Following the uprising led by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in 1978, the foundation for clandestine self-governance was built in rural areas and towns in the 1980s and 90s. Actually, the building process of the PKK in itself was based on practicing radical democracy within its own structures and relations. This became a source of inspiration and an example for the self-organising of the Kurdish society. The ways of how to organise collective life and economy, how to develop the political struggle and education, how to realise socialist values, friendship, solidarity, respect towards human and nature in one’s own personality and relations where central points of discussions and establishing a revolutionary culture – at first among the guerrilla on the mountains, political prisoners and activists.
| Author(s) | Jineology Academy |
|---|---|
| Topics | Democracy, Education |
| Case Report | Radical Democracy: recovering the roots of self-governance & autonomy |
Kurdistan is located at the center of the Fertile Crescent, which has been home to some of the earliest human civilizations, agricultural and village revolutions since 10,000 BC. It has historical sites such as Göbekli Tepe, Newala Çori, Çaxir Bazar, Çeme Xalan, etc. that bear traces of the earliest human civilizations at the foothills of the Toros-Zagros mountains and the Tigris-Euphrates rivers. It is a region enjoying all four seasons and having rich botanical diversity and fertile lands. Kurds, Assyrians, Syriacs, Armenians and Arabs have lived together in Kurdistan for years. In this region, the Kurds have been mostly engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry, the Arabs have mostly been engaged in animal husbandry while the Armenians, Assyrians and Syriacs have been engaged in crafts. Although patriarchal culture became dominant in Kurdish society following the advent of Islam, natural beliefs and culture centered around women have preserved themselves until today. The Kurds are mostly organized as clans and tribes through their own administrative and self-defense systems. Their autonomy was recognized at a certain level until the Ottoman Empire. Kurdistan was first divided into two parts (between the Persian Empire and the Ottoman Empire in the 17th century) and then into four parts among the states of Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq by the Treaty of Lausanne signed in 1923 due to imperialist plans on the region.
Since then, the part of Kurdistan in Turkey is known as Northern Kurdistan, the part in Iraq as Southern Kurdistan, the part in Iran as Eastern Kurdistan and the part in Syria as Southwestern Kurdistan, mostly known as Rojava (meaning West in the Kurdish language). Throughout history, uprisings have taken part in four parts of Kurdistan for the independence and freedom of Kurdistan. In the last two centuries, altogether 28 important uprisings for freedom took place in regions of all four parts of Kurdistan. However, they were all suppressed bloodily by nation states and imperialist powers. The four nation states (Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria) have implemented occupation policies, practices of physical and cultural genocide to colonize Kurdistan and use its rich resources, both above-ground and underground resources. Kurds, Armenians, Syriacs, Chaldeans, and Assyrians in Kurdistan have been massacred and displaced by these states, aiming at reducing their population. Further, some state rulers provoked some Kurdish tribes to collaborate with them by using Islam. Today, some Kurdish families, tribes and individuals continue to collaborate with these states by playing a role in the occupation and attacks on Kurdistan for their own profits or due to fear.
Current governance system
Although there is a model of community self-governance in Kurdistan on the basis of traditional social structures based on tribes, clans, families and beliefs, these structures gradually disintegrated and some of them have collaborated with occupying states and became tools of colonialism. In order to define the governance system in Kurdistan, we have to evaluate the situation in the four parts of Kurdistan separately.
The largest part of Kurdistan, North Kurdistan, is located within the borders of the Turkish nation-state, where the struggle to establish a self-governance system continues. In Northern Kurdistan, the Turkish state has committed many massacres, in the form of physical genocide, have taken place many times along with an ongoing political repression, ban of language and cultural expressions. About 5000 Kurdish villages were burnt down. Until today, the Turkish state continues to destroy systematically the nature, economy and livelihood of Kurdistan. After the last Kurdish uprising that was suppressed in 1940, no struggle for self-governance emerged for a long period.
Following the uprising led by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in 1978, the foundation for clandestine self-governance was built in rural areas and towns in the 1980s and 90s. Actually, the building process of the PKK in itself was based on practicing radical democracy within its own structures and relations. This became a source of inspiration and an example for the self-organising of the Kurdish society. The ways of how to organise collective life and economy, how to develop the political struggle and education, how to realise socialist values, friendship, solidarity, respect towards human and nature in one’s own personality and relations where central points of discussions and establishing a revolutionary culture – at first among the guerrilla on the mountains, political prisoners and activists. The model of practiced democracy through collective reflection about daily life and work (tekmil), educations, assemblies and revolutionary values more and more turned into a popular culture, democratic conscience and way of self-organising against colonial state oppression in all four parts of Kurdistan. For example, the village population in many mountain regions (e.g. in the regions of Botan, Serhat, Zagros, Qandil...) has organized their village assemblies, councils, municipalities and self-defence by themselves on the basis of this culture.
Since then, structures of radical democracy or what we can also call people’s self-governance (beside and despite the state) have been built up through people’s, women’s and youth’s assemblies, neighborhood organising and a network of dozens of civil society organizations, social, political and cultural movements. The self-governance of society consists of congresses, communes, councils, academies, media, all-women media associations, youth movements, culture and arts activities, cooperatives, ecology platforms and other associations. In parallel to this Kurdish parliamentarians and mayors of democratic political parties have been working for general democratic change and the acknowledgment of the Kurdish people’s rights within state institutions. Further, there is also a joint struggle and various forms of organising communally with different national, religious and cultural communities, youth and women's movements, left-socialist, feminist, democratic and revolutionary forces in different parts of Turkey. Despite these developments, Turkey has intensified its crackdown, arresting politicians and mayors, restricting freedom of expression and speech, closing down democratic associations, political parties and stirring up racist-nationalist pogroms until today.
In South Kurdistan, the part of Kurdistan within the borders of Iraq, there has been a de-facto autonomy since 1991, as a result of the Kurdish people’s resistance against the genocides perpetrated by the Iraqi state during Saddam Hussein's dictatorship. While formerly supporting Saddam, from 1990 onwards the US supported the establishment of the autonomous region Kurdistan in Iraq under the authority of the tribal parties KDP and PUK as a part of its wars on Iraq aiming at gaining hegemony over the Middle East. Since 2003, this region has been known as the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. While one part of the territory has been governed by the KDP of the Barzani family clan, another part of the territory has been governed by the PUK of the Talabani family. This tribal and family government model is based on feudal power structures and capitalist profits. The ruling families collaborate with imperialist powers and colonial nation states to maintain their power and pursue anti-democratic, misogynistic and nationalist policies. As a result, in 2014 the KDP exposed the Ezîdî people in Shengal to the genocide and feminicide committed by ISIS. Further it has neglected the democratic self-administration and supported the ban of the Ezîdî Freedom Democracy Party (PADE). Both democratic forms of self-organisation were established by the people of Shengal in the aftermath of the genocide.
The refugee camp Maxmur is another place where radical democracy has been practiced in South Kurdistan for over 26 years, now. Over 16,000 Kurds live in the camp. These families were displaced from North Kurdistan due to massacres and village destruction by Turkish army in 1992-93. Since then they have built up their own system of self-governance, including the first school system in native Kurdish language using Latin Alphabet, a health care and social system and their self-defense to ensure the basic needs of all people in the camp. As well as the people of the region of autonomous administration in Shengal, also the camp Maxmur and its inhabitants have been confronted with military attacks by the IS, airstrikes by the Turkish army as well as repressions by the KDP.
In Rojava Kurdistan, people’s self-governance has been shaped since the 1980s, as result of the liberation struggle waged by the PKK. In fact, the Syrian state has not recognized the majority of Kurds as its citizens and has not allowed them to benefit from any legal rights. Following the Qamishlo riots in 2004, clandestinely structures of self-governance were built up and institutionalized in 2011, with the influence of popular movements in the region. After ISIS was defeated by the people’s and women’s defense forces YPG/YPJ/SDF, the model of democratic autonomy was also advocated and established by the various population groups in North and East Syria. The Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES) is based on communes, district and canton councils in 7 regions. At each level the people elect one man and one women as co-chairs and members of committees for social affairs, justice commission, economy and agriculture, education, sports, health and environment, culture and arts. The youth and women’s committees and their representatives in the general councils are elected by the youth and women themselves.
Despite state oppression, a non-nationalist and social system adopting an ecological approach based on direct and participatory democracy and women’s freedom, in the axis of Abdullah Öcalan’s paradigm on democratic nation, democratic confederalism and democratic modernity, has been implemented since 2005. A holistic system of democratic society organisation has been built in the four parts of Kurdistan as well as on the basis of cooperation with democratic anti-system groups in Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria. Organizations established by Kurds who have migrated outside Kurdistan together with people who participate in a joint struggle on the axis of a paradigm based on democracy, ecology and women’s freedom are connected in a confederal manner in different parts of the world. The roles of women in these systems and organizations are decisive. The characteristic-autonomous organization of the women’s movement in Kurdistan has paved the way for women's will and representation in all facets of life for more than 40 years by participating in all spheres of life, including politics, self-defence and social life. The principle of equal representation and the co-chair system are implemented in all facets of life. All ethnic groups and people from other nationalities have their own self-governance systems, organization and election quota in this system.
Relationship with the nation-states
Aside from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in South Kurdistan, the status and autonomous administrations in other parts of Kurdistan have not been recognized, yet. The status of South Kurdistan functioned at first as a de-facto autonomy after a no-fly zone was declared by the US-lead coalition forces in 1991, and parliamentary elections were held in 1992. The KRG was internationally recognized following the overthrow of the Saddam regime in 2003. As mentioned above, this governance system is not a democratic system but is based on state mentality and structures: The KRG has maintained alliances with the Turkish and Iranian states according to its political interests and economic profits, and oppresses democratic movements and models of radical democracy inside South Kurdistan as well as in other parts of Kurdistan.
In North Kurdistan, the Turkish state insists on a policy of denial and repression against the Kurds. Everyone who demands autonomy or is involved in democratic society organising is accused of being a ‘terrorist’. In East Kurdistan, the religious regime responds to the political demands of the Kurdish people either by ignoring or arresting and executing them. It does not accept any way of democratic self-organization neither in Kurdistan nor Iran.
In Rojava (West Kurdistan) since 2012 a system of democratic autonomy has been implemented that has inspired many people all over the world. But neither the Syrian state nor the UN or international law mechanisms have recognized its status, yet. So far only the Parliament of Catalonia has recognized the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria. Imperialist powers such as the USA and Russia are striving for control of the Middle East. In this context, they have offered limited military support for the fight against ISIS. Through certain NGOs, they are also trying to exert political and cultural influence. As Rojava and the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria are not officially recognized the region and the people are exposed to constant violations of international law, especially to airstrikes and occupation attacks by the Turkish army.
Governance system
The system of democratic autonomy and democratic confederalism is based on four pillars; communes, assemblies, academies and cooperatives. Communes are organising in neighborhoods and villages, defined as the smallest social unit; assemblies are based on direct democracy through co-chairs of the communes and different working fields; cooperatives are a solution model for economic problems; academies are popular, collective learning spaces for the intellectual, and scientific foundations of the system. Communes are defined as an area where people live together. A group of people at a workplace, a group consisting of students, or even a family can organize themselves through a commune. If we consider it as a general social system, each family and individual participates at least in one commune with their abilities and knowledge. Communes hold their own assemblies and spokespersons of the communes express their projects, plans, decisions and opinions at the regional assemblies. At assemblies, direct and representative democracy are closely intertwined. They are formed through democratic processes; representatives are elected, when they fail to fulfill their duties and to represent the will of the commune, they can be criticized and even recalled.
Cooperatives are models based on solidarity and cooperation, meeting economic, social and cultural needs. Academies are structures that provide different forms of learning and education for society. At the academies, people can learn how to write and read, they can learn a profession or discuss philosophical issues. The number of participants, curriculum, time and place can be determined according to needs. The difference between schools and academies is that academies are more flexible, and often the participants also live together during the time of a one to six month lasting education program.
The model and mindset of the democratic nation are an alternative to the nation-state. The democratic nation model embodies a non-state social organization based on assemblies, free citizenship, social life, democratic politics, social justice, economy, health, education, self-defense, culture, diplomatic relations and alliances. In the democratic nation model, social problems are solved through joint decisions by communities and assemblies. Its main goal is to limit state influence, to make the state unnecessary and irrelevant. It prioritizes reconciliation, peace and negotiation as long as the state respects democracy, otherwise, it uses its legitimate right to resistance and self-defense.
The role of the more-than-human
The relationship between the natural world and people persists in Kurdish society, and has retained characteristics of a natural society. The different geographic and climate conditions in different regions of Kurdistan have also an impact on the vegetation, creating various ways of life, cultural expressions and livelihood. In many regions a half-normadic way of life was predominant. People spent the summer with their sheep on the highlands of the mountains and the winter in their villages. In other regions agriculture and gardening have been at the centre of life. Some regions of Kurdistan are known for their richness of fruit-trees, some for their certain vegetables or herbs, others for wheat, lentils or chickpeas. Collective planting and harvesting, cooking and baking according to the season has been a common tradition. Each region has its own basis for creating food autonomy in cooperation and exchange with neighbor regions.
Despite nowadays predominance of monotheistic religions, the belief in the sacredness of fire, trees, mountains and birds persists. Newroz, the new day, has been celebrated for thousands of years on March 21 as the beginning of a new year. Many festivals of different peoples and religious communities of Mesopotamia, which praise the creation of the universe and life, are celebrated in the first week of April. For the people of Kurdistan these spring days symbolize new beginnings and resistance against tyranny. Annual assemblies and congresses of the democratic confederal system also take place on these days. The arrival of spring after the cold and dark days or winter, also brings new life to Kurdistan, create unity of people and give inspirations for new steps, decisions and projects of democratic autonomy.
Traditional and new inequalities
In Kurdistan society, patriarchal, feudal and religious traditions have heavily oppressed women in social life. The Kurdistan liberation struggle and the autonomous organization of women have brought important social changes in this respect, but they have still not been able to completely overcome these inequalities and forms of oppression. Therefore inequalities are being tackled continuously through women's self-organization in all areas of social life, the organization of their own parallel confederal women’s system, and the principle of equal representation of women and men that insures equal participation in decision-making processes in all areas of political, economic, legal and social life and self-defence. It is essential to continue the women's revolution, to stay connected and develop further a philosophy of life based on Jin-Jiyan-Azadî, and to strengthen structures of women's autonomous self-governance, self-defence and self-sufficient economy. Rather than demanding something from states and dominant men or criticizing them, we emphasize the precious meaning of living self-determined and collectively. Women's liberation is at the same time connected to efforts for the transformation of dominant men. With the concept, which we call Hevjiyana Azad (free collective life), we aim to challenge all relations between men and women on the basis of freedom, and equality in diversity.
Relationship with other movements
A joint struggle with all democratic organizations in Kurdistan is taken as a basis for achieving national unity between the four parts of Kurdistan within the perspective of a democratic nation. National unity, free from nationalism, refers to joint efforts to build a stateless nation of the Kurdish people. Referring to the pillars of democratic confederalism of the Middle East against colonialism and imperialism, it promotes the democratization of religion, women's freedom, unity and solidarity among people based on common democratic values among the peoples of the Middle East against nationalism and religious fundamentalism.
For a global struggle, the structures of democratic autonomy in Kurdistan form alliances to build worldwide structures of peoples’ and women’s democratic confederalism based on the paradigm of democratic modernity. Ecological life, the development of a stateless democratic society and women's freedom are the main pillars of this paradigm. Abdullah Öcalan summarizes the historical reality of Kurdistan and the current freedom struggle with the following words: “History has placed Kurdistan and the Kurds in such a position that obliged them to unite their freedom, equality and democracy with the freedom, equality and democracy of the region and all peoples.[1]”
Current threats and challenges
The massacres, attacks and occupation that the people of Kurdistan have experienced in the last two centuries have been shaped by international imperialist plans. Since World War I, this system maintained its hegemony in the region by continuously creating threats and conflicts in the Middle East. During the last 3 decades the US and other hegemonic state forces intended to establish their ‘new world order’ through further multilayered wars. However, Kurdistan is at the center of the conflict of global hegemony, also known as World War III. Our lands are constantly subjected to attacks and massacres due to a multi-pronged and violent systemic war of capitalist modernity against the forces of democratic modernity. Therefore the unrecognized status of Rojava Kurdistan causes the difficult situation of building a democratic system under constant war attacks, imposed isolation and embargo. Further, open violent and subtle attacks of the neoliberal system aim at liberalizing the development of the revolution and democratic self-administration.
Another dynamic that threatens the system of democratic autonomy are efforts to revive and aggravate patriarchal violence and traditions to counteract women's freedom struggle. The fact that a large part of Kurdish society is Muslim is exploited by Salafist religious organizations that propagate deeply patriarchal gender roles and relationships. In particular, the administration in South Kurdistan, which has close relations with colonialist and imperialist powers, is fueling nationalism. Its policies attack friendship relations between peoples and global solidarity, women's freedom, civil rights of the Kurds and other peoples living in the region.
At the same time multiple attacks and threats of Turkish state agencies and armed forces are targeting the society, destroying settlements, infrastructure, the nature, cultural and historical heritage in North, South and West Kurdistan. Displacement policies are implemented to depopulate these regions. Repeatedly journalists, community leaders and political activists of the Democratic Autonomy in Rojava, the women’s and freedom movement in Kurdistan are assassinated by drones or killer teams of the Turkish army.
The most effective method of resistance and fighting against all these attacks is to elaborate tools, methods and ways of organizations that equip society against these attacks by insisting on organising life in the framework of democratic autonomy. We fight against physical, military attacks by developing self-defense awareness. We resist against special warfare and black propaganda by developing an alternative education system and free media in native language, and by strengthening moral values in society that are linked to politics of solidarity and freedom. Against economic warfare and embargo, efforts are continuing to build a communal economy and a health system based on the principle of self-sufficiency.
Future plans and visions
One of the important conclusions we have reached within the reality of Kurdistan is that societies can form their own democratic systems without a state. Society is essentially shaped around morals that express common values, and a political structure that expresses collective life. However, the state legitimizes itself by exploiting the self-sufficient economic system, self-governance and self-defense power of society. Therefore, what we should do is to overcome the authoritarianism in our personalities as well as to develop systems that overcome all kinds of authoritarian structures but do not leave society unorganized and defenseless without self-governance. These systems can spread in society, taking society’s historical tradition into account. We believe that every society has a very strong tradition of life beyond the state. If a society has been able to maintain its existence until today and has gained the consciousness to organize in order to fight for freedom, we can say that society still exists without the state. We should not think or structure radical democracy as a social engineering exercise but to water these roots of communal life and help them to blossom again. Our experiences reveal that results based on certain principles can be achieved through harmonic synthesis between modern and traditional ways of life. We believe that the potential for achieving this in the world is greater than expected. There is a vital need for a common struggle against genocide, ecocide and femicide. Firstly, we need to weave global networks to defend our land, water, forests, mountains, bodies, and the common values of humanity along with other peoples in our regions. To the extent that our revolutions and the system we have built take root in our own countries, they become stronger, their bodies can withstand wind and storm, i.e. attacks, and can spread their seeds and branches over wide territories.
Further explorations
Articles
- Publications by ADM: https://evo.re/rd10201
- The Kurdish Women's Movement by Meral Duzgun: https://evo.re/rd10202
Videos
Jineology: Feminism & Patriarchy In The Middle East: https://evo.re/rd10203
The Kurdish Women's Movement: History, Theory, Practice: https://evo.re/rd10204
Interview with Necibe Qeredaxî: https://evo.re/rd10205
References and sources
- ↑ Abdullah Ocalan: Manifesto of the Democratic Civilization, Volume V, 2010