Kurdistan & Middle East

PLO commanders and Abdullah Ocalan meeting in the Beqaa Valley, early 1980’s.

Cemil Bayık, Co-Chair of the Kurdistan Democratic Communities Union (KCK) In the first part of Cemil Bayık’s analysis, the focus is on the statist paradigm as the cause of the Middle East conflict, while the analysis in the present part examines the role of religious ideology and liberalism in the Middle East conflict as well…

Cemil Bayık, Co-Chair of the Kurdistan Democratic Communities Union (KCK) Based on Abdullah Öcalan’s conception of history, which goes beyond the statist (1) paradigm and looks at historical developments from the perspective of a socialist paradigm, Cemil Bayık analyses the current situation in the Middle East and in particular the Arab-Jewish question and uses it…

The Gaza war has shaken the political balance in the Middle East. ADM analyses the latest developments in the region and outlines prospects for democratic solutions. With the ongoing war in Gaza and Israel since the beginning of October 2023, the so-called “Middle East conflict” has once again moved to the centre of international public…

The Defend Kurdistan Initiative called on everyone to mobilize against Turkish attacks on Rojava and said: “Organise urgent meetings to raise awareness; create your local Defend Kurdistan groups and platforms; Take action! Mobilise, disobey, block – Smash Turkish fascism.” The statement released by the Defend Kurdistan Initiative on Sunday reads as follows: After months of war crimes, chemical warfare and…

One of the achievements of the Rojava revolution is the establishment of a democratic and multilingual school system. While teaching the Kurdish language was forbidden before the revolution, children in northern and eastern Syria can now be taught in their own mother tongue. The Academy of Democratic Modernity spoke with Nisrîn Reşik, spokesperson for the…

The people of Rojava pose a core threat to any existing government—especially those with imperialist ambitions—by showing the world a viable model of peaceful multi-ethnic coexistence, grounded in lived political, cultural, and ecological autonomy. Ten years ago, an auspicious experiment started alongside one of the most atrocious bloodsheds of this century. In July 2012, as…

In her essay “On Revolution”, political theorist Hannah Arendt analyzes and compares the French, American and other revolutions to determine the “outstanding characteristics of the revolutionary spirit”. She recognizes these within the possibility of starting things with a new beginning, as well as in people’s collective action. Arendt is especially concerned with the question of…

We need solutions for the crisis in the Middle East. The chaos in the region has been ongoing since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire one century ago. Since the first Gulf War in 1991, the region between the Maghreb states and Pakistan has been in a deep state of seemingly endless crisis. Outside of…

Mexmûr (Makhmour) located in the triangle between Mosul, Kerkûk and Hewler in Northern Iraq/South Kurdistan, is a place where over 10.000 Kurds from Southeastern Turkey/North Kurdistan, especially from the Botan Region, found refuge. The people, who fled the war of the Turkish state in the early 90s, stayed in different camps temporarily before reaching Mexmûr…