This is a translation of an Arabic article by Hawar Hebo and Azad Sefo that first appeared on Hawar News on 17 October, 2015.

Hawar News interviewed Ahmad Yosef, Co-chair of the Trade and Economy Council in Afrin, who participated in the First Economy Conference of Rojava that was held in Aram Tigran Cultural Centre in Rmelan [Rumelan / Ramelan / Rimelan]. He said that the aim of the Economy Conference of Rojava was to clarify the theoretical system of the economy of the democratic nation, and also to establish the first building blocks of agriculture, industry and trade.

Yosef talked about the circumstances that Rojava is going through, how it fell behind in economic advancement due to the policies [by the Assad Regime] that largely marginalised the whole region. He said, “As you know, Rojava has seen a new phase since the revolution of 19 July 2012, and the social and economic system has started to change.”

“Our goal is to clarify the theory behind the economy of the democratic nation.”

And about the importance of the conference, he said, “We had the opportunity to hold the first Economy Conference to illustrate our ideas about the economy of the democratic nation that we will try to adopt in Rojava. We will also try to set some guidelines to develop agriculture, trade and industry.”

“We have in mind a different economic model”

“This conference is a historic move in Rojava and the whole of the Middle East, because we are adopting a new economic model, and a system which is different from the popular ones, like capitalism, or socialism of the social market economy.”

“Our new notion is the Communal Economy; the community is the focal point of any economic activity.”

“Our new system is inspired by Ocalan.”

“We will discuss the ideas of the economy of the democratic nation in the conference, and we will study agriculture, industry and trade in Rojava, and also ways to attract investments and how to deal with them.”

Yosef ended by saying that the most important point that will be emphasised and discussed is what he described as “The core value of the communal economy, which is the economy of co-operatives”.

He pointed out that the conference will make many decisions about the whole of Rojava.