Walking to a commune meeting in Amûdê with friends

“We’re solidarity activists,” we say to a man who greets us as we cross the border into Rojava.

“You’ve come too late!”  he replies.

Nevertheless, he smiles widely, welcomes us and shakes our hands. In a way, I agree with him. We have come too late. We are only visiting Rojava when there has been a revolution; only after the people have successfully formed their own autonomous region. Where were we when the Kurdish population of Syria were fighting for their rights, for their own self-determination, under Assad?