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The National Movement of Kurdish Parties in Syria, a coalition of Syria's 12 Kurdish parties, boycotted a Syrian opposition summit in Antalya, Turkey on 31 May 2011, stating that "any such meeting held in Turkey can only be a detriment to the Kurds in Syria, because Turkey is against the aspirations of the Kurds". [27] The government system of Rojava is the best for us Christians. Not just for Christians, for all peoples of Rojava, Kurds, Arabs, Chechens. It is a model for all of Syria. We want to stay in Syria, all of us here. We do not want independence, we belong to Syria. But a democratic Syria that respects human rights and differences. The Rojava model could be a model for the entire Middle East, which is emptying itself today of its last Christians ». The efforts of the government of Rojava to give a new position to women in the society and in politics and to change the attitudes and traditions are indeed revolutionary for the region. In practice, this means the implementation of a decentralized, grassroots approach in the form of a council democracy that puts communes, the smallest unit in the system, at the center and allows them to act autonomously. By allowing them to speak out and directly influence decision-making, politics becomes an integral part of social life. As a project, ‘democratic confederalism’ functions through these units: the communes, the neighborhood, the (sub-)districts, and the regions. The aspect of decentralization is decisive and is also supported by concrete figures. 70% of the total budget in NES goes to the regions, whereas only 30% goes directly to the higher structures of AANES. 19
The principles of democracy and autonomous self-governing in Rojava are based on a "Social Contract", the equivalent of a constitution, that governs the operation and the organization of the political system. For the time being, mainly because of the practical difficulties caused by the war, the three Cantons of Rojava have different governments. But the idea, according to the majority of the people involved in the government I spoke with, is at some point to have a (con)federate government for the three cantons. We patrol from seven in the evening until seven in the morning. The whole neighborhood. Two shifts. Ours is the first, now at midnight we will change with the second shift». The man I speak with has a wide smile now. His name is Maurice. He is a Christian and the man with the impressive shotgun.During the Syrian civil war that began in 2011, a Kurdish-dominated coalition led by the Democratic Union Party as well as some other Kurdish, Arab, Syriac-Assyrian, and Turkmen groups have sought to establish a new constitution for the de facto autonomous region, while military wings and allied militias have fought to maintain control of the region. This led to the establishment of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) in 2016. [14] Since January 2014 and the proclamation of the self administration in Rojava, the people here, under the dominating role of PYD, have started a fight for the creation of institutions and administrative mechanisms with the vision of a new society. The fundamental basis of this “Social Contract” is the equality and rights of all ethnic, racial and religious groups in Syrian Kurdistan, direct democracy and the rejection of the concept of the nation-state. The greatest, the barbarian enemy is the jihadists. But we, women, are fighting on two fronts. One is here, the other is against the conservatism and the sexism of the traditional Kurdish society that does not recognize the equality of the sexes”, she says. Kobane, December 2014. Demotix/Jonathan Raa. All rights reserved.“We all help in one way or another, one is fighting in the front, another is translating texts. But we are free to get organized in the Tev-Dem or not, there is no obligation and there is no social pressure to be part of it”, Judy told me while we were eating sweetmeats in a tiny pastry shop.
Kurdish YPG forces on frontline, December 2014. Demotix/Jonathan Rea.All rights reserved."We believe in a better society. A society that we can build and where all the different nationalities of Rojava will live together. It can be done, it has already started with the building of the administration. I was born and raised in Switzerland. But something urgently called me in Mesopotamia, here, in the land of my ancestors. And I fight so that people don’t have to leave anymore from here, so that they are no more afraid to live here. " This first full-length study of democratic developments in Rojava tells an extraordinary and powerfully hopeful story of a little-known battle for true freedom in dark times.The ‘Rojava Revolution’ began exactly ten years ago, on July 19 th 2012, when three predominantly Kurdish-inhabited areas of Syria declared their autonomy from the central government. Since then, a democratic, autonomous administration has attempted to create a grassroots, gender-equal and ecological society in these areas. Communes and councils, the democratic representatives of the population, organize life and administer society. The political model has thus established itself in decided opposition to the old Ba’ath regime. Numerous people within society are involved in a wide variety of local and social activities – from the communes and councils to working in the health sector, the women’s movement or in self-defence structures. But what is and what could be the place of the individual in this administration model? The PYD is completely dominant in this transition, which is also dedicated to total war against society’s barbaric enemies. Should one party or ideology have such a dominant position in any society? A totalitarian deviation of PYD’s ideas could arguably undermine this communalist leftist system, critics say. I sleep peacefully at night because I know that my neighbors do patrols." From the window of Maria’s living room I see the church in the neighborhood. Her brother is a cantor. Her house is in the heart of the neighborhood. Parallel to the commune and council system, women have their own organizations and institutions. They include assemblies, academies, cooperatives, foundations, associations, parties, etc. The result is a complex network of councils that originally developed as a working practice and changed over time according to perceived local needs (resulting in a fluid situation with regularly-changing names, roles and emerging institutions). One expression of the special importance of the women’s issue was the foundation of Yekîtîya Star, an autonomous women’s organization, in 2005, which is now known as Kongreya Star and serves as an umbrella organization for all women’s empowerment institutions throughout NES. In addition to Kongreya Star, Women’s Houses throughout NES were opened. In theory, every village should have at least one Women’s House. These facilities play an active role in defending, empowering, and liberating women in an attempt to break free from the patriarchal foundations of the state and conservative society.
From Kobane, the uprising spread to other Kurdish-majority cities across northern Syria in a matter of days. One day after the Ba’ath government and the SAA were forced out of Kobane, the people also took control over the government institutions in Afrin and Amude, as well as in Derik and the whole Cizîrê (Jazeera) Region on July 21 st. The SAA and Syrian government institutions withdrew from these areas (with the exception of Qamishlo and Heseke) without firing so much as a shot. Faced with an insurgency that sought to topple his government, Assad handed the majority of Syria’s north to the Democratic Union Party (Partiya Yekîtiya Demokrat; PYD), a Syrian-Kurdish party with an ideology of local autonomy, rather than full-fledged independence. Despite these significant victories over ISIS, the SDF was unable to defeat another enemy actor that posed a serious threat to the consolidation of the Autonomous Administration: Turkey. Turkey arguably poses a greater threat to self-rule than ISIS due to its considerable political influence as a political-military partner of the US and the EU. Turkey, which has NATO’s second-largest army, has stated unequivocally that it will not tolerate the emergence of an autonomous Kurdish region in northeastern Syria (similar to the Kurdistan region in Iraq). The abrupt termination of the peace process between the PKK and Ankara in July 2015 also did little to calm the situation between the Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria and Turkey. This structure and the wider philosophy of this model of self-government going from the bottom to the top is based on the revolutionary approaches of the American libertarian socialist thinker Murray Bookchin [1] who gave shape to ideas of communalism and radical democracy with a very strong participatory dynamic. Abdullah Ocalan was inspired by Bookchin’s ideas and adapted them to the circumstances of the region.
A case for non-statist geographies
Smaller protests continued, and on 7 March 2011, thirteen political prisoners went on hunger strike, and momentum began to grow against the Assad government. Three days later dozens of Syrian Kurds went on hunger strike in solidarity. [23] On 12 March, major protests took place in Qamishli and Al-Hasakah to both protest the Assad government and commemorate Kurdish Martyrs Day. [24] Central to the Rojava Revolution is the idea of a ‘democratic nation’ and ‘democratic confederalism’ developed by Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the PKK. Critically examining the PKK’s nationalist and Marxist-Leninist past and creatively appropriating, in particular, the writings of American social theorist Murray Bookchin, Öcalan defines ‘democratic confederalism’ as “democracy without a state.” 17 It is the federation of different ethnic, cultural, religious, intellectual, and economic communities that “can autonomously configure and express themselves as a political unit.” 17 Öcalan describes his concept as being “open towards other political groups and factions. It is flexible, multicultural, anti-monopolistic, and consensus-oriented. Ecology and feminism are central pillars. In the frame of this kind of self-administration an alternative economy will become necessary.” 17 This is also emphasized by Berivan Khaled. She is currently Co-Chair of the Executive Council of the AANES, which coordinates the work of the various commissions on health, nature, the economy, and a host of other institutions. Asked about the political-theoretical foundations of her work in NES, she refers directly to Öcalan’s concept:
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