of the self-organizating society based on ecology, grassroots democracy and gender liberation. Community councils, communes, academies and cooperatives are being established, thus creating an alternative to the exploitative and destructive capitalist system not just in Rojava (North and East Syria) after its liberation from IS, but also in other areas.
Do you want to learn more about Kurdistan and the Kurdish liberation movement? Do you wonder what makes the women’s revolution so special or what is actually meant by “democratic confederalism”?
Together with our friends from Women Defend Rojava Dresden, we want to find answers to those questions and get to know the struggles and the ideas of the Kurdish liberation movement. After a short input, we will talk and discuss all the questions you might have, in order to be prepared and ready for the Kurdistan Days 2022.
Everybody is welcome to eat, discuss and to get to know each other.
Kurdish cinema – “Blackberry Season”
When: October 1 – 8 p.m.
Where: Zentralkino Dresden, Kraftwerkmitte 16, 01067 Dresden
Back in his hometown after his university studies, Servan witnessed the burning down of his village and a series of other atrocities which eventually led him to join the Kurdish resistance. In the ranks of the Kurdish liberation movement, he is seriously injured in clashes with the Turkish army. In order not to slow down his comrades and allow them to escape, Servan insists that he be left behind. Against all odds, he survives, enduring several days of acute pain. However, his friends cannot come back to pick him up, the area being surrounded by Turkish soldiers. As the soldiers approach, Servan decides to leave his hide away in spite of his serious injuries. He sets out to find his friends, overcoming countless obstacles in the forest, but nevertheless helped by Kurdish villagers throughout his journey.
Please be responsible and test yourself for corona virus before attending. Please bring your FFP2 mask.
Open Kurdistan Meeting – Current Situation in Kurdistan
When: October 6th – 6 p.m.
Where: Café of the Stadtteilhaus Louise
Speaking: Initiative Democratic Confederalism, Intiative for Peace in Kurdistan and Women Defend Rojava Dresden
To start of the Kurdistan Days 2022 we offer an input on the current political situation in Kurdistan, a the perfect basis the rest of the events. Afterwards we want to discuss the current situation in the different parts of Kurdistan with you and our friends of the Initiative Democratic Confederalism in order to answer all the questions, that you might have.
This event is part a mounthly series of “Open Kurdistan Meetings”, which are organized by Women Defend Rojava Dresden and the Initiative for Peace in Kurdistan and take place every first Thursday of the month.
These meetings are hosted in order to exchange ideas with the many great, dedicated people we encounter during our work. Every mount, the meetings have different topics, reaching from lectures, discussions, watching interesting films together all the way to planning collective action.
Feel free to come by – we are looking forward to seeing you there!
Please be responsible and test yourself for corona virus before attending. Please bring your FFP2 mask.
Lecture on the genocide of the Kurds in Bakur (Northern Kurdistan/Turkey)
When: October 7th – 7 p.m.
Where: HfBK – University of Fine Arts, Güntzstraße 34, 01307 Dresden, room 222 (barrier free)
Speaking: Leyla Imret
Leyla Imret was born in 1987 in the Kurdish city of Cizîr in Northern Kurdistan (Turkey). She came to Germany as a child as a matter of her own saftey, since her family had been part of the Kurdish liberation struggle. In 2014, she then became mayor of her hometown Cizîr. In office, she worked tirelessly towards reconstruction, equal rights and humane conditions in a city, still suffering the consequences of war.
Since 2015, the Turkish state has intensified its efforts to annihilate the Kurdish population, It has demolished entire towns in northern Kurdistan, erasing them from the map entirely. During government curfews in 2015 and 2016, approximately 600 people were killed and another 400,000 have been displaced.
On this years opening event of the Kurdistan Days, Leyla Imret will talk about her own experiences with Turkish fascism, including the events knwon as the “death cellars of Cizîr”. That term refers to a series of massacres committed by the Turkish military on February 7, 2016 in residential buildings in city of Cizîr of northern Kurdistan. Countless people, who had sought protection from war crimes during the Turkish state’s military siege in residential basements, were killed by the turkish military.
Today, Leyla Imret is the German spokesperson of HDP – the “Peoples’ Democratic Party”. A party that is currently facing prosecution by the Turkish state, in an effort to ben it entirely and taking another step of cultural genocide against Kurds.
Together we want to learn more about cultural genocide: What does the term mean, what forms does it take and how it manifests itself. Also, we want to learn about the resistance against it though and to commemorate the victims.
Please be responsible and test yourself for corona virus before attending. Please bring your FFP2 mask.
Kurdish Culture Day
When: October 8th, 12 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Where: Johannstädter Kulturtreff e.V., Elisenstraße 35, 01307 Dresden
(partially barrier free)
Speaking: Verein deutsch-kurdischer Begegnungen e.V.
What does the Kurdish language sound like? How many dialects are there? What is “Govend”? What does traditional Kurdish clothing look like?
Music and art, lifestyles and traditions, language and dialects, clothing and food – all of these are expressions of Kurdish identity. All of it is intertwined with demands like the recognition of the Kurdish existence and the right to freedom and self-determination of the Kurdish people.
Let us get to know Kurdish culture better and spend a day eating Kurdish food, dancing, singing, laughing enjoying kurdish music!
Please be responsible and test yourself for corona virus before attending. Please bring your FFP2 mask.
Exhibition “JINWAR – the village of free women”
When: Opening event on October 9th – 2 – 5 p.m.
Duration of the Exhibition: October 9th – 23rd
Where: Internationalistisches Zentrum Dresden, Riesaer Straße 32, 01127 Dresden, House D
(not barrier free)
Speaking: Women Defend Rojava
In the midst of the Syrian civil war, the idea of an ecological village, where women can live in a communal and self-determined was born.
JINWAR is a place that is built, shaped and brought to life by women. A place where all women can live together freely, collectively and with joy. JINWAR is part of a struggle for a profound change and liberation of society.
JINWAR is a way of constructing a real, living alternative to a destructive capitalist-patriarchal system reproducing itself constantly through existing power structures and wars. It is based on communal and ethical ways of living, that empower people to self-determined living.
This photo exhibition shows the emergence of JINWAR and life in the village. On short text panels, women of the village present their daily life and work.
Vernissage: October 10th – 2 – 5 p.m. JINWAR and the need for autonomous women’s organizing with Women Defend Rojava Germany
“We view JINWAR as a part of the revolution in Rojava. We built the village based on the same values. These are: Democracy, Ecology and Women’s Liberation. As a women’s commune, we are part of the Democratic Autonomy.”
Please be responsible and test yourself for corona virus before attending. Please bring your FFP2 mask.
“If We Don’t Stand Up for Ourselves, Who Will?” – Organizing women and people of other oppressed genders as an anti-patriarchal perspective in practice
When: October 10th – 7 p.m.
Where: PlatzDa!, Kesselsdorfer Str. 19
Speaking: Feminist Organization “Gemeinsam Kämpfen”
In Northern and Eastern Syria, countless people are part of the resistance against numerous and very different forms of attacks. However, they are not just resisting occupation by the Turkish state or islamist groups. They are also very committed to the free re-organizatioon of society as a whole. Aspecially Women have begun to organize themselves and to develop suggestions for what this organization might look like. But what does the self-organization and resistance of women in northern and eastern Syria look like? Why do women in Kurdistan organize autonomously from men? What experiences and analyses have led to that conclution and what achievements have been made by that? We will address those and many other questions in an input and a subsequent discussion with the speaker of the Feminist Organization “Gemeinsam Kämpfen”. Furthermore, we will discuss, what the achievements of the women’s revolution mean for the situation in Germany and what we can learn from it.
Please be responsible and test yourself for corona virus before attending. Please bring your FFP2 mask.
28 years are enough! – The ban of the PKK and it’s consequenses for kurds in Germany
When: October 11th – 6 p.m.
Where: Trinitatis church ruins, Trinitatisplatz 1
(barrier free)
Speaking: Attourney at Law Lukas Theune
Although Kurds are one of very few emancipatory forces in the middle east, actually fighting the dschihadist threat and under constant prosecution and attack by the Erdogan-regime, those living in Germany are frequently indicted by criminal courts, accused of having advertised the PKK – a legal minefield fpr Kurdish People.
Even Kurdish literature and music can be prosecuted. In 2018 for instance, the entire inventory of the Mezopotamia Publishing and MIR music was confiscated by the state and has not been given back to this day. Attourney at law Lukas Theune has represented Kurdish Deffandents and initiatives in court for years now. Earlier this year, he and a colleague of his have officially filed for ending the legal ban on the PKK in Germany.
In his input, he will talk about the repressive pollicy of the German State against Kurds and Kurdish live in general. He will speak about how problamatic the legal basis for those prosecutions is, how the German state effectively became an agent of the Erdogan-regime, what the chances are for lifting the ban of the PKK and what hopes ride on it.
Please be responsible and test yourself for corona virus before attending. Please bring your FFP2 mask.
Book presentation: “I wanted to change a lot. From the life of the internationalist Ellen Stêrk”
When: October 12h – 7 p.m.
Where: riesa efau concert cellar, Adlergasse 14
Speaking: Herausgeber:innenkollektiv
The book “Verändern wollte ich eine Menge” (I wanted to change a lot), was published in May of this year by edition assemblage and describes the life of Ellen Stêrk, a feminist internationalist.
By combining personal letters, emotional memories and backround information, the book provides a rather personal encounter with Ellen, who took the name Stêrk (star) in Kurdistan, even after her death. Her story is an invitation, to find new utopias and give new live to internationalism. As it is compiled from many different perspectives, this biography also provides insight into the last decades of feminist organizing in Germany and Kurdistan.
Two people from the editors’ collective will read excerpts from the book and talk about Ellen Stêrk aswell as the book’s creational process.
Please be responsible and test yourself for corona virus before attending. Please bring your FFP2 mask.
Ecology and Democratic Conferderalism
When: October 13th – 7 p.m.
Where: Roter Salon at Rausch, Bürgerstraße 36
Speaking: Ecology Committee of the Initiative Democratic Confederalism
Not just in the climate justice movement, but also beyond it, the discussion about how solve the climate crisis increasingly involves talk about a “different (economic) system” and more “democratic participation”. The demands directed at governments have been made for decades but have yet to lead to any significant results. Consequently, must alternatives must be created by society itself. But what could these alternatives even look like?
Based on the concepts and perspectives of the Kurdish liberation movement, we want to share our analysis and views in an input and discuss the concept of democratic conferderalism as a way to solve the ecological crisis afterwards.
Please be responsible and test yourself for corona virus before attending. Please bring your FFP2 mask.
When: October 14th – 5 p.m.
Where: Leisniger Platz Dresden
From October 6th to October 14th, there will again be Kurdistan Days in Dresden: Together we want to learn, discuss, dance, eat and get to know each other better. To end this year’s Kurdistan Days we want to take our fight for a liberated society to the streets and show what Kurdistan means to us:
A world free from oppression and exploitation. A world in which different ethnic groups can live together peacefully, where women and other oppressed genders are able to live their lives without gender oppression, where decisions are made by grassroots democracy and where the environment is not destroyed for the sake of corporate profits.
This vision of a better world for everyone however, is a threat to those in power, including here in Germany. That is why Erdogan’s policies are not only approved of, but actively supported by the German government.
The fact that Kurdish activists are persecuted for their political activities here in Germany and weapons are supplied to the Turkish regime, does not only affect fighters on the ground in Kurdistan. It is also a sign to all people who are fighting for a different world, in Germany and everywhere.
In light of that reality, we can no longer stand by passively. LET’S DEFEND THE REVOLUTION TOGETHER, LET’S FIGHT FOR A DIFFERENT, A BETTER LIFE!
Come to Leisniger Platz on October 14th at 5 p.m.! Let us bring this this week of many new impressions, networks and exchanges to a determined conclusion! Let’s take to the streets for a better life for all of us!
Please be responsible and test yourself for corona virus before attending. Please bring your FFP2 mask.
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