(en) Organisation Communiste Libertarie (OCL) - A Zapatist Syria? (ca, fr)

While the regime and the opposition are bloodshed in Syria, in the north, the Kurds have 
decided to take control of their territory and to establish a de facto autonomous power. 
-- Metin talking to a speed impossible to follow. When speaking in Kurdish, everything 
seems tied up in one word. He knows some Spanish because he is interested in Latin 
America, but the truth is that it is such a special Spanish it is even more difficult to 
follow. Fortunately, he has a good English. Fast too, though. ---- Metin Kurdistan 
explains what they will do in the future assuming the nascent peace process continues. He 
speaks of bourgeoisie and the proletariat, as is customary with us for decades, and 
awakens his interlocutors that a significant interest. I'm in a meeting on the outskirts 
of Van, in a hotel that is on the road to Iraq.

A set of politicians and Kurdish organizations involved. Mayors and deputies stand out 
because they are well dressed, rank first and do not smile as much as the rest of the 
people, while Metin made ??proposals on how to immediately share the land among Kurdish 
women . At the back of the room, a group of young women applauded enthusiastically. One of 
the bigwigs of the leading micro request to refute this idea. With a legalistic argument 
directly: "we would do well, but the laws do not allow it" , he said. "The law does allow 
us to do anything in Turkey" , Metin storm response, half a second before receiving a 
thunderous applause.

Democratic autonomy

They call it "democratic autonomy". A part of the Kurdish movement says that the autonomy 
of Kurdistan must be accompanied by the autonomy of individuals and it is not enough to 
create an independent entity if at the same time people's lives, Kurds, does not improve 
substantially. They do not want to create a state, but a new society based on the 
principles of American indigenous movements.

The discussion on Turkey, but the situation in Syria hangs in the air, where, amid the 
indifference of the international public opinion, the Kurds have established a de facto 
state in the towns they control in the north the country, a territory where they now apply 
this policy Metin like to define as Zapatistas.
Syria A Zapatista ? The proposal seems exotic and surprising. I acknowledge that I have 
smiled, even when I heard it, but after listening to hours of discussion, I realized that 
many looks of Turkish Kurdistan are facing there. In fact, what happens there could be as 
important to their future.

Now, even if the situation is very unstable due to the war, it seems that the whole Syrian 
Kurdistan, the only one of Qamishli is under Kurdish control. In Qamishli, there are some 
Assad forces fighting areas of the city to the Kurdish guerrillas. And occasionally a 
faction up somewhere and causes a battle. Young tells me with all sorts of details that 
ten days ago a rebel group attacked the Afrin area. Finally, they had to withdraw, but 
they first burned and destroyed many houses as they could, to cause leakage of the Kurdish 
people.

Despite these problems, the Kurdish parties in Syria have agreed with the mediation of the 
Kurdish government in Iraq, and have created a Supreme Council began to implement the 
policy measures to help build the Kurdish power . The idea is to create the conditions 
that make an independent life for Kurds in Syria possible. Internally, there is an intense 
struggle between the supporters of a Western model as the one that follows the Iraqi 
Kurdish state, and revolutionary, with a strong female presence, doing what they can to 
apply the model supporters of Ocalan called autonomy or democratic confederation. During 
the war, it seems that, according to that controls a particular village will be located 
one or the other of these measures.

The break between the Kurds and Syria

Relations between Syria and Kurdish nationalism had always been very close and cordial. 
The first drive of the PKK camps were located in the Bekaa valley of Lebanon under Syrian 
control. Bekaa, in the 1970s and '80s was a little world center of armed struggle with the 
camps of all kinds of factions and countries, and the first Peshmerga Kurdish are trained. 
The leader, Abdullah Ocalan, lived on a small farm near Damascus, according to what was 
told a German lawyer who visited him twice. He lived there until ten years ago, when the 
Syrian regime under pressure from the United States and especially Turkey, dropped. He was 
forced to leave the country and finally the Americans found in Kenya, hidden behind a 
Cypriot passport. He was arrested and handed over to Turkey, which has since kept in 
prison. And it completely changed the relationship between the Kurds and the Assad regime. 
Maybe today, they would be allies, who knows.



Anyway, finally, in the middle of the outbreak of war in Syria, the Kurds, who live in a 
narrow strip in the north of the country, decided to take the shortcut and control their 
territory. Without taking a position either in favor of the scheme or for the opposition. 
Kurds in Syria are affiliated to the Turkish PKK and follow this idea of ??creating a new 
state model with community and cultural elements that suggest some Native American 
struggles. They created self-defense battalions called Popular Protection Units [YPG for 
its Kurdish initials], which exert effective and dramatically over the territory. In fact, 
the external borders of the Kurdish region of Turkey with Syria and Iraq, which are 
already the Kurdish guerrillas, not the Syrian army, which controls the border crossings.

The Turks, very, very concerned, carried out a large military deployment visible 
throughout the region, but can not seem to contain the mobility of Kurdish militants. They 
are in fact used as a person moving in the mountains. And even if the Turkish armed forces 
farmers to join the Kurdish troops patrolling in the mountains, it seems that the flow of 
people between the Kurdish regions of Syria, Iraq and Turkey is very fluid. "We know very 
well where we need to go and not go " , said the young man who claims to be recently 
returned from Syria controlled by the Kurds.

The shelter of the mountains

The mountains of Kurdistan are a refuge is indisputable. A long time ago what public 
knowledge that the PKK has its main base in the Qandil mountains, in Iraqi Kurdistan. 
There are camps, bases, hospitals, armories and all necessary to equip a guerrilla who 
since the 1990s has between 8,000 and 20,000 armed fighters, believed that about 3,000 
infrastructure are permanently stationed Turkey. The Iraqi Kurdish government has often 
been pressured to stop the activity, but it does not seem to have seen their interests, 
even if now the relations between Turkey and the Iraqi Kurds are excellent, especially 
from the point economic view.

As for Western forces, American soldiers tried once to reach the Qandil mountains and had 
to give up after heavy fighting with the guerrillas. One of the main military leaders of 
the Turkish Kurdish guerrillas, by the way, is a Kurd ... Syria, Fehman Hussein. It is 
indisputable that, among the most militant Kurds, nobody asks what part of the country 
show He fought because they believe that, above all state barrier, it is the same nation .



And that is why seem credible rumors that Kurdish guerrillas who started to leave Turkey 
in accordance with the negotiations between ?calan and the Turkish government would 
finally made specifically in Syria and not in Iraq. Officially, they have passed the 
border into Iraq, but no one is sure of anything. This is easier than ever, because once 
exceeded the Turkish border, and after dodging the Turkish patrols between Iraq and the 
Kurdish Syria, there is no territory beyond their direct control. And their presence in 
Syria would serve to strengthen the supporters of the revolutionary path.

To the Kurdish conflict, ultimately, the Syrian uprising can be decisive. Not only by the 
importance it deserves in the entire region, but also because two semi-independent Kurdish 
states, one in Syria and one in Iraq, is a very strong pressure on Turkey that may be 
required to respect more. Who knows if this is not the key to the change in attitude of 
the Turkish government and the start of talks with ?calan.

Vicent Partal
(journalist)

June 21, 2013

Published on Ya Kurdist?n
(blog information in Spanish on Kurdistan and its people)

XYZ translation OCLibertaire