Revolution in Rojava: Democratic Autonomy and Women's
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Revolution in Rojava Revolution in Rojava Democratic Autonomy and Women’s Liberation in Syrian Kurdistan Michael Knapp, Anja Flach, and Ercan Ayboğa Foreword by David Graeber Afterword by Asya Abdullah Translated by Janet Biehl First published 2016 by Pluto Press 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA www.plutobooks.com Copyright © Michael Knapp, Anja Flach and Ercan Ayboğa 2016 The right of Michael Knapp, Anja Flach and Ercan Ayboğa to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 0 7453 3664 0 Hardback ISBN 978 0 7453 3659 6 Paperback ISBN 978 1 7837 1987 7 PDF eBook ISBN 978 1 7837 1989 1 Kindle eBook ISBN 978 1 7837 1988 4 EPUB eBook This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental standards of the country of origin. Typeset by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England Simultaneously printed in the United Kingdom and United States of America Contents List of Figures ix Translator’s Note xi Foreword by David Graeber xii Introduction xxiii Prologue: On the Road to Til Koçer xxviii 1. Background 1 1.1 Geography of Rojava 2 1.2 Historical Overview 9 2. Rojava’s Diverse Cultures 18 2.1 Kurds 18 2.2 Arabs 22 2.3 Armenians and Syriacs 26 2.4 Smaller Population Groups 32 3. Democratic Confederalism 36 3.1 The PKK and Its Paradigm Shift 36 3.2 Democratic Confederalism 39 3.3 Council Democracy 41 3.4 Democratic Concepts 43 4. The Liberation 47 4.1 Organizing Begins 47 4.2 The Arab Spring in Syria 49 4.3 Illegal Councils 51 4.4 The Hewlêr Agreement 53 4.5 The Revolution Begins in Kobanî 54 4.6 The Liberation of Dêrîk and Afrîn 55 4.7 After the Liberation 57 5. A Women’s Revolution 61 5.1 Rojava Women 62 5.2 Women in the Revolution 63 5.3 Kongreya Star 64 revolution in rojava 5.4 Women in the Three Cantons 67 5.5 Dual Leadership and the 40 Percent Quota 69 5.6 Women’s Organizations 70 5.7 Gender Equality Is Also a Men’s Issue 76 5.8 Radical Islam Versus Women’s Emancipation 77 5.9 Outlook 79 6. Democratic Autonomy in Rojava 84 6.1 The Democratic Union Party (PYD) 84 6.2 The People’s Council of West Kurdistan (MGRK) 85 6.3 The MGRK System 87 6.4 The Commune of Aleppo 95 6.5 The Supreme Kurdish Council (SKC) 103 6.6 The Municipal Administrations 104 6.7 The Social Contract 109 6.8 The Democratic-Autonomous Administrations (DAAs) 114 6.9 The Federal System in Rojava/Northern Syria (FRNS) 116 6.10 The MGRK and the DAAs 118 7. Civil Society Associations 122 7.1 Union of Civil Society Associations 124 7.2 Culture and Art 126 7.3 The Revolutionary Youth Movement 126 7.4 Association of Families of Martyrs 128 7.5 Human Rights Commission 129 7.6 Civil Society Organizing 130 8. Defense: The Theory of the Rose 133 8.1 People’s Protection Units (YPG) 133 8.2 Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) 135 8.3 Legitimate Self-defense 139 8.4 The Liberation of Serêkaniyê 140 8.5 The Liberation of Til Koçer 146 8.6 Training and Induction 148 8.7 Equipment, Units, and Tactics 152 8.8 Serêkaniyê Today 153 8.9 The Liberation of Girê Spî and Şengal 154 8.10 The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) 156 8.11 The Significance of the YPG and YPJ 158 vi contents 9. The New Justice System 164 9.1 Structure 165 9.2 Peace Committees 168 9.3 Procedures 168 9.4 Justice Platforms 170 9.4 Asayîş 171 10. The Democratization of Education 175 10.1 Before and After the Revolution 176 10.2 Reconstruction and Pedagogy 178 10.3 The Academy for Kurdish Language, History, and Literature (AZDW) 179 10.4 Academies 181 10.4 Outlook 183 11. Health Care 185 11.1 Before and After the Liberation 185 11.2 Health Assemblies 186 11.3 Challenges 188 11.2 Health Assemblies and the DAAs 189 12. The Social Economy 192 12.1 Under Ba’ath Colonization 192 12.2 Effects of the Liberation 194 12.3 The Embargo 195 12.4 The Social Economy 197 12.5 Cooperatives 199 12.6 Control of Production 204 12.7 Expanding the Cooperatives 205 12.8 The Challenges Ahead 207 13. Ecological Challenges 211 13.1 The Destruction of Biodiversity 212 13.2 Water Crisis 214 13.3 Waste Disposal 217 13.4 Air Pollution 219 13.5 Petroleum Production 219 13.6 Outlook 220 vii revolution in rojava 14. Neighbors 222 14.1 The Islamization of the Syrian Opposition 222 14.2 Islamic State (IS) 227 14.3 The Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) 231 14.4 Turkey Under the AKP 234 14.5 Democratic Autonomy in North Kurdistan 238 14.6 Turkmen Militias 241 14.7 The SDF and the Jihadists 243 15. Prospects 250 15.1 Rojava and Hegemonic Powers 250 15.2 Solutions Within Syria 254 15.3 International Solidarity 256 15.4 Communalism or Barbarism 259 Afterword: The Philosophy of Democratic Autonomy 262 Asya Abdullah Glossary 268 About the Authors 272 Index 273 viii List of Figures P.1 A house bombed to rubble in Tirbespî xxx 1.1 Rojava’s three cantons: Afrîn, Kobanî, and Cizîrê 3 2.1 Members of an Arab unit at Til Koçer 24 2.2 A Syriac priest blesses MFS fighters, Christmas 2014 in Dêrîk 31 5.1 A Kongreya Star Assembly, Dêrîk 65 5.2 Dual leadership: The co-mayors of Serêkaniyê 70 5.3 Conference of Young Revolutionary Women, May 2014, in Rimelan 73 5.4 A women’s demonstration in Qamişlo 79 6.1 A meeting of a neighborhood people’s council in Dêrîk 89 6.2 A meeting of the people’s council of Qamişlo district 90 6.3 The MGRK council system 92 6.4 The martyrs of the Qamişlo city hall 106 6.5 A TEV-DEM meeting in Kobanî in 2015 118 7.1 Memorial day for martyrs 129 8.1 A YPJ and YPG muster 134 8.2 YPG and YPJ fighters at Serêkaniyê 135 8.3 A Syriac YPJ fighter at Serêkaniyê 136 8.4 Hevala Melsa, of the YPJ, at Serêkaniyê 143 8.5 The ruined village of Keşte, near Til Xelef, May 2014. The inhabitants are returning only twenty days after the YPG/YPJ liberated the village 144 8.6 A mobile YPJ unit at Til Koçer 147 8.7 A student at the Şehîd Şîlan Women’s Military Academy 149 8.8 An Arab YPJ fighter undergoing officer training at the Sehîd Jînda Academy 151 9.1 Guards at a courthouse in Dêrîk 165 9.2 Asayîsa Jin, women’s security force, at a checkpoint in Tirbespî 174 10.1 Kurdish-language instruction in Serêkaniyê 175 11.1 Inside a hospital in Dêrîk 186 ix revolution in rojava 11.2 A team from Heyva Sor (Kurdish Red Crescent) coping with shortages 188 12.1 Oil, wheat, and animal husbandry in Cizîrê 193 12.2 A sewing cooperative in Rimelan 201 13.1 Urban gardening at the economics ministry in Dêrîk 213 14.1 Celebration of YPG/YPJ fighters in Kobanî in October 2015 230 14.2 Syriacs join a demonstration against the ditch dug by the KPD to reinforce the embargo 232 14.3 Discovery in a former IS training camp: the inscription says “Saudi Arabia and Turkey Hand in Hand.” 236 14.4 The war front as of July 31, 2016 244 15.1 Civilians and YPG/YPJ fighters in a pickup after a demonstration 259 x Translator’s Note Revolution in Rojava, the first full book to appear on the democratic, gender-equal, cooperative revolution under way in northern Syria, was originally published in German in March 2015 by VSA Verlag. This English version began as a direct translation, but over the course of 16 months, it has been extensively revised and updated, so that in many respects it is a new book. I would like to thank Pluto Press for editorial support and for bringing the book to the wide audience it deserves; Sherko Geylani, for early help with translation; and New Compass Press for solidarity. Janet Biehl xi Foreword David Graeber Even many ostensible revolutionaries nowadays seem to have secretly abandoned the idea that a revolution is actually possible. Here I am using “revolution” in its classical sense, let’s say: the overthrow of an existing structure of power and the ruling class it supports by a popular uprising of some sort, and its replacement by new forms of bottom-up popular organization. For most of the twentieth century this was not the case: even those revolutionaries who hated the Bolsheviks, for example, supported the revolution itself, even popular uprisings that came to be led by ethno-nationalists were not simply condemned if they were seen to be genuinely popular. There was an obvious reason for this. For most of that time, revolutionaries felt that, whatever temporary complications, history was flowing inevitably in the direction of greater equality and freedom. Those rising up to shake off some form of tyranny, however temporarily confused or distracted, were clearly the agents of that greater movement of liberation.