The Anarchist Library (Mirror) Anti-Copyright Existence and Self-Defence are Two Sides of the Same Coin Kardo Bokanî Kardo Bokanî Existence and Self-Defence are Two Sides of the Same Coin June 28, 2018 https://komun-academy.com/2018/06/28/ existence-and-self-defence-are-two-sides-of-the-same-coin/ usa.anarchistlibraries.net June 28, 2018 to cure the affected areas. Externally, when an individual isat- tacked at the street, a pair of hands will provide protection. The strength of a defence mechanism lies on the extent to which they have been made use of. Internal or external threats that a human faces as an indi- vidual are different from those posed on a social, cultural, or a national group of which they are a member. As individual they might be attacked by internal virus or a mugger onthe street, yet as members of a national group they are likely to come under cultural, economic or armed attack. Depending on the form of attack, they will promote a protecting mechanism with which to deal with the attacks and maintain their partic- ular way of life. As a separate nation that have experienced multiple cases of mass-killing at the hands of states that have hitherto been in control of its territory, the Kurds need a strong defence system to prevent future tragedies. As the Kurds will remain under the threat of both cultural and military attacks, they need both cultural and military mechanisms with which to preserve their existence as a separate people. 23 torians. It was in 1905, for example, that G.A. Hobson argued: is there anyone who really believes that any of the European states, or any great power, can embark on a great war if the House of Rothschild or any of its branches did not concede to it? Contents The fact is that the World Wars unfolded without the per- mission of the House of Rothschild, and the Jews had suffered the most. Worst of all, because during the early development Natural defence ................... 5 of the European states, the Jewish companies, including the Cultural subjugation ................ 7 House of Rothschild, provided them with extensive amount of Economic protection . 13 loans, this yearned them the lasting enmity of those who came Armed resistance . 16 into a conflict with their state. As one Jewish political philoso- Conclusion ...................... 22 pher, Hana Arendt, reminds us; any class of society whose in- terests the state did not represent, had automatically became anti-Jews, because the Jews were seen as the representative of the state. It took the Jews a Holocaust to understand the sig- nificant of military affairs and the establishment ofapower army. Is not it stunning that a repeated pattern of mass-killing in Kurdistan has not made certain Kurdish circles understand the existence of a powerful army to preserve themselves as a separate national entity? Conclusion This paper argued that existence and self-preservation are two sides of the same coin. No entity without a viable preser- vation mechanism can continue its existence. The form of de- fence, moreover, depends on the type of offence. When you are attacked physically, for example, you may need to defend yourself physically first. An organism such as human body is equipped with an effec- tive system of defence, acting both internally and externally. Internally, when the body is attacked by a specific virus, its de- fence mechanism automatically spawns the related anti-virus 22 3 pher, Moses Maimonides (1135-1204), who after Abraham the Prophet is the most renown figure in Jewish history, was so critical of them for their lack attention to military affairs and institutions. He argued that Jewish misery stemmed not from their committing of sin, as the then dominant Jewish view held, but lied in their lack military mobilisation and the formation of an army. According to Maimonides, instead of studying the art of war, the Jews of ancient times busied themselves with the science of astronomy. But when the Roman army attacked their country and destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D, their science of astronomy failed to provide them with protection. What is of particular notice about Maimonides’s philosophy is the type of Messiah he believed had the power to liberate the Jews. In stark contrast to the dominant traditional Jewish view of the Tura, which prophesied the liberation of the Jews via a spiritual and peaceful Messiah, the Maimonides’s Messiah was a formidable military commander who would liberate the Jews through the force of arms. Apparently as it is, 700 before the Holocaust, Maimonides warned the Jews of the danger of not forming a potent army, and tried to make them understand the value of military or- ganisation. His warning, however, went largely unheeded. Be- cause until the formation of the First Congress of Zionism in 1897, and the creation of the military organisation of Haganah in 1920, the Jews had not made a serious attempt at political and military mobilisation. In fact, during the same period that these activisms were underway by a circle of Jewish activists, the vast majority of the Jewish population believed their finan- cial resources would secure them. Much in the same way that they invested all their energy in astronomy in ancient times, in the modern time they believed that Jewish companies such as the House of Rothschild, which had dominated the whole of Europe, would secure them. In fact, the domination of the European political and economic structures by the House of Rothschild was so extensive that it misled some credible his- 21 tween the Real-IRA with the Continuity-IRA, which in 1986 Self-defence or self-preservation has often been reduced broke away from the Provisional-IRA. to its militaristic dimension. Although the latter tops the list It is good to note that from the very beginning of the Peace in the hierarchy of status attached to self-defence, it would, Process in Northern Ireland, there was a widespread pes- however, be too simplistic to overlook its other dimensions. simism regarding the workability of the negotiated settlement This paper examines four major dimensions of self-defence: and of the “consociational democracy” implemented thereafter. natural, cultural, economic, and militaristic ones. The core of Arend Lijphart, the main theorist of consociationalism, had my argument is that wherever there is an offence, there will long argued that this model of political accommodation would be a defence mechanism, whose method depends principally not suit Northern Ireland. The lost two decades have so far on the mode of offence. A human body, for example, which proved this pessimism wrong. One of the main reasons for the is infected by a certain virus, will produce a new group of apparent success of consociational democracy in this country anti-viruses, or reactivate the passive ones, as a way to shield was the constructive role played by both the EU and the US. the whole system from possible collapse. When individuals Taking this into consideration, what I want to make clear come together to merge into a national category, they may is this: If, despite operating inside a European country and apply the same sort of logic to preserve the parameters that having the benefit of both the EU and the US for facilitation, define them as such. When they are culturally subjugated, the IRA did not disarm itself, why should the PKK do, when for instance, they are most likely to generate a set of cultural it operates in the Middle East, and lack support from any devices with which to shield their particularities. Threats on international organisation—let alone the EU and the US who their economic sources, moreover, they may respond through have explicitly sided with Turkey? protective financial mechanism. Above and beyond, as I will The Turkish state’s call for the demobilisation and disar- show in the final section of this paper, when they come under mament of the PKK may not come as a surprise, as it has militaristic invasion, they will respond militarily, as long as long been a sworn-enemy of the Kurds; an enemy that has they have the capacity. done all it could to prevent the Kurds from gaining any form of political status. But what has been perplexing is Natural defence the call among certain Kurdish circles to rid their nation of the defence-mechanism the PKK has struggled to fashion, Having an inquisitive look at our surrounding one cannot costing it the lives of thousands of Kurdistan’s patriotic. More but notice a uniform system of defence inherent in almost ev- befuddling is that, for whatever reason, certain leaders among ery single alive entity, ranging from our body to our domes- the Kurdish movement have toyed with the dangerous idea of tic animals all the way down to our planet. To begin with, let disarmament. us take a look at our planet. Located somewhere in the Milky I believe that the history of the Jewish people offers a good Galaxy, the Earth has from the very outset been exposed to lesson for those circles who fail to take the military issue seri- existential threat, stemming from a motley of gigantic mete- ously. A brief survey of Jewish chronicle tells us that through- oroids. Had it not for the sake of the Ozone Layer, which had out their history, perhaps until the late nineteenth century, shielded the Earth by diverting these titanic objects, it is not they did not take the military issue seriously. A Jewish philoso- 20 5 very clear how our planet could have preserved itself. The cool- beings would, one day, reach a state of perfection whereby they ing of the Earth resulted in the extinction of the whole species will no longer need arms to settle disputes, I strongly oppose of the dinosaurs and prepared the ground for the emergence of the idea of the PKK’s disarmament.