Profile: Gulistan Sido, sowing the seeds of life and solidarity

Would you like to introduce yourself?

My name is Gulistan Sido, I'm Kurdish from Syria, originally from the Kurdish mountain region of "Afrine", a very fertile mountainous region with olive groves stretching as far as the eye can see, the land of my ancestors to which I've been very attached since childhood. We consider it our own little paradise. I was born in 1979 and had polio at the age of two. With my reduced mobility, I've had to face many difficulties in my life. But this particular situation didn't stop me from studying. I grew up and studied in Aleppo, where schooling up to the baccalaureate was conducted in Arabic.

What was your academic career in Syria, then in France?

I have a literary background. I was able to read and discover Russian literature translated into Arabic, which was abundantly published in Syria at the time. Then, between 1997 and 2001, I studied French literature at the Faculty of Letters and Humanities, in the French Language Department of Aleppo University. In 2002, I graduated with a post-graduate diploma in literature. My first dissertation was on the theme of violence in André Malraux's novel La condition humaine.

In 2006, I continued my studies in France, where I did a Master's degree in modern literature at Paris III. I worked on the theme of wisdom and the figures of the wise in the works of André Gide. I planned to do a Master's degree in Kurdish oral literature at Inalco, but, after returning to Syria in 2008, I had difficulties getting back to France and these studies were interrupted.

So, during this period until 2011, I collected and recorded numerous oral literature texts in my native region and in the Kurdish Cheik Maqsoud district of Aleppo. I also taught French at Aleppo University.

In the wake of the "Arab Spring", the popular uprising began in Syria in March 2011 and, under the blows of violent repression, turned into a civil war that quickly became internationalized. I lived through ten years of this war, which is still raging in my country. A long exodus began for me, from Aleppo to Afrine, then from Afrine to the Al-Jazeera regions and finally landing and exiling in France in October 2021. There, I was able to enroll in a PhD program at Inalco.

You are a PAUSE program laureate and are pursuing your PhD thesis at Inalco, under the supervision of Ms. Ursula Baumgardt and the co-direction of Amr Ahmed (CeRMI) What are your research interests?

Today, I'm a member of the Plidam research team (Inalco) and the "Oralités du Monde" research group (ODM). I'm interested in the articulations and relationships between oral and written modes of literary expression. I study representations of cultural identity and otherness in Kurdish oral and written literature.

Since 2018, Afrine has been occupied by Turkey. In January 2018, Turkey began bombing the city and after 58 days of bombardment, I had to leave with the others on March 18 for the countryside and, alas, I was unable to save my library, which contained hundreds of books in several languages. Fortunately, I was able to save the archive of my oral literature corpus. This archive is a treasure trove for me. This corpus of oral tales is the foundation on which my thesis is based.

I've always lived on the edge of several languages and cultures. I speak Kurdish, Arabic, Turkish, which I learned in Aleppo, and French. My training in French literature and translation led me to work on a work by Emmanuel Roblès, the play "Montserrat", whose translation into Kurdish I completed in 2022.

In an interview with Contretemps in June 2021, we discover that you were very involved in the creation of the Kurdish Language and Literature Institute in Afrine in 2013 and the first University of Rojava. Could you tell us a little about the context and the issues at stake at the time? Today, how do these universities function and what support do they rely on?

Under pressure from the Kurdish populations who rose up, the regime's intelligence services and army withdrew from the Kurdish towns of Afrine, Kobané and Al-Jazeera. A year later, on July 19, 2012, the Rojava revolution got underway. This revolution resulted in the construction of new alternative social institutions and the emergence of a real cultural movement.

In March 2013, the regime bombed the neighborhood in Aleppo where I was living. I had to leave and go to Afrine. The Kurdish regions were then under blockade, completely isolated. It was also very dangerous to travel between these towns and the two big cities, Damascus and Aleppo.

With several academics, in a move to reclaim our language, our culture, which had always been marginalized, banned, stifled, we banded together to found, in October 2013, the first Kurdish language and literature institute "Viyan Amara" designed to train teachers in 2 years. For us, teaching Kurdish was an important event and a historic turning point. As a founding member, I took part in preparing the teaching subjects and planning the training courses in history, grammar and especially Kurdish literature, adapting the methodology acquired in my French literature course.

Creating universities was a real need so that students could continue their studies. In 2015, the first university was opened in Afrine. Three other universities followed: Rojava (2016), Kobané (2017) and Al Charq in Raqqa (2021). Dozens of departments offer training in various disciplines (medicine, civil and ecological engineering, petrochemistry, agriculture, Kurdish language and literature, Jineolojie "women's science"...). These universities are not recognized, given the political status of the democratic self-administration regions of north-eastern Syria. They are financed by the administration. More than 2,000 students have already obtained diplomas and can either work or continue their studies at Master's level.

In 2020, with several collaborators, you are initiating the "Green Braids" ecological program in Rojava. Could you go back over the genesis of this project, its objectives and achievements?

The Green Braids association is a grassroots ecological initiative born in October 2020 against this backdrop of war. Launched by a team of 8 people from different regions of Rojava, it is based in Qamișlo and is active in the northeastern region of Syria. The project began on a voluntary basis, with no budget and just a few seeds collected free of charge. It aims to intensify reforestation efforts by widely mobilizing civil society, and by encouraging, through this citizen mobilization, self-administration and municipalities to provide the necessary means to deal with the region's severe ecological degradation.

After ten years of armed conflict and destructive policies orchestrated by Bashar el-Assad's regime in the territories of Syria, particularly in the region of "Northeastern Syria", alternative solutions had to be found to deal with real social, humanitarian and ecological disasters.

Investment in oil fields, the imposition of intensive cereal monocultures and the ban on tree planting have contributed to the advance of the desert, the drying up of watercourses and air pollution. The population, not only deprived of drinking water, is now also faced with an increase in respiratory diseases and cancers.

* In Syria, 80% of cancer patients come from the north/east.
* There is only 1.5% green space in Rojava, whereas international recommendations are 10-12%.
* At least five rivers in Rojava are now dry. As a result, a huge variety of plants has disappeared.

The Green Braids association aims to weave links with life again through the creation of nurseries. It's an act of resistance. Through this volunteer initiative, we aspire to prepare 4 million seedlings of different tree varieties to be replanted in 5 years throughout the region.

The specific objectives of the project are:
- To consolidate the seedling reproduction capacity of the Tresses Vertes project, particularly at the new Qamishlo nursery. We are backed and supported by the Fondation Danielle Mitterrand and the municipality of Lyon.
- Strengthen ecological awareness in North-East Syria, and more specifically a culture of tree care.
- Contribute to the technical support and capacity building of the Tresses Vertes project through exchanges with specialists
- Contribute to preserving/restoring healthy ecosystems and biological diversity.
- Alleviate the psychological pressure caused by the war by involving local residents in the project.

Starting with a nursery of 17,000 trees grown on a small plot of land lent by the University of Rojava in Qamishlo, the association has spread new volunteer groups and up to 10 nurseries in the towns of Kobanê, Amuda, Derbasiyê, Tell Tamer, Hassakeh and Raqqa. In order to increase plant cover while respecting natural balances, we have chosen tree species adapted to local ecosystems. Cypress, Beirut and Aleppo pines, lime and pomegranate trees will soon be blooming throughout the Al-Jazeera region. The ambitious goal is to cover 10% of the territory of northern and eastern Syria.

Accompanied by a scientific council, the initiative continues with the creation of five new nurseries of greater capacity. By promoting the participation of local residents, the Tresses Vertes make popular mobilization the driving force behind their ambition to regenerate healthy, living environments in northeastern Syria. In schools and high schools, civil society organizations and municipalities, collective work is encouraged through awareness-raising campaigns on ecological issues and training courses.

This program is a winner of the Prix de la fondation Danielle Mitterrand 2022, along with four other local, grassroots initiatives in Syria's Northeast region. What support does this prize represent for the project's players?

This prize was awarded to us as part of the JASMINES network (Jalons et Actions de Solidarité Municipalisme et Internationale avec le Nord-Est de la Syrie) initiated and designed by the Fondation Danielle Mitterrand. This network supports democratic, ecological and alternative projects run by civil society in Rojava and Northeast Syria, and works to build bridges of friendship and cooperation. It was thanks to this program that the city of Lyon offered us the first financial aid to develop and perpetuate our project.

For us, this award represents recognition of these projects. The distinction we have earned shows the importance and value of the projects we have carried out. The award aims to make them more visible. It opens new doors of support and solidarity for us, and proves that we are not alone and abandoned.

What are the interactions between these different programs in the region?

The common point between these different alternative programs is the context of war and embargo in which they are developing. Each program represents a different way of acting and resisting. They complement each other and are vital in the sense that each is trying to find solutions and improve the situation. Ecology, the emancipation of women and their role in the democratization of minds, the reorganization of society and the construction of vital infrastructures are essential needs for subsistence and finding local collective answers.

Today, how are local populations coping with the exactions committed by Turkey on their territory? What support could they count on to bring these projects to fruition?

Faced with internal threats (the existence of Islamic State sleeper cells) and external ones (attacks and exactions committed by Turkey), the democratic self-administration of northeastern Syria and the populations living under its "Kurdish, Arab, Syriac and Armenian" banner rely first and foremost on their own military force, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which were able to defeat the EI in 2017. Their attachment to the values carried by their democratic project is based on a new paradigm: the brotherhood of peoples, freedom and male-female equality.

The populations are also counting on the support of major international forces that believe in the same values and defend peoples' rights to self-determination. They are hoping for a firmer stance from these forces against the Turkish air attacks that have targeted the infrastructure and resources of life. It is through the building of bridges of friendship and solidarity, and by strengthening cooperative relations with civil society organizations and associations, that the projects can be sustained and endure.

Picture presentation of the first nurseries of the Tresses Vertes / Green Trees project, on Calaméo.