Subscription 790/year or 190/quarter

Kurdish Anarchism

"Nothing similar has been seen since the Spanish Civil War," say Norwegian anarchists. The Kurdish People's Defense Unit seeks to create a system that ensures democracy, equality, freedom of expression and the rights of minorities.      




(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

 

Very many people have seen the pictures and videos of the Kurds in the Women's Defense Unit (YPJ), the women's section of the People's Defense Unit (YPG): dressed in green uniforms, hair hanging loose and with automatic rifles on the shoulders. Who they fight for is well known: the men of ISIS, and now also Erdogan's forces that have been sent into parts of Syria. But what are these women fighting for? Red politician Erling Folkvord and several Norwegian anarchists have traveled to the Kurdish areas in Turkey and Syria to take a closer look at what the YPG wants to build up. "They place much higher demands on democracy than we do in Norway. It is a people's government from below, which presupposes that the population must be thoroughly organized and participate in the government itself, "Erling Folkvord tells Ny Tid on a loud phone call. "It is a cross-cultural board with great emphasis on women having the same rights as men. Especially the latter takes a long time to turn around, due to old feudal traditions. The system of shared leadership in all governing bodies is a huge step. A woman and a man are co-leaders. I am impressed with how far they have come, "he says.

It is early September when Folkvord talks to Ny Tid. He is on the border with Syria, and is trying to get into the areas that are now controlled by people's councils that, with the help of general meetings and referendums, organize society down to the smallest street corner.

Referendums and gender equality. While the YPG and YPJ are fighting ISIS, and on hanging their hair has managed to keep on the border town of Kobani, the tankers from ISIS's oil field in Syria have traveled relatively freely into Turkey. Turkish opposition newspapers managed to publish several articles linking Erdogan and his people to the oil trade with ISIS, as well as weapons support to the terrorist organization. The Turkish journalists who revealed Erdogan's support and trade with ISIS are today imprisoned and the newspapers are closed or taken over by the state. Oil trading on the black exchange is ISIS's largest source of income and lifeblood. The terrorist group is on the decline front, partly because YPG wins. In the areas released by the YPG, local and regional councils are formed. In all councils, there should be at least 40 percent women. In their party program, it has also been established that sexual minorities, gays, lesbians and transgender persons should be guaranteed representation in councils.

"They place much higher demands on government than we do in Norway."

Martin Ravneberg
Martin Ravneberg

Martin Ravneberg holds a master's degree in philosophy and is a member of the anarchist organization Motmakt. In the fall of 2015, he was in Kurdish areas of Turkey governed by these principles. "The model is that you have a leader at the top of a region, and you have two deputy leaders under the leader," Ravneberg says.

“The rule now is that if the leader is Kurdish, the sub-leaders must be an Armenian and an Arab. If the leader is Arab, the sub-leaders must be a Kurd and an Armenian. It is a system that provides representation not only for women, but also for the minorities and the various religious groups. This is a system that could possibly create reconciliation in the Middle East, with the ethnic patchwork the region is. ”

How well does this kit work in practice?

“I have been to several neighborhood meetings in the Kurdish areas of Turkey. They work and they practice daily practice. But the work is made more difficult by the fact that they are chronically under attack. The advice I was in was first lit, and then the Turks went in and grit the whole neighborhood. It looks like war-ravaged Syria or Dresden, ”he says.

“The system is more well-developed behind the front lines in the Kurdish areas of northern Syria. There it works better with daily operations and daily democratic practice. The councils provide food and water supplies. They build agoras in the old Greek style, and there are democratic referendums for the most part. ”Ravneberg has created the radio documentary series surrounded by enemies at RadiOrakel, which is about travel in the Kurdish areas.

Andam Aso Aziz
Andam Aso Aziz

Democratic Confederation. Andam Aso Aziz is one of two leaders of the Ungkurd Norge Riksforbundet organization. They organized a demonstration in front of the Storting in early September with the desire for Norwegian politicians to put pressure on Turkey and cause Erdogan to stop the attacks against the YPG. Aziz says they want a democratic confederation with cantons ruled by referendums in the Kurdish areas – a model not unlike Switzerland's today. Aziz believes this model can work beyond the Kurdish areas as well: This model will be able to work throughout the area, as it is very multicultural. Under a centrally governed nation-state, a minority or religious group is always oppressed. Therefore, democratic confederalism is the only solution that can free the entire Middle East, free all minorities and religious groups. ”

Some critical voices would say that the region is not ready for this – that they must have a strong man who keeps things in place?

"Of course, there will be critical voices, we have been fed the idea of ​​the nation state for a hundred years. Democratic confederalism has not been allowed to try. We have always grown up with the idea of ​​an independent area and an independent state. I have grown up hating Turks and Arabs. It is not correct. How can one live peacefully together and obtain reconciliation between the majorities and the minorities? This is the only option. Look at Iraq, for example. There, the country is divided into three, and there is one nation state. You have the Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites. We will not get together once. It is not a democratic or fair governance, ”Aziz says.

"A threat to the dictators." Erling Folkvord is now working on a book that describes and analyzes the rule set in northern Syria, an area known as Rojava in Kurdish.

How are minorities – or those who are not for this system of government – taken care of?

“I depend on an interpreter and have to make some reservations. But I have talked to Armenians, Assyrians, Turkmen and Arabs in Rojava. I have been given what I perceive as a credible picture of Kurdish leaders working purposefully to join the minorities. For example, in the town of Gire Spi, known as Tal Abyath in Arabic, there is the Arabic majority. In March, I met the Justice Committee in the elected council there. The Justice Committee consisted of two Arabs, a Turkmen and a Kurd. The largest of the three cantons has three official languages: Arabic, Assyrian and Kurdish. ”

Do you think this model can work outside the Kurdish areas?

“The reason why this model is being fought so hard is precisely that it can work – well, if the people in each area want it. This democracy is a threat to the dictators in Baghdad, Ankara and Damascus. ”

How do you look at the latest military operation that Erdogan has launched in Rojava / Northern Syria?

"It's an escalation of a protracted war to crush Rojava. The first time I was here, in March 2013, I observed close to the boundary of grenade or rocket holes in school buildings. These shots could only have crossed the border from Turkey. Erdogan sees this as a threat to his power, because it is a government from below. This board is diametrically opposed
to Erdogan's dictatorship in Turkey. "
Is it true that at least some of the other ethnic groups have joined in this?
'Yes, to me it seems that way. At the same time, it is in Rojava as in other countries – there are many organizations and parties. There are various parties that dislike the new board. This has been a traditional feudal society. The customer traditions are still strong in several places. A good number of powerful men dislike the new system. "

"This is the largest and perhaps most well-developed political, ideological, freedom and anarchist political project today."

rr to Spain. The ideas that form the basis for the organization of the areas that the YPG has liberated come from the Kurdish activist Abdullah Öcalan. His ideas about ecology, women's liberation and active democracy from the bottom up are again inspired by the American anarchist Murray Bookchin. Philosopher Martin Ravneberg in Countermeasure sees several similarities with what happened during the Spanish Revolution and the Civil War in the late 1930s:

"Local councils took over when villages were liberated and there was a strong women's movement," he points out. “There were strong social movements that use the power vacuum to build an alternative society. They were not just fighting a military war – they were building an alternative system to replace the system that had collapsed around them. They set up local councils and corporations, which one also sees in Rojava. Large farms and bakeries that are left empty are taken over by workers' collectives and run by local councils. ”

Is this the closest to anarchist rule in the world today?

"Yes, it is. There are other examples, too, but nowhere near this size and scale. This is a large geographical area with many people involved. It is the largest and perhaps most well-developed political, ideological, freedom and anarchist political project today. It has not been on this scale since the Spanish Civil War, ”says Martin Ravneberg.

Øystein Windstad
Øystein Windstad
Former journalist at Ny Tid.

You may also like