The long struggle of over 14.5 million Kurds for an independent homeland has reached a turning point as the ISIS’ diabolical empire is on the verge of extinction in West Asia and “Rojava” or “the land where the sun sets”, an autonomous region in the Northern Turkey, is emerging as Kurds’ future country.
For many Western observers, Rojava is the place where the seeds of ‘radical direct democracy’ experiment were sown by jailed Abdullah Ocalan, the founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party or the PKK, way back in 1978.
Since then, the Rojava Revolution —whose philosophical foundations largely lie in the “Ecology of Freedom”, espoused by American leftist and eco-anarchist Murray Bookchin — has helped spring up a matrix of institutions based on participatory democracy and economic self-management for the Kurdish community.
Ocalan and other Kurdish organisations were strongly influenced by academics such as Immanuel Wallerstein and Michael Foucault. However, turning away from the Marxist-leninist roots of Rojava, the PKK has focused more on the pre-existing local communal practices among the Kurds. Thus, the focus of the Kurds’ struggle is fixated on the explicit feminist, anti-State and anti-Capitalist leanings.
Many in West Asia have considered this model as an alternative to the nation-state system. Truly speaking, to replace the age-old nation-state pattern will take centuries and to carve out a new state for the Kurds will take a longer route. At times, this model has been called democratic confederalism and democratic autonomy. And sometimes, the Rojava administration is referred to as democratic self-administration. Economically, this model has adopted some forms of workers’ cooperatives, self-styled enterprises and various other activities so as to survive the system.
This libertarian socialist orientation of Rojava is slowly gaining ground among a few political parties in Turkey with the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) openly propagating the cause of “less government, better government”. The HDP won 13 per cent of the overall votes in the last parliamentary election in 2015. With this, the party got the opportunity to sit in the Turkish Parliament and brought a serious threat to the power base of Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP).
In an article published in the Jacobin magazine on June 13, 2015 (A Shared Victory), the co-chair of the HDP, Selahattin Demitras, who vowed to bring forth a radical democratic set-up, said, “We believe that the best Government is the least Government. We aim to make the State smaller and create a system where democracy and citizens’ rights prevail. The HDP will establish assemblies of women, the youth, the disabled, belief groups, cultural and ethnic groups, farmers, workers and labourers.”
Coming back to the Kurdish issue, it is important to study how the Kurdish people concentrated in three powerful nations of the West Asian region — Iraq, Turkey and Syria — and came up with the idea of their own homeland.
The philosophical origin of their fight for an independent country lies in the works of anarchist Bookchin. In his pioneering work, “The Next Revolution: Popular Assemblies and the Promise of Direct Democracy” published in 2015, Bookchin advocated municipalist ideas, which were rejected both by the Communists and the anarchists. His concepts of popular assemblies and the direct democracy have inspired the Kurdish quest for democratic autonomy in the trouble-torn West Asian region.
By the late 1970s, when Bookchin was trying to establish his theory of “Social Ecology” in the US, exactly on the other part of the world in the eastern part of Turkey an organisation emerged to recognise social ecology. This organisation was no other than the Kurdistan Workers’ Party or the PKK.
Now, the moot point is how the successive Governments in Turkey, especially the current regime of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad visualise Rojava. Erdogan once said, “We will never allow the establishment of a State in Syria’s north and our south. We will continue to fight no matter what it costs.” Put simply, none, except its own people, recognises the autonomous status of Rojava. The Assad regime is in no mood to give into the demands of the Kurds for a separate land despite the fact that the Kurd militia is indirectly helping Assad flush out the ISIS from his country.
The other complexity in the Kurds struggle for free homeland is that their claim on Rojava is not receiving the desired attention from the major global players such as the US, the UK, Germany, Russia and others. It is neither recognised by the UN nor by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In this way, it is operating in an illegal manner. But then many Western experts, who have visited the region so far, have brought home an entirely different message to the international community about Rojava.
Another interesting part of Rojava is that most of it is ruled by the militant feminist anarchists. The very basic principles of Rojava outline gender equality and religious freedom. It is found that at each level of the Government, female members play dominant and significant roles. Here womenfolk have launched a total revolution against the patriarchal system. Both politically and militarily, women have taken up strong roles. Women have organised their own armed units known as Women’s Protection Units. Beyond this, the People’s Protection Units (YPG) ranks have a system of conducting elections for their top posts so that both men and women get equal opportunity. Thus concerted attempts to overcome gender inequality are prevalent in Rojava. Both economic self-management and political self-governance are twin towers of the Rojava administration. But it needs to be assessed how the municipal system of administration will help the Kurds realise their dream of an independent homeland.
What has given high reputation to the Kurds both in Syria and in Iraq is their incessant war against the ISIS. Though they have lost thousands in this bloody war, the deaths didn’t go in vain as the ISIS’ influence in the region is irreversibly challenged. And this is how the Kurds have earned their reputation as the most effective ground forces to decimate the ISIS. Realising this, the US Government has been providing training to the Iraqi Kurds and backing up Syrian Kurds with full airpower in the fight against the ISIS. The US offered high grade weapons to Syrian fighters even at the risk of angering Turkey on many fronts as the latter sees arms provided to the YPG as tantamount to backing the PKK. At the same time, the Iraqi Kurds are receiving training and weapons from Iran and many European nations. In the meantime, the PKK too has been supporting the Syrian Kurds with training, weapons and active fighters on the ground. Global observers say such external involvements with the Kurds across the region would strongly back their demand for an autonomous zone, particularly for their dreamland Rojava.
But then how long the Rojava dream will surviveIJ Will the Kurds in Syria and Turkey be able to retain the recovered land from the ISISIJ Once the support from the US goes, and both Assad and Erdogan take on them (as Turkey is doing now), will they be able to sustain for longIJ What has angered the Turkish Government is that the ruling PYD of the Kurdish region declared the Kurdish-held territory on Turkish border as a federal region, known as Rojava. It was so pronounced by the PYD that it is not a move for secession from the mainland, but a model for new governance for the rest of Syria. Both Turkey and Syria dismissed their declaration and made preparation to encounter the same at full throttle. To the Kurds, this new system of governance is a democratic experiment and they will continue.
Today, the PYD leaders argue that they will not simply allow the Assad administration to muddle in their affairs in Rojava. In Syria, Kurds’ anger against Damascus has intensified as they allege that the Assads have been repressing them on all fronts for decades. Their publications were banned, they were denied citizenship and were stripped off their property rights in their own land. Even the Government has not allowed investments in this oil and gas rich areas, but has been milking the fertile northern plains to support the economy of the rest of the nation. This has made the Syrian Kurds poorer. Their relative deprivation across the country, constant humiliation from the establishment in Damascus and yearning for a separate identity led to the war.
And then the emergence of the ISIS in Syria provided the embattled Kurds the much needed opportunity. They capitalised on the situation and became close to the Americans with the US administration identifying the YPG as the most dependable partner in its fight against the ISIS.
What has emboldened the Kurds further is the Trump regime’s promise to retain its 2,000 troops in the region. Military observers in Washington believe that the jehadis might start their offensive again and hence it will continue to hold the ground by providing support to the YPG and the rest of the US-friendly forces in Syria.
America is acting cautiously to stop all types of incursions from the Iranian side in the region. Indeed, it is a serious effort by the Trump administration to curb Iranian hegemony, which Tehran is working hard to expand across the West Asian region, particularly to help survive the Assad regime.
But things are not so easy for the Kurds. Their problems have multiplied after Turkey started its military campaign against the Kurds in Afrin. The Turkish war in this North Western Syrian enclave of the Kurds indicates mixed signals to all the major players involved in Syria. But for the YPG and for the rest of the Kurdish fighters across, it is an Erdogan fight to finish their Rojava land.
Interestingly, the Turkish fighters are joined by thousands of Syrian rebels, who are no other than the Turkish proxies in the war against the Assad regime. With this, Ankara has opened a new front in the blood-soaked conflict of Syria and this will complicate any future negotiation for bringing an end to the whole war.
Turkey, being the second biggest NATO army, has taken this step to wage its war on the YPG, which it considers as a branch of the PKK. For Erdogan, the growth of the YPG in Syria and that on the border of Turkey will simply advance the aspirations of the entire Kurd community both in Turkey and Syria. With American support, the YPG has sustained the ground and take control of vast stretches of territories from the ISIS. What has finally moved an authoritarian Erdogan is the sudden declaration of America that it would create a 30,000 strong border security force in the North East Syria, mainly consisting of the YPG fighters. Washington’s aim is to stop the future advancement of the ISIS by rewarding the YPG for fighting the rebels and limiting the military advancements of the Assad regime.
The new development has not gone down well with the Istanbul administration as it sees in it an indirect recognition of the broader goal of the Kurds for Rojava. The Operation Olive Branch, as the offensive is known, is aimed to eliminate the Kurdish militia in no time. At the same time, the YPD claims that it would not allow the Turkish forces to go beyond Afrin. But the Erdogan regime is trying hard to gather support across the country saying that the YPG has plans to use the Syrian border areas in the same way the PKK has been concentrating on the mountains of Northern Iraq to launch attack on Turkey. Therefore, Erdogan is making it a national issue so that he can continue his military offensive against the Kurds.
It is again a disturbing signal for the whole West Asian region as long as this offensive continues. Today America is in a fix — it is providing support to the Kurds groups in Syria which is angering Erdogan. And now when Erdogan has started the war against the YPG, Trump is calling him and showing concern about the ongoing violence in Afrin.
If America withdraws from Syria, an already pro-active Vladimir Putin will feel free to expand his influence. It may really happen as Moscow has already mended its relationship with Ankara. In fact, Putin has indirectly supported the Turkish operation in Afrin. However, if Turkey expands its operation in other YPG strongholds, the situation within and outside Turkey will become more complicated.
On the other hand, if America continues to midwife the Kurdish dream of a separate land for fulfilling its own regional interests, this will further create both confusion and chaos.
Ankara wants America to choose between the YPG and Turkey. But a few policy-makers in Washington are thinking or rather visualising the fallouts of a disintegrated Syria for US-Turkey relations and new US ties with the Kurds in Syria. But history suggests that if there is a clear choice between the Kurds and Turkey, then obviously, Washington will move ahead with the latter. That means America is using the Kurds to sustain its regional interests and this is giving false hopes to millions of Kurds. Thus, the Kurds must stand on their own so as to survive any offensive against them. No nation in West Asia would like to see its borders crumbling for giving into the demands of the Kurds.
Needless to say the conflict around Rojava will continue. But unfortunately, the Kurds will be the major targets from both Turkey and Syria. And in this long war, it depends how America, Russia and Iran take stand. With Trump coming back once again, Washington will certainly create more confusions than clarity for sure. And many more friends of America will be upset in the region about the country’s commitment towards them. This will certainly damage the traditional balance of power in the region. And in turn will help stubborn Erdogan, who will offer a playing ground to extend his evil designs. Further autocrats like Putin will be happy with more space to demonstrate his nation’s might and in this way divert his countrymen’s attention from the domestic problems. As long as the Kurdish problem stays at the centre stage, it will give a sigh of relief to Assad in Damascus. He has already been rescued by his old ally Russia. He has regained ground and proved to most of his countrymen that he can be relied on. It is certain that he will not be able to recover the entire territories from the rebels, particularly from the Kurdish militia. And in some parts, other rebels will continue to rule, defying Damascus. This will take long years for Assad to recover.
Meanwhile, the Rojava revolution, expanding and holding more places, will definitely be a cause of concern for both Turkey and Syria. The current battle in Afrin will not be an easy task for Turkey. The YPG will see to it that its dream is not vanquished. Whether Bookchin-inspired radical governance will see the light of the day or not, only time will tell us. But what is there on the road to this homeland is more bloodshed and regional rivalry, followed by active involvement of external powers such as Russia and America.
(The writer is an expert on international affairs)
