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" Revolution and the Rebels of Rojava: "
McCoy, Aronne
Ekbia, Hamid
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Latin Dissertation
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| Language of Document
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English
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| Record Number
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1105468
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| Doc. No
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TLpq2311073017
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| Main Entry
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Ekbia, Hamid
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McCoy, Aronne
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| Title & Author
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Revolution and the Rebels of Rojava:\ McCoy, AronneEkbia, Hamid
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| College
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Indiana University
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| Date
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2019
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| student score
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2019
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| Degree
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M.A.
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| Page No
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101
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| Abstract
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Since 1962, when Syrian Kurds were stripped of their citizenship, the Baathist regime had been treating Kurds like second class citizens, at best. Of the roughly 2 million Syrian Kurds, ~154,000 held the status of ajaneb (foreigners or aliens), while another ~160,000 were maktumin or unregistered (literally: concealed). Following Bashar Assad’s succession to his father’s rule, a civil war broke out, exacerbated by Kurdish anti-government demonstrations in Qamishli , and his forces were compelled to abandon much of northern Syria in July of 2012. This included the then-noncontiguous Kurdish enclave cantons of Rojava, tethered to the Turkish border like small boats in a sea of enemies- Afrin, Kobani, and Jazira, whose citizens took their opportunity to announce autonomy on January 29th, 2014 when they adopted the Charter of the Social Contract, their provisional constitution. Their idea was to build a new kind of social contract that emancipated a citizen from subject of the state to an active participant; not based on a mandatory attachment to the national state, but on connections between individuals and local communities which, working together, reclaimed citizenship from the state. The goals of Rojava are more transcendental than mere independence for Kurds. They have a vision of a radical new form of societal organization called “democratic confederalism.” Developed by the Kurdish political leader Abdullah Öcalan, it challenges state power by promoting popular democracy, an ecological society, and a co-operative economy, where law and security is entrusted to local councils, women and other minorities are guaranteed an equal seat at the table, and the wealth that once belonged to Assad’s Baathists is distributed according to need among citizens. Supporters see a Kurdish society transformed by gender equality, minority rights, and equal distribution of wealth and property, liberating Kurds and serving as a model for better governance in a crumbling sectarian Middle East.
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International relations
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Public policy
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Regional studies
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