A Road Unforeseen

by Meredith Tax

  3Ahmet Hamdi Akkaya and Joost Jongerden, “Reassembling the Political: The PKK and the Project of Radical Democracy,” European Journal of Turkish Studies, January 18, 2013, http://ejts.revues.org/index4615.html.

  4Akkaya and Jongerden, “Reassembling the Political,” 2013.

  5TATORT Kurdistan, Democratic Autonomy in North Kurdistan, trans. Janet Biehl (Hamburg: New Compass Press, 2013), 26.

  6Marcus, “Asia Minority,” 2010.

  7TATORT, Democratic Autonomy, 49.

  8“Travel ban on mayor poses risk to his life,” Hurriyet Daily News, October 18, 2011, http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/default.aspx?pageid=438&n=travel-ban-on-mayor-poses-risk-for-his-life-2011-10-18.

  9Raffi Khatchadourian, “A Century of Silence,” The New Yorker, January 5, 2015, http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/01/05/century-silence.

  10Meline Toumani, “Minority Rules,” The New York Times, February 17, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/17/magazine/17turkey-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0. Demirbas was arrested once more in September 2015, after the election, and released into medical care in October.

  11TATORT, Democratic Autonomy, 21.

  12TATORT, Democratic Autonomy, 31. Note that a dual legal system based on community control does not necessarily have a positive outcome for women—that depends on politics. In a conservative setting where fundamentalists or traditionalist elders are in control, it can mean the imposition of religious or customary law through special courts or informal processes.

  13TATORT, Democratic Autonomy, 118.

  14TATORT, Democratic Autonomy, 187, 173.

  15Aliza Marcus, “The Kurds’ Evolving Strategy: The Struggle Goes Political in Turkey,” World Affairs, November–December 2012, http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/article/kurds’-evolving-strategy-struggle-goes-political-turkey.

  16Hamit Bozarslan, “The Kurds and Middle Eastern ‘State of Violence’: the 1980s and 2010s,” Kurdish Studies, May 2014, 9, http://tplondon.com/journal/index.php/ks/article/view/349.

  17Marcus, “Kurds’ Evolving Strategy,” 2012.

  18Marcus, “Kurds’ Evolving Strategy,” 2012.

  19Eyup Can, “PKK Changes Leadership,” Al-Monitor, July 14, 2013, http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/politics/2013/07/structural-leadership-changes-pkk-turkey-kurds.html.

  20White, The PKK, 147–8; Stephen Smellie, “Self-Organisation of Kurdish Women: Delegation Report,” Left Project, September 2015, http://leftproject.scot/2015/self-organisation-of-kurdish-women-delegation-report/.

  21Sedat Yilmaz, “Efrin Economy Minister: Rojava Challenging Norms of Class, Gender, Power,” Rojava Report, December 22, 2014, http://www.rojavareport.wordpress.com/2014/12/22/efrin-economy-minister-rojava-challenging-norms-of-class-gender-and-power/.

  22David McDowall, A Modern History of the Kurds (London: I.B.Tauris & Co., 2004), 478.

  23Amed Dicle, “Rojava’s Political Structure,” Jadaliyya, September 23, 2013, http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/14272/rojavas-political-structure.

  24Orla Guerin, “Crisis in Syria Boosts Kurdish Hopes,” BBC News, August 18, 2012, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-19301543.

  25International Crisis Group, “Syria’s Kurds: A Struggle Within a Struggle,” Middle East Report N°136, January 22, 2013, 2–3, http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/middle-east-north-africa/syria-lebanon/syria/136-syrias-kurds-a-struggle-within-a-struggle.aspx.

  26Kamran Matin, “Kobani: What’s In a Name,” The Disorder of Things, October 15, 2014, http://thedisorderofthings.com/2014/10/15/kobani-whats-in-a-name/.

  27Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, “Syria in Crisis; The Syrian National Council,” n.d., http://carnegieendowment.org/syriaincrisis/?fa=48334; Kinda Kanbar, “Does the Muslim Brotherhood Dominate the Opposition?” Syria Deeply, April 25, 2013, http://www.syriadeeply.org/articles/2013/04/2326/muslim-brotherhood-dominate-opposition/; Hassan Hassan, “How the Muslim Brotherhood Hijacked Syria’s Revolution,” Foreign Policy, March 13, 2013, http://foreignpolicy.com/2013/03/13/how-the-muslim-brotherhood-hijacked-syrias-revolution/.

  28Joris Leverink, “The Revolution Behind the Headlines,” Telesur, February 22, 2015, http://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/The-Revolution-Behind-the-Headlines-Autonomy-in-Northern-Syria-20150222-0011.html.

  29Yassin al-Haj Saleh, “Syria is a unique example of apathy, injustice, and amnesia,” The Chronikler, January 20, 2016, http://chronikler.com/middle-east/iraq-and-the-levant/yassin-al-haj-saleh/.

  30Robin Yassin-Kassab, “Peace or Pacification,” Qunfuz, February 8, 2016, http://qunfuz.com/2016/02/07/peace-or-pacification/. He criticizes the PYD much more strongly in a subsequent essay, “‘Democratic Confederalism’ or Counter-Revolution,” Qunfuz, February 22, 2016, http://qunfuz.com/2016/02/22/democraticconfederalismorcounterrevolution/.

  31“Interview: Salih Muslim, Chairman of the PYD,” Kurdwatch, October 20, 2011, http://kurdwatch.org/html/en/interview6.html.

  32Benjamin Hiller, “Syria’s Kurds Quietly Consolidating” Warscapes, August 13, 2012, http://www.warscapes.com/reportage/syrias-kurds-quietly-consolidating.

  33Hiller, “Quietly Consolidating,” 2012.

  34Yilmaz, “Efrin Economy Minister,” 2014; Khedar Khaddour, ‘The Assad Regime’s Hold on the Syrian State,” Carnegie Middle East Center, July 8, 2015, http://carnegie-mec.org/2015/07/08/assad-regime-s-hold-on-syrian-state/id3k.

  35Salih Muslim, as quoted in Ahmet Hamdi Akkaya and Joost Jongerden, “Democratic Confederalism as a Kurdish Spring: The PKK and the quest for radical democracy,” in The Kurdish Spring: Geopolitical Changes and the Kurds, eds. Mohammad M.A. Ahmed and Michael M. Gunter (Costa Mesa: Mazda Publishers. 2013), 174.

  36Akkaya and Jongerden, “Democratic Confederalism,” 2012.

  37Leverink, “Revolution Behind Headlines,” 2015.

  38Hiller, “Quietly Consolidating,” 2012.

  39Members of the delegation were Oktay Ay, researcher, Istanbul Bogazici University, Turkey; Janet Biehl, independent writer, USA; Devris Cimen, journalist, Kurdish Office for Public Affairs, Germany; Rebecca Coles, researcher, University of Nottingham, UK; Antonia Davidovic, lecturer of ethnology, University of Kiel, Germany; Dilar Dirik, PhD student, Cambridge University, UK; Eirik Eiglad, editor, New Compass Press, Norway; David Graeber, professor of anthropology, London School of Economics, UK; Lokman Turgut, journalist and researcher, Kurd-Akad, editor at StudiaKurdica journal, Germany; Thomas Jeffrey Miley, lecturer in sociology, Cambridge University, UK; Johanna Riha, PhD student, Cambridge University, UK; Naszan Ustundag, professor of sociology, Istanbul Bogazici University, Turkey; Christian Zeller, professor of economic geography, University of Salzburg, Austria. Julius Gavroche, “Testimonials from a Revolution in Rojava,” Autonomies, January 19, 2015, http://autonomies.org/en/2015/01/testimonials-from-a-revolution-in-rojava/.

  40Janet Biehl, “Rojava’s Communes and Councils,” New Compass, January 31, 2015, http://new-compass.net/articles/rojavas-communes-and-councils.

  41Biehl, “Rojava’s Communes,” 2015.

  42Jonas Staal, “A Revolution of Life—Interview with Saleh Muslim,” TENK, November 10, 2014, http://tenk.cc/2014/11/a-revolution-of-life/.

  43“Charter of the Social Contract,” January 29, 2014, Peace in Kurdistan, https://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/charter-of-the-social-contract/.

  44Nazan Ustundag, “Self-defense as a Revolutionary Practice in Rojava, or How to Unmake the State,” South Atlantic Quarterly, January 2016, http://saq.dukejournals.org/content/115/1/197.full.pdf+html.

  45Janet Biehl, “My Impressions of Rojava,” Kurdish Question, December 15, 2014, http://www.kurdishquestion.com/kurdistan/west-kurdistan/my-impressions-of-rojava.html.

  46Yilmaz, “Efrin Economy Minister,” 2014.

  47“To the United Nations’ General Secretariat,” February 3, 2016, ANHA, Hawar News Agency, http://en.hawarnews.com/to-the-united-nations-general-secretariat/.

  48Yilmaz, “Efrin Economy Minister,” 2014.

  49Michael Knapp
, “Rojava—the formation of an economic alternative: Private property in the service of all,” Peace in Kurdistan, February 6, 2015, http://www.peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/2015/02/06/rojava-the-formation-of-an-economic-alternative-private-property-in-the-service-of-all/.

  50Yahya M. Madra, “Democratic Economy Conference: An Introductory Note,” South Atlantic Quarterly, January 2016, http://saq.dukejournals.org/content/115/1/211.full.pdf+html.

  51“Rojava: the women who wove a revolution,” JINHA, July 17, 2015, http://jinha.com.tr/en/ALL-NEWS/content/view/26719.

  52Ruken Deri and Sosun Xane, “Rojava women organize peacekeeping through self-defense,” JINHA, June 25, 2015, http://jinha.com.tr/en/ALL-NEWS/content/view/25436.

  53“YDG-K punishes man who abused wife,” JINHA, September 19, 2015, http://www.jinha.com.tr/en/ALL-NEWS/content/view/31937

  54Ustundag, “Self-defense as a Revolutionary Practice,” 2016.

  Chapter 7: The Battle of Kobane and Its Backlash

  1“How Kurdish women soldiers are confronting ISIS on the front lines,” PBS Newshour, May 3, 2015, http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/kurdish-women-soldiers-confronting-fears-isis/; Dilar Dirik, “Western fascination with ‘badass” Kurdish women,” Al Jazeera, October 14, 2014, http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/10/western-fascination-with-badas-2014102112410527736.html; “Kurdish revolutionary: We are showing the strength of women,” [interview with Nesrin Abdullah by Giuliana Sgrena], Green Left, October 26, 2015, https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/60457.

  2“The Course And Development Of The Fighting In Kobanê,” Harvest, July 12, 2014, http://turkeyharvest.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/this-article-comes-from-rojava-report.html.

  3Fehim Taştekin, “Islamic State moves to capture another Turkish border crossing,” Al-Monitor, July 10, 2014, http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/07/tastekin-rojava-strangle--kurdish-syria-isis-ypg-sunni.html.

  4The Soufan Group, “Turkey Weighs Action in Syria,” TSG IntelBrief, July 9, 2015, http://soufangroup.com/tsg-intelbrief-turkey-weighs-action-in-syria/.

  5“Assault on Kobane,” A closer look on Syria, September 2015, http://acloserlookonsyria.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Main_Page; “Building Unity In The Face Of The ISIS Counter-Revolution,” Harvest, July 8, 2015, http://turkeyharvest.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/building-unity-in-face-of-isis-counter.html.

  6David Axe, “Why arming U.S. allies can be like sending weapons straight to the enemy,” Reuters, March 25, 2015, http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2015/03/24/arming-americas-allies-is-risky-any-way-you-do-it/; “Kobane in Rojava Is Facing A Serious Threat from ISIS—A Call for Mass Solidarity and Resistance,” Harvest, July 6, 2014, http://turkeyharvest.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/kobane-in-rojava-is-facing-serious.html; Dexter Filkins, “The Fight of Their Lives,” The New Yorker, September 29, 2014, http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/09/29/fight-lives.

  7Michael Stephens, “YPG—The Islamic State’s Worst Enemy,” IHS Jane’s Defense Weekly, September 11, 2014, http://www.janes.com/article/43030/analysis-ypg-the-islamic-state-s-worst-enemy; “The People’s Defense Unit’s Self-Made Tanks Are Protecting The Revolution,” Harvest, August 21, 2014, http://turkeyharvest.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/the-peoples-defense-units-self-made.html.

  8“Rojava’s Kobane Canton Is Defeating The Embargo And Attacks Through Communal Production,” Harvest, August 26, 2014, http://turkeyharvest.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/rojavas-kobane-canton-is-defeating.html.

  9“The People Unite Against ISIS As Rojava’s Revolution Moves Forward,” Harvest, July 26, 2014, http://turkeyharvest.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/the-people-unite-against-isis-as.html.

  10“Defeating the Embargo,” Harvest, August 26, 2014.

  11Sedat Sur, “21st Century Epic of Resistance: Kobane,” ANF News, September 18, 2015, http://anfenglish.com/kurdistan/21st-century-epic-of-resistance-kobane; “Thirty-Six Hours In Rojava’s Revolution, Harvest, July 10, 2014, http://turkeyharvest.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/thirty-six-hours-in-rojavas-revolution.html.

  12“Assault on Kobane,” 2015.

  13“An Interview With A Women’s Defense Forces (YPJ) Commander in Rojava,” Harvest, August 1, 2014, http://turkeyharvest.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/an-interview-with-womens-defense-forces.html.

  14“Assault on Kobane,” 2015.

  15“Nurse says she’s tired of treating ISIL terrorists,” Today’s Zaman, September 17, 2014, https://mobile.todayszaman.com/national_nurse-says-shes-tired-of-treating-isil-terrorists_358992.html; “Turkish President’s daughter heads a covert medical corps to bring help ISIS injured members, reveals a disgruntled nurse,” AWD news, July 15, 2015, http://awdnews.com/top-news/turkish-president’s-daughter-heads-a-covert-medical-corps-to-help-isis-injured-members,-reveals-a-disgruntled-nurse; “Interview with Kurdish YPG Leader, Polat Can,” The Kurdish Project, August 12, 2015, http://thekurdishproject.org/latest-news/rojava/interview-with-kurdish-ypg-leader-polat-can/. It is also rumored that Erdogan’s son Bilal is in charge of Turkey’s oil deals with ISIS. Bilal, named in a major corruption case and nervous about being prosecuted, moved his family to Italy after the AKP lost its majority in the June 2015 election. “Report: President Erdogan’s son has settled in Italy with his family,” Today’s Zaman, October 6, 2015, http://www.todayszaman.com/anasayfa_report-president-erdogans-son-has-settled-in-italy-with-his-family_400738.html.

  16Thomas L. Friedman, “Obama on the World,” The New York Times, August 8, 2014, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/09/opinion/president-obama-thomas-l-friedman-iraq-and-world-affairs.html?action=click&contentCollection=MiddleEast&module=RelatedCoverage&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article&_r=0.

  17David Romano, “The Dilemma of the Kurds in Syria,” Rudaw, July 24, 2014, http://rudaw.net/english/opinion/240720141.

  18“Women on the frontlines of Kurdish struggles: An interview with JINHA news agency,” Corporate Watch, January 21, 2016, https://corporatewatch.org/news/2016/jan/21/women-frontlines-kurdish-struggles-interview-jinha-womens-news-agency.

  19“The IS is hundreds of meters away from Ein al-Arab ‘Kobane’,” Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, October 2, 2014, http://www.syriahr.com/en/2014/10/the-is-is-hundreds-of-meters-away-from-ein-al-arabkobane/; Hannah Lucinda Smith, “Fears of massacre as Isis tanks lead assault on Kurdish bastion,” The Times, October 4, 2014, http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/middleeast/article4226717.ece?shareToken=f90094518fabc34e4ca7f4a59e7a3990.

  20Nick Tattersall and Selin Bucak, “Turkey vows support for besieged Syrian town, but no military pledge,” Reuters, October 3, 2014, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-turkey-idUSKCN0HS0ET20141003; “PKK, ISIL are the same, says Erdogan,” Today’s Zaman, October 4, 2014, http://www.todayszaman.com/national_pkk-isil-are-the-same-says-erdogan_360766.html.

  21Joost Jongerden and Bahar Simsek, “Turkey, the Islamic State, and the Kurdistan Liberation Movement,” E-International Relations, November 24, 2014, http://www.e-ir.info/2014/11/24/turkey-the-islamic-state-and-the-kurdistan-liberation-movement/.

  22Michael Weiss, “How I Escaped from ISIS,” The Daily Beast, November 18, 2015, http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/11/18/how-i-escaped-from-isis.htm.

  23Isabel Hunter, “John Kerry says preventing the fall of the town is ‘not a strategic objective,’” The Independent, October 9, 2014, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-in-kobani-still-no-sign-of-turkey-reacting-to-threat-on-its-border-as-john-kerry-says-9783372.html.

  24“Turkish President Erdogan says airstrikes not enough to save Kobane,” Hurriyet Daily News, October 7, 2014, http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-president-erdogan-says-airstrikes-not-enough-to-save-kobane.aspx?PageID=238&NID=72650&NewsCatID=510.

  25“US meets with Syrian Kurds linked to terror group,” Associated Press, October 16, 2015, http://www.salon.com/2014/10/16/us_meets_with_syrian_kurds_linked_to_terror_group/; “Biden apologizes to Turkish President Erdogan,” Deutsche Welle, October 4, 2014, http://www.dw.com/en/biden-apologizes-to-turkish-president-erdogan/a-17974144
. For more on Turkey’s relationship with Daesh, see Martin Chulov, “Turkey sends in jets as Syria’s agony spills over every border,” The Guardian, July 25, 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/26/isis-syria-turkey-us?CMP=share_btn_tw; Nick Paton Walsh, “The secret jihadi smuggling route through Turkey,” CNN, November 5, 2013, http://edition.cnn.com/2013/11/04/world/europe/isis-gaining-strength-on-syria-turkey-border/; Alexander Christie-Miller, “Kurds Accuse Turkish Government of Supporting ISIS,” Newsweek, October 22, 2014, http://www.newsweek.com/2014/10/31/kurds-accuse-turkish-government-supporting-isis-278776.html; “Turkish Government’s Support for ISIS Documented by Court,” ANF, May 13, 2015, http://kurdishquestion.com/index.php/kurdistan/north-kurdistan/turkish-governments-support-for-isis-documented-by-court.html; Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, “ISIS wants to destroy the ‘grey zone’. Here’s how we defend it,” openDemocracy, November 16, 2015, https://www.opendemocracy.net/nafeez-ahmed/isis-wants-destroy-greyzone-how-we-defend.

  26“Turkey will not cooperate in US support for Kurds in Syria, says Erdogan,” The Guardian, October 19, 2014, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/19/turkey-will-not-cooperate-us-support-kurds-erdogan.

  27Namo Abdulla, “US Takes Different Stance From Turkey on Syrian Kurds,” Rudaw, October 21, 2014, http://rudaw.net/english/blog-21102014054359.

  28Constanze Letsch, Catherine James, Paul Lewis, and Nicholas Watt, “Syrian Kurds say airstrikes against ISIS are not working,” The Guardian, October 6, 2014, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/05/air-strikes-isis-not-working-syrian-kurds.

  29Meysa Abdo, “A Town Shouldn’t Fight the Islamic State Alone,” The New York Times, October 28, 2014, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/29/opinion/turkeys-obstruction-of-kobanis-battle-against-isis.html?_r=1.

  30“Assault on Kobane,” 2015.

  31YPG fighters advance in Kobani, and IS militants shocked by the YPG resistance,” Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, November 11, 2015, http://www.syriahr.com/en/2014/11/ypg-fighters-advance-in-kobani-and-is-militants-shocked-by-the-ypg-resistance/.