Journey to Rojava, May 2014 An interview with Ercan Ayboga [This interview was originally published in Marx21 on November 10, 2014: http://marx21.de/kurdisches-leben-rojava/ It has been translated from the German by Janet Biehl. Ercan Ayboga lives in Germany and writes regularly for Kurdistan Report and Yeni Özgür Politika. He is active in Campaign TATORT Kurdistan. At the moment he and the two other delegation participants are writing a book about the revolution in Rojava: http://www.vsa-verlag.de/nc/buecher/detail/artikel/revolution-in-rojava/ ]
Q: Briefly, what is Rojava? The name Rojava refers to the areas within the boundaries of the Syrian state that have a majority Kurdish population. The Kurds call this land West Kurdistan, which is what Rojava means literally. Rojava consists of the three noncontiguous areas, or cantons: Cizire, Kobane, and Afrin. [...] Q: How did Rojava originate? In the spring of 2011, when the rebellion in Syria began, the Party of Democratic Unity (PYD) — the largest Kurdish party - in collaboration with two other Kurdish parties, began to build council structures throughout in Rojava. The PYD realized that the rebellion [against Assad’s regime] would lead to a bloody war and could reach Rojava; the Kurds, it decided, should organize themselves well in advance. So in the summer of 2011 the People’s Council of West Kurdistan (MGRK) came into existence, and it soon gained the support of the majority of the people. On July 19, 2012, a new phase began when a mostly nonviolent popular revolt liberated the city of Kobane. That revolt spread to all of Rojava within a few weeks. The thinned-out forces of the state were soon surrounded, and Rojava allowed them safe conduct to the other regions of Syria. Thereafter the council structures democratically took over Rojava’s government, and since then, with their commissions and enterprises, the councils have organized Rojava’s economic, social, and political life. Except, that is, in the city of Qamislo, one quarter of which is controlled by the state regime. The YPG protected the cantons, ensuring that they were spared the catastrophic war in Syria. At first it deflected attacks from the FSA and Al Nusra, but since the end of 2013 it has been mainly fighting the IS. Q: How big is Rojava? It isn’t one continuous area. The three cantons are divided by strips of land that are majority Arab. Cizire is more than twice as large as the other two cantons. More than 600,000 people live in Afrîn, many of them refugees. Kobane, at mid-September, had more than 300,000, and Ciziri has more than 1.4 million people. The largest city is Qamişlo, with more than 400,000 people - it’s the center of Rojava. The people in Ciziri are ethnically and religiously diverse. Many Arabs and Christian Assyrians live there, as do Armenians - for decades they have lived peacefully with the Kurds. Q: What is the economy based on? Agriculture is dominant in all three cantons. Kobanê grows both wheat and olives. Cizire specializes in wheat, and Afrin, olives. That specialization is a disadvantage now because the three regions are so isolated. In foodstuffs, we have a surplus of bread, bulgur, lentils, olive products, and milk products. There aren’t many kinds of vegetables, or much fruit. But the council structure has ensured solidarity so that no one goes hungry. One advantage in Cizîrê is that it has petroleum. Thanks to a refinery that’s been improvised, diesel is plentiful, and it’s sold more cheaply than in Baath times. It’s used regionally and locally to run generators, providing power both for households and for production. Again, the council structures have prevented economic collapse, imposing price controls and considerably reducing the black market. Q: Describe these council structures. How do they function? They’re everywhere - they’re are the dominant element in Rojava’s common life. Now that the Syrian state is no longer present, the councils decide and coordinate everything. If they didn’t, it would all would fall into chaos. But they should not be considered some kind of emergency management. The councils start, at the lowest level, at the communes, which consist of 30 to 150 households, both in cities and in rural villages. The next level up is the neighborhood councils in the cities, paralleled in the countryside by the village community councils. At the third level we have the area councils, the jurisdictions of which are a city with its surrounding land. The area councils then constitute the highest council–the People’s Council of West Kurdistan (MGRK). Q: What’s the relationship between the different levels - the neighborhood councils, the area councils, and the People’s Council? Each commune is coordinated by two chairs - a woman and a man - and by representatives of their various commissions. The chairs are elected for terms of one or two years. Every commune - and indeed each level of the council structure–has the following commissions: women, economy, politics, defense, civil society/occupations, and education. The two coordinating chairs represent the commune at the next level, the neighborhood. This second level - consisting of 7 to 30 communes - choose from their members a two-person chair and also form the same commissions. Their chairs represent the neighborhood council in the area council. The area councils too have two chairs and form commissions, and their chairs go tot the highest level, the MGRK. The area councils and the MGRK are coordinated by the Tev-Dem (Movement for a Democratic Society), which also includes NGOs and all political parties that support the council system, represented by five people. Q: What democratic controls are in place? Is there an imperative mandate? Yes, there’s an imperative mandate. Elections take place every one or two years - the structures of a given locality decide when. The coordinating chairs meet weekly, and their meetings are open to everyone from their jurisdictions. Q: You spoke of commissions. Why are they necessary? The six commissions are very important - they handle most of the work. Through them tens of thousands of people actively organize their lives. The PYD’s decision to build the MGRK and to renounce strong party structures has proved to be very astute. Probably the most important commissions are the women’s commissions or councils, which exist at every level. They cooperate together on the basic liberation of women. Now that the MGRK have operated for three years, all three Kurdish parties support it, as do the Assyrians and some of the Arabs. Unfortunately there’s also a conservative-neoliberal party bloc, made up of eight parties. The bloc is called the ENKS, and it opposes the MGRK. It even refused to participate when fifty Kurdish, Arab, and Assyrian parties and organizations came together to accept a common social contract and form a transitional government. Q: Whose interests does the conservative-neoliberal bloc represent? What’s its base? It’s based mainly in a few clans and on the upper and middle stratum, which in Rojava is relatively not very distinct. And a few people from the lower classes are also close to this bloc. The ENKS is financed and directed by the regional government of South Kurdistan. It has joined the Syrian National Coalition, the larger opposition alliance that includes the Muslim Brotherhood (Muslimbrüder) and the Free Syrian Army (FSA), even though those groups don’t recognized the basic rights of Kurds and are very dependent on Turkey, the Gulf States, and the West. The ENKS advocates a federal structure like that of South Kurdistan, and it want to achieve it through Western intervention. But before 2014 the ENKS was losing a lot of ground in Rojava, and it doesn’t play much of a role. Q: Why is there a transitional government at all, alongside the council structures? What’s its purpose? Most Kurds support the MGRK, but most non-Kurds don’t. The purpose of the transitional government is to include as many groups and people as possible. And it’s an effort to achieve legitimacy in Syria, in the Middle East, and in the world. Unfortunately, a council structure wouldn’t be respected internationally. The transitional government emerged from the council structures and doesn’t contradict them - it recognizes their legitimacy. It’s much more dependent on them than vice versa, since after three years they are functioning so well. The council structures coordinate the economy; there aren’t any large private enterprises. [...] full: http://www.biehlonbookchin.com/journey-to-rojava-may-2014/ _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
