EXCLUSIVE – A world-renowned Taekwondo team from Rojava and their success

HESEKÊ, WESTERN KURDISTAN

The taekwondo teams internationally representıng Rojava at tournaments, students at the Piling school in Heseke, spoke to our agency on their successes and the culture of the sport in Kurdistan and the Middle East.

Student at the taekwondo school, and a member of team Sun, Fatma Xalid Qasimstated introduced himself as follows:

“I went to the second championship game in the city of Silêmaniye in Bashurê Kurdistan and won a black belt. This was entirely thanks to my teacher’s effort. I thank him.”

Fuad Seyîd Elî, another member, expressed:

“I participated in Taekwondo in 2014, and I won many championships in Minbîç, Qamishlo and Hesekê. I am very happy because we will be in the international championships soon and we will finish at first place. Despite our lack of resources, we continued and achieved our goal.”

Hela Idris Hesen, a student at the Taekwondo school and a member of team Sun, said:

“I participated in the inter-state championship competition in Jordan in 2016 and won the silver prize. At the same time, I participated in Bashur Kurdistan and won a silver award again. In 2018, I attended the training cycle and won a certificate of trust in education. I won a silver prize in the contest I participated in.

Darîn Ebdulbarî Hûsen also stated that she joined team Sun in 2019. “Our training was very efficient. I will go on to win a black belt, I will take my place in the team during the championships.”

Rojda İbrahim also introduced herself, stating that she started training for Taekwondo in 2018. “In 2019, I won the Silêmaniye championship in Bashurê Kurdistan and came first. I participated in the championship in Egypt in 2019. ”

The coaches at the Piling Taekwondo School shared that Taekwondo attracts the attention of young people in Cizre and Rojava of Kurdistan in general. “And they ask us, how did Taekwondo become so popular? Because the Taekwondo culture is close to the Kurdish and Middle Eastern culture.

The Kurds are getting more involved with Taekwondo to say that ‘we live’ and ‘we exist’ and we have shown this to the world not only with speech but also in practical terms, many times.

We have participated in competitions representing the whole of the Middle East. We are above the level of many countries and we are present with our identity, be it with our clothes or with our team names.

We state that we are from Rojava, team Sun of the Kaplan Taekwondo team, and we write our logos in Kurdish.

When you get accepted, when you impose the will of the Kurdish people in all those countries, it means that you are one of the leading peoples in the world. If you have your will and are persistent, you can go anywhere and own a place among the peoples of the world. That’s why Taekwondo has become a sport in Rojava and has become a part of life.”