“Rojava - the Utopia of a Defeated Western Left” the Hidden Truths of the Kurdish “Democratic Experiment” in North Eastern Syria

iNSIGHTS | VOL 2 | ISSUE NO. 1 | JANUARY 2020 “ROJAVA - THE UTOPIA OF A DEFEATED WESTERN LEFT” THE HIDDEN TRUTHS OF THE KURDISH “DEMOCRATIC EXPERIMENT” IN NORTH EASTERN SYRIA

DR ALAIN GABON

VOL 2 | ISSUE NO. 1 | JANUARY 202001 “ROJAVA – THE UTOPIA OF A DEFEATED WESTERN LEFT”

SERIES EDITORS: iNSIGHTS | VOL 2 | ISSUE NO. 1 | JANUARY 2020 Dr Anas Altikriti “ROJAVA - Chief Executive Dr Abdullah Faliq THE UTOPIA Editor & Managing Director H. D. Foreman OF A DEFEATED Louise Mellor Sandra Tusin

WESTERN LEFT” DESIGN & ART DIRECTION: Abdullah S. Khan THE HIDDEN TRUTHS OF THE KURDISH “DEMOCRATIC EXPERIMENT” IN NORTH EASTERN SYRIA COPYRIGHT DR ALAIN GABON © The Cordoba Foundation 2020. All rights reserved.

DISCLAIMER Views and opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of The Cordoba Foundation.

[email protected] VOL 2 | ISSUE NO. 1 | JANUARY 2020 01 Published in London

VOL 2 | ISSUE NO. 1 | JANUARY 2020

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

04 RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN SYRIA

06 FINALLY AN EXIT STRATEGY?

07 WINNERS AND LOSERS

09 ROJAVA FOREVER!

11 “ROJAVA”: THE LATEST UTOPIA OF A DEFEATED WESTERN LEFT

14 DEBUNKING THE ROJAVA MYTH

15 HIDDEN REALITIES OF “ROJAVA”

18 MISREADING THE IDEOLOGICAL ROOTS AND NATURE OF ROJAVA

23 FROM THE START, A DOOMED ENTERPRISE

24 CONCLUSION: WHAT NEXT FOR THE KURDS?

26 AUTHOR PROFILE

27 ENDNOTES

03 “ROJAVA – THE UTOPIA OF A DEFEATED WESTERN LEFT” “ROJAVA - THE UTOPIA OF A DEFEATED WESTERN LEFT” THE HIDDEN TRUTHS OF THE KURDISH “DEMOCRATIC EXPERIMENT” IN NORTH EASTERN SYRIA

DR ALAIN GABON

or several years, Western media, RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN SYRIA politicians, and many public In October 2018, President Donald intellectuals and academics have Trump announced he was finally pulling the Fpraised, even glorified the Kurdish “experiment one thousand American ground troops out of in direct democracy” taking place in the northern Syria as part of his larger campaign northeastern Syrian region of Rojava as a promise to withdraw from the Middle East and model for the democratisation of that region. end American participation in those “useless This paper seeks to first offer an overview wars,” as he has kept repeating in his serial of the recent developments in the Syrian tweeting since his election. situation with an assessment of the new Yet it soon became obvious that rather situation as of today, including the winners than a departure from the Middle East, this and losers of those recent changes. Following already limited withdrawal was more of that background, we will explain the various a relocation of American troops to other reasons for that rather sudden interest, on strategic parts of the region like Iraq. Trump the part of Western groups as different as had barely finished announcing that the US our military-political establishments and the would leave Syria and he was already changing radical Left(s), for the Syrian Kurds in general course and sending or redeploying troops and the short-lived Rojava “laboratory” to protect the oil fields, in a swift and highly in particular. We will refute the myth and confusing, even chaotic series of completely dominant discourse on Rojava as a utopian contradictory declarations and maneuvers. and novel “democracy-in-the-heart-of-a-non- These confusions, reversals and contradictory democratic-region” and show that the realities statements reflect the grave tensions and of that experiment in ethnic, social, and antagonistic policy orientations within the political engineering are extremely different U.S. administration, and more particularly and much more problematic than what we between the U.S. military-industrial- have heard about it for years. To conclude, intelligence complex (whose top command we will draw some lessons from the failure of seemed violently and vocally opposed to the “Rojava” regarding the future of the Kurds. withdrawal) and its Commander-in-Chief,

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and the rift between Trump and the U.S. sham, a fiction, a myth designed to prove to Congress, where the opposition to the military Trump’s gullible electorate that he is indeed withdrawal was fierce by both Democrats and fulfilling his campaign promises while he is Republicans. not, and is often doing the opposite, though It is at this point quite obvious he must be given credit for not having started that nothing Trump says can be taken at another war of choice. In that respect, no face value, and his oft-repeated promises commentators to our knowledge have argued (mostly addressed to his isolationist, non- that Trump’s policy, at-least regarding military interventionist core electoral base) to withdraw interventionism in the MENA, is actually very from the Middle East, cease American much continuous with Obama, including the participation in those regional wars, “bring the latter’s concept of “leading from behind” — a boys back home” and refrain from intervening euphemism for “disengagement”. Though in foreign conflicts are no exception. The gap this would need to be verified, it seems that between Trump’s declarations and the realities Trump’s appetite for policies like drone of the continuing, sometimes increased U.S. killing is even lower than that of Obama, who engagement, including military engagement in in that respect outplayed Bush himself by that part of the world, is often dramatic. “surging” those drone wars and secret military As Trita Parsi and Stephen Wertheim interventions to a whole new level. While also compellingly demonstrate in the Foreign participating in the 2011 NATO bombing Policy Magazine, campaign of Libya, which led to the collapse of “The only constant is that Trump claims that state and the extra-judicial assassination of to want to end ‘endless wars’ while doing Colonel Gaddafi, with the consequence that nothing of the sort... Trump’s anti-war the whole country has been plunged into a rhetoric gives cover to his war-making long and agonising bloody chaos that is bound administration… Trump may lambast to last many more years, in the most optimistic endless war in tweets, but he has increased scenario. U.S. troop levels by 30 percent since At-least Trump has so far done nothing May, in addition to nearly of that sort, despite the constant accusations “The “Syria pullout” doubling U.S. forces in of “recklessness,” and he deserves to be Afghanistan since taking congratulated for such restraint, though any is largely a sham, office. The first two years compliment addressed to him is apparently a fiction, a myth of his presidency saw 28 out of the question for our intelligentsia, designed to prove percent more drone including our media and foreign policy strikes in Yemen, Somalia, establishment. to Trump’s gullible and Pakistan compared with On the other hand, as a result of a pretty electorate that he is his predecessor’s first two intensive round of diplomatic negotiations years.” between the U.S. and Turkey, American troops indeed fulfilling his did withdraw from northeastern Syrian areas in campaign promises As is becoming clearer order to avoid standing in the way of Turkey’s now, even in Syria, the U.S. offensive. Given that President Recep Erdogan while he is not, and may actually end up having received the green light from Trump for his is often doing the more troops there today military operation in those Kurdish-held than ever before! On the areas, the White House had to clear the way opposite.” one hand, therefore, the for Turkish troops in order to avoid the risk “Syria pullout” is largely a of a clash between the two countries’ military

05 “ROJAVA – THE UTOPIA OF A DEFEATED WESTERN LEFT” forces. Despite ongoing analysts seem to think. tensions between the two “The deluge of quasi- Despite being utterly men, the October agreement dependent militarily on Russia, (see full text here) seems unanimous Western without which he would never to have been sealed further outrage at both have been able to make his during Erdogan’s November, Trump’s “betrayal of amazing come-back from the 14th visit to Washington situation he was in in 2015 after D.C., a month after the start the Kurdish allies” years of anti-regime uprisings of “Operation Peace Spring,” and at Erdogan’s when few were betting on his which incidentally, is by no survival, Assad has proven means the first, but the third offensive, and the several times that he can resist operation already in northern slew of outlandish Putin and keep a high degree Syria. So there is also a strong of autonomy towards Russia policy continuity here on the accusations against (see for example his visit to part of Turkey. him largely masked his front-line troops in Idlib Despite its volatility, this the same day as the Sotchi entente cordiale between Trump how remarkable, summit), the main reason being and Erdogan (because that and largely that Russia needs Assad as well, is what we really mean when successful the U.S.- including for reasons not often we talk about “the U.S. and commented on. Both leaders Turkey”) was complemented Turkish-Russian understand that the nature by a second major deal, diplomatic ballet of their relationship is one of this time between Erdogan reciprocity, mutual needs, and and President Vladimir has been.” interdependency. Putin of Russia during their October 22nd meeting in the Black Sea resort of Sotchi and the 10-point FINALLY AN EXIT STRATEGY? memorandum unveiled there, which most The deluge of quasi-unanimous Western notably gives Erdogan the 18-mile deep “safe outrage at both Trump’s “betrayal of the zone” in northeast Syria that Turkey had been Kurdish allies” and at Erdogan’s offensive, and demanding for ages, without success until the slew of outlandish accusations against him now. The deal also requires the Kurdish forces (more on this below) largely masked how (essentially the YPG and SDF, the-so-far-but- remarkable, and largely successful the U.S.- not-anymore-U.S.-backed “Syrian Democratic Turkish-Russian diplomatic ballet has been. Forces” largely composed of YPG members) First, in the best tradition of international to leave certain areas they control including the diplomacy, it took place between powerful towns of Manbiij and Tal Rifaat. The safe zone but antagonistic players (Erdogan has always will be jointly patrolled by Turkish and Russian maintained an anti-Assad line while Russia troops, and it was also agreed that Turkey is Damascus’ main ally). It was also swift, would keep the regions it captured, which taking many by surprise, but so far effective. clearly constitutes a military occupation that Notably, following the agreement, the Turkish- Syrian President Assad is unlikely to accept. Syrian border is now being patrolled jointly And here the question is whether Putin can by Turkish and Russian troops, though the actually control, or short of that, contain his disarmament of the YPG and their expulsion protégé to the extent that commentators and from that zone has been too slow for President

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Erdogan. Yet, despite such complaints, the first possible way out of the baffling and bloody agreement is holding. Syrian impasse. Second, as good diplomacy is supposed to, it gave every major player involved some WINNERS AND LOSERS of the things they really needed and wanted. All four major players involved: Erdogan, It is therefore possible that it will diminish Assad, Putin and Trump, can claim this as a regional and international tensions and successful deal that gives them all what they conflicts between those players at-least for the want. next several years. For example, Trump, despite What has happened is that the four the bravado of his twitter warnings against major powers of the Syrian crisis have seen Erdogan, actually quickly lifted the sanctions simultaneously the historic opportunity for against Turkey before rolling out the red carpet each of them to accomplish at-least one of their during Erdogan’s visit to the White House. major geopolitical objectives, and at-least one Third, precious few commentators, if any major domestic policy goal as well. at all, have said that what we have here is, or to Thus, Assad can regain control of the be cautious, may be the very first genuine exit territories he had lost to the Kurds when, strategy in the so far horrible Syrian situation using the “Daesh moment” and Western since all hell broke loose in 2011as part of the support opportunistically, they captured Arab Spring. those territories through military fiat andfait The scenario that we already see on the accompli, in a manner not so different from horizon and that has started to coalesce on the way Israel conquers territories (and the the ground is one where Assad again becomes resources and populations who happen to be the internationally recognised legitimate there) outside its internationally recognised President of Syria, where he regains control of borders. Let's not forget that those territories most, if not all of the country, including those represent 20% of Syria and are the richest northeastern regions he had lost to the Kurds. parts of the country, with oil, agriculture, and Turkey would finally get its “safe buffer zone,” thriving commerce, aspects that neither Assad, which itself is secured jointly nor any President anywhere, could possibly “Trump, despite by Turkey and Russia. Putin, accept to lose. confirming his immense Erdogan is finally able to get his buffer the bravado of his skills as master diplomat and zone and push back the YPG-PKK militants twitter warnings geopolitical chess player, away from Turkey's southern border to a much against Erdogan, acts as the power broker and safer and more comfortable distance, thus mediator between two major eliminating or greatly attenuating a very real actually quickly rival powers (Erdogan’s terrorist threat, despite the fact that Western lifted the sanctions Turkey and Assad’s Syria), powers have always refused to consider the and the U.S. is if not absent, reality of that threat and the legitimacy of against Turkey a secondary player at best, Turkey’s efforts to eliminate it, something they before rolling out the “leading (weakly) from themselves have no qualms doing with their behind” to use Obama’s own perceived terror threats. red carpet during euphemism. The buffer zone and subsequent quasi Erdogan’s visit to the Bad as it may seem to occupation of Syrian territories also allows some, especially the Kurdish Erdogan to first, break the continuity of that White House.” losers of those arrangements, Kurdish dominated northeastern part of Syria, what we have here is the very which he and most Turks consider a clear and

07 “ROJAVA – THE UTOPIA OF A DEFEATED WESTERN LEFT” present danger, and second, to separate the suffering for the Russians, when their country Kurds in Turkey from those of northern Syria, had been reduced to nothing and virtually as analysts such as Rutgers University Political ceased to exist as a nation, and during which Science Professor Eric Davis has explained it was both humiliated, abandoned, and well. The offensive thus demolishes, probably bullied by the U.S. and its Western European durably, the possibility of an autonomous neighbors, who galvanised themselves with Kurdistan that could have become a model for Fukuyama’s “End of History” self-complacent Turkey’s own Kurds and encourage even more (and rather silly) ideology. Now, barely 30 Kurdish separatism in that country. years after its extinction from the world stage, Other analysts see far more sinister and largely thanks to Putin’s astounding designs behind this operation, though their diplomatic, political, cultural, and geostrategic accusations of large-scale ethnic cleansing and skills, Russia is once again a major world power even genocidal intent seem contradicted by despite its poor economy and comparatively the very limited scope of the Turkish offensive weak (but sufficient) military. in both geographical space, duration, and Fully capitalising on Trump’s professed number of civilian casualties. non-interventionism, Putin marginalises Domestically, this operation, which further the U.S. footprint and influence in that enjoys the full support of most Turks, helps region. And in countries where political loyalty Erdogan recreate the national unity he had is key, he proves that unlike the U.S., Russia started to lose over the past several years. stands by their allies and does not abandon Even the secular Kemalist opposition has or betray them, even when they become backed him on this, and if he manages to embarrassing, as has often been the case with repatriate a large share of the Syrian refugees, Assad. most of whom have actually become staunch Furthermore, Turkey, Syria and Russia pro-Erdogan enthusiasts as reports from the have all had to deal with various separatist, ground show, then the domestic political secessionist, and irredentist movements within benefits will be even greater as the presence their borders (while Iran itself has a large of nearly four million refugees in Turkey has and poorly integrated Kurdish population), become a major political liability for Erdogan but they can now jointly reassert in Syria the and growing number of Turks now want to see principle of territorial integrity and national them go. sovereignty that they claim to uphold, rather So it is a pretty good operation for hypocritically. Consider, for example Russia’s Erdogan. annexation of Crimea, its attempt to do Putin, another major winner, likewise with the Donbas region of eastern consolidates his position, reputation, and Ukraine, or Turkey’s own military incursion status as a power broker, at relatively little into northern Syria, none of which squares cost and effort (as he usually does in his own well with respect for national and territorial interventionism). Thanks to his unflinching integrity). support of Assad and ruthless use of military Trump is able to at-least perpetuate power, he consolidates Russia’s big come- the fiction that he is “withdrawing from the back in the Middle East, and more generally, Middle East” and ending “useless and costly its Phoenix-like resurrection from the ashes wars”, thus pleasing his ill-informed and naive of where it was back in the 1990s after the core electorate, which for Trump, is really collapse of the Soviet Union. This was a lost all that matters. Of course, in the process he decade of immense political and economic is infuriating the Washington D.C. political

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and military establishment, tradition of abandoning one’s allies once they “This veritable which, unlike him, has stop being useful, such as the fates of the U.S.’s remained as hawkish, Indochinese allies in the 1970s and Afghan hysteria of supremacist, and hell-bent Mujahideen in the 1990s etc. support for“the on controlling that part of the world no matter what the ROJAVA FOREVER! Kurdish cause” in cost, as it was under Bush In the last several years, we have general and the — and Hillary Clinton is no witnessed a sudden and surprising political newly-created, different. That establishment fetishisation, glorification, even sacralisation is, always has been, and of “the Kurds” from pretty much all quarters autonomous and will always remain ready of the Western media, governments, and self-governing… to “fight to the last Syrian” other ruling castes (public intellectuals etc) (an expression I borrow to the point where “the Kurds” have become “Rojava”, contrasts from former CIA officer our new cause célèbre, our “new Greeks” in sharply with and geopolitical analyst Ali Murat Yel’s historical analogy. The famous Graham Fuller). Compared French intellectual, and frequent warmonger, the near total to that bloody and disastrous Bernard Henri-Lévy even made not one, but abandonment of the atavism in U.S. foreign policy, two films about Iraq’s Kurdish Peshmergas, Trump’s very lack of personal while feminist activist Caroline Fourest made Palestinians by the interest in, and fundamental a fictional action-war drama about the Syrian exact same ruling indifference towards that Kurdish combatants of the YPJ all-female castes who now seem region, its problems and militia. A BBC documentary tracing the its people, including the journey of a British woman Anna Campbell, to have redirected Kurds, (except when it 26, who left the UK to fight alongside the their thirdworldist comes to oil of course) YPJ was killed in March 2018, was aired actually represent significant during the beginning of the Turkish operation fervor to that other progress from those endless in Northern Syria. The film could only be stateless people.” military adventures and interpreted as a propaganda piece for the YPJ. imperialist projects that for All these films were widely advertised decades have bled the whole and praised in the mainstream French and Middle East without doing any good to any British media and benefited from a theatrical involved party, and certainly not to the local release. populations. Check Iraq, almost twenty years This veritable hysteria of support for after "Mission Accomplished". “the Kurdish cause” in general and the newly- In retrospect, one sees better now that created, autonomous and self-governing the Kurds did not stand a chance because they Democratic Federation of Northern Syria were a thorn in the sides of pretty much all the (DFNS), better known as “Rojava”, contrasts major powers operating in the region (Turkey, sharply with the near total abandonment of Syria, Russia, Iran), and even the YPG had the Palestinians by the exact same ruling castes become an embarrassment for the U.S. once who now seem to have redirected their third- the Islamic State was eliminated. The “brave worldist fervor to that other stateless people. Kurdish fighters” who had rather cynically There are many different reasons that been used as proxies by the West really served explain the West’s Rojava fetishism of the past no purpose anymore and could therefore be several years and the correlated, subsequent wasted like pairs of old socks — in the old U.S. outrage by the same people about Trump’s

09 “ROJAVA – THE UTOPIA OF A DEFEATED WESTERN LEFT” withdrawal from that region and abandonment latest to be used that way. of “our Kurdish allies”. One reason is the fact The outrage expressed by “The West’s sudden that for years, the Kurds had become our our political and military main proxy fighting force against ISIS. Those establishments at Trump enthusiasm for the European countries and populations, who abandoning them is Kurds of Rojava… are in the grip of a veritable paranoid-hysteria mostly due to the fact that revolve around about the (dramatically exaggerated) “Islamist those ruling castes have and Jihadist threat,” which itself is largely suddenly lost their new toys, the same old a cover and alibi for their fear, resentment, especially since this highly neo-conservative and hatred for the increasingly visible and predictable betrayal has now substantial presence of Islam and Muslims forced these Kurds out of hegemonic will to on their soil, are afraid that abandoning those desperation to strike a deal maintain a strong Kurds, who for years have fought bravely and with none other than Assad, effectively on their behalf and done their dirty the only leader left for them military presence work, will result in the resurgence of ISIS in to turn to. in that area, to that region, with the subsequent chain reaction Besides fighting ISIS of refugee waves and “Jihadist” attacks in on our behalf, the Kurds control it, or at-least Western countries modeled on the Bataclan and their short-lived Rojava exert influence… massacre in Paris on November 13, 2015. experience were also most by using proxies Other, more cynical geopolitical useful for: 1) fragmenting motivations explain the West’s sudden Syria and thus weakening (in this case, the enthusiasm for the Kurds of Rojava. In a the Assad regime and its Kurds were just our nutshell, they all revolve around the same old Iranian ally; 2) creating neo-conservative hegemonic will to maintain a trouble (through terrorist willing puppets), or strong military presence in that area, to control attacks or inciting separatism to oppose or limit it, or at-least exert influence, whether directly from Turkey’s Kurds) for a (through our own troops, regime change fiercely sovereign Turkey Russia’s massive operations, etc.) or indirectly, by using proxies that stubbornly refuses to come-back in that (in this case, the Kurds were just our willing bow down and become puppets), or to oppose or limit Russia’s massive another puppet state that part of the world.” come-back in that part of the world (our ruling would just be happy with elites never outgrew their Cold War/Red Scare serving the West; 3) promoting a governance atavism, one of the worst in Western foreign model that is neither Arab nor Islamic, policy). which evidently appealed to the largely, We must remember that all this fits deeply, viscerally-racist, Arabo-islamophobic perfectly within a major strand of Western sensitivities of Western societies, especially foreign policy by which, for centuries, our their dominant media and political castes, and governments have instrumentalised the 4) through 1 and 2, helping Saudi Arabia and various religious and ethnic minorities in the Israel, the U.S.’s major allies in the region). Middle East for dominance purposes. The Some commentators (including the Kurds, who ironically those same countries author of these lines) have hypothesised betrayed several times in their history that an even larger strategic objective behind including after the Sèvres Treaty that was the Western powers’ support of Rojava was supposed to give them a state, before our the creation of a sort of second, mini-Israel governments decided otherwise, were just the in the heart of the Middle East: a friendly,

010 iNSIGHTS | VOL 2 | ISSUE NO. 1 | JANUARY 2020 pro-Western autonomous entity, ideally (especially for women at-least as long as they located between Syria, Iran, Iraq and Turkey, want to be part of that "experiment"), and which could easily be used as a military and worthy aspects to that socialist laboratory surveillance base and as a platform from with very strong Marxist-anarchist ideological which to launch more divide-and-conquer roots and goals. Let's remember here that the destabilisation operations towards Iran, Syria Soviet Union too was pretty progressive with and even Turkey, and engage in classic wedge the status of women and there were women politics. By using “the Kurdish cause” as an alibi soldiers in WW2 decades before we even to foment agitation within those stubbornly started to talk about "women in combat" in independent and uncontrollable regimes, America. This explains why the Left too fell for they could have been usefully weakened using the massive and relentless Rojava propaganda, Rojava. which they essentially parroted word-for- The rage of our political and military word in a most uncritical manner, mostly or establishments when Trump abruptly ended exclusively taking their picks from Rojava all those hopes by deciding to pull out is thus enthusiasts, leaders, and activists without not surprising. This scenario — the hope bothering to look for, or listen to contrarian to see a second mini-Israel emerging in the voices and facts, and there were many. middle of that region — may be confirmed Even an important figure from the by the surprising similarity between Zionist radical Chomskyan Left like Amy Goodman, discourse and the Western rhetoric around whose sincerity and integrity cannot be Rojava. The talking points within our Powers doubted, had no problem featuring on her that Be have been that “the Kurds are like Democracy Now! show a spokesperson of the the poor Jews before Israel, they too have Kurdish Women's Movement who declared, always been history’s victims, they too have without any contradictor or rebuttal, that if been ethnically-cleansed, so they too need a Erdogan is not stopped militarily by the West, homeland of their own to be safe; it was not he will commit "a genocide against the three such a bad thing after all that they too, like the million Kurds"1 in that region, and that he is "at Zionist Jews, captured Arab land after 2011 to war against all those populations, not just the create their own Rojava utopia like the Jews Kurds but also the Christians, Turkmen, and with their Promised Land; now the U.S. needs Yazidis, etc." Freudians, though, will enjoy the to side with them against those violent Arab superb triple consecutive slip of the tongue Muslims”, and so on. There is a very strong of the daughter of Murray Bookchin (the sense of déjà vu or déjà heard here. main philosophic, political and ideological inspiration of the Rojava movement, filtered “ROJAVA”: THE LATEST UTOPIA OF through jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah A DEFEATED WESTERN LEFT Öcalan), who was also featured on that show The neo-con imperialist forces thus had and who in full propaganda mode to enlist plenty of reasons to support the Kurds, but the support of the American Left, declares the Left itself largely shared their enthusiasm, without even noticing that "the Kurdish army which in their case became frankly exuberant, is really mostly a Jihadi militia that the Kurds as demonstrated by the explosion of books have employed… so you have essentially and articles dedicated to singing the praises of thugs who have come in and taken this once “the Rojava experiment”. peaceful region." Beautiful. The truth indeed First, there are indeed some genuinely always finds a way to pierce through the progressive, gender egalitarian, emancipatory smokescreens.

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It did not dawn on Amy Goodman or anarchist utopias and communes that have the rest of the pro-Rojava radical Left either marked the history and thought of the Western that they were now in bed with the Pentagon Left. From Thomas More to Charles Fourier, itself, to the point of featuring on a show like the 1871 Paris Commune, to the Barcelona Democracy Now! guests who openly called anarchist uprising during the Spanish Civil for more Western military interventions in War of 1936. the Middle East. Nor could they see that the For the Left, “Rojava”, with its supposed Rojava propaganda machine’s ubiquitous “gender-equal (and ecological as well) emphasis on young female fighters, inevitably communalism”, “democratic confederalism” photographed with a nice smile on their faces and “libertarian municipalism” seemed to be in and the V of Victory, was a textbook case study direct continuity with that history. That is why of Imperialist Feminism. Goodman and others those segments of the Left went brain-dead remained throughout, completely devoid of at the mere invocation of the word “Rojava”, any critical thought or just minimal skepticism which for them became a true mystique. regarding, for example, the consequences of Completely falling for the propaganda of such militarisation of femininity and feminism the Rojava activists, they hallucinated in itself. What interests and ideologies exactly their “brave Kurdish fighters” things like the were being served by it, or what was behind anti-fascist Brigades of Spain’s 1936 Civil War, this deluge of clearly propagandistic photos of with a reviled Erdogan firmly cast as General Kurdish women in uniform that we were all Franco, or Hitler, depending. The amount summoned to identify with, lest we be accused of blindness, sheer ignorance, uncritical of patriarchal misogyny? idealism, and above all wishful thinking that Thesecond key to the Rojava propaganda could be read in to the heated debates of leftist is that those brave and “emancipated” women publications was just stunning, and rare were in combat gear were offering a welcome and the critical voices that saw through the hype most reassuring contrast to the scary images and smokescreens. of bearded Salafi Jihadists, in a perfectly Since we mentioned Freud, what antithetical, binary, and manichean A happened is that the radical, libertarian, versus Z mode (good women fighters/bad anarchist, progressivist Left(s) projected (in fundamentalist male Jihadists, good feminist the psychoanalytic sense of the term) all the Kurdish culture / bad Arab sexism, etc). Those failed progressivist "radical" "revolutionary" pervasive images were thus fully capitalising dreams they were unable to achieve in their and playing on our societies’ paranoid hysteria own countries, stuck as they have been for regarding “Islamism” but also on our deeply- decades in a situation of objective historical rooted fear of Arab men and of Islam. defeat against the likes of Reagan, Clinton, the Third, the “self-governing, autonomous, Bushes, Trump, Macron, Merkel, Cameron, local, direct grassroots democracy”, apparently Johnson, the whole technocratic un- influenced by the professed ideals of “a democratic neoliberal E.U., Putin etc., with no free, communal life and a gender-liberated, light at the end of that tunnel. ecological society” advocated by Murray Unable to accomplish those flamboyant Bookchin (himself a political philosopher dreams of grassroots-egalitarian-non-capitalist- / trade union organiser/educator, a perfect popular-direct "radical" democracies at home, profile for the Left), seemed for a while to be because capitalism, nationalism, militarism, the reincarnation in the Middle East, of all Orwellian surveillance states, securitisation the various Socialist and leftist-libertarian- ideologies and apparatuses have triumphed

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and keep expanding by the day, getting more seemed to offer a long overdue, much more and more entrenched, the Left resorted to positive and progressive counter-model to a peculiar form of political Orientalism by the region’s violently repressive Arab states fetishising “the Rojava experiment”. There, (which can all be located on a spectrum they said, “it” was happening, in sharp between authoritarism and outright contrast to the West. Look what the U.S., totalitarian despotism), to patriarchal, machist itself a radical utopia once, has become. Not and misogynist Arab culture (at-least as to mention France, now a nation ruled by a the stereotype goes, see for example the capitalist puppet/former banker, and totally recent Kamel Daoud affair), to Islamic consumed by its hatred of Islam and Muslims fundamentalism, and to sharia-based “Islamist” and its hysteria about "the veil" and "Islamist modes of political action and governance — radicalisation". For decades, especially since definitely not the cup of tea of a largely atheist, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end anti-religious, even Islamophobic European of the progressive “Grand Master Narratives” Left. like Communism, it has been a pretty sad In the words of University of Exeter and increasingly bleak situation for all the scholar Tallha Abdulrazaq: progressive-humanist-libertarian forces of “The picture that is oft painted is one the Left. But, well at least of Arab and Turkish fascist barbarians “The picture that is "it's happening" in "Rojava", bearing down on a defenceless, innocent so let's all get behind “the people and trying their utmost to wipe oft painted is one of Kurds”, we were told. them off the face of the earth. In a way, Arab and Turkish For a brief few years this narrative mirrors the Israeli tale of (now the Rojavans are once how a bastion of innocence is in danger fascist barbarians again under the thumb of of being defiled by hordes of savage bearing down on a President Assad, namely the Arabs. However, as with most things we worst mass murderer in the hear and see in the mainstream media, defenceless, innocent world), such naive Orientalist these stories have a somewhat tenuous people and trying projections on the Kurdish relationship with reality at best…[Yet,] their utmost to wipe "Other" of all the failed the Kurds are seen as another kind of political hopes and dreams “Other” to the Arabs, who are frequently them off the face of various “radical” Leftists painted as being a backward, misogynistic of the earth. In a seemed to redeem their people whereas the Kurds emancipate own defeated progressivist, their womenfolk and stand, like a kind of way, this narrative egalitarian and revolutionary “noble savage,” against the base Arabised mirrors the Israeli utopias, from the mythical barbarians of the Islamic State (IS).” Paris Commune of 1871 or tale of how a bastion Russia 1917 all the way until To pursue this analogy with Israel, the of innocence is in today. The day-dreaming on passionate (often nobly and sincerely so) but their part was massive. completely uncritical idealistic (for some), danger of being More generally, for a while, propagandistic (for others) discourse on defiled by hordes of with its courageous female "Rojava’s direct democracy" was quite similar savage Arabs.” fighters, Marxist and other to the one which surrounded that other leftist Western ideological roots, utopia of the Kibbutz movement in Israel back -Tallha Abdulrazaq and gender-mixed local in the 1960s and 1970s. Before, that is, the administrations, “Rojava” reality of that "democratic social experiment" in

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"local grassroots communal self-governance" for centuries, the territory too, in particular the fate of those like the corresponding to Rojava “The areas the Palestinians who would have no part in it, being specifically dominated started to become obvious. by Shammar, Fed’an, and Kurds moved into Amarat Arabs. are areas in which DEBUNKING THE ROJAVA MYTH From the earliest Arabs had been First, it is important to keep in mind four available records dating major facts that have been completely lost in back to the pre-Islamic living for centuries, the hype about Rojava: era, the northeast of what the territory 1) Most of the Syrian territories the is now Syria (previously Kurds now claim as their own have been Greater Syria, specifically corresponding captured by military force and fait accompli, the Hamad) has always to Rojava being and annexed as badly as Israel with Palestinian been dominated by Arabs. territories. The fact that it was done by Yet, our media, politicians, specifically Kurdish allies who simply grabbed those think tankers, and many dominated by areas and natural riches, sometimes from ISIS academics buying into the but sometimes too from the majority Arab, groupthink now fallaciously Shammar, Fed’an, Turkmen and other populations who were present them as “ethically and Amarat Arabs. living there, does not change the fact that it Kurdish areas”, that the From the earliest still constituted military conquest of Syrian Kurds would somehow regions pure and simple. Something no state, be entitled to own in available records democratic or not, would and should ever order to fulfill their dream dating back to the accept from any group. Western powers simply for an autonomous state let the Kurds capture freely whatever land (understandably so given pre-Islamic era, they could conquer because they were allies the raw deal they have been the northeast of and because in classic wedge politics it was subjected to from the states serving our own governments’ many goals of that region). what is now Syria and agendas against both Assad and Erdogan It is therefore not too (previously Greater — usefully fragmenting Syria, complicating surprising that using ISIS things for a Turkey far too independent for our and Western support in a Syria, specifically the governments' imperialist hegemonic goals, as most opportunistic manner Hamad) has always explained above. So, the Kurdish land-grab and as their historic window of annexation at gunpoint was fine as long as it opportunity, these Kurds been dominated by was useful to our Powers that Be and the Kurds started to behave similarly Arabs. were our own proxy against ISIS. to Israel with Palestine 2) As an examination of the maps of when it comes to land that region including the historical maps2 all conquest, though obviously, as weak regional the way to at-least the Sèvres Treaty makes actors with no state allies there, they are not clear, those allegedly "Kurdish" areas we keep in the same position of strength as the Jewish hearing about actually far exceed the territories State. But they sure tried, and for the few years the Kurds initially claimed for themselves, their when the Autonomous Administration of autonomous region or future independent Syrian Kurdistan (“Rojava,” later rebranded state (though even Öcalan has abandoned “Democratic Federal System of Northern that goal now). The areas the Kurds moved Syria” mostly to gain international support) into are areas in which Arabs had been living had managed to coalesce, it worked pretty

014 iNSIGHTS | VOL 2 | ISSUE NO. 1 | JANUARY 2020 well and it looked like “the Kurds” had HIDDEN REALITIES OF “ROJAVA” accomplished a major historic breakthrough. More recently — or not so recently Now they are back to square one. for many Arabs and other non-Kurds who 3) Their territorial conquest and had been living in that region and now find subsequent administration has not come themselves in Turkish refugee camps after without substantial ethnic-cleansing, being ethnically-cleansed by our “brave and population displacements, and ethnic noble Kurds”— the Rojava fantasy indulged re-engineering, ironically crimes we now and nurtured by many has become a lot harder blame Erdogan for, and only Erdogan, never to sustain, now that some of its less glorious "the Kurds". Here too, the hypocrisy and realities are more widely exposed. double standard has been everywhere. That The biggest fallacy has been, and ethnic-cleansing, the one committed by remains, the way “the Kurds” are homogenised Western-backed Kurdish military and political in our dominant discourse, reduced to the forces including those who ruled “Rojava” has political and military Kurdish forces of Rojava, been completely covered-up and deliberately then pitted squarely against a demonised ignored by our dominant media, governments, President Erdogan in a fraudulent, binary, and pro-Rojava intellectuals, including “good Kurds vs. bad Turks” manichean fashion. academics who never mention it (though they First, there is no such thing as “the Kurds,” are supposedly Middle East experts), either even if one considers those living in a given because their gullibility has caused them to country like Turkey. As described by scholars wholeheartedly swallow without thinking the like Cuma Çiçek, “the Kurds” are actually a Kurdish propaganda and ignore such realities, dizzying mosaic of populations, groups and or because it would severely tarnish and as a individuals divided, often antagonistically, matter of fact pulverise the notion that “Rojava” along multiple lines, national, regional, is a progressivist utopia in the making and a aspirational, ideological and political, cultural, great counter-model to the region’s repressive religious (or not), and more. Their realities are Arab states. So let’s see or hear no evil, except far from the crude idealistic essentialisation of course when committed by Erdogan. about “the Kurds” we have been fed for years. 4) Those allegedly "Kurdish” areas that They are actually so divided and unlike one have been militarily conquered at gunpoint in another in so many respects that for example, a manner as illegitimate as Israel's colonialist even the neighboring autonomous Kurdistan land-grab represent a full quarter of Syria (some Regional Government in Iraq (KRG) closed expert geographers of that region say a full its borders with Rojava for several months third). Let's read again that last figure... and as and built an actual trench to separate the two. said above, those territories upon which the Ironically, the Kurdish KRG under former Kurds have planted their flags, declaring quite President Masoud Barzani enjoyed far better explicitly “now that it's all ours we won’t give relations (diplomatic, commercial etc.) with it back”, also happen to be the richest parts of President Erdogan of Turkey than with their Syria, with oil fields, rich farming, and thriving Kurdish counterparts in Rojava. commerce. Now let us ask ourselves which Second, there is the almost complete country would possibly accept that, from any cover-up of the ugly realities that have presided group, for any reason, under any circumstances? over the creation of “Rojava”, but that have The U.S.? France? Britain? Anyone? been hidden behind the wall of ubiquitous “sexy” images of young pretty Kurdish women in combat fatigues and floral head scarves

015 “ROJAVA – THE UTOPIA OF A DEFEATED WESTERN LEFT” liberating Yazidi and other women from ISIS, give a nice and reassuring face to ugly realities, giving food to children, etc. (again, mirroring being themselves fully aligned with the PYD the way Israel always puts forward its own and YPG). A partial list of those Kurdish deeds female IDF soldiers and spokespeople to look include: “feminist” and appeal to the gender egalitarian • unsolved disappearances; sensitivities of the West. The “Tribute to the • extrajudicial assassinations; Brave Women of Kurdistan” has even become • forced displacement campaigns against a sort of documentary genre in itself). predominantly Arabs and Turkmen for Third, while everybody was accusing ethnic-cleansing purposes in order to Erdogan of committing a “genocide against create a more ethnically homogenous the Kurds,” with newspaper headlines and Kurdish territory; front covers as subtle as “The Kurds delivered • use of child soldiers in PYD security to the madness of Erdogan” or “Trump and forces; Syria: the sacrifice of the Kurds?” the Rojava • arbitrary arrests, quasi systematic spokespersons switched to full propaganda violations of due process, and sham mode hysterically shouting on all Western trials; media outlets that “Erdogan was committing • exactions and collective punishment of a genocide not only against the Kurds but Arab populations of the areas captured against the Turkmen, the Christians and the militarily, populations the Kurdish forces other populations” of that region, and that arbitrarily and gratuitously accused of he was “coming back to continue the job his siding with ISIS though they are those ancestors had started in WW1 when they who actually suffered the most from that exterminated the Armenians” (exact quotes organisation; from one of Rojava’s many professional liars). • destruction of entire Arab villages, No one was mentioning that the PYD (the “bulldozing, blowing up and burning Kurdish Democratic Union Party in control down thousands of Arab homes on a of the whole “Rojava experiment”) had itself large scale without military justification” actually done what Erdogan was merely being in both Iraq and Syria, as stated by accused of wanting to do: namely ethnic- Donatella Rovera, Amnesty’s senior cleansing of populations that were standing in crisis response adviser; the way of their Marxist-Leninist “utopia”. • using military force to conquer land For years, though deliberately ignored in both Iraq and Syria, then claim it as by the West, both Amnesty International theirs (to make it worse, many of the and Human Rights Watch, to mention war crimes and human rights abuses only the two most respected human rights committed by the Kurds of both Syria organisations, have documented a sustained and Iraq took place outside the borders pattern of war crimes and crimes against of the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan humanity committed by the Kurds of both region and beyond the “Kurdish” Northern Iraq and Northern Syria, including territories the Syrian Kurds have those of Rojava (meaning their political rulers, historically claimed for themselves); parties, and military forces including the KRG • repression of the opposition; and more. and its Peshmerga fighters, the PKK, the PYD and their YPGs, with Syria’s all-female YPJs All this without even a word of - those “brave women fighters” put forward condemnation from the West, who preferred by Kurdish propaganda towards the West to to let it all happen and see no evil, hear no evil

016 iNSIGHTS | VOL 2 | ISSUE NO. 1 | JANUARY 2020 from their “brave and noble Kurds,” because participatory political system, tolerance considering those well-documented realities for cultural difference, an emphasis would have pulverised their manichean sham on gender equality and the pursuit of narrative of a squeaky clean oppressed Kurdish sustainable economic development where minority brutalised by the big bad Erdogan. reliance on external is avoided as much Those crimes abundantly committed by the as possible… To be fair, minorities are Kurds, which judging from the Amnesty and treated well in the KRG. However, the HRW reports even exceed those committed constitution promulgated by the YPD by Turkish forces and their Syrian allies, were requires that all local councils include at best glossed over, most of the time totally representation by a Kurd, an Arab and a ignored, if not justified by the West, which member of the Assyrian or Armenian or used ISIS as an excuse to condone this Kurdish Chechen minorities. Indeed, the Rojava terrorism — as the good kind. And ironically, autonomous region has acquired such a who once again welcome as refugees the reputation of tolerance." dozens of thousands of Arabs, Turkmen, and even Kurds ethnically-cleansed from their In other words, a utopia on earth, towns and villages by the Western Kurdish accomplished in the here and now. allies? Turkey, of course. Reporters on the ground, better While the aforementioned war crimes informed and more objective than our experts, continued to happen, academics like Political were however reporting a whole different story Science Professor Eric Davis from Rutgers than Davis’ and others’ Rojava Disneyland University, allegedly an expert of that region, fairy tales. Confirming the prior Amnesty had no problem presenting Rojava as “a model and HRW reports, the New York Times thus for the Middle East” in terms that could have interviewed many Syrian refugees who come straight from a YPG spokesperson or testified that their villages had been abandoned Rojava’s Office of Tourism: by their populations after the Kurdish forces "It was to be expected that the Rojava ordered them to leave, that the Kurdish forces Kurds would use the 2010 uprising in were kidnapping and ransoming relatives of Syria to break away from Bashar al-Assad’s their families, and more exactions and war repressive regime in Damascus. What was crimes of various types. not expected was the type of society they Corroborating further those behaviors would create once regime forces withdrew from the Kurdish allies in its own on-the- from north central and northeastern ground reporting, The Economist (like the Syria...What the Rojava Kurds created NYT, hardly a friend or sympathiser of is the antithesis of the authoritarian Erdogan and “Islamism”) writes in May 2019: regimes which dominate the MENA “But Rojava’s new rulers owe their power region's political landscape. Decentralised, to gun-toting revolutionary committees, committed to meaningful gender not the ballot box. They emerged from equality, and building an economy the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), which grounded in sustainable development, is based in northern Iraq and considered the Rojava Kurds have established a a terrorist group by many countries community which differs in all respects [including the US and the EU]. Rojava from those elsewhere in the region… has the trappings of a repressive one-party What is particularly attractive about state. Protests are censured and opposition the Rojava model is a democratic and parties harassed. Officials say they are

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better than the regime of Bashar al-Assad, fight in 2012) to forswear sex because ‘it is Syria’s dictator, or the rebels who fought impossible to imagine another institution him — a miserably low bar. ‘It’s just that enslaves like marriage’ seems like a another totalitarian regime,’ says a Kurdish welcome critique of patriarchy – but it journalist who fled abroad… The Arabs in actually reinforces restrictions on women’s Rojava feel increasingly alienated. Kurdish sexual freedoms. Amina Omar, the head forces known as the People’s Protection of the women’s ministry, told me that the Units, or YPG, lead the SDF. ‘Kurd or biggest demand for accommodation in Arab?’ ask guards of visitors at a military their 12-bed refuge comes from single base. Arab sheikhs claim the Kurds have women who have become pregnant and seized their land and are imposing their are attempting to escape their family’s own customs. ‘They want us to bring wrath. The one example of institutional our wives to tribal gatherings,’ fumes one inequality I found was that women, once who considers such mingling of the sexes married, were not allowed to join the YPJ, improper. Some speak of the Kurdish while married men were allowed to join ‘occupation’. Protesters near Deir al-Zour’s the YPG, an inequality justified on the oil wells have blocked access with burning grounds of ‘our conservative society’. The tyres. ‘The Kurds, they chant, ‘have stolen widespread disapproval of sexual relations, our oil.’” whether couched in a progressive or conservative perspective, prevented Similarly, it is more than a little doubtful any discussion of LGBT issues, which that even Rojava’s “feminism,” despite its very were dismissed as an “aberration” or as real advances in gender equality as exemplified unimportant in a revolutionary context.” by the implementation of parity rules at the local administrative levels of its governing And the above quotes come from a bodies, is that genuine and healthy, without sympathetic article pleading vocally for greater even mentioning its heavily militarist nature: Western support for Rojava. “Öcalan’s new focus on women’s rights is forward-looking, though not without its MISREADING THE IDEOLOGICAL problems. His view is partly based on an ROOTS AND NATURE OF ROJAVA idealised view of Neolithic society before In addition to the aforementioned the rise of the nation-state, especially in reasons, much of the sudden Rojava the Mesopotamian cradle, where Kurdish fetishism from Western intellectuals and communities have historically been based. activists comes from a severe misreading of Meredith Tax describes this aspect of the ideological roots and nature of Rojava’s Öcalan’s thinking in biblical terms in her local experimentation in alleged “direct book A Road Unforeseen: Women Fight democracy”. In a nutshell, they have taken for the Islamic State: ‘Now Kurdistan, the Western-style democratic liberalism or leftist place of original sin, must become the progressivism injected with a little anti-state place where this sin is reversed.’ It implies anarchism (depending on who the “Rojava some mythical state when all was well Forever” enthusiast is), what is actually just with the world and men and women were another programme of ethno-nationalism (or equal – Eden before the fall… Similarly even ethno-regionalism as it is doubtful that Öcalan’s edict to PKK cadres (many of “Rojava” is of great interest to, say, the Kurds them Syrian Kurds who returned home to of the KRG in Iraq) – a sort of Syrian Kurdish

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version of kibbutz-era Zionism. Russia, via their deal with Assad. Some kind of Ideologically, Rojava claims to be anti- anti-imperialism we have here. Western, anti-imperialist, and anti-capitalist, The same can be said of their “social hence its appeal to a thoroughly lost and revolution”. Despite a fair amount of local defeated Western radical Left. Yet it has always grassroots, bottom-up self-administration, welcomed alliances, both tacit and open, with peppered with abundant talk about ecology the worst imperialist powers out there and the and feminism, which seems enough for the most harmful to the Middle East, namely the Western leftists and liberals who take all this U.S. and Russia. Assad too, as is again the case at face value, no revolutionary transformation now, and as was the case in the past. of social relations has happened there. As As Dan Radnika reminds us in his Dan Radnika notes, the subordinated classes, important and lengthy piece “Rojava: the fraud proletarians, poor peasants, the illiterates, of a non-existent social revolution”, the PYD is etc, remain as deprived as ever. “Rojava” has at the same time the ally of the United States simply put a new dominant class in charge of and Russia; its military force, the YPG, is by far “administering” those populations, including the main component of the re-educating them in the “proper” ideology Syrian Democratic Force and party orthodoxy, that of Abdullah “Ideologically, (SDF). The SDF is itself Öcalan, of course (as can be seen in their Rojava claims to a military coalition called own propaganda videos), whose photos are for, backed, and armed everywhere there in perfect Soviet-era cult-of- be anti-Western, by the U.S., supported by personality enforced adoration. anti-imperialist, hundreds of military air Furthermore, to echo the reporting done raids, and without which on the ground by The Economist, the NYTimes, and anti-capitalist, the Kurds would never have and others, despite its local self-governance hence its appeal been able to achieve any and neighborhood associations in which the military victory, probably Western Left hallucinates the Communes of to a thoroughly not even in Kobane against its past like Paris 1871, Rojava has (or more lost and defeated ISIS. Moreover, it is under exactly, had) all the trappings of a one-party Western radical Left. U.S. coordination and state. The new cadre it selected must be loyal in accordance with the to the nationalists of the PYD and PKK — the Yet it has always requirements of the U.S. latter being furthermore considered a terrorist welcomed alliances, High Command that the organisation by the U.S. and the EU. The real PYD participated in the fight powers of Rojava (essentially the PYD) insist both tacit and open, against ISIS. Needless to say, on absolute loyalty to their party, organisations, with the worst the diplomatic relations and and jailed cult leader. Any critic within their travels there by U.S. special ranks will be ousted and replaced by a better imperialist powers emissaries from the White disciple. The opponents are regularly (some out there and the House like Brett McGurck of them even say systematically but let’s be to meet the PYD leaders charitable) prevented from speaking and most harmful to have been intense. And after acting publicly. According to Jian Omar, a PYD the Middle East, the White House dropped opponent, that party is “a dictatorship… whose namely the U.S. and them out of necessity arbitrary practices include repression, detentions and lack of options, they and assassinations of those who oppose its policies”, Russia.” switched straight to the and the Amnesty and HRW reports seriously other hegemonic power, corroborate that.

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The news from PYD designated terrorist by Europe opponents, those of our “The fact that the and the USA. “Rojava Uber Ally” crowd According to a number in the West clearly never Labour Party of sources, many Turks bothered to read or even fielded Dogus and in Britain voted for the look for content as they Conservative Party and Prime are to take their cues from other pro-PKK Minister Boris Johnson in Rojava activists, have for candidates should the General Election. This years been filled with stories come as no surprise was a protest vote despite of opposition parties being the increasing evidence of closed, opponents arrested. given that the Leftist racism and Islamophobia Only days after Turkey’s / socialist Labour in the Conservative Party, operation in northern Syria and especially disparaging on 9 October 2019, British leadership, including comments by Johnson against MPs convened a meeting Jeremy Corbyn Muslims and other ethnic in Parliament to discuss the communities. plight of the Kurds where are critical of This fiction of MPs who had recently President Erdogan “grassroots, autonomous, local visited the areas as well as direct democracy” is even PKK representatives spoke and display strong inadvertently debunked by the to a packed audience despite support for PKK (mostly sympathetic) news it being during the UK and other groups agencies of the Kurdish region General Election. An All- itself, which readily recognise Party Parliamentary Group despite their violent that “the PYD exercises wide for Rojava (Democratic backgrounds.” influence and control over Federation of Northern Syrian Kurdish areas”, and we Syria)3 was formed a year can take that as a euphemism. before, and the contact person for the group The reality of this top-down and rather is none other than a known PKK supporter authoritarian mode of governance that more and businessman, Ibrahim Dogus. The than mitigates and casts doubt on the myths of Labour Party fielded Dogus as a Prospective “direct democracy and local self-governance” Parliamentary Candidate during December is further confirmed by pretty much all serious 12, 2019 General Election. Founder of the objective analysis of Rojava and Syria including Centre for Turkey Studies (CEFTUS) and that of the International Crisis Group, who in director for the Center for Kurdish Progress, a recent report documented and assessed that Dogus described the Kurds as “the only the PYD and its YPG units had imposed their progressive force in the region.”4 Although dominance in northern Syria. It also accurately Dogus was unsuccessful in the election, the predicted that its domination of that region fact that the Labour Party fielded Dogus and would be short-lived, as we now see. other pro-PKK candidates should come as In his own independent and balanced no surprise given that the Leftist / socialist scholarly work, Michiel Leezenberg concurs Labour leadership, including Jeremy Corbyn with all of the above and offers another are critical of President Erdogan and display sobering, and rather disturbing, description of strong support for PKK and other groups the true ideological roots of “Rojava” (certainly despite their violent background such as being not democratic Western liberalism or leftist

020 iNSIGHTS | VOL 2 | ISSUE NO. 1 | JANUARY 2020 progressivism mixed with anarchy as some absence of any critique of party vanguardism, ill-informed folks seem to think). Above all, that ideology has led to he exposes the vast differences, the gap, really, “a tacit legitimation, and a not-so-tacit that separates the official discourse of the reaffirmation, of PKK hegemony at all two Founding Fathers of Rojava (Murray levels of organisation, which in the case Brookchin read, or rather misread, by Öcalan, of the Rojava laboratory has resulted who from prison communicates his thinking in something very much resembling a to his faithful disciples book after book, versus Leninist one-party statelet, as will be the reality of it. Namely that this “democratic argued below… And indeed, in the three experiment” has always remained in the Rojava cantons of Cizîrê, Kobanê and hands and under the top-down hierarchical Efrîn, the PYD has effectively established, control of the YPD/PKK and their affiliated and successfully maintained, one-party organisations, who never hesitate to use rule. Moreover, it has shown itself to be at repression and brutality (exclusion in the best best ambivalent towards the Assad regime, case) against their opponents or those who are and at worst dependent on its continuing not walking the official party line as dictated by support. In particular in Qamishlo, a clear the Grand Guru from his Turkish jail. At times, division of territory and labor has been “Rojava” looks far more like a hybrid between achieved: regime personnel control the a sect and a one-party Stalinist proto-state city centre, the airport and the border than what the outlandish official discourse crossing with Turkey, while PYD forces described as a utopia. have control over the remaining quarters; As Leezenberg writes, despite the reportedly, the former also stay in control discourse on democracy, autonomy, and of local intelligence, whereas the latter grassroots self-organisation, the PKK “has have taken over other sections of the always maintained in practice a consistently municipal bureaucracy… The stark and hierarchical, centralistic and top-down dramatic opposition between female organisation”. PYD guerrillas and bearded male IS At its worst, it is simply a one-man warriors created considerable sympathy ideal fantasy imagined from a prison and abroad, and mobilized substantial implemented by a set of loyal organisations numbers of foreign activists to come (including militias) and quasi-fanatic to the region in support of the Rojava cadres dedicated to the cult of an adored revolution. Observations by non-PKK leader. Without even mentioning that the opposition sources and reports by Bookchinian / Ocalanesque ideology that human rights organisations like Amnesty informs this whole “experiment” could not be International, Human Rights Watch more essentialistic in its view of civilisations. and the International Crisis Group tell Much of this view is based on outdated a rather different story. On the regional works like Samuel Noah Kramer’s work The level, the PYD’s dominance rests in large Sumerians, and completely rooted in obsolete, part on the party’s tightly organised party mystical, archaic belief in the existence of structure, the military presence of the timeless, prehistoric and pre-political “organic, YPG forces and the coercive power of its natural societies”as Leezenberg also makes Asayish, or security service. The evidence clear. This is the kind of essentialising utopia concerning grassroots participation at the of ideal, unitary, “natural” societies that lead local level is more ambiguous. According straight to totalitarianism. Coupled with the to local observers, there does appear

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to be substantial room for individual political parties are either not allowed participation and bottom-up decision- to run in local elections or otherwise making on the level of day-to-day life. The severely curtailed in their actions and same observers also, and consistently, movements. Thus, for all the – justifiable – suggest a carefully maintained and sympathy it draws from local and foreign militarily backed party hierarchy... leftist activists, the PYD discourse of Decisions concerning military matters democratic autonomy, of gender equality and local security are taken by senior PYD and of secular resistance against Islamist staff. Thus, notoriously, members and forces marks a rather less radical rupture sympathisers of other parties as well as with the Leninist past than might appear independent journalists have on various at first sight. This heavily militarised and occasions been arrested, maltreated or highly hierarchical character of regional even disappeared.” one-party rule is strongly at odds not only with the PYD’s own propaganda, but also Did you say local self-management, anti- with the enthusiastic and virtually entirely imperialism, and direct democracy? Instead, uncritical reports about its alleged efforts we have an autocratic and heavily militaristic at creating a ‘stateless democracy’, or proto ethnostate that is furthermore utterly ‘grassroots self-organisation’, that may be dependent on and easily instrumentalisable by found among both liberal commentators the U.S., Russia, and Assad. and leftist activists in the West. Most But as long as their spokespersons of those reports ignore, or whitewash, and enthusiasts keep singing the siren songs the striking discrepancy between the of feminism and ecology and we see some ideal, ideology or discourse, of stateless young and sexy “women-in-combat” or in democracy and autonomous self- local administration taking care of health and organisation and the practical realities of education (the right, orthodox party type, a Leninist vanguard party with a strictly that is, better talk the talk and walk the walk), hierarchical organisation.” that’s probably good enough for some to keep dreaming over there, through their newly- To make all this even better, how about found “noble Kurdish savages”, the alternative that other fact, the elephant in the room, that to capitalism they have been incapable of both the PKK and the PYD, who control achieving in their own countries, where it is Rojava as even Kurdistan24 admits, are becoming an increasingly distant and feeble themselves bloody terrorist organisations (for hope. the first one) and aligned with the PKK terror Leezenberg concludes, and it is again organisation (for the second), which even worth quoting him at length as all this is Homeland Security terrorism databases like so radically different from the dominant TRAC but also the U.S. government itself have propagandistic discourse we have been fed for formally recognised several times including years from the Rojava folks and their “useful during the April 28, 2016 Congressional idiots” in the West: Testimony by U.S. secretary of Defense Ashton “Thus, the Rojava experiment, for all its Carter? (TRAC itself categorises the PYD as proclaimed anarchism and grass-roots “a Syrian affiliate of the militant PKK”). Yet, our mobilisation, reproduces both the PKK’s highly selective “war-on-terror” did not prevent Leninist party vanguardism, and its the same U.S. administrations from arming Stalinist personality cult. Other Kurdish those terror groups, nor did it seem to bother

022 iNSIGHTS | VOL 2 | ISSUE NO. 1 | JANUARY 2020 the various pro-Rojava liberals and “radical” in stark contrast to some of the positive leftists of various stripes, provided all those developments in majority Kurdish facts even dawned for a second on their good areas. There, councils seem to provide conscience. Young women in military fatigues democratic governance. This aspect of the with cool headscarves, nice smiles and a nice PYD program is very positive indeed. It's discourse on “direct democracy”, what’s not to unfortunate that the PYD itself is adding like? Whatever they say is good enough for us. a layer of one-party state rule on top of this local democracy. While the PYD FROM THE START, A DOOMED is probably better than most political ENTERPRISE parties operating in the region, it's still It is probably easier to see now that the an authoritarian political party which pseudo-democratic “Rojava laboratory” was represses other Kurdish groups and has doomed from the start anyway, for at-least opened fire on people protesting against it four reasons (besides those mentioned or and against Assad. Part of the reason why suggested above). First, its ideological DNA the PYD continues to operate this way and roots in Marxist-Leninism and anarchism is that the Kurdish areas did not liberate made it unlikely to fare well in a population themselves as part of the revolutionary that has remained largely conservative and process in Syria. Assad chose to withdraw religious. Second, it was from the start at in 2012 from Rojava, and in many best a coercive Kurdish project, usually an cases actually handed over the security authoritarian one, often a violent one as shown installations to the PYD. He wanted to above, furthermore one imposed on Arab engage in a classic game of people against populations. Even a strong sympathiser like each other and attempted to establish Robin Yassin-Kassab, the influential Syrian co- a modus vivendi between the regime author of Burning Country: Syria in Revolution and the PYD. That doesn't mean they're and War, admits honestly that Rojava is “a allies. But the fact that the PYD would disaster.” Interviewed in March 2016 by play this game with the regime and the SocialistWorker.org, he declares: imperial powers shows that it's not really a “The problem is that in the last weeks, revolutionary force.” under Russian air cover, the PYD has been moving into areas that have always Third, even among Kurds, it is doubtful had an Arab majority. The PYD has that the Rojava experiment ever enjoyed claimed it is fighting jihadists, but in widespread or substantial popular support, and places they seized like northern Aleppo, certainly no one ever bothered to show it did jihadists are not present. It's actually (hence again the fallacy and disingenuousness defended by Free Syrian Army brigades of calling the pro-Rojava Kurds, “the Kurds”). and is governed democratically by local One other reason, besides the “religious thing” councils. So it looks like the PYD is mentioned in 1 above, was that Öcalan turned abandoning democratic confederalism against the idea(l) of nation-state and therefore and is now saying, let's link up the cantons abandoned that project for the Kurds, when into a territorially contiguous area around following his discovery of Murray Bookchin which we can draw a border and call it a he conceptualised and essentialised, in a state. This is an undemocratic imposition rather crude and unsophisticated manner, the of a Kurdish region on Arab majority nation-state as an oppressive undemocratic areas… This is a tragic development. It's structure while equating it with patriarchy too.

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However, like the Palestinians, most Kurds authorities (governments, understandably continue to place their hopes etc.) where they live. The “It looks like for emancipation and against oppression most obvious reason being in a nation-state of their own or something that Kurdish state would the “Rojava resembling it, and they consequently cannot have to be carved out an experiment” is subscribe to their (alleged) leader’s new anti- already existing one or even over, now that statist turn. several, and this is frankly Fourth, last but not least, that experiment not likely to happen in either the Kurds had to stood no chance simply because of Rojava’s Syria, Turkey, or Iran. Even strike yet another geopolitical situation: surrounded by hostile resolute Western support, states (including Turkey, Iraq, and Iran) that which is lacking anyway uncomfortable would have no part in this given they already as no one wants to see the alliance of struggle with their own Kurdish minorities, principles of territorial and surrounded a second time within Syria national integrity (the convenience (and by populations and forces that themselves existing borders) violated desperation) with either had no interest in that “experiment” or undermined, will not be or actively resented it: the Arab, Turkmen enough. Assad, which has and other populations displaced by it; the The sorry fate of brought them back other non-Kurdish Syrians south of Rojava; “Rojava” offers a good once again under Assad’s regime; even the Kurds of the KRG in illustration of that axiom neighboring Iraq. of the prior, necessary the control of the Each of those four factors would have consent of at least Turkey, Syrian regime and been enough to seriously undermine such an Syria, Iran and Iraq as a unlikely enterprise, despite its good aspects. minimum condition for its Russian allies.” But the four combined… Kurdish autonomy and self- governance. If the northeastern Syrian Kurds CONCLUSION: WHAT NEXT FOR naively thought for a while they were on their THE KURDS? way to independence from their surrounding It looks like the “Rojava experiment” powers and local regimes, it was only because is over, now that the Kurds had to strike they were serving the West in several ways, as yet another uncomfortable alliance of explained above, and they were enjoying a convenience (and desperation) with Assad, brief momentum thanks largely to the rise of which has brought them back once again ISIS. But they were never the “friends” or even under the control of the Syrian regime and its the “allies” of the U.S. and the E.U. (which no Russian allies. longer counts in that region anyway except What is certain, and this has been proven marginally or as a force of nuisance e.g. the again by this episode, is that the Kurds (at-least Sarkozy-led NATO demolition of Libya in the independentist / secessionist ones, who 2011). They were at best our useful proxies, if are far from representing all Kurds as many are not cannon fodder for the Pentagon. In that quite happy to be citizens of other countries respect, their naivety and surprise at being including Turkey, Germany, France and abandoned by Trump is just astounding, as if more) will never be able to reach a satisfying they had already forgotten what happened not solution including a state or autonomous so long ago to Saddam Hussein, once an ally of region of their own without the consent of, the West too, to Libya’s leader Gaddafi, and to at-least, the regional powers and territorial countless others.

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More than that, did they not even remember what happened to them, to their own people, when the U.S. abandoned them to the gas attacks of Saddam after inciting them to rise against his rule? To end on the obligé “optimistic note”, Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government does seem to be a successful model for Kurdish autonomy, one that at least has proven to be far more viable than “Rojava” and deserves to be studied further, for possible emulation of the process that has led to its creation, though Syria or Turkey are certainly not Iraq. The KRG confirms further the axiom above, as despite constant frictions with Baghdad, it would never have seen the light of day without the consent, support, and active, sustained cooperation of Turkey, Iraq, and Western powers themselves. By contrast, trying to create an independent “Rojava” in the midst of that region, with that type of ideological DNA, without and against the will of the real players and neighbors, always was and will remain doomed from the start.

> Some sections of this paper originated in discussions that took place on the Sociology of Islam and Muslims academic forum.

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AUTHOR PROFILE

*DR ALAIN GABON

*Dr Alain Gabon, a French native, is Gabon’s numerous essays, op-eds, and Associate Professor of French Studies columns have appeared in popular media and Chair of the Department of Foreign too such as TurkeyAgenda (Turkey), Languages and Literature at Virginia SaphirNews (France) and Les Cahiers de Wesleyan University in Virginia Beach, l’Islam (France). He is currently working VA, USA. He has degrees in English on a book on women and/ in Islam in and American Civilisations as well as in France and the Francophone world and is French Studies from French and American a regular contributor to the UK’s Middle universities, including the Université East Eye. His paper, “The Twin Myths of the de Dijon-Bourgogne (France), Miami Western ‘Islamist Radicalisation’ and the University (USA), and the University of Iowa ‘Jihadist Threat’” can be accessed in English (USA). A writer and lecturer specialising and expanded French versions on the site in France today, including literature, the of The Cordoba Foundation. Amongst arts, Film Studies, Islam and Muslims in his latest writings, he has an interview France and Europe as well as on geopolitical titled “Terrorism in Syria and beyond” issues, Gabon’s publications have appeared and a scholarly article is on the critique of in academic journals including The French mainstream Sunni Islam by progressive- Review, Nouvelles Francographies, and reformist Islamic scholars. SITES.

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ENDNOTES

1. This accusation, which we have heard for months now, that Erdogan is up to “committing a genocide against the Kurds” could only have become credible in an environment characterised by the last degree of anti-Erdoganist imbecile propaganda and brainwashing from his opponents. Clearly, when it comes to Erdogan, our new Saddam of the Middle East, the West’s latest scapegoat, many otherwise intelligent people have simply stopped thinking. For once, if Erdogan wanted to commit genocide against “the Kurds,”, why on earth did he rescue hundreds of thousands of them from ISIS and Assad and save their lives by taking them in to his country as part of the 4 million refugees still in Turkey instead of letting them get killed there? Incidentally, how many refugees have France, the U.S., the U.K. taken in? Second, if a Kurdish “genocide” had ever been in his mind, why didn’t he start with those he had at home and closer to hand, instead of launching a risky military operation in a hostile foreign land (Syria) to get those living there? Third, how come he has so far enjoyed good diplomatic, political, and economic relationships with the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq, relationships that have been better than even those between the KRG and Baghdad? None of that squares with the notion of a “genocide against the Kurds,” that has made all the media headlines which only people who have altogether stopped thinking could possibly entertain. 2. This series of maps comes from University of Exeter Arab and Islamic Studies scholar Tanya Cariina Newbury-Smith, to whom I am indebted for this part. 3. https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmall- party/190731/rojava.htm 4. https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/ea78dc3c- 2091-48ad-980f-00ab2fa4d416/Son-of-Kurdish- refugees-launches-bid-to-become-MP

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