Hêvî Îbrahîm

Hêvî Îbrahîm Mustafa (, ), is a Syrian Kurdish politician who serves as the Democratic Union Party (PYD) prime minister of the Afrin Region (originally Afrin Canton until August 2017), a de facto autonomous region of the Democratic Federation of North and East Syria until 2024.

Early life Childhood Îbrahîm was born in Mabeta in the province of Aleppo, part of the Afrin Region. It is unclear exactly how her family ended up in Mabeta, with one theory suggesting that her family was forced to flee the Tunceli Province during the Dersim rebellion in 1937–38. However, the theory lacks evidence and it is generally believed her family originated from one of two possible cities in Turkey, Kahramanmaraş or Adiyaman. On 29 January 2014, as the Afrin Canton declared autonomy, following similar declarations earlier in the month by the Kobane and Jazira, Îbrahîm was appointed prime minister. In an interview in 2014, she stated the declaration of autonomy was, in part, a response to the PYD having been excluded from the Geneva II conference, declaring that Rojava would not recognize any decision made by the conference. In November 2014, the delegation met with multiple groups including, Elmar Brok, head of the European Parliament's Foreign Relations Commission, Gabi Zimmer, President of Left Group, and Rebecca Harms, co-president of Green Group. In the same interview in 2014, Îbrahîm showed optimism regarding the tranquility and diversity that had been achieved in Afrin, despite the ongoing regional conflict; "We have Sunnis, Shiites, Yazidi, and Alevi here who live together peacefully. In Afrin, there are Kurds, Arabs, and other minorities who have no problems with each other. They share a certain cohesion, which shows that this could also be the case in other parts of Syria." This lack of violence allowed for the further political and cultural development of the Rojava framework in Afrin.

On 25 July 2015, the PKK formally ended its ceasefire with the Turkish forces after the PKK was blamed for the death of four Turkish police officials and Turkish forces retaliated by bombing PKK camps in Iraq. Around a month after, the fragile truce held between al Nusra and Afrin YPG fighters came to an end following the mortar shelling of villages near Jinderis, in Afrin. The Turkish forces attacked from Kilis, in the north, and Sucukoy, in the west, with the Turkish crossing about 1000 feet into northern Syria. Russian forces set up a military installation in northern region of Afrin, along the Turkish border. The presence of Russian troops was seen as an attempt by the Afrin region to deter a Turkish Army invasion of YPG controlled positions. The operation directly declared Îbrahîm's party, the PYD, and its affiliates as main targets, while labeling the group terrorists to justify the invasion. Regarding the first weekend of skirmishes and heavy bombardment, Îbrahîm described the situation; "Most of the wounded are civilians. There are clashes. There's artillery and shelling. Our units are fiercely responding to the occupation."

On 22 January, Îbrahîm was urgent in her opinion piece in the Washington Post, she's quoted, "Washington must act soon. Time is running out. U.S. diplomacy appears to be having little effect on Turkey, and this is not a surprise." She pointed to the fact that U.S. troops never were needed in Afrin to dispel the Islamic State as the reason for the lack of adequate defense capabilities of the Afrin YPG. She explained, "the fact that IS never took control of our region has limited the American presence here, and we are now paying the price. Unlike some other regions of northern Syria, we do not have U.S. military bases or even military observers."

On 9 February, one day following the removal of a temporary no fly zone that had been in place for four days by Russia, with Turkey claiming the death of over one thousand "terrorists," Îbrahîm and other Afrin administrative leaders held a press conference discussing the region's reaction to the operation. After gaining control of the city, the Turkish fighters and their allies occupied the city and intermittently engaged in skirmishes with remaining resistance and insurgency fighters, while looting the city. She called upon the people of Afrin to be proud of the historic nature of their resistance, "Our peoples must be proud of their resistance which has put its mark in the history of resistances of the peoples who call for their freedom and who are stuck to their land and identity. This resistance will be perpetuated by history because the resistance of our people for fifty-eight days proved to the world that our people have the will of strong resistance based on the adherence to the martyrs' blood." The Turkey and its allied forces have remained in control of the region since Operation Olive Branch.

Interior Affairs Committee Co-Chair On 3 October 2018, the Northern and Eastern Syria Autonomous Administration Executive Assembly, essentially the governing body of all regions of Rojava, held a meeting to elect the executives of the committees in the assembly. Îbrahîm was elected co-chair of the Interior Affairs Committee alongside fellow co-chair Ali Mustafa Heco. Typical to the Rojava model, one man and one woman head each committee.

On 17 October, two weeks following her election, she detailed the gruesome costs of conflict in the war-torn region, "Those who promote war do not think about the people. Not thinking of the civilian population and spreading terror and its brutality has left millions of Syrian people out of their land and home. These policies have had a profound effect on the people. Families suffered material damage. Families were separated. They were lost. Many people were killed. In the countries where they migrated, those states promoted those dirty markets. The states have run games on them. They have been political."

Political views Îbrahîm has no published political manifesto and most of what is known of her views is observed through her actions as a revolutionary. However, Îbrahîm has referred to Abdullah Öcalan as the leader of the Kurdish people and that his teachings have been adopted as principles by Kurds. Its foundations are based in feminism, ecology, and direct democracy. The three autonomous regions of Rojava connected through the Democratic Federation of North and East Syria are an example of this type of political structure.

Îbrahîm has highlighted the importance of her Kurdish, Alevi, and female oppressed identities in forming her political views. She had this to say about women leading the resistance in Rojava, "I want all women, particularly Kurdish women, to be successful. And I can state that Kurdish women will lead all the other women in the world. We want the women of Rojava to participate in self-rule in the administrative level. We want them to work more, because women have always been ignored in the past. Women in Rojava have led the revolution. For this very reason, they need to take their very well deserved posts in the administrations."