With greetings to the comrades in Tekosîna Anarsîst; ---- We, as
individual and collective self-organizations within the Federation ofAnarchism Era in the geography of Afghanistan and Iran, are pleased to
send you this interview in the form of questions and answers. The hope
is that publishing this interview will provide our audience with a
better understanding of your ideas and an insight into a decade of your
anarchist struggles in Rojava, Kurdistan. ---- Please share with us the
history behind the organization of Tekosîna Anarsîst and the types of
activities you engage in.
Tekosîna Anarsîst is an anarchist organization that has been fighting in
Rojava since 2017, when it was formed. We came together to give
collective answers to the questions and hopes that brought many of us
here, to support and to defend this revolution. This forced us to
reflect about our dynamics and our history, not just as individuals or
as organization, but also as a movement. Coming together from different
places and different anarchist traditions created some challenges for
us, but it also opened opportunities to develop more diverse and
comprehensive analysis and perspectives. This allowed us to reflect on
strengths and shortcomings of the movements we come from, as well as
ways to improve.
Here we struggle together with the Kurdish Liberation Movement, and this
has been one of the main sources of inspiration for us. We also work
with other revolutionary organizations that came to defend this
revolution, as well as local structures of this revolutionary society.
Many Syrian Arab comrades from different parts of Syria are now working
with the self-administration, as well as local Armenians, Assyrians,
Turkmens and many more, organizing their communities and building this
colorful confederal system. All this creates a unique and extraordinary
ground from where we can gather experience and learn important lessons,
that we also work to translate and share with other anarchist groups and
organizations.
Many things changed in the more than 7 years we have been here, and we
also had to adapt our work to the circumstances. The first years of our
organization where mostly focused on the war against ISIS, with our
participation in the front lines to defend the revolution being our
priority. We also had to confront the Turkish bombs in the invasions of
Afrin and Serekaniye, as well as the constant attacks of Turkish army
and their proxy forces. As time passes, we are growing more rooted and
integrated in the local reality, allowing us to have better insights of
what it means to make a revolution. This brings important reflections on
how to build revolutionary movements back home, evaluating what our
movements are doing right and where we should direct our efforts. In the
last years we have been working on some documents and materials that
resulted from our studies on different anarchist revolutions and
movements, aiming to open a wider debate about the situation of the
anarchist movement today. We hope that we can continue working on that
soon, but for now we had to halt all our activities due to the ongoing
events in Syria. Probably you know about it, but finally the regime
collapsed and al-Assad is gone. We wrote a couple of statements about
that and we are writing updates about the situation on the ground.
Were you aware from the outset of the manifesto and the action plan
implemented in North and East Syria? How did you come into contact with
this knowledge?
The ideas of Abdullah Öcalan and the 'Manifesto for a Democratic
Civilization' were known to some of us before coming here. Many of those
ideas have many similarities with Bookchin's proposal of libertarian
municipalism, connected to what he framed as social ecology. The book
"Ecology of Freedom" has a very clear influence in the philosophy of
Öcalan, and they even exchanged some letters before Bookchin passed
away. But it was with the resistance of Kobane against ISIS that the
struggle of the Kurdish people gained international attention.
After that, many more internationalists started to come here. The
International Freedom Battallion was formed in answer to that new??,
taking inspiration from the international brigades in the Spanish
revolution of 1936. Many anarchists fought in the ranks of IFB, together
with many other groups and organizations, building international bridges
and networks of solidarity. The word spread fast among anarchist
circles, and soon we were also organizing solidarity committees with the
Rojava Revolution all around the world.
Many anarchists followed the steps of those who traveled here, and many
more joined the solidarity committees and initiatives to support the
revolution from abroad. The books of Öcalan also started to be published
in other languages, making them more accessible to non Kurdish and
Turkish speakers. Articles and statements were written for anarchist
websites and magazines, talks and debates about Rojava became common at
anarchist bookfairs, many anarcho-syndicalist unions and even punk music
groups made campaigns to support Rojava. Those on the ground were
reporting to comrades back home, igniting a new lighthouse for
international revolutionaries, often connected with past traditions like
Chiapas and Palestinian solidarity. Among those lines you can find most
of our trajectories, but of course every one of us have quite
extraordinary stories about how we ended up here.
To what extent do you assess that the "Manifesto of Democratic
Confederalism" aligns with and is closely connected to the anarchist
alternative? Is this solely a nationalist revolution or also an
anti-capitalist and class revolution?
We discussed those question in depth for years, and soon we expect to
publish more organized materials about that. But in short, yes, it
aligns with anarchist and anti-capitalist values, that's why we are
here. It is a revolution born from a national liberation struggle, but
it also transcends the logic of nation-state with arguments that
anarchists upheld for more than a century. This brings important lessons
and anti-colonial perspectives, that especially western anarchists
should consider and reflect on. The model of democratic confedralism
proposed by Öcalan is tailored to the reality of the kurdish struggle,
but it can be an inspiration and a blueprint for many other liberation
movements. It's implementation in Rojava is still in progress, but
already many impressive steps have been made. 12 years is not time
enough to achieve the anti-patriarchal, anti-capitalist and anti-state
model proposed; revolution is a process and not an event. The speed and
extent of these transformations are conditioned by the situation of war
and the material reality , and also depend on the relations, alliances
and balance of forces with other actors on the ground.
The question of class, fundamental for anarchist theory and it's
development, has a different meaning for a colonized people in the
Middle East than for the European working class of the 19th century.
Furthermore, the issue of how we approach the question of class in the
21st century is a widely contested point and topic of discussion between
different anarchist tendencies. For those interested in this
discussions, we expect to publish soon some materials and evaluations
that can help to clarify our perspective on it. As we said before, this
theoretical work is something that the current attacks on Syria forced
us to put on hold, but if the situation stabilizes we will give priority
to that work. We hope the discussions that follow can bring new
arguments and perspectives, building better coherence among anarchist
revolutionary tendencies.
Have any regional governments or international alliances taken measures
to support and defend the regions in North and East Syria?
For now the government of Catalonia is the most relevant institution
that officially recognized the Democratic Autonomous Administration of
North and East Syria (DAANES). There have been some partnerships at the
municipal level with different Italian and German cities, as well as
political delegations from Scotland, France, Basque country and many
other places. But most of these institutional partnerships stay on a
surface level of humanitarian and international cooperation and support.
There has also been correspondence with revolutionary forces in Myanmar,
as well as solidarity calls from Chiapas and other autonomous
territories, but nothing that had a massive impact on the ground. The
most relevant example we can mention is probably the new hospital built
in Qamishlo, funded by the municipality of Barcelona together with other
organizations and institutions for international cooperation.
Considering that the fascist Turkish government's airstrikes against the
northern and eastern regions have been ongoing for several years and
that the government's mercenaries now control more areas in Syria, what
is your view on the future of democratic confederalism in North and East
Syria?
The revolutionary project will continue, fighting to defend the social
transformations achieved until now. Self-defense is a primary element of
this revolution, and people will fight fiercely to defend the
revolution, not just on the front lines but also on the political and
social spheres. The revolution of Rojava always claimed itself as part
of Syria, not pushing for a formal independence but for a
democratization of Syria in a federal system. Diplomatic bodies of the
DAANES are already in talks with the provisional government working in
that direction. They published a list of 10 points for to the ongoing
negotiations, calling for unity and sovereignty of Syria, a stop to
military aggressions and occupations, the right to return for displaced
people, fair distribution of wealth and more women's participation in
politics. As for now, there are diplomatic efforts to be part of the
transitional process ongoing in Syria. The military defense against
Turkish occupation is still the main priority, and those two spheres are
interconnected. We know that too often power stems from the barrel of a
gun, but it is when combined with political organization that social
transformations are possible.
There is also a need of more military activity against the resurgence of
ISIS, that has dramatically increased their attacks since the collapse
of the regime. The caliphate was defeated but some cells still active in
the Syrian desert, now more than? they raided and looted some army
depots from the old regime when soldiers ran away. The Islamist groups
supported by Turkey are also giving ISIS new motivation to attack,
making use of the instability of Syria and the mobilization of SDF to
the front lines to expand their activities. Intelligence agencies are
already calling attention to the threats this poses. Thousand of ISIS
fighters are currently held in SDF-controlled territories, and Turkey
has bombed security facilities next to ISIS prisons in the past,
facilitating mutinies and escape attempts, some of which even succeeded.
This would be catastrophic, not just for Syria and the Middle East but
for the whole world.
Even if we manage to avoid these catastrophic scenarios, the future of
the revolution will see big challenges. With the current transitional
government in such close relations with Turkey, any negotiations are
going to be very hard, with conditions put on the table that are going
to be in many ways humiliating. Turkey have a massive army ready to
invade Syria, this means that the self-administration is navigating a
path where wrong steps can easily lead to annihilation. This is
therefore a crossroad between existence and annihilation, a struggle for
the right to exist in the new Syria in the making.
The DAANES will have to make important concessions to be allowed to
continue, while pushing for a federal model that allows a certain degree
of autonomy. Many minorities and secular groups will easily find
themselves in harmony with the political proposal of the DAANES, but the
authoritarian lines of HTS will be invigorated by any external support.
This means that the more Turkey steps in and makes deals with HTS, the
more the international community legitimizes the transitional government
of HTS, the more difficult for the revolution to reach good agreements
on the diplomatic table. On the other hand, the more that other
minorities, other revolutionary and secular groups and specially womens
organizations fight back in harmony with the political project of the
DAANES, the more strength we will have in the negotiations for a
democratic and decentralized Syria.
But of course the most important is that people continue organizing in
their local communes and regional councils, making sure that whatever
form of State comes after, popular power grows stronger and more able to
resist any State interference. We, as international revolutionaries,
have a responsibility to support this process and defend the
achievements of this revolution. But also, as anarchists, should keep
always a critical voice on those statecraft politics that remove agency
from the people, imitating parliamentary politics and moving away from
grassroots organizing. After years here, we also need to come to terms
with the material conditions of the reality on the ground, aware that a
Turkish military occupation will be catastrophic for the important steps
achieved until now. Ideological dogmatism may look nice when we read it
in theory books, but Rojava made it so far partly thanks to the
pragmatic flexibility of the kurdish liberation movement. We have our
ideological line, but also a lot of important lessons we can learn from
what is going on here.
On January 20, 2018, the canton of Afrin was occupied and taken over by
the fascist Turkish government forces following a military offensive.
Does the "Syrian Democratic Forces" have any plans to reclaim and
liberate this canton?
SDF always stated their intention to return to Afrin, and of course with
the ongoing situation this is now more relevant than ever. Many refugees
from Afrin were living in refugee camps in the region of Shehba, area
that the Turkish proxies occupied in this last offensive. More than
100.000 people have been forced to flee once again from the Turkish
bombs and their jihadist mercenaries, unraveling a new humanitarian
crisis. These are people from Afrin that are waiting for SDF to liberate
those territories to go back to their homes.
We also need to remark that the Afrin Liberation Forces have been
carrying out insurgent actions against the occupation for more than 6
years, attacking Turkish military bases and taking down commanders of
the occupation forces. With the recent developments, one of the
conditions brought by diplomatic bodies of the self-administration in
negotiations with the provisional government of HTS is the return of all
IDP to their homes. Of course, this includes Afrin. We know that Turkey
will not withdraw their occupation out of good will, and that probably
this will be something that will require use of force. SDF is now
pushing on many fronts, playing 4D chess to ensure the survival of the
revolutionary developments of north-east Syria. If the conditions for
the liberation of Afrin ripen, be sure that SDF will push for any chance
to make it happen.
How can Libertarian individuals and Anarchist unions around the world
join the revolutionary process in the region or show their solidarity
with this revolution?
There are many things you can do, we already gave some examples in our
last statement "We carry a new world in our hearts". But besides all
these important (and practical) ways to support the revolution, there is
another element we want to call your attention to.
As anarchist, we know that we are not free until everybody is free,
therefore any revolutionary process in Syria won't be able to survive if
it is not in harmony with many other revolutionary processes all around
the world. We won't change the world tomorrow, not in the next years,
and probably not even in our lifetimes. A truly revolutionary process to
abolish patriarchy, overthrow capitalism and wither the states away will
need a long time. It will also need a world wide revolutionary movement
ready to fight for it. It is our duty to build such a movement, and for
that we need to listen to each other, understand each other, and build
alliances toward our revolutionary dreams. We also need to learn from
past experiences and remember those who struggled and even gave their
lives in the struggle, because if we are where we are today, it is
thanks to their efforts and sacrifices. In that sense, we also call to
remember Omar Aziz, an anarchist from Damascus that dedicated his life
to the struggle, giving his life after suffering the hardships and
tortures of the regime prisons. We honor his legacy together with many
other anarchist comrades who gave their life here, like sehîd Ciwan
Firan, sehîd Demhat Goldman, sehîd Kawa Amed, sehîd Sahîn Husseinî,
sehîd Sevger Ara Makhno, sehîd Hêlîn Qereçox, sehîd Sahîn Qereçox, sehîd
Tekoser Piling, sehîd Elefteria Hambî. Those are just some of the
anarchist revolutionaries who joined the ranks of this revolution and
never went back home. Their memory is still alive in our hearts, we
remember them together with all those who gave their life for this
revolution. Revolutionary greetings!
Thank you for your participation in this interview with the Federation
of Anarchism Era.
ONE WORLD, ONE STRUGGLE!
For Freedom! For life!
Federation of Anarchism Era Social Media Pages
asranarshism@protonmail.com
info@asranarshism.com
https://asranarshism.com/1403/10/10/tekosina-anarchist-rojava-english/
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