Rojava Kurdistan, Murray Bookchin and regional Kurdish politics

[frogwoman]

I might be interested but I think it's the work Christmas meal that day

 

[hot air baboon]

Thoughts on Rojava: an interview with Janet Biehl


In this interview, independent filmmaker and journalist Zanyar Omrani talks to Janet Biehl about her late companion Murray Bookchin, her trips to Rojava and the important question of how to build bottom-up power structures without risking the reversal of the process over time.

 

[LDC]

Interview here too...Solecast #20 Rojava Special w/ Janet Biehl - UNICORN RIOT although can't remember where I saw this, so apologies if it was here on U75 somewhere and I'm repeating it!

Also a piece in Red Pepper, notably talking to lots of people in Rojava who are very keen for people to go over... Rebuilding Kobanê | Red Pepper

 

[LDC]

Possible criminal charges for a Dutch man who fought with the YPG and killed an IS fighter
Dutch man suspected of killing Isis fighter could face murder charge

Top tip, if you kill someone don't post about it on Facebook.

 

[butchersapron]

Nothing particularly new but with the YPG moving onto more mixed areas under the SDF flag this stuff is worth bearing in mind - esp around Manbij in coming months. Not to mentiuon what relations with the FSA and others are going to be established in Aleppo.

Rojava: A libertarian myth under scrutiny

The emphasis on ethno-sectarian identities is further echoed in the foundational statement of the Federal Democratic System, which is based on the representation of "community components".

As Syrian intellectual Jad Karim Jibai pointed out: "Nobody knows how an 'entity', that is 'peoples and communities' (ie, clans and ethno-sectarian communities), could transcend national borders."

In other words, the insistence on these communitarian boundaries betrays the libertarian transnational aspirations.

This contradiction is also evident from the authority bestowed upon tribal leaders. For instance Shaykh Humaydi Daham al-Jarba, the head of a tribal Arab militia and an outspoken supporter of the Assad regime, was appointed as the governor of the Jazirah canton in Rojava in 2014.

 

[sihhi]

Nothing particularly new but with the YPG moving onto more mixed areas under the SDF flag this stuff is worth bearing in mind - esp around Manbij in coming months. Not to mentiuon what relations with the FSA and others are going to be established in Aleppo.

Rojava: A libertarian myth under scrutiny

The contents are I am sure true - coordinating with village leaders/tribal leaders in Arab areas, but this is an empty dig and the 'using child soldiers' angle is overblown.

However, the militarisation of women and society at large is an alarming trend enforced through conscription and sanctioned by the social prestige enjoyed by the fighters' families. In fact, only the "martyrs"' pictures are "venerated" with the same devoutness of Ocalan's icons.

Consequently, women become worthy of respect as long as they turn into men of arms and sacrifice themselves on the battlefield.

Some would defend this militarised system of values with the current need to defend Rojava, but to assume that even minors should be forcibly enlisted to ensure the survival of a social utopia is a disturbing argument to say the least.

The link as evidence of minors being forcibly enlisted http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/06/syria-kurds-pyd-youth-civil-society.html
states that

However, the former street kids praise the values of the only "diploma" they have ever obtained. Malek said, “Here, I understood the meaning of life and I’ve learned brotherhood. Inside a family there might be disputes, but a comrade is closer than a brother."
"We’ve learned self-criticism to avoid quarrels among us,” Hamid affirmed. All of the young YPG soldiers interviewed by Al-Monitor claimed to be volunteers.

Looking at it in the round, the "militarised system of values" of the Kurdish national movement has massively decreased since the early 1990s.


It should also be noted that European leftist solidarity cherry-picked the so-called Rojava revolution, whereas other revolutionary theorists, such as Omar Aziz in Damascus, went completely ignored, because they were neither endorsed by one of the best equipped militias in the region such as the PKK, nor did they phrase their social utopia according to a libertarian terminology.

That is an odd slur aswell what solidarity could exactly be given to Omar Aziz above and beyond the solidarity to the other thousands in Syrian prisons?

 

[butchersapron]

It's over.

 

[butchersapron]

Who thought a few years back that the Kurdish revolution would die before the wider Syrian one ?

 

[Jeremiah18.17]

Please translate or summarise.

 

[J Ed]

Please translate or summarise.

The YPG is allowing the Russians to build a military base in Rojava.

Reported elsewhere U.S.-allied Kurd militia says struck Syria base deal with Russia

 

[butchersapron]

Please translate or summarise.

Apols, i thought i had linked to a english version of the story.

 

[butchersapron]

The YPG is allowing the Russians to build a military base in Rojava.

Reported elsewhere U.S.-allied Kurd militia says struck Syria base deal with Russia

Allowing is the wrong word - participating and encouraging it for the ethnic benefit of post-war doings is nearer.

 

[J Ed]

Allowing is the wrong word - participating and encouraging it for the ethnic benefit of post-war doings is nearer.

Report also says that the YPG will be being trained by Russian forces. I assume that this must mean the imminent withdrawal of US trainers?

 

[butchersapron]

Report also says that the YPG will be being trained by Russian forces. I assume that this must mean the imminent withdrawal of US trainers?

Don't see why. Any US training is going on far away from afrin - and basically involves learning how to call in air-strikes. There is no US/Russia clash -they're both on the same page. Prop up Assad. One by attacking any armed rebels - and so, any of the democratic responses left - and one by limiting any support to only people fighting ISIS. The common end is to make it - as assad aimed all along - into a secular state (i.e what's left of the SAA - an almost wholly shia jihadist army by now) Vs a sunni jihadi fight - at least in how it can be sold.

 

[butchersapron]

Both Hezbollah commanders say they have collaborated with the Syrian Kurdish militia, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), in areas where they have common interests against the rebels. Commander Bakr claims that, at times over the past year, Hezbollah directly coordinated with the US-backed leftist Kurdish liberation forces as they advanced along Turkey’s border.

“We share intel…everything,” he says of Hezbollah’s cooperation with the YPG in Aleppo province. “These people will take from whoever will serve their interests.”

Kurdish forces control vast tracts of territory in northern Syria, where they have implemented a program of radical local democracy—and where they have also been accused of expulsions against Arab Syrians and human-rights abuses against Arabs as well as Kurdish political opponents. Originally supportive of the Syrian Revolution and still officially opposed to the Assad regime, the YPG has focused on taking control of Kurdish areas and fighting the Islamic State (ISIS, or Daesh). It has rarely fought against regime forces.

 

[butchersapron]

This is how it ends then:

Afrin today. Regime flags flying over ypg controlled borders as well.

 

[LDC]

Yeah, was just about to post something similar, this horrendous thing

Afrin : Kurdish militia YPG and Assad's and Iran's forces must unite - AFRIN NEWS

 

[teqniq]

None of the above is in any sense ideal at least from 'our' perspective but there again we are not being bombed and shot at by Turks and the attached forces. * I saw this the other day, he seems to have updated it a bit since it's original publication, thoughts anyone?

Why Damascus and Kurdish militias have made a pact allowing regime-aligned forces to enter Afrin

*wrt to these they seem to be quite happy with shooting unarmed civilians

Spoiler: :(

Spoiler: :(

 

[teqniq]

Meanwhile this got published yesterday from The Middle East Center for Reporting and Analysis which I imagine would be of interest to people on this thread:

A visit to the Jazeera Canton:
Report and assessment

This report is based on the author’s trip in January 2018 to the Jazeera Canton area of the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria in the northeast of Syria. The visit particularly focused on the city of Qamishli on the border with Turkey. All featured photos are the author’s own....

 

[butchersapron]

Meanwhile this got published yesterday from The Middle East Center for Reporting and Analysis which I imagine would be of interest to people on this thread:

A visit to the Jazeera Canton:
Report and assessment

Thanks. Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi does incredibly detailed (if often repetitive) reports and research on often ignored or minor aspects of the conflict - all of which are really useful and will become increasingly so in reconstructing things at a later date. But over the last few years he seems to have developed a real haughtiness towards others working in the same field - esp those who come down more in support of the anti-assad opposition (note: i'm not saying that he's an assad shill or anything) and seems to be concerned with knocking them out of the arena leaving him alone. He esp seems to despise lister and i think genuinely wants to drive to to disengage entirely.

Quick skim of the report (which ill read in full later) has him not backing down from highlighting the reliance on the regime across a range of activities without agreeing that it's 'parasitic' on the regime but also saying it cannot ever operate as an anti-regime force.

 

[teqniq]

Yeah I've only skimmed it myself what I did notice though is that some public employees are still paid by the regime and it seems that they can choose who they get paid by.

 

[sihhi]

This is how it ends then:

Regime will fight Turkish armed forces, US will not.
From the Kurdish nationalist perspective it's another intermediary stage.

I am out of the loop, I read something very convincing about Syrian opposition rebel areas being far worse for women than regime areas but lost the link.

I see no path for progress treachery and pain on all sides- our era's Lebanon.

 

[butchersapron]

Seems Salih Muslim has been detained in Prague.

 

[Mordi]

Seems Salih Muslim has been detained in Prague.

It's an Interpol warrant from Turkey, but it doesn't seem clear if they're pushing for extradition to Turkey. He's not a Turkish citizen so I wonder what the grounds will be.

 

[teqniq]

Heh.



and predictably....

 

[butchersapron]

Yes, released to deny the regime gassed Ghouta again.

He will not be unaware of the possibility of attacks on himself of course.

 

[teqniq]

Has he been engaging in denial? I am disappointed if so. The situation there is a whole lot more complicated there than sometimes I think we appreciate.

 

[butchersapron]

Has he been engaging in denial? I am disappointed if so. The situation there is a whole lot more complicated there than sometimes I think we appreciate.

The first attack, the one that killed just over a thousand - apparently it would have been mad for the regime he now allies with to do it.

 

[butchersapron]

A related/side thing:

Meanwhile this got published yesterday from The Middle East Center for Reporting and Analysis which I imagine would be of interest to people on this thread:

A visit to the Jazeera Canton:
Report and assessment

Thanks. Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi does incredibly detailed (if often repetitive) reports and research on often ignored or minor aspects of the conflict - all of which are really useful and will become increasingly so in reconstructing things at a later date. But over the last few years he seems to have developed a real haughtiness towards others working in the same field - esp those who come down more in support of the anti-assad opposition (note: i'm not saying that he's an assad shill or anything) and seems to be concerned with knocking them out of the arena leaving him alone. He esp seems to despise lister and i think genuinely wants to drive to to disengage entirely.

Quick skim of the report (which ill read in full later) has him not backing down from highlighting the reliance on the regime across a range of activities without agreeing that it's 'parasitic' on the regime but also saying it cannot ever operate as an anti-regime force.

Not surprised this has happened to be honest, surprised it hadn't happened already if anything.

Statement: Seizure of my Laptop and Mobile

Readers may have noticed a sudden halt in my public writings as of 9 December. The reason for this halt has been the seizure of my work laptop and mobile phone by the UK counter-terrorism (CT) police. As a media guy/researcher working on sensitive topics as regards security and terrorism (primarily Syria, Iraq and the Islamic State), I have been used to questioning by security services about my work and travel in various places. The treatment by the UK CT police, however, is by far the worst I have ever received.http://www.aymennjawad.org/2019/12/statement-seizure-of-my-laptop-and-mobile

 

[teqniq]

Heh I just read that from a link on Twitter earlier