A Road Unforeseen
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21Ian Traynor and Constanze Letsch, “Turkey at a crossroads as Erdogan bulldozes his way to lasting legacy,” The Guardian, June 2, 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/02/turkish-election-recep-tayyip-erdogan-legacy.
22Adam Barnett, “Rojava Spirit Spreads,” Dissent, February 25, 2015, http://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/turkey-erdogan-putin-rojava-kurdish-democracy; Aliza Marcus, “The Kurdish Surge in Turkey’s Election: A Boost in Backing for the PKK,” The Turkey Analyst, June 17, 2015, 8,12, http://www.turkeyanalyst.org/publications/turkey-analyst-articles/item/405-the-kurdish-surge-in-turkey’s-election-a-boost-in-backing-for-the-pkk.html.
23“Critics castigate gov’t security failure after Suruc explosion,” Today’s Zaman, July 20, 2015, http://www.todayszaman.com/anasayfa_critics-castigate-govt-security-failure-after-suruc-explosion_394119.html.
24Agence France-Presse, “HDP co-chair Demirtas calls on PKK to halt violence ‘without ifs or buts’,” Hurriyet Daily News, August 23, 2015, http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/hdp-co-chair-demirtas-calls-on-pkk-to-halt-violence-without-ifs-or-buts-.aspx?PageID=238&NID=87365&NewsCatID=338.
25Hasnain Kazim, “Turkey’s Demirtas: Érdogan Is Capable of Setting Country on Fire,” Der Spiegel, July 31, 2015, http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/kurdish-leader-demirtas-calls-for-ceasefire-with-turkey-a-1046263.html.
26ANF, “PKK’s Duran Kalkan: Attacking the PKK Means Defending ISIS,” Kurdish Question, August 6, 2015, http://kurdishquestion.com/index.php/kurdistan/north-kurdistan/pkk-s-duran-kalkan-attacking-the-pkk-means-defending-isis.html.
27Nicole F. Watts, “Activists in Office: Pro-Kurdish Contentious Politics in Turkey,” Ethnopolitics, 5.2, June 2006, https://www.academia.edu/1533711/Activists_in_office_Pro-Kurdish_contentious_politics_in_Turkey.
28“Kurdish group claims ‘revenge murder’ on Turkish police,” Al Jazeera, July 22, 2015, http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/07/kurdish-group-claims-revenge-murder-turkish-police-150722132945249.html; Sener Cagaptay, “Turkey Is in Serious Trouble,” The Atlantic, October 5, 2015, http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/10/turkey-isis-russia-pkk/408988/; Hasnain Kazim, Maximilian Popp, and Samiha Shafy, “To Progress and Back: The Rise and Fall of Erdogan’s Turkey,” Der Spiegel, September 24, 2015, http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/turkey-under-erdogan-is-becoming-politically-riven-a-1054359.html; “1464 HDP/BDP Members Detained, 220 Imprisoned Since General Election,” Kurdish Question, August 25, 2015, http://www.kurdishquestion.com/index.php/kurdistan/north-kurdistan/1464-hdp-dbp-members-detained-220-imprisoned-since-turkey-general-elections/1085-1464-hdp-dbp-members-detained-220-imprisoned-since-turkey-general-elections.html; TATORT, Democratic Autonomy, 109.
29Margaret Owen, “Margaret Owen Reports on 9 Days of Curfew in Cizre,” Kurdish Question, September 22, 2015, http://kurdishquestion.com/index.php/kurdistan/north-kurdistan/margaret-owen-report-on-the-9-days-of-curfew-in-cizre.html; Justus Links, “‘You are all Armenians!’—The Place of Cizre in the Terror Wars,” CriticAtac, September 15, 2015, http://www.criticatac.ro/lefteast/the-place-of-cizre-in-the-terror-wars/; Fehim Tastekin, “The revival of Turkey’s ‘lynching culture,’” Al-Monitor, September 22, 2015, http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/09/turkey-revival-of-lynching-culture-against-kurds.html; Cagaptay, “Turkey Is in Serious Trouble,” 2015.
30Anonymous, “Understanding the Kurdish Resistance: Historical Overview & Eyewitness Report,” n.d. [2015], http://www.crimethinc.com/texts/r/kurdish/; Laura Pitel, “Turkey in crisis: The Kurdish teenagers fighting-and dying—in urban clashes with security forces,” The Independent, January 18, 2016, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/turkey-in-crisis-the-kurdish-teenagers-fighting-and-dying-in-urban-clashes-with-security-forces-a6820201.html.
31Metin Gurcan, “Turkey, PKK clashes continue, but will there be a winner?” Al-Monitor, September 14, 2015; http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/09/turkey-pkk-clashes-worsening-balance-sheet.html.
32Constanze Letsch, ““Kurdish civilians hit by snipers as Turkey cracks down on militants,” The Guardian, September 8, 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/08/kurdish-civilians-killed-snipers-turkey-cracks-down-militants; “Turkey: Mounting Security Operations Deaths,” Human Rights Watch, December 22, 2015, https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/12/22/turkey-mounting-security-operation-deaths.
33Sehahattin Dermitas and Figen Yusekdag, “HDP: Call to the International Community Following the Ankara Massacre,” Kurdistan Tribune, October 12, 2015, http://kurdistantribune.com/2015/hdp-call-to-the-international-community-following-the-ankara-massacre/; Aydin Albayrak, “Paris attacks may increase pressure on Turkey over ISIL,” Today’s Zaman, November 22, 2015, http://www.todayszaman.com/diplomacy_paris-attacks-may-increase-pressure-on-turkey-over-isil_404814.html; Noah Blaser and Aaron Stein, “The Islamic State’s Network in Turkey,” Turkey Wonk, October 30, 2015, https://turkeywonk.wordpress.com/.
34Christopher de Bellaigue, “The Sultan of Turkey,” The New York Review of Books, December 17, 2015, http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2015/12/17/erdogan-sultan-turkey/.
35“Save Kobane: HDP Co-Chair Statements on Election Results,” Facebook, Nov. 1, 2015. https://www.facebook.com/297459630456872/photos/a.298110823725086.1073741829.297459630456872/481798745356292/?type=3&fref=nf.
36Uzay Bulut, “Turkey’s Murderous Assault on Kurds,” Gatestone Institute, December 29, 2015, http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7122/turkey-assault-kurds.
37Rosa Burc, “Turkey’s Future? State Authoritarianism or Democratic Autonomy,” Telesur, November 17, 2015, http://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/Turkeys-Future-State-Authoritarianism-or-Democratic-Autonomy-20151117-0020.html.
38“Diyarbakir Becoming Kobane,” Rojava Report, November 13, 2015, https://rojavareport.wordpress.com/2015/11/13/diyarbakir-becoming-kobane/.
39“Kurds Decide on Self-Rule in North Kurdistan (Turkey),” Kurdish Question, December 28, 2015, http://kurdishquestion.com/index.php/kurdistan/north-kurdistan/kurds-decide-on-self-rule-in-north-kurdistan-turkey.html; “Kurdish opposition believes autonomy the only way for peace,” Today’s Zaman, December 27, 2015, http://www.todayszaman.com/anasayfa_kurdish-opposition-believes-autonomy-the-only-way-for-peace_408077.html.
40Asim Murat Okur, “Urgent Call from Turkey’s Human Rights Organizations to the International Community,” Coalition Against Impunity, January 11, 2016, http://en.ihd.org.tr/index.php/2016/01/11/urgent-call-from-turkeys-human-rights-organizations-to-the-international-community/.
41“More than 1000 Academics Call for Peace Talks to Resume Between Turkey and PKK,” Kurdish Question, January 11, 2016, http://www.kurdishquestion.com/index.php/kurdistan/north-kurdistan/more-than-1000-academics-call-for-peace-talks-between-turkey-and-pkk-to-resume.html.
42“Briefing: End abusive operations under indefinite curfews in Turkey,” Amnesty International, January 21, 2016, http://www.amnestyusa.org/news/news-item/briefing-end-abusive-operations-under-indefinite-curfews-in-turkey.
43Abdullah Demirbas, “Undoing Years of Progress in Turkey,” The New York Times, January 26, 2016, http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/25/.
44Selahattin Demirtas, “Free Speech Isn’t the Only Casulty of Erdogan’s Repression,” The New York Times, April 13, 2016, http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/14/opinion/free-speech-isnt-the-onlycasualty-of-erdogans-repression.html?_r=1.opinion/undoing-years-of-progress-in-turkey.html?_r=0.
45CIA, “The Kurdish Minority Problem,” December 8, 1948, http://www.foia.cia.gov/sites/default/files/document_conversions/89801/DOC_0000258376.pdf.
46James Rosen, “Kurdish militia proving to be reliable partner against Islamic State in Syria,” McClatchyDC, July 6, 2015, http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nationworld/national/article26598160.html; Gunay Aksoy Zana Kaya, “TEV-DEM: ‘There Can Be No Democratic Syria Without Rojava,’” The Rojava Report, October 27, 2015, https://rojavareport.wordpress.com/2015/10/27/tev-dem-there-can-be-no-democratic-syria-without-rojava/.
47ANF,
“Geneva III Talks Postponed Once Again,” Kurdish Question, January 28, 2016, http://kurdishquestion.com/index.php/kurdistan/west-kurdistan/geneva-iii-talks-postponed-once-again.html.
48“Government Response to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee Report: UK Government policy on the Kurdistan Region of Iraq,” March 2015, https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/415796/48533_Cm_9029_Accessible.pdf.
49Aliza Marcus and Andrew Apostolou, “Why It’s Time for a Free Kurdistan,” The Daily Beast, November 27, 2015, http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/11/27/the-kurds-already-have-independence.html.
Coda: Some Questions Remain
1Janet Biehl, “Paradoxes of a Liberatory Ideology,” Biehl on Bookchin, November 22, 2015, http://www.biehlonbookchin.com/paradoxes-liberatory-ideology.
2David Graeber, “No. This is a Genuine Revolution,” Kurdish Question, December 27, 2014, http://kurdishquestion.com/kurdistan/west-kurdistan/david-graeber-no-this-is-a-genuine-revolution.html.
3Dave Johnson, “Now We Know Why Huge TPP Trade Deal Is Kept Secret From the Public,” Huffington Post, March 27, 2015, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-johnson/now-we-know-why-huge-tpp_b_6956540.html.
Suggestions for Further Reading
Most of the information in this book was drawn from articles online and resource websites. These references can be found in the footnotes. The following list is of books I found useful.
In der Maur, Renée and Jonas Staal, eds., New World Academy Reader #5, Stateless Democracy, in dialogue with the Kurdish Women’s Movement. BAK: Utrecht, Netherlands, 2015.
Marcus, Aliza, Blood and Belief: The PKK and the Kurdish Fight for Independence. New York: New York University Press, 2007.
McDowall, David, A Modern History of the Kurds. London: I.B.Tauris & Co., 2004.
Mojab, Shahrzad, ed., Women of a Non-State Nation: The Kurds. Costa Mesa: Mazda Publishers, 2001.
Ocalan, Abdullah, Democratic Confederalism. Cologne: International Initiative Edition, 2011..
____________, Liberating Life: Woman’s Revolution. Cologne: International Initiative Edition, 2014.
____________, Prison Writings: The Roots of Civilisation, trans. Klaus Happel. London: Pluto Press, 2007.
____________, Prison Writings: The PKK and the Kurdish Question in the 21st Century, trans. and ed. Klaus Happel. London: Transmedia Publishing Ltd., 2011.
____________, Prison Writings III: The Road Map to Negotiations, trans. Havin Guneser. Cologne: International Initiative Edition, 2012.
____________, War and Peace in Kurdistan. Cologne: International Initiative Edition, 2009.
Ozcan, Ali Kemal, Turkey’s Kurds: A Theoretical Analysis of the PKK and Abdullah Ocalan. London: Routledge, 2006.
Phillips, David L., The Kurdish Spring: A New Map of the Middle East. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2015.
Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness, eds., A Small Key Can Open a Large Door. New York: Combustion Press, 2015.
TATORT Kurdistan, Democratic Autonomy in North Kurdistan, trans. Janet Biehl. Hamburg: New Compass Press, 2013.
van Bruinessen, Martin, Agha, Shaikh and State: The Social and Political Structures of Kurdistan (Zed Books: London, 1992).
Weiss, Michael, and Hassan Hassan, ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror. New York: Regan Arts, 2015.
White, Paul, Primitive Rebels or Revolutionary Modernizers? The Kurdish National Movement in Turkey. London: Zed Books, 2000.
___________, The PKK: Coming Down From the Mountains. London: Zed Books, 2015.
Wright, Lawrence, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006.
Acknowledgments
MY DEEPEST GRATITUDE to:
Aliza Marcus for her research help and support, and her careful reading of the manuscript;
Gita Sahgal and Ariane Brunet, my closest collaborators—Gita, for her thoughtful and critical examination of the book; Ariane, for sharing her experiences in Syria; and both for many discussions of the political context;
Kevin Anderson, for taking the trouble to read and comment on work by someone he didn’t even know;
and Nadje al-Ali, for taking time from a very hectic schedule to look at the book.
Many thanks to Miriam Frank for translating two German sources; to Sharzad Mojab for research advice; and to Dilar Dirik for responding to questions at a time when she was busy doing her own research; she is in no way responsible for any conclusions I have drawn. Thanks to Sinam Mohamed, European representative of the Rojava Cantons, for allowing me to follow her around New York for a few days; to Andrew Apostolou for his help understanding US policy; and to Choman Hardi, for an interview on Skype.
More thanks than I can say to Joey Lawrence, whose beautiful pictures illuminate this book, for the work he does and for sharing it with this audience.
As will be evident to those who read footnotes, I also owe an enormous debt to the work of Joost Jongerden and Ahmet Hamdi Akkaya, David McDowall, Aliza Marcus, and Martin van Bruinessen, as well as many other scholars and researchers. Various websites, including Harvest, Jinha, Kurdish Question, and Rojava Report, were invaluable sources of information.
A Road Unforeseen would not exist were it not for Bellevue Literary Press, whose publisher and editorial director, Erika Goldman, came up with the idea. Other members of the BLP team—Joe Gannon, Molly Mikolowski, Crystal Sikma, and board member Gloria Jacobs—have been indefatigably and unfailingly supportive. And thank you to the editors of Dissent magazine, who published the essay that led to this book.
For their emotional support and patience during the months I worked obsessively on this book, and frequently withdrew from their company, thanks and hugs to my family Elijah Tax-Berman, Jamillah Richards, and Augustus Jamil; my daughter-by-choice, Reem Abdel-Razek; and my friends Ynestra King, Marissa Piesman, Myra Malkin, and Ann Snitow.
To all those working to build, understand, support, and spread the word about the Rojava revolution: Thank you and I hope this book will be of some use.
Index
Abdo, Meysa, 186
Abdullah, Asya, 44
Abdullah, Nesrin, 139
Abdullah, Shenah, 101
Abdulrahman, Rami, 197
Abouzeid, Rania, 212, 228
Abu Khaled, 184, 188
Aburish, Said, 64–65, 79–80, 83
academies, in grassroots democratic autonomy, 161
Acik, Necla, 55
al-Adnani, Abu Mohammed, 214, 221
Afghanistan, 21, 25, 204–5
Afrin canton, 53
economy, 173–75
underdeveloped, 164
aghas (village chiefs), 45, 59–61, 64
Ahrar al Sham militia, 215–16, 218
Akkaya, Ahmet Hamdi, 87, 149, 157
AKP (Justice and Development Party), 158, 202
founding of, 243–44
“moderate Islamism” and, 246–57
Aksoy, Memed, 20
Alevi, 45, 51–52
Ali, Badirkan, 196–97
Al-Ali, Nadje, 29–30, 210
Alwany, Raheb, 219
Amnesty International, 194–96
Analyses by the Leadership (Onderlik Çözümlemeler) (Ocalan, A.), 125–26
Anderson, Benedict, 55, 149, 151
Anfal, 81–85
Apostolou, Andrew, 257
Arab Belt, 164
Arab nationalism, 50–51, 196–97
Arab Spring, 23, 51, 56, 100–101, 169
Archimedes, 31–32
Arif, Abd el-Salam, 63–64
Armenian genocide, 52, 68, 159
asayish (local police force largely made up of women), 172, 176–77
Assad, Bashar al
Daesh and, 211–12
opposition to, 53, 165–68, 215
as Syria’s president, 50, 53, 165–68, 211–12, 215
Association of Communities in Kurdistan. See KCK
Ataturk, Mustapha Kemal, 51, 67, 69, 113, 148
Athena, 33
Aybola, Ercan, 150–51
Aydin, Vedat, 111
Azeez, Hawzhin, 199
Azzam, Abdullah, 203–4
Baath Party, 48, 50, 62–65, 211
Baghdadi, Abu Bakr al-, 211, 213–14, 221
al-Bakr, Ahmed Hassan, 64
Bangura, Zainab, 225
Baran, Sari, 87, 107–8
Barber, Matthew, 40, 215–16
Barnett, Adam, 53
Barzani, Masoud
British colonialism and, 60
corruption of, 99
feminism and, 102
KDP led by, 13, 38–39, 43–44, 80, 94, 98, 189–91
KNC and, 191
KRG and, 19, 38, 43–45
PKK and, 114–15, 190–91
Barzani, Mullah Mustafa, 60–66, 70–71, 256
Bayak, Cemil, 88, 152, 260
BDP (Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party), 14, 53, 249
Beijing Conference on Women, 26, 28, 30
Biden, Joe, 185
Biehl, Janet, 146, 150, 173
bin Laden, Osama, 204–6
Bookchin, Murray, 18, 150
Bozarslan, Hamit, 49–50, 89, 162
Bremer, Paul, 206–8
British colonialism, 60
Bucak, Mehmet Celal, 72–73
Bush, George H.W., 83–84, 95
Bush, George W., 96, 205–6
Caglayan, Handan, 23, 143–44
caliphate, 14, 37, 221, 232–33, 262–63
Camp Bucca, 210–11
Camp Zeli, 115, 128–29
Can, Polat, 241
Cansiz, Sakine
assassination of, 152–53
in PKK, 130, 133–36, 152–53
capitalism, 71–72, 128, 151, 260, 263
modern, 34, 261
narrative of, 21–23
Carter, Ash, 256
ceasefires, PKK, 114, 116–17, 146, 152, 244, 249–50
celibacy, 142–45
chemical warfare, 79–82, 92
Cheney, Dick, 95–96
China, 137–38, 260
Christian Coalition, 25
CIA, 111, 146
citizen journalists, 221–23