(en) France, Organisation Communiste Libertarie (OCL) -
Courant Alternatif #245 - Middle East - Reflections and reminders on
the Kurdish struggle, the issue of Koban? and solidarity (fr, it,
pt)[machine translation]
Koban? became a symbol that far exceeds Koban?. Six weeks of fierce fighting to defend
this city virtually under the cameras of the world, have made the struggle of Koban? Kurds
to defend both the territorial and political autonomy Rojava and resist to the death the
waves attacks jihadist killers five times more numerous and heavily armed, opened a new
sequence at several levels. ---- The Kurdish struggle itself ---- In the recent history of
the Kurdish people as a whole, divided into four different national spaces and crossed by
oppositions of all kinds - class opposition, opposition on the place of women, conflicts
between traditionalists and progressives socialist inspiration, opposition between the
pro-capitalist development and movements fighting against large dams and productivist
logic ... - Koban? The resistance has become the strength of the assembly of the Kurds in
the region and the Diaspora.
It becomes a prime factor in the sense of belonging and the ability to take their destiny
in hand, to write a new chapter in the history of this martyred people; evidenced by
recent events in Turkey: over 40 dead in just 3 or 4 days, curfew, army deployment in
cities, dozens of burned government buildings, hundreds of bank branches and statues
Atat?rk demolished presqu'insurrectionnelles of situations in certain localities with
groups of embryos armed self-defense. Note parallel mobilization of thousands of Kurds and
Turks also integral to the Koban? border to act of symbolic presence closer resistant and
vis-?-vis the challenge of the Turkish army. Thousands of young and not so young forced
dams, cut the barbed wire and joined for a day, for a week or more, residents who refused
to flee and fighter-groups are circled. The exceptional nature of this battle is also
qualitatively. It has not escaped anyone that fighters and fighters are mostly from the
Kurdish left and they / they are the protagonists of a political and territorial autonomy
project in the Rojava (Western Kurdistan / Syria) project based on the criticism of the
United Nations, the communal power, gender diversity, taking into account all inclusive
many minorities in this region, forms less punitive justice but based on consensus and the
idea of rehabilitation on the forms of democracy, if not directly, at least offer greater
grassroots participation in decision making and implementation. Defending Koban? is
therefore also defend a political step which is "down and to the left" as say the Zapatistas.
This, in Kurdish society, defending an attempt to break with the feudal and patriarchal
relations with profiteering that has gripped traditional leaders around the exploitation
of "black gold", with oligarchic patterns of statist and parliamentary democracy. The
revolution of Rojava and that the Kurdish movement called "democratic confederalism" is a
proposal must be seen in the context of uprisings "Arab Spring," from their balance
sheets, their failures and issues that had been open then and are left unanswered. She
wants to be a valid and appropriate response for the entire Mediterranean and Middle
Eastern macro-region: a coherent alternative to all systems of oppression and plunder,
without exception, from the territorial divisions of the colonial era and of the 1st World
War, both under the guise of the "Arab nationalism" one-party and related military
dictatorships, the oil monarchies, different variants of political Islam, of Israel's
colonialist state and pseudo-democracies , capitalist oligarchies in Western style. But
Koban?'s more than that yet.
The exceptional nature of this struggle has opened a new sequence and marks the emergence
of a new pathway that breaks the circle of false antagonism, circumstantial or lasting
alliances and complicities true: nor with the imperial powers of liberal democracy nor
with dictatorial regimes (Syria, Iraq, Iran and the oil monarchies) dominate the Middle
East, or with criminal gangs of political Islam which are more or less empowered their
creators. The outbreak of the war, including the profile of these female fighters - about
1/3 of the workforce - openly, worthy, rifle on shoulder, has become a powerful symbol of
women's empowerment and thus the affirmation of unbearable political equality for
reactionary regimes and movements. But what Koban? brand especially as a break with
decades of imperial domination of the capitalist powers is that the struggle of a
particular people for freedom is becoming the universal name of liberation of all. They
highlighted the legitimacy of their struggle, like the right to self-determination. But
they also put forward their project, their achievements, proposals and argued that why
they were fighting, and they can be taken anywhere else oppressions against identities are
denied or instrumentalised by nation-states. They say that their proposals can help
reverse the course of history, to deflect substantially off course and end centuries of
wars and colonial and imperial domination. This is in the sense of a struggle for humanity
as also affirmed the Zapatistas in the depths of the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.
What is new and remarkable is that the great movement of sympathy is expressed
increasingly in recent weeks against resistant and resistant to Koban? is not oriented
figures renewed the "victim" vulnerable and helpless, struggling with the last disaster
date and demand a "humanitarian aid" to the "international community". We are not in the
register of begging and charity, in the maudlin pathos and often dripping with hypocrisy.
They broke the cycle of victimization and smashed the hegemonic representation that
humanitarian disaster brings out the figure of beings reduced to suffering bodies devoid
of will, ability and speech. What keeps saying Koban? is that they, and they are in
conflict, in combat and that this is the price to pay, the prerequisite for a better life,
for a dignified life. Koban?, did not request that the "saviors" come to fight for them -
for a military intervention on the ground in particular. They asked for something much
more important politically: they, and sought ways to fight themselves, and particularly of
weapons, ammunition, equipment, to defend themselves as masters of their destiny political
subjects.
This is a fundamental break in the period, which also opens for us and potentially for
millions of people worldwide; a new situation in which, resistance to sustained attacks,
is not automatically synonymous with defense of the gains or return to a supposedly
glorious past but that it can be interpreted as opening up a new horizon on conquests on a
release path; an offensive struggle that news gives the idea of turning the established
order in a revolutionary way.
The threats to the Kurdish struggle of Rojava.
Turkey
After locking Kurdish fighters and fighting in Koban? by blocking the exits north of the
city and preventing reinforcements and weapons supplies, having detained hundreds of
Syrian Kurds who fled across the border after bloodily suppressed the demonstrations in
support of Koban?, after reaffirming want to establish a "buffer zone" - project supported
by the Netherlands - on the Syrian side of the border, that is to say where exactly are
the territories Rojava, Turkey remains the main threat to the Kurds. The Turkish state
since 2011 which assists various currents of Islamism has clearly chosen the Islamic state
against the Kurdish liberation movement. He intends to press for the Kurds in Syria submit
to "the moderate opposition." Above this pressure from Turkey, is doubling its objectives:
to end the Kurdish autonomy in Syria - as it is on the same line as the PKK - and engage
in open battle to overthrow the regime in Damascus. Until now, it was not a real danger.
On the one hand this opposition does not really exist: the Free Syrian Army (SLA) has
virtually disappeared. There is, against full of local groups, depending on the location
fight with the Kurds.
In the "moderate opposition" on the sidelines of the ASL, there were mostly groups linked
to the Muslim Brotherhood, backed by Turkey and Qatar, and Salafists, supported by Saudi
Arabia and the Emirates. Their project is an Islamic republic - Sunni - which therefore
opposes all minorities living in Syria. Impossible to know what became of these great
movements - mostly Islamist Front - since the establishment of the Islamic State (EI) and
its rallying dynamics. Finally, battalions of the Islamic Front may have joined the ASL
from the time when Turkey who finances intends to resurface corresponding to an armed
opposition Syrian National Coordination, official outdoor showcase of the Syrian
opposition from within. Where this can change is the attempt in late October to introduce
SLA fighters contingent in Koban?. Erdo?an then announced - it was of course immediately
denied - that it had reached an agreement with the PYD for "1300 fighters ASL" join
Koban?. PYD speaks of the "lies" and said the "dirty game continues in Turkey." By sending
a large contingent of ASL to Koban?, it is clear that this is another attempt to stifle
the political and military autonomy of the Kurds and take control of the area. It is
estimated that no more than 1,500 Kurdish fighters in Koban?. It is thus again reducing
their relative position and strength. YPG / PYD reported that the FSA would be better to
open new fronts elsewhere. Already, Turkey has imposed a limitation on the number of 200
Peshmerga allowed to join Koban?. Again, the Kurdish Left has indicated that she did not
need these fighters would do better to fight in the "Iraqi front" in the war against EI.
The United States
The United States is not on the same line as Turkey. For them, Koban? is not a strategic
objective. On the other hand, officially their mission in Syria is limited to jihadists.
Recall that the US, unlike France, have never believed in the imminent overthrow of the
Assad regime. They are therefore to transition and therefore for a Syrian government
coalition - that was the meaning of the Geneva talks II in February 2014. Recall that the
US approach is done by taking into account the interests of Russia and Iran - hence the
draft agreement on the destruction of chemical weapons - while France and Britain want to
rush into the crowd, overthrow Assad, to fight the retreating Iranians and inflict defeat
Putin. Today, the "hawks" in the western region to the Quai d'Orsay and the Elysee. This
position is analyzed by some as more "ideological" and "emotional" - anti-Assad,
anti-Hezbollah, anti-Iranian regime - as resulting from a truly strategic vision. Although
Geneva II did not work, the United States has not changed perspective. This is also why
France does not officially involved in strikes in Syria and is on the same position as
Turkey. Although Holland has cracked a sentence on October 14 saying that "Turkey should
definitely open its border" to please BHL was in the same speech to say that "we need to
provide all the support to Syrian opposition "that" Syria is now the only path to peace
and democracy."
Since it closed its embassy in Damascus and recognized the Syrian opposition, dominated by
the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists backed by Saudi, as the only representative of
Syria, France is on the most positions viscerally anti-Assad - after the brief honeymoon
Sarkozy - left for it to ignore and misrepresent the predominantly Islamist nature of the
opposition to the regime in Damascus. Tacitly approves the support of Turkey, Qatar, the
UAE and Saudi Arabia to these movements that give rise to the Al-Nusra Front - Al Qaeda
branch - and Islamist state. Today, the Netherlands Government and the political class and
the police, are alarmed by jihadist thrust affecting hundreds young French but of course
say nothing of what has long been well aware of the role Turkey. Meanwhile, the US
coalition put the package on Koban? in bombings and release of weapons and ammunition.
The most commonly heard is because Koban? is an abscess in the jihadi troops who
absolutely want total victory over this Kurdish city, as their hatred and desire for
destruction is limitless. So, what is symbolic for EI, becomes automatically to the
coalition: a victory for jihadists Koban? would be the worst effect on confidence in the
US ability to carry out their military campaign. As the text broadcast on the Parisian
anarchist blog Solidarity - "Koban?, the struggle of the Kurds and the dangers that lie in
wait": "the United States does not want to put" boots on the ground "-" boots on the
ground "- for its regional allies have not demonstrated a serious commitment to date, and
as their air campaign is doomed to failure, they need allies who are determined to fight
EIIL". Then Koban? becomes a target for the fury of the jihadists to launch offensives and
continuously send reinforcements, has the advantage, firstly to make relatively vulnerable
to bombing, as partly uncovered, and secondly, to "fix" and thousands of fighters who
otherwise would swell other fronts, including Iraq, particularly around Baghdad. This is
the greatest fear of Washington: the capital city Baghdad and the area of the
international airport which is located west of the city, within 30 kilometers of jihadist
lines. According to this scheme, the battle of Koban? could last hostage a military
situation in which the United States provide the fighters with weapons and ammunition as
long as they deem necessary ...
Pressure to tighten the Kurdish ranks.
There is great pressure on the unity of action between the main forces - KRG KDP and Iraqi
Kurdistan one side and the movements of the Kurdish left of the other. The process began
with an initial agreement dated October 22, says "Dohuk agreements" between the Kurdish
National Council - CNK-dominated Iraqi Kurds - and the Movement for a Democratic Society -
TEV-DEM, including PYD and the Kurdish Left - cooperation and co-direction of Syrian
Kurdistan (Rojava). The agreement obliges the Kurdish left to compromise and share power
with the pro Barzani, but the other side created a fact vis-?-vis the "international
community" and the Syrian opposition by endorsing a de facto autonomy supported by the
autonomous government of the Kurds of Iraq, with its own armed forces. At the same time,
this unit will inevitably conflictual because there is a struggle for hegemony and counter
projects. But the main pressure is that of war imposed by the jihadists helped their
allies of the Turkish state.
Their struggle and solidarity
In history, wars and revolutions have always found intertwined: refusal of
inter-imperialist wars leading to revolutionary uprisings, revolutionary attempts
transforming into war or caught by smoldering fires of war and devoured by the armies of
the gravediggers of the revolution ... We know from experience that all the logic of war,
even those that must be assumed, contain the dangers of militarism, harden reports,
centralize power, closing the spaces for reflection, debate and reject contradictions that
make the wealth of a process of transformation and go against the revolutionary dynamic.
As in all other circumstances, the Kurds now find themselves having to jointly fight a war
and a revolution. They are unlikely to have the time to be able to choose to favor one
over the other, but one thing is certain: the kind of solidarity that they will be able to
help tip the balance to one side rather that of the other.
For our part, we hear, in the Kurdish liberation movement and inside the Solidarity
movement, especially preferred practices and initiatives that tend to autonomy and
self-organization of human communities, supporting trends that drive the political and
social revolution emancipation. The Kurdish autonomy project is not an anarchist
revolutionary anti-capitalist project. It does not aim the establishment of libertarian
communism and the abolition of all hierarchies, capital and wage labor. By cons, of
victory or defeat will depend on it will be possible or not to put certain ideas being
discussed, such as equality, the fight against capitalist exploitation of labor, domestic
exploitation of women, the taking collective responsibility for decisions on all issues
affecting people's lives, in terms of production, housing, education, special attention to
agriculture, a critical development and productivism ... We do request usually the
protagonists of the struggles it is argued that they accept all of our references and our
positions in exchange for our solidarity. Otherwise, it remains in the inter se. The most
common tendency is to assert a certain solidarity with struggles, and not others,
depending on the presence or not of a number of criteria and partial and potential
elements that transformation contain and highlight. Stand in solidarity with the Kurdish
struggle for autonomy, follows the same rules: it's not delude themselves and support a
"revolution" eyes closed or by unconditionally share the ins and outs. This solidarity
means several things at once: to support resistance against physical and political
extermination attempts; support the emergence of a third or fourth way in the Syrian and
regional framework; defend in the very process of resistance that can take its destiny and
assert themselves as a political issue and the subject of the story, to trace a path of
emancipation. In sum, this is an opportunity to contribute to a social revolution in
depth. Therefore, if the Kurdish fighters and combatants and non-Kurdish allies are now
first in line to face the bands of the Islamic state, and that they and therefore they
need to have the means to fight it is very important that they are the least dependent
possible various powers, including the United States to which it is not possible to trust.
In addition, the foreign policy of the United States is known to operate in cycles, it is
likely that the more pragmatic approach ?tatsunienne now will turn sooner or later a new
offensive of neo-conservative hawks, the same - so to speak - who once massively engaged
the United States in the Vietnam War (Nixon) and later the wars in Iraq (Bush father and
son), with the effects that we know.
As anarchists / libertarian communist / anti-authoritarian anti-capitalists of France, it
is necessary that we give a special mention to Holland. The French head of state is indeed
very quickly aligned with Turkey's positions in expressing support for the creation of a
buffer zone in the Rojava and along the entire Syrian-Turkish border. But if the Turkish
army enters on Syrian soil, it is not only a declaration of war against the Kurds in Syria
and the Kurdish Left as a whole but also against the regime in Damascus. This is another
true goal. Be aware that this is what it means France, government and opposition alike: an
air war and ground, not primarily against the jihadists but to take the road to Damascus
to the Presidential Palace. France, unlike the United States, has since the beginning of
the uprising in Syria - February-March 2011 - in line with the axis Turkey-Qatar, Saudi
Arabia, which are the main suppliers of financial and material assistance to Islamist
fighters.
It is engaged in the most going into war position to overthrow the Assad regime and
replace it with what, if not by a Sunni Islamist regime, which became also a colony /
Protectorate these regional powers, particularly Turkey. This is by far the largest
military power in the region would see once again placed under the control of a new
Ottoman Empire and a new lucrative market for multinationals. By aligning Turkey, the
French state is the goal accomplice annihilation of Kurdish autonomy project in Syria
today, and Turkey soon. The campaign of solidarity with the Kurdish liberation struggle
can not, in France at least, identify and denounce the dangerous criminal and cynical
policy of the French government.
November 2014 Commission Journal de Paris (from notes by Martin Paul)
http://oclibertaire.free.fr/spip.php?article1619
