Istanbul Yenikapi Rally that was realized last Sunday is an important example showing the extent of political mobilization in Turkey, happening in the last month. The rally, which was joined by five million people and the leaders of opposition parties (except HDP), showing “unity of the protectors of democracy”, actually had multiple messages targeting both domestic and foreign politics. During the coup process, which can be described as the clashing of power groups inside the state, it looks like president Erdogan and AKP Government managed to talk different political groups into their “politics for coup process”.

What Happened?

The existence of state on the lands we live on, is directly related to the existence of the army, especially considering its relation during the founding process. Coup is a term that has an important place in the political life of the Turkish Republic. One can see how the coup, as an inevitable political reality of the existence of state in these lands, affects the current state policies considering the latest coup that occurred, the 1980 Coup. What happened on July 15, has a character that continues this political reality. The army who wanted to intervene the political power tried to take control of strategically important state buildings; many bureaucrats in strategically important positions were taken hostage, the parliament and intelligence buildings were bombed, bridges and airports were blocked by soldiers, clashes occurred between soldiers and the police. The five hour coup attempt was terminated with different and rapid maneuvers of the current government and especially of president Erdogan. Among these maneuvers, notable factors are control of the media, control of the civil and mass mobilization through the media and the control of law enforcement under Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Mobilization

Current political power was able to maintain a massive mobility since July 15 under the name “democracy watch” especially targeting the street and military areas. To create the civil mobilization that stopped the tanks marching towards the bridges blocked by soldiers on the night before July 16, AKP have been using all facilities of state. Since July 15, while this mobilization is identified with sacred values of the state, and the ones who lost their lives in this mobilization are declared “martyrs” with stories of heroism, a state of continuous vigilance is tried to be created by steadily pumping hate and revenge. The big rally mentioned above is en extension of this state of vigilance. We see that part of the mobilization on the street is also targeting various sections (Kurdish, Alevi, Opposition) that stand against the state in different areas. AKP and Erdogan, which hold the current political power, have become a platform for Islamist-nationalist formations. This is shown clearly by the symbols created by the process.

Cover Of Democracy

Each coup is a process by which the state oppression shows itself in a physical and violent form. It is nothing but putting pressure on the oppressed using force and violence to take over the political power. As revolutionaries who experienced the period when military coup of 1980 directly murdered, tortured and repressed the revolutionaries and the oppressed, and the period following it, we know too well what coups really are.

We also know what is being tried under the name of allegedly anti-coup “democracy struggle” since July 15. The state of being “elected power” which is raised as an argument against the sections that plotted the coup, plays an important part in legitimizing current position of AKP and Erdogan. All political discourse they raised since July 15 is in fact related to this cover of democracy.

We have emphasized before that AKP and Erdogan have made explicit their characteristic of being a platform for Islamist-nationalist sections. Especially considering the struggle of these sections against pro-coup, laicistic, radical Kemalist power groups inside the state since the founding of the state, it can be seen that there is an existential contradiction between this platform and the army and republican bureaucrats. As much as this contradiction seems like pro-democracy, it is really far away from it. To see the distance, it is suffice to look at the “demands” in the street. Death penalty, presidency with extra authorities, and many other demands based on the same Islamist and nationalistic values are hidden under the cover of democracy.

While democracy is sanctified by the current political power, demands of the 51% who voted for this political power in the latest elections are described as the will of the people. The reality is even farther away from this. Current political power is trying to sell its plans and strategies as the people’s demands. Since this platform is against all “political values of the West”, its play of pro-democracy is not realistic.

It must be noted, on the other hand, that we should not fall into the same trap that some socialist organizations fell into while doing the analysis. Our criticism above does not mean that we embrace the democratic values of the system. In fact, it is the same democratic system that makes possible “the majority oppress the minority” under the play of pro-democracy. Inside this democratic system, when radical Islamist take power, they are the pro-democratic; and when the nationalists or liberals take power, they are. This is the exact message that AKP and Erdogan want to give to the West; “we are democratic”.

Who Plotted The Coup?

In our assessments from the start, we indicated that the current process is a result of the power groups inside the state fighting for power. It’s known that since the first elections that AKP started to hold the state power, AKP has relationships with the Gulen Community which was gaining popularity especially in the international media. Even Erdogan himself declared in a recent rally, that he had relations with the Gulen Community and that he was deceived and apologized from the people.

Fethullah Gulen, who is a religious authority and community leader have had an increasing influence on Turkish politics in the last thirty years. This increasing influence reached political power with AKP and opened the door for organizing significant positions inside significant state agencies. Current AKP power also benefited from this positional convenience. Conservative identity of the party allowed this. Fethullah Gulen was seen as an important spiritual leader until last four years by party members and Erdogan himself. The peak of this fight for power in the last four years due to various political and economic reckoning is this coup attempt. Considering the depth of their relations and the relations of coup plotters with Gulen Community, the process defines something very different from classical contradiction between Kemalists and conservatives. This is a clash of interests. Gulen and his community which are accused of treason by the political power, are just one side of a broken partnership.

Scenarios

Since the question is the political power of the state, it’s obvious that political clash of power groups inside the state has a place in international schemes. Since the day of coup attempt, in a process where all TV channels, newspapers, radios, except the revolutionary ones became a part of the mass media various scenarios were continuously broadcast and are still being broadcast. Most of the scenarios state that the coup is made by the US with the hand of Gulen Community, due to the fact that Gulen resides in US. The scenarios often talk about the coup attempt is being designed by CIA due to anti-West international politics of the Turkish state.

Other scenarios talk about the coup attempt being designed and operated by AKP and Erdogan himself. These other scenarios emphasize that Erdogan who would reinforce its power as a result of this process would eliminate all opposition in this position. Of course the oppression politics against the Kurds plays an important role in creating this context of no opposition. AKP, CHP, MHP which acted as “unity of democracy” since the beginning of the process followed a policy that explicitly left HDP out, creating an allegedly “coalition of democracy” accusing HDP and the Kurdish movement to be a part of the plot and thus disabling HDP.

Another scenario as part of the same process of disabling is the war scenario. In this scenario, following the violent operations it made in a period of one year especially in North Kurdistan, its emphasized that the state getting ready for massacres at even larger scales. Within a conjuncture where the line between civil war and foreign war disappeared in the last ten years, one cannot but think that one end of the war will be directed to Rojava and Syria. Considering Syria and the mobilization in Middle east geography alone, it’s possible that the coup process is part of other international schemes.

State Of Emergency For Who?

It’s important for us revolutionary anarchists to analyze well all scenarios above as possibilities with respect to our near and distant perspectives. We need revolutionary strategies made with these perspectives. However, apart from all these scenarios, we as revolutionaries feel the practical repercussions of the State Of Emergency process since July 20.

The state is in a process of reconstruction since July 20. Operations in the army, police, judiciary, economic centers, ministries, municipalities, etc are still going on. The state which is a mechanism of oppression and violence, becomes more oppressive and more violent with this delegated legislation, and apart from the sections related to Gulen Community, increase the attacks on revolutionaries, taking advantage of the process.

Populist opposition engaged with the power, big media pool which became the voice of political power, law enforcement directly reporting Erdogan, fascist mass ready to mobilize with Islamist-nationalist values, army ready to attack near geographies within international conjuncture… Possible dangers awaiting the oppressed and the revolutionaries in this geography.

The fight of power groups claiming political power over a device rising above economic and political injustice; is nothing but the hegemony of the oppressors over the oppressed gaining permanency in order to destroy the freedom of the oppressed. Neither the apparent or implied dictatorship, nor military or civil formation, nor coups or elections of the political powers that are enemies of the people have any relations to peoples will. We, who believe that life of freedom cannot be created by coup nor by elections, know the existence of state as a coup to freedom and our revolt will last until it creates a free world. What we all need is, not getting hopes up from the fight between the powers, but to know that hope is revolution for freedom.

Huseyin Civan (DAF member)

http://anarsistfaaliyet.org/

A Report from (Kurdistan Anarchist Forum) about the events and the present situation in different parts of Kurdistan to the Tenth Congress of the IFA

 

KAFs activities continuous in translating, clarifying anarchist idea and publishing anarchism in Kurdish-Sorani language. We feel that our responsibilities  getting more and more difficult.

Bashur: Iraqi part of Kurdistan

° A part of Iraq and Kurdistan are still occupied by the Isis, liberating them depends on the plans and satisfaction of the US and its allies.

° From June 2014 to end of 2015 there was an independent mass movement in the towns and the cities that later on fell under control of Isis. As soon as the Isis invaded them the protesters became the victims of Isis brutality. However, from the beginning of 2016 the similar movement appeared and still continuous in the towns and cities were under control of Iraqi central government especially Baghdad. Although this movement is not self organised but steps towards radicalisation.

we heard in Mid and South of Iraq there are individuals  and anarchist groups but unfortunately so far we have not had a chance to find them and make a contact.  Hopefully the opportunity will be coming up to meet them to support each other in this difficult time &  situation that Iraq goes through.

° From 2015 to present the protests in Kurdistan, the part under control of KRG are on rise but have not achieved its demands. The police, Peshmarga, security forces, the retired people and pensioners have been taken part in the protests. After occupying Shangal and Ezidins massacre by Isis in Aug 2014 to the end of last year every a few months KRG only paid the wage/salary to its employees. However, from beginning of this year the people work in public sectors just gets around third of their salary. In the meantime KRG cut off the benefit of disable people.

° The Demos and public meetings are suppressed especially in Erbil, the KRG capital.

° Local groups and social network are emerging and on rise.

° The reformist group, so called, The Movement For Change (Goran) split from the Patriotic Kurdistan of Union (PUK) in 2006. However in May of this year they got closer to each other. They agreed on a few major points to work together to improve their relationship to do some reforms. We predict this agreement between them is the first step towards unity. Although this agreement between them has disappointed many people from both sides, but in the meantime many more realised that the political parties and their leaders cannot be trusted.

° from 2015 to 2016 there were so many long strike by the teachers. And also from time to time there were short period strike by hospital staff and workers. But the strike did not become a serious issue for the workers in the private sectors. Most of the private sectors have been owned by the politicians, political parties and their leaders. The KRG never had a plan to improve the agriculture in Kurdistan, instead it destroyed it. The KRG mainly is more concerning about Oil, Gas Cement and Tobacco.

During the demos and protests there was some sort of attempts that made for general strike in whole Kurdistan. While the teachers, workers and the rest of public sectors were not self-organised but affiliated to one of the political parties so that the demos and protests failed to have major impact on the situation.

° At the present many people are supporting anarchism and the numbers of people who contact us are on rise. There is a hope in near future that the independent radical local groups emerge. We as anarchists support the individuals and also working on translating the events and experiments around to Kurdish language. We are hoping building these local groups can be the basis of future movements. Obviously this task demands more work and serious struggle.

° We are writing in the Kurdish Websites and social networks about the importance of working collectively and the cooperative economy, and Ecology issue, [Individual freedom, Women liberation, children right, antiracism, anti-sexism, fascism and chauvinism]. We argue about self efficiency in economy in order to be independent. We also involve in discussion about anarchist education, culture, people self-rule, rejecting the political parties, its militias and the state and its rule.

Rojhalat , Iranian part of Kurdistan

° Rojhalat of Kurdistan like elsewhere in Iran has invaded by the Islamic regime. The Kurdish people have been deprived from being educated by their own language and enjoying their own culture. There has been no freedom of expression in Iran and the regime is continuing suppressing and oppressing whoever arises against the regime. The unemployment, poverty, increasing the price of the daily necessities is the real issues for the majority of people in Iran.

Due to above issues many people have immigrated to industrialised cities in Iran or to Bashur, Iraqi part of Kurdistan. Some of those people who have immigrated to Bashur engaged in smuggling stuff/goods on the borders from Iran to Iraq and vies versa. Obviously, immigrating the worker from Iran to Bashur like any other immigrants in Iraq have deprived of human and worker rights, like, discrimination, low paid, difficulties in renewing their residence document and they live in the worse condition and high rent accommodations. They also face racism.

° There are mass movements of ecology/environment and protecting animal right in Rojhalat. There are also many active groups, like, women right, children right, human right and the group of prisoners. These groups are radical and are getting bigger.

° The unions in whole Iran are very active in the cities and towns. They try to be independent of leftist organisations.

° In the end of 2015 a “Kurdistan anarchist movement” appeared and announced itself in facebook as a movement. Later on they changed their name to “Kurdistan anarchist organisation”. It seems to us they are lack of experience and their activities just strict on internet. They do not have much anarchist background or knowledge about anarchism . They look like radical leftists, centralist an ideological. We do not know how many they are exactly, but look like they are not many. We are aware that there are anarchist activities outside of them but mainly working and remaining as individual.

In Rojhalat, like any other activity, anarchist activities are not allowed and the paying price is executing for whoever involves in activity, so that the anarchist movement can only appear as an individual activist and doing some sort of publicity.

The above mentioned origination/group has appeared very centralist . In our opinion this is a sort of illness among a few of Persian speakers responsible of announcing and ordering people through the facebook to do this and that. The idea and activities of these people are closer to the leftist centralist and hierarchical organisation rather than anarchist and anarchism. The same statement that Malatesta at the time used it for “Bolshevistic anarchist” applies to these Kurdish and Iranian comrades.

We see that among the Iranian Comrades in Europe, there is a wave of anarko-leftist- Marxist. Whether it is deliberate or not, these comrades are selling out leftists and Marxists idea under the name of anarchism. There is a background for this type of thinking. Ten years ago a group of people announced themselves and claimed as “Anarcho-Marxist”.

Rojava, Syrian part of Kurdistan

Liberating of Kobane was a starting point for building a diplomatic and military relationship between US, its allies on one side and the Kurdish forces on the other side. This warm relationship caused confusion among the Kurdish people

° From the very beginning we were against this relationship and cooperation between the Democratic Self Administrations (DSA) in Rojava and US & its allies. There is a possibility of using this relationship by Rojava as a tactic or might have been a matter of desperation but we felt worry and sceptical about it because the US and its allies have serious intention to move their projects of economy, health, social and education following their military cooperation to Rojava.

° To support the state of Turkey against Rojava the KRG from time to time closes the entire borders. The most recent one was happened this year between March and June . It lasted almost for 3 months. In addition, for about a year the KRG asking Rojava forces“ YPG/J HPG “ to leave Bashur and its borders. Even after opening the borders in June is still very hard for people in Rojava to receive medicines, foods and the humanitarian aid. The KRG also using blockade against Qandil Mountain, the headquarters of PKK.

° The KRG actively supports its Kurdish allies political parties (ANKS) against the Rojava Cantons. These Kurdish political parties continuously are in conspiracy against Rojava Cantons .

° In May of this year one of our comrades wanted to go to Rojava, but all the borders were closed so that he could not make it. While we do not have a regular contact from Rojava all the news we have about Rojava are received from different channels.

Anarchists in Rojava

As far as we know there is no anarchist groups call themselves anarchist in Rojava but there are individual anarchists. We think it may be not necessary for them to have groups under anarchist name because there is opportunity for a kind of anarchist activity.

 

 

Bakur, Turkey part of Kurdistan

° A few months ago a few self-administration announced in Bakur (Geverê, Nisêbîn, Cezîre, Silopî , Serd, Veranşar, ) then the street fighting started. This has given the perfect excuse to State of Turkey to destroy most of the historical places. This has pushed more people to involve in demonstrations and protests.

We are from very beginning criticising them in both announcing the Self-Rule and the army struggle. In our opinion the self -Rule has to cover every aspect of the community life and extending to many places. And also this should have formed from the assembly of people not by making announcement from the politicians and people in power. We believe that the arm struggle against the State of Turkey in the towns and cities are not in the interest of the existing social movement. It is not just achieving anything, in fact it has caused losing many of the achievements that PKK gained during the peace process in the last couple years. The army struggle given a perfect excuse to Erdogan to stop peace process and starting war again. Erdogan and his political party AKP know very well starting war with PKK is the best way to divert the social movement to an army struggle. Erdogan knows the army straggle is the way to get support from so called “international community” and make PKK less popular and finally forcing them to meet his demands.

In Bakur , more than the other parts of Kurdistan to certain extent the social movement there are anarchist idea. last year this idea appeared in different forms, for instance: as a group, as website and anarchist magazine issued under the name (Qijka Reş), and there are other anarchist groups in Bakur, like (Kurdistan Anarşist Komünizm Hareketi), Anarşîstên Kurdistan Komunîstên Anarko , DİYARBAKIR ANARŞİST TEAM [D.A.T], Anarşîstên Kurdistan Kulmên Reş , Kurdıstan Anarchism , Anarchy in Kurdistan , Support Anarchists in Rojava, West-Kurdistan , Kurdistan Anarşi , Kollektîfa Anarşisten Kurdistan – Bahdîn and also in German there is anarchist Kurds speakers group.

 

Although so many anarchist groups are exist in Bakur but we do not know their popularities, their daily activities and the other struggle they are involved because our contacts with them only have been through internet . Only once a few years ago we met the comrades of Magazine of (Qijka Reş) and knew them closely.

KAF                01.08.2016

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Weblog            www.anarkistan.com

Archive            www.issuu.com/anarkistan

Twitter            www.twitter.com/anarkistan

Facebook       http://www.facebook.com/sekoy.anarkistan

Email               anarkistan@riseup.net

In retaking Mosul YPG/J and the Guerrillas must be aware of the hidden agenda

By Zaher Baher

August 2016

The plan and conspiracy between Turkey, Qatar and The Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) against Rojava will never end.  Documents disclosed by Wikileaks recently regarding the meetings and agreements between the three of them and a special meeting between Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Barzani, the head of  KRG,  proves the truth if we were previously in doubt. Please see the links at the end of article.

When ISIS invaded Mosul it was to the benefit of Turkey, Qatar and KRG.  The liberation of Mosul will also be to the benefit of the above unless YPG/J (people and women protection units) and Guerrilla forces are aware of the changing tactics.

Turkey, Qatar and KRG have completely failed in their previous polices in defeating the social movement and destroying the Cantons in Rojava, no matter how hard they’ve tried.  Starting by invading Mosul, attacking Kobane, committing terrorist acts, setting up a no-fly zone in Rojava and finally Turkey failed in joint action with Saudi Arabia to enter Syria and Rojava to fight Kurdish forces  under the pretext of fighting the terrorist groups.

The current plan is to “retake Mosul”.  The plan involves conspiracy and hidden agenda. This could be brutal; if YPG/J and the Guerrillas do not change their tactics, we may lose whatever was achieved so far in Rojava.

What is the plan/hidden agenda?

There were few reasons for Turkey militaries to cross the border of Iraq in the last year and stationed close enough to Mosul.  One of these is the historical reason; Mosul was one of the regions of the Ottoman Empire in the olden days.  Other reasons: after defeating Turkey and ISIS in Kobane, Turkey considered it important to defend ISIS if they come under attack in Mosul in order to return to al-Raqqha and their territory safely.  It was also to protect the oil tankers that are transferring the cheap oil to Turkey and al-Raqqha, to pressurise YPG/J and the Guerrillas that they are protecting Ezidis community there and also to support and help Barzani’s Peshmarga if the fighting break up between them and the forces of YPG/J and The Guerrillas. More importantly comes the “big plan or hidden agenda”, in an attempt to regain control of Mosul.  It is anticipated the outcome of the fight would defeat ISIS, as a result it would force ISIS to withdraw towards Jazerra. This is the primary goal and original plan.

In my opinion this plan was made long time ago. It is hoped that when ISIS is defeated, they will have nowhere to go but to withdraw towards al-Rabia.  Al-Rabia and the areas around it are under control of Barzani’s Peshmarga.  In this situation it is easy for them to penetrate Jazeera.  Once they arrive there the plan that already designed will be executed by launching the war against YPG/J in Jazeera and its citizens.  What makes the plan goes perfectly well is existing of the Kurdish National Council—the umbrella organization composed of Syrian Kurdish parties created under Barzani’s sponsorship, (ENKS). While the ENKS are Barzani’s allies  if they do not support ISIS directly, they certainly will support them indirectly.

The YPG/J, the Guerrillas and the Ezidis forces in retaking Mosul should try to defuse Turkey and Barzani tactic.  They should take part in this operation only very lightly.  Their main tactic should be gathering all their forces in the region behind the war line to resist withdrawing ISIS towards Jazeera borders. Here it is extremely important to prevent from entering Jazeera.  They should be destroyed, if not, to be forced to withdrew to inside Iraq and Bashur (Iraqi Kurdistan).  Let the Iraqi government and KRG to deal with them as initially both of them just did nothing when ISIS entered their lands and invaded Mosul, in fact they let ISIS carried out genocide to the Ezidis.

I believe it is very necessary for the YPG/J and Guerrillas to stop this war that targets the heart of Rojava, Jazeera; by defusing Turkey and KRG tactic in order to protect and maintain what have been achieved so far there.

Links for reference:

ISIS survives largely because Turkey allows it to: the evidence …
https://undercoverinfo.wordpress.com/2015/11/20/isis-survives-largely-because-turkey-allows-it-to-the-evidence/>*

WikiLeaks Reveals Saudi Arabia, Turkey & Qatar Secret Anti-Sy
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=9&ved=0ahUKEwjz3KjH9KLOAhXmDsAKHby7CQoQFghbMAg&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mintpressnews.com%2Fwikileaks-reveals-saudi-arabia-turkey-qatar-secret-anti-syria-plot%2F211542%2F&usg=AFQjCNHbdfCLl9mLswG2fxhF87gsAnRdqQ

Yerevan Saeed one of the Rudaw TV staff  that financed by the Prime minster of KRG, Necheravan Barzani passed information on MIT about the PKK movement and its relationship with the Kurdish political parties in Bashur.

https://wikileaks.org/…/1446311_-fwd-re-guidance-questions

In the link below Yerevan Saeed informing MIT about the movement of PJK ( the PKK sisterhood in Iran) on the  Iran/ Iraq borders

https://wikileaks.org/…/1824264_re-s3-g3-iraq-turkey-iran-c

In the link below  Yerevan  Saeed  informed MIT that PKK wants to have relationship with Israel.

https://wikileaks.org/…/1147093_re-insight-pkk-and-alledged

zaherbaher.com

 

 

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July 17, 2016

The coup, which has been an inevitable reality of the state presence in this geography since the military coup of 1980, arose after 36 years, on the night of July 15. Many state buildings were blocked for a few hours during the military mobilisation based in Istanbul and Ankara. The coup started with flypast of fighter jets in Ankara and blocking of bridges in Istanbul by soldiers, and continued with taking hostage of chief of general staff and tank noise and gun shots in the streets. Many state buildings were shot by F16s and helicopters including the parliament building and the headquarters of National Intelligence Organisation; There were clash of arms in many places between soldiers and police. Following the events, national state television broadcast was cut and the coup declaration signed ‘Peace at Home Council” was read. When the ”5 Hour Coup” ended, more than one hundred soldiers, more than eighty police officers and more than eighty anti-coup protesters died. 2839 soldiers, among them many high ranked ones, were taken into custody.

During this 36 years period, the coup as a tool of political oppression, violence and suppression, has been used as a threat by the army over and over again. No doubt, for us, the oppressed, the coup means torture, suppression and massacre of the peoples in this geography in these periods. It’s evident that a structure which takes its power from the massacres it makes, would continue making massacres in the name of “protect the indivisible unity of the country”. The recent coup is a result of power groups fighting for power inside the state. Perhaps, the hidden existence of power groups outside the state pushes its definition to a wider scale. However, there is no doubt that the ones who reinforced their power as a result of this 5 hour coup are the current government and the head of state.

The night that started as a military coup was made into a “democracy holiday” while the state power gained control. Ruling party, AKP, gained the title of “repelled a coup” with its victory against the coup, on top its legitimacy over its “being elected”. Throughout the night, all TV channels made broadcasts that served this victory and made the propaganda of the illusion of democracy personified on Tayyip Erdoğan. This propaganda was also made continuously by the media that was known to be opposing. It this fight for state power, media not only took side with Tayyip Erdoğan, but also played the role of channelling people to the streets.

As well as the media, the opposing parties in the parliament which did not “spare” their support for AKP since the start of this process; fell into the “prevent others from making politics” trap of state power. Their stance “taking sides with democracy against the coup” as a mask of their political unawareness. This indicates clearly that in the short term, they will not mobilize other than reinforced state power politics. Defining the ones who “will die when Tayyip Erdoğan says die, will shoot when he says shoot”, filling the squares with “we want death penalty” slogans, focused on lynching anyone who comes across, as “democracy supporters”; isn’t this a sign of political stagnation of the same opposing parties?

With this coup and the victory against the coup, AKP now has the environment that it needs to create the ideological transformation on society. The “50% that hardly contained themselves at home” which was shown as threat by Tayyip Erdoğan during the Gezi Protests, were on the streets. The fascist culture which is an important part of the ideological transformation taking place from the law system to social life, was awakened with the ones mobilized by the state onto the streets. Not only that, they were guised as people trying to hold their power of democracy… It’s not hard to guess how these “democratic mobilizations” will face the oppressed in different ways in different places. We have already heard news of lynch activity towards the ones not taking sides with reinforced power of the state.

This fight of power groups trying to acquire the state power which operates on top of rising economic and political injustice; is nothing but the perpetuating of authority of oppressors on the oppressed, in order to destroy the freedom of the oppressed. There is no doubt that neither the visible or invisible dictatorship, nor the military of civil structures, nor the coup, nor the elections of political powers that are the enemy of the people, has anything to do with the will of the people. We, who believe that free life cannot be created by a coup or by elections, recognize the existence of the state as a coup to freedom and our revolt will continue until it creates a free world. The state is the coup, revolution is freedom. What we all need, is not get hopes up on the fights between authorities, but to known that hope is revolution for freedom.

Devrimci Anarşist Faaliyet (DAF)

Erdogan policies have played a major role in the Region

By Zaher Baher

July 2016

In this article I will try to show how the regional policies, executed by Erdogan and his AKP (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi – Justice and Development Party) in respect of Rojava, Bakur and Iraqui Kurdistan, meet the goals of the Turkey’s president.

None of these policies are in the interest of Turkey. They already have suicidal impact on the country’s social, economic and political situation. In future it may even cause a military coup in Turkey.

As for the economic situation, the biggest damage is done to the tourism sector.

• 8% of the workforce working in the tourist industry generates 12.9% of Turkey’s GDP.

• According to Burak Cosan, The Daily News Istanbul, in 2014 almost 42m people visited Turkey.

• Murat Ersoy, the head of the Tourism Investors Association in a press meeting on the 1^st of June 2016 said “Our country’s loss in tourism revenue may increase up to $15 billion over this year and the decline in tourist numbers by 30 percent compared to 2015”.

• The number of foreign arrivals visiting Turkey declined by 28% in April to 1.75 million compared to the same month of 2015, marking the steepest decline since May 1999, according to data by the Tourism Ministry.

• The number of foreign people visiting Turkey decreased by 16.5% to 5.82 million in the first four months of this year compared to the same period of 2015.

• In the first three months of 2016, tourism revenue decreased to $4.07 billion with a 16.5% drop, according to data that was released by the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK) on April 29.

• Tourism revenue was $31.5 billion in 2015, an 8.3 percent decline compared to the previous year. Leading Turkish tourism player expects $15 bln loss in revenue

We can all see at present that the social and political situation is getting worse as well. I believe the problems Turkey is currently facing are caused by ISIS which Erdogan has based his entire policy on.

How did that come about?

From the very beginning I said and believed that the main aim of invading Mosul by ISIS was because of Rojava and its social movement. The Democratic Self Administration (DSA) in Rojava up to this moment is exemplary not only in this region, but can be said for other parts of the world. As much as Erdogan is unhappy with the type of administration like the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), compliant in meeting his demands completely, he deeply hates DSA, which does not yield to his will.

The so called “international community” may have approved Erdogan’s war against Rojava in 2014. But instead of getting Turkey involved directly, he decided to use a proxy – a terrorist group, ostensibly independent from Turkey. The problem was the terrorist groups supported by Saudi Arabia and Qatar were not strong enough to defeat YPG/J (the people and the women protection Units). Erdogan had to choose the most fanatical, brutal and ideological one, ISIS, to achieve all his plans with a very little risk.

Why Erdogan and his National Intelligence Organization (MIT) have chosen Mosul for ISIS?

There were many reasons for Mosul chosen to be invaded by Erdogan and his MIT plans. The historical reason is, Mosul was one of the regions of the Ottoman Empire in the olden days; it is very close to both Turkey & Syria; it is also well connected by public transport with both of these countries. The Community of Ezidis mainly situated in that area, and also the closeness of Mosul to Kurdish towns like Erbil, Duhok, Tikrit and Kirkuk. The region of Mosul is very rich with oil. It was one of the weakest points in the country, probably second to Falluja. The vast majority of its residents are Sunni who resent the central government. They were marginalized and having very difficult time on the hands of the Iraqi army, police and the security. There were also several minor reasons in favor of this option.

Using ISIS to invade Mosul

The important point in this article is the invasion of Mosul. Without this operation it would have been impossible for Erdogan to carry out the rest of his plans successfully and to play a major role in the region.

Following the invasion of Mosul, ISIS declared al-Raqqah its Caliphate capital. The connection between these two cities is strong. The land controlled by ISIS has expanded, al-Raqqah became stronger. The invasion has made it easy for Turkey to support ISIS politically and militarily. In the meantime, ISIS supported the state of Turkey by supplying it cheap oil and caused an influx of refugees, used by Erdogan as a bargaining chip in trading with Europe. Erdogan made it easy for ISIS to enter Turkey to terrorize the Kurdish and killing innocent people.

ISIS forces were under 5000, whereas the Iraqi forces were over 60.000 and equipped with new weapons including helicopters and tanks. It appeared, there was a conspiracy between Erdogan, KRG, Qatar and the Iraqi military generals in Mosul. Mosul was an easy victory for ISIS. There was no bloody battle; the entire town was taken within less than 24 hours. ISIS managed to gain many new powerful weapons easily that nobody could have expected. This boosted the confidence of ISIS and it then made its next move, to Kobane.

Why was Kobane, not Jazeera?

In order to execute their plans, Erdogan and MIT had to choose Kobane or Jazeera as their target. Distance wise, Qamishli in Jazeera is closer to Mosul at around 150 km, whilst from al-Raqqah is around 370 km. However, there were many other reasons to choose Kobane instead.

• Kobane is smaller than Jazeera in size and in population, as such it would be easier to control.

• Secondly, Kobane is between Afrin and Jazeera. Taking Kobane would cut the communications between remaining cantons.

• Thirdly, Kobane is poorer than Jezeera economically; its YPG/J forces are smaller as compared with Jazeera. Furthermore, Assad’s has an army stationed in Qamishli and it is still there up to now; the army controls a few kilometers within Qamishli, the postal service and the airport. Kobane is free from Assad’s control.

• The state of Turkey could support ISIS in Kobane and around Kobane through Sruce easier and better than supporting ISIS though Nusaybin, neighbor of Qamishli.

• Finally, al-Raqqah is much closer to Kobane than Qamishli to Kobane.

I believe until the defeat of ISIS in January 2015 in Kobane, Erdogan and MIT policies were successful. In June and July of last year Erdogan adopted a couple more policies. Both policies were created to terrorize Kurdish people.

First, they did not approve the outcome of the general election held in June 2015 while the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) achieved excellent result well above the election threshold and gained 80 seats.

The second policy was his fascist attitude towards Kurdish people by terrorizing them, killing innocent people, arresting activists and creating a climate that was easy for ISIS to use suicide bombers. In July 2015, the suicide bomber attacked a gathering of a large group of leftist youth, communists and anarchists in Sruce; many people were killed and injured.

Erdogan was the beneficiary of using terror policy for three reasons. First, grounding a lot of forces there and restricted the freedom of movement to people. Second, made claim to his own people,Europe and the world that ISIS is his enemy too. Third, provoking PKK to start a war that gave him the justification to cancel the peace process and entering the war with Kurdish people all the way.

Alas, Erdogan was very successful and managed to provoke PKK and go with his tactic. Now the killing, arresting people, enforcing Curfew in Kurdish towns and cities, starving people withdrawing the political immunity on the HDP MPs continues. He also sacked 134 of the heads of Municipalities and replaced them with his supporters. All of this has been carried out in the eyes of US and the Western countries. All of this damaged the social movement in Bakur and were in the interest of Turkey government, its MIT, the right wing and racist groups.

Another success of Erdogan’s was that since 05/07/15 he hasn’t let Ocalan to be seen by any of his people including his own lawyers. This cut off the entire communication between Ocalan and PKK or other forces. This policy has again served the state of Turkey but not the Kurds from Rojava or Bakur.

Erdogan Policy in regards to Syria and Rojava

In this point of my article I draw the attention of the readers to both successful and failed policies of Erdogan.

Failures:

• Bringing down a Russian fighter Jet and killing its pilots was a disaster for Erdogan. He was not able to participate in the war in Syrian skies, and it also economically and politically damaged Turkey. In effect, president Putin introduced boycott of Turkey as a tourist destination.

• Erdogan also failed in convincing US and Western countries to set up a none-fly zone in Rojava. His main aim was just to fight the YPG/J forces there.

• Another failure policy was he could not go ahead with the joint plan with Saudi Arabia to take their forces into Syria to support the terrorist group against Assad’s forces and YPG/J in the same time. By supporting ISIS and other terrorist groups damage was done to diplomatic relationship of Turkey and the USA.

At the same time, Erdogan scored some successes.

• Economically, ISIS supported Turkey by providing very cheap oil, letting some of the companies in Turkey using the Syrian children labors, and also using refugees as a bargaining chip with Europe.

• Normalizing diplomatic relationship with Egypt and also with Israel.

• Erdogan and MIT managed to form a military group from Syrian Turkmen against Assad and use them directly, supporting and providing them everything to make them powerful enough to claim that they represent all Turkmen in Syria.

• He also managed to make Kurdish opposition political parties (ENKS), the Syrian Kurdish National Council (that occasionally commit terrorist act especially in Jazeera), stand up against YPG/J and DSA.

• The most successful policy of Erdogan and MIT was making ISIS so powerful against YPG/J that pushed them in line of US and jointly fighting ISIS. YPG/J now are facing the most terrible war perhaps after Kobane, with support of US forces to liberate the Caliphate capital, al-Raqqah.

Erdogan policy in regards to Iran:

Erdogan and MIT have a double policies towards Iran. On one hand the Kurdish question became a common problem for both of them, that can make them friends. On the other hand the same issue can make them enemies if Iran starts supporting PKK or PYD.

In the meantime, it is quite obvious that a big number of Iranian solders are taking part in the war side by side with Assad’s forces and Assad received other help from Iran. Assad also relies on support from Lebanese “Hezbollah” who are supported by Iran as well. Meanwhile Turkey is indirectly working on weakening Iran as a close ally of Iraqi government by supporting ISIS against Iraq. At the moment Iran-Turkey economical relationship is getting better and that is helping them to improve their political relationship too.

Erdogan’s policy in regards of Iraq and KRG

Erdogan and MIT used ISIS not only in Syria and Rojava. In fact ISIS was the most powerful and active group that Turkey has been using to execute their policy against the Iraqi government and KRG.

ISIS managed to invade Mosul, the second town of Iraq and became a major threat. Invading Mosul meant the other towns and cities in that region, like Erbil, Tikrit and Kirkuk faced a big threat as well. ISIS managed to control entire oil fields and refineries in the area; the income from their production fueled ISIS’ war effort instead of the government. Invading Mosul revived the old historic question of Mosul that always was in Erdogan’s mind. He wanted to annex it for Turkey.

I believe this can be one of the reason as to why Erdogan last year before the eyes of so called “international community“ brought 5000 heavy military forces with variety of different weapons, including tanks, to the border of Iraq close enough to Mosul. Since then Iraq keeps demanding Turkey to withdraw its forces, while Erdogan keeps ignoring these demands.

By invading Mosul ISIS controlled the dam of Mosul that can threat flooding Baghdad and many small towns and villages in the middle of Iraq. In supporting ISIS in invading Mosul, Erdogan managed to give strength to Arab Sunni tribes in the region at least if they do not support ISIS, they abstain to support the Iraqi government. Invading Mosul pushed the Iraqi government into deep debt by borrowing lots of money and buying more weapons. ISIS became more powerful and started to threaten to occupy Baghdad.

In 2014 ISIS rendered nearly a third of the country out of government control by taking more cities like Fallujah, Tikrit, Ramadi, Hit, Rutba and Telafar, with many villages. The threat of ISIS to Iraq was very real, up to this moment there has been no peace, no security in Baghdad and a few more towns in middle of Iraq.

In addition to all that Erdogan fighter jets since July of 2015 and even before that every week regularly crossed the borders and bombed heavily Qandil Mountain and the villages in the bottom of the mountain. This has caused the killing of so many people, injuring many more, displacing hundreds of family and killing their cows, cattle, dogs, sheep and destroying the environment.

In regards to Kurdistan and KRG, Erdogan brought them endless war. In this war Kurdish Peshmerga became the main forces to fight ISIS. The war between the Kurds and ISIS made Kurds an enemy of Sunnis and to certain extent to Arabs as a whole and the Iraqi government. In the meantime the war made KRG be more dependent on Turkey and closer to US and Western countries. In effect Iraqi Kurdistan has become a big military base for Turkey and US.

By using ISIS in the region of Mosul so successfully, Erdogan managed to make KRG in particular and Kurdistan in general almost a part of Turkey. He is working on Iraqi Turkmens as well to increase the dispute between them and Kurdish communities and to escalate the tension. The dependence from Turkey made KRG, particularly Barzani Party, KDP, the main enemy not just of PKK and PYD, in fact to whole Kurdish society in Rojava and Bakur. From time to time, obviously at the order of Erdogan, Barzani even closes KRG borders completely. The most recent embargo was almost for 3 months between March of this year and June. Even worse is the fact that Barzani became silent about everything that happens in Bakur and Rojava. He neither supports the Kurds there, nor protest against the state of Turkey.

ISIS also put the Kurdish Islamic political organizations under pressure. They must clarify their attitude towards ISIS, either “with us or against us“. In Iraqi Kurdistan we have a couple of Islamic political organizations and both have their own MPs in KRGs’ Parliament. However one of them is very pro-Erdogan and both of them so far have not denounced ISIS as a non-Islamic group. The vast majority of Kurdish does believe they are sleepy cells of ISIS. They might be right.

One more important effect of arriving ISIS to Mosul and the rest of Kurdish areas, was preservation of the position held by Barzani and his government. Despite the bad situation of KRG economy, people there are reluctant to protest. They have made people scared to go on strike, protest, even demanding their wage, salary. At the moment the KRG employees are getting less than half of their salary even they do not get that regularly. They are three to four months behind. This has affected the markets badly, whole services, projects have been stopped and poverty for many people will soon become unavoidable. Whenever and wherever people try to complain and protest they were told “they have to be grateful, at least they do not live under ISIS control and should not rock the boats because this is in the interest of ISIS and other our enemies”

Erdogan and his MIT policies for the time being were right and met their aims, even if they create a damage for Turkey in the long run. They were good for Erdogan, AKP and bad for Kurdish people and the rest of the region. It looks like Erdogan and his AKP now want to change their policy from war to peace with everybody except the Kurdish society. His future peace policy in the region certainly will be if not aimed to eliminate Rojava cantons, at least to reform them in the KRG manner.

Zaherbaher.com

SYRIA: Syria’s forgotten revolutionaries: an interview with Leila Al-Shami

By: Zaher Baher
June 2016
I was frequently asked this question in the meetings or interviews. I have always been frank and honest in my reply. I said there are not even an active anarchist group existing there let alone an anarchist movement. I would then be asked the second question ‘why’?
While there have been authority/state committed brutal suppression and repressions, also there was anarchism as a natural rebellious force of human being, so it is illogical to say there was no individual anarchists or no groups existed. There is no doubt that there was always resistance against the state/authority. People considered authority/power as evil forces. People have never seen any common interests with the states/authorities or any benefit from them. In addition, in the history of Iraq and the Middle East under Abbasid Caliphate or before, there were a few rebellion movements: Zoroastrianism, Mazdeism, Babakism and revolutionary movements like Zanj revolts, Kharijites, Karmatians and many more. Although this movement did not label themselves anarchist or communist but in view of many people they were a kind of communitarian, anarchist movements.
If we look into the history of Iraqi Kurdistan, Bashur, after the First World War we can see many reasons of the lack for anarchism and anarchist movement. In my opinion the main factors are the following:
Bashur was a part of Iraqi state, being dependent on the Soviet Union. The Iraqi regime since 1958 until 2003 was in Soviet bloc with the exception for a few years during  1960s.
Only the books, magazines and writings about Marxism, Leninism, Maoism, the entire communist and leftists’ movements in the world and religions were available in Arabic. All those books and writings were published either in Damascus, Beirut or in Moscow. The Syrian Communist Party under its leader Khalid Bakdash has played a big role in translating some of the books and publishing them. In addition, the Syrian’s regime was also in the Soviet Union bloc at least since Hafez Assad come to power.
In regards to the anarchism and anarchist movements in the world, they were described and introduced to us in a much distorted way. All publications about anarchism were written or translated to Arabic by the leftist communists and Russian agents, so they presented anarchism as anti-revolutionary and anti-humanist. They were the only available source showing anarchism as the opposite of what it really is. Anarchism was presented in a repulsive way, showing only it’s anti-state and anti-authoritarian aspect. We were told anarchists are rejecting power/state and leave the society in absolute chaos and disorder. No administration, no law and order, no protection – as a result of that the society would be in danger. These publications explained and described anarchism in the view of Bolsheviks and communists; they wanted to make the idea unpleasant and uninviting.

While they rejected anarchism and attacked it, there was not a single anarchist book or magazine available, not even an article in order for the people to read them before reading the hateful propaganda against anarchism. “The Poverty of Philosophy” by Karl Marx was available, but not the original Proudhon’s work, “Philosophy of Poverty” which Marx criticized. Many writings and propaganda against anarchism existed this way – without access to the ideas they fought.

In such environment, there was no possibility to learn about anarchism or anarchist movement. Consequently people were deprived from the basic knowledge of anarchism.

There were many political parties and people were very loyal to them

Towards the end of 1930s, Iraq and Kurdistan became the fertilized land that brought about many political parties: nationalist, patriotic, religious, liberal and communist. There was a fierce competition among them, struggling for power. They were using deception, propaganda and manipulation to bring people under their influence. Their best members and supporters were absolutely loyal to their parties and their leaders. The dependence of party members on their leaders was absolute. They were ideological fundamentalists. Killing political adversaries – members or supporters of an opposing party – was a legitimate method of ideological dispute. The war all fought against one another, during 1960s, 1980s and 1990s that we have seen is the best example. The loyalty of the party’s members became so serious, they never thought for a second of the integrity of the party polices and its leaders.

In an atmosphere like that, it is hard for new belief and thought to develop. The vast majority of people were divided over the political parties and became very tiny cogs in a very big machine of the political parties, so the parties could manipulate and to use them according to their need. They advised them to vote or not vote, to do this, not to do that, to fight one side, to be in peace with other side. In this situation the members and supporters of them become slaves of the party, they were unable to think, to analyze the situation nor to decide on their own.
Anarchism is founded on the individual’s right to free thinking and to make one’s own decisions, continuous in development and change. Blind loyalty to the power, hierarchy and state makes anarchism impossible to emerge.

Wars, killing and displacing people in Iraq and Kurdistan

Iraq and Kurdistan have not seen peace for over half of century. Iraq has gone through three major wars between 1980 and 2003: Iraq-Iran war, The Gulf War of 1991 and the invasion of Iraq in 2003. All these wars have intensely affected Kurdistan and its people directly or indirectly. This is in addition to the civil war, between Kurdish movement and Iraqi government that launched on 11/09/1961. This war went on and off until March 1991 when the uprising happened in Kurdistan. And from October 1992 to 1997/98 there was fighting among the fraction of Kurdish political parties themselves.
This war brought disaster to Kurdish people from both sides: the Kurdish movement and the central government of Iraq. It killed many innocent people, displaced thousands, maimed many more, destroyed thousands of Kurdish villages. The campaign of Anfal launched by Saddam Hussein between 22/02/1988 to 06/09/1988 resulted in the disappearance over 182,000 Kurdish people and over 5,000 people killed by chemical weapons.
Kurdish people in Iraq experienced the most horrible disasters of war. The suffering and trauma stay in the memory of mine and my father’s generation and cannot be forgotten.
Those of us who grew up in times of wars know how terrible the situation was. The only winners in the wars are the warlords, war traders, the big companies that make weapons and the other equipments of war and most of the time the states too. The outcome of wars to the rest of us is poverty, high prices of the daily necessity, unemployment, homelessness, and displacement, separation, forcing to move out of our lands, and becoming refugees in foreign lands. War can bring more disasters. Where there is war, there is everything except peace, unity and happiness. No doubt in the situation like that, we can only have time to think about our security, safety and running after our daily needs. This is not the moment to develop new ideas, like anarchism; in fact, hard times create more feeling of nationalism, racism and more hatred among people.

In a place where there is war, anarchism is hard to emerge – let alone to gain shape as movement. In a place where there is war, there will be growing number of state lackeys, traitors, betraying its own people. The war also quells dialog between people and restricts their freedom. Because of that not only does anarchism not develop, in fact if there is any anarchists, the war drives them to underground.

Kurdish society and its cultural dependence

Kurdish society in Iraq is rooted in a tradition, being a mixture of the religious and tribal hierarchy. These two elements are the base of the society and its culture. It reflects and preserves the economic structure.

We can see it in every cell of the society. Starting from the family, through nursery, school, university, company, factory, other places of work, administrations, the civil service, and the military to the very top of the society which is parliament and the leaders – all of it is based on hierarchy. In hierarchical organizations or hierarchical society, dependency is very strong. This dependency shapes the thought and mind of everyone. It is very difficult to break centralist approach, created by ever-present hierarchy. Reorganizing the society in horizontal way again is difficult; it needs educational, social, cultural and economic revolution.
In the hierarchical society with the help of its culture, culture of dependency, youngsters have to respect and obey the elders; the workers have to listen to the bosses, students to their teachers. In short the people in the bottom have to look to the top to get advice and order. This also applied to members of political parties, they had to listen to the leaders and carry out whatever they were told to do. Individuals are not independent, as they are supposed to be; they are not confident, they do not have enough trust and faith in themselves. This means everybody, every social group is restricted in thinking and making decisions. They have to obey and be loyal to their superiors and they lose their freedom of individual expression.

This is the cultural climate of Iraqi Kurdistan– Bashur, climate of many powerful tribes, many strong political parties, powerful religious faith and often “honour killings” of women. In such atmosphere individuals do not think, make decisions and sort their own problems out. They rather let others think for them, decide for them and resolve their problems whether they like it or not.
In a climate like this, while the individuals are not free, their thought and mind have been corrupted as well. Therefore, it is difficult for a new idea or thought to arrive, even harder to develop it any further.

Zaherbaher. com

By; Zaher Baher
Feb 2015
Before the uprising of March 1991 in Kurdistan, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) armed forces (Peshmarga) virtually did not exist, except for the ones on the borders with Iran and in very remote areas. This new situation resulted from the Iran/Iraq war and the Anfal campaign run by the former Regime that cost the life of over 180 thousand villagers who were evacuated and disappeared with their villages completely destroyed by way of demolition. When the uprising happened, the government forces were kicked out by the mass movement, and then the PUK and KDP with the help of US and Western countries came back. In the short time, they controlled these towns and cities that liberated by people. In May 1992, they formed and shared Administration through a scenario of the fake election. On 05/10/1992 they started fighting the PKK, this lasted about 3 months. In 1995, PUK and KDP became separated and started fighting one another and divided Kurdistan between them.
During the fighting PUK had defeated KDP almost completely, therefore, the head of KDP, Masoud Barzani, asked the former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein for his support.
On 31/08/96, the former regime’s army had arrived Erbil and rescued the KDP. Afterwards, the KDP launched attacks on PUK and managed to control many areas including towns, cities and villages, which were under the control of the PUK previously. The PUK had no choice but to ask the Iranian regime for support, so with the help of Iran, PUK managed to gain control of those places that been lost to the KDP and set up its own administration. After this fighting, PUK and KDP controlled different regions of Kurdistan. KDP set up its Administration in Erbil and the towns around it. PUK set up its own Authority in Sulaymaniyah and the towns around.
In 2003 the former regime fell after the invasion of Iraq by the US and Western countries, nonetheless an extraordinary opportunity was created for PUK and KDP to form Kurdistan Regional Government, the KRG has formed as the result of the election of 2005. The second election after the invasion was in 2009. From 2005 to 2014 both parties (PUK & KDP) were the major powers in KRG. In the last election of 2014, the balance of power slightly changed. The so-called Movement of Change (Goran) that was formed in 2007, came second in the election, it entered the government shared power with KDP, PUK, Islamic organizations and other small parties. However, the corruption, terrorizing of people, disappearances, killing and assassinating of political activists, writers, journalists and women continued.
In short, no serious reforms took place while ’Goran’ shared power with KDP, PUK and the rest. In fact, the situation has got worse. In October of 2015, the KDP sacked all the MPs, Ministers and the heads of Parliament from ‘Goran’, Movement of Change, and were not allowed to return to Erbil. Since then there has been no effective parliament in Kurdistan.

It is People who are in crisis not the KRG:

Kurdish people in Iraqi Kurdistan (Bashur) under the control of KRG have dramatically suffered economically and politically. KRG has failed to pay its employees of 1.4 Millions since October 2015. From this month the teachers are supposed to receive only half of their wage. The KRG blamed the Iraqi central government for not sending the proportion of its annual budget of 17% when due. The KRG supposed to export 550 thousand barrels of oil daily via central government, then the central government should releases the proportion of the . I, the KRG has been selling the oil directly bypassing the central government and kept the money without showing any official record of the detail income, or how it was sold and to whom.
The KRG stated there are also other reasons contributing to the drying up its budget such as the tumbling of oil prices, war with Isis and the cost of having over 1.5 Millions of refugees from Syria and the south/ middle regions of Iraq.
Since October of 2015 trade, market, construction work has all slowed down and all projects have almost been stopped due to running out of money. In addition, thousands especially young people have left Kurdistan heading to Europe. It is difficult for people in Kurdistan to live in such miserable situation under the KRG. Therefore, people do not have any choice other than protesting and boycotting work, mainly in the towns and cities under the control of Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
From the start of this month demos and protests of small scale have started in Erbil, the capital of KRG, that controlled by Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). Many of the offices and schools from primary to secondary have been closed because the teachers and other employees have no money to pay transports fares to reach their workplaces. The prices of everything has risen consequently, many shops and companies have been closed.
Like elsewhere it is the people who are in crisis not the system, not the government. It is people who are lack of confidence, dependant on political parties. It is the people lost faith in themselves and look for a leader to lead them. It is the people who have not learned from previous experiences, they still believe in the notorious and powerful historical lie of Parliamentary election.

We do not need any kind of uprising:

There have been many uprising in different countries in the past. More recently 1979 in Iran, 1991 in Bashur, Iraqi Kurdistan, and in the last five years the “Arab Spring” continues. However, the uprising in all these countries ended up with a terrible civil war or Regime change that in fact was not much better than their former rulers. The reasons for that are simple, either led by political parties or by people with no plan for the post-uprising and eventually tamed by US and Western countries. They mainly wanted to change the power not the society, they wanted the political revolution, not the social revolution, and they wanted to make changes from the top not the bottom of the society. Because of this they easily fell under the influences of the US, and other western countries’ political and neu-liberal economy. In the end, not only have failed to bring real changes, in fact, the post- uprising served the elites, upper class and the interest of the current system much better than previous regimes. The failure also disappointed people and made them not to believe in most of the protest, demos, and even uprising.
At present, there are lots of talks and suggestions among the Iraqi Kurdish especially into the ranks of communists, authoritarian socialists, lefties and the liberals for the uprising. What they want will not bring the better outcome than what has happened in the Arab Countries in my opinion.
In order to avoid that rout and bring the real changes we need to form radical, non-hierarchal local groups that are anti-authority, anti-state and anti-power. We need to organize ourselves in the neighborhoods, factories, work places, schools, universities, on the streets, and the villages. We need to form communes and cooperatives, to set up people’s assembly, citizen assembly, libertarian Municipalism in every village, city, and town. Using direct action and direct democracy in decision making that should be the way of progressing and developing people’s power. We need to do all these independently of the political parties.
Our goals must be to change the society from the bottom to the top, from the political and regime changes to economical, educational, social and cultural changes. We need to work on building people’s power instead of the dictatorship of the proletariat or any other class power.
We do not just need an uprising. We need a kind of uprising that enables us to make real changes in establishing a socialist/anarchist society. This can be done through Democratic Confederalism, Libertarian Communalism.

By Zaher Baher

25/10/2015

The latest Paris attack, killing 130 people and injuring over 350 more, again confirms the dangerous world we live in. There is no doubt that Isis and other terrorist groups, including al-Qaida, Taliban, Boko Haram and Al-Shabaab, can be fatal and brutal forces bringing death to many people anywhere across the World including Europe as long as they have a base inside those countries.

Of course, this makes states, both inside and outside Europe to work together very closely in gathering and exchanging information against the groups mentioned above. They also share the same information against civilians, campaign groups, leftists, socialist and anarchist groups.

A quick look at the recent history of terrorism between Sep 2001 and the Paris attack on 13/11/15, and the one in Nigeria and Egypt soon after 13/11, shows us that all these attacks targeted people rather than the state and the current system. Until now, we know that none of these attacks in Europe targeted senior military officers, police chiefs, corporate directors, high-ranking spies, senior government officials or elected politicians (which, by the way, is something I am not hoping for). This is not just the case in Europe, but applies equally to the US, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Turkey, Nigeria, Kenai, Mali, Bali, Bangkok, Tunis, Libya, Syria, Egypt, Israel and Palestine with but one or two exceptions. The attackers, as always target ordinary people, including women, children and the elderly.

Regardless of what happened or how it happened, the media and politicians, as always, try to distort the reality by deceiving people. They still claim it is a war between “us and them”, and, “a clash of cultures and civilizations”, and that, “they are against our way of our life”, and. “they are jealous of us, hate us” and many more.

The media and politicians never ever tell us the truth as to why this terror happens again and again. They never, ever tell us about the state’s terror against its citizens and the citizens of countries they have invaded, militarily or economically.

States, banks, corporations, churches, mosques, along with the media, are all functioning in different ways to protect the current system. They are the dark forces. The media and the rest of these dark forces try, deliberately, to hide the reality of the climate that is breeding terrorists. To blame terrorism only on religious ideology or medieval mindsets is short-sighted and self-serving. It conveniently obscures the fact that the foreign policies of the US, Canada, Australia, UK, Russia and other European countries, are crucial factors. This also means that a resolution of the Palestine question is not an issue. They do not want to admit that the state encourages Islam, the opening of hundreds of Madrassas without involvement in their activities, or any role in their control and inspection. That said, it is not the duty of the state to involve itself with Sharia law and its courts or modernizing the Qur’an which socialises and radicalises young Muslims. The state and the politicians ignore all these as if they do not play a role in breeding terrorism.

The media gets its facts wrong in at least three important respects. Firstly, in general, the terrors of authoritarian Islamists are not against culture and, to a certain extent, not even against other religions but against themselves whether Sunni or Shia and, additionally, against Eyazidis. Secondly, they call these   murderers fanatical Muslims and not the authoritarians they are. The reason for this is quite clears; to defend the power and authority of the state. Behind these terrorist acts lies the true brutality of the authority and domination of the state, corporation, family or any other cells in society. Thirdly, the Media   ignores the fact that the motive of Islamic authoritarians in killing innocent people in Muslim countries is to gain power. But their motives in killing people in US and Western Countries, in fact, is to exact revenge. The clearest evidence was the recent bringing down of the Russian passenger plane.   People in the US, UK and other countries are, frankly, paying the price of the foreign polices of their governments. For instance in Paris, before they started killing people, the attackers chanted Allahu Akbar as they opened fire and also shouted “What you are doing in Syria? You are going to pay for it now”.

A quick look at the history of terrorism shows that the strength of terrorist groups and the state is demonstrated by using terror actions. They both play the same game; they make the people’s movements weaker and weaker and, at the same time, both get stronger. The terror increases the spirit and feeling of nationalism, racism and fascism. It makes the state and its brutal institutions, including police and spies, more attractive to people. A recent Ifop poll published by Le Figaro and RTL Radio found that 84% of French people were prepared to accept more controls and a certain limitation on their liberties in order to guarantee their security. This is the best example to show how terror action impacts the French people. How they fell into the trap of the terrorists and the state!

Islamic authoritarian groups use their savage terror to deceive ordinary people in their own countries by using the actions of the US and the Western countries against them. Meantime, all states, from democracy to dictatorship, use the terror actions as a good opportunity to create more, so-called, anti terrorism laws for “protecting people and their security”. Many of us know these laws are mainly designed to restrict our rights, civil liberties, migration and closing borders on refugees. And these laws, used against activists, seriously threaten the integrity of the state and the system.

In the countries where the terror happens, citizens are the losers when they are killed and then their rights and liberties are abolished or restricted. When the terror happened in Paris, the state announced a state emergency until Thursday, 19/11. Then Parliament extended it for another three months by 551 votes in favour with only three Socialist and three Green Party MPs abstaining. The state of emergency includes; expanding powers to immediately place any person under house arrest if there are “serious reasons to think their behavior is a threat to security or public order”, more scope to dissolve groups or associations that participate in, facilitate or incite acts that are a threat to public order, extending freedom to carry out searches without warrants and to copy data from any computer system found, increasing the capacity to block websites that “encourage” terrorism, extending detention from 24 to 72 hours and banning demonstrations, marches, and protests including the big march, estimated to attract 200,000 people, ahead of the UN Climate Change talks in Paris on 28/11. And now we can see a state of emergency is in place in Brussels whilst nothing is happening there. This is what terrorism actually wants.

Terrorism does not threaten the integrity of the state. In fact, it makes it stronger. The state is continuously conspiring against its citizens so that, when the terror takes place, then it will be easier for the state to implement its brutal agendas and policies, without much resistance. We must not be deceived by state lies and propaganda. We are, as a people, facing two major threats; one from the state and the other from terrorist groups which is why it is important that any demonstrations, marches or protests against terrorism must be, simultaneously, against the state too.

By Zaher Baher

Oct 2015

Capitalism and its Media have always worked on confusing and deceiving us by introducing reactionary movements, events and experiments as a revolution, that in fact benefit the system rather than us.

For almost a century the Media outlets tried to sell state capitalism to us as socialism. They called Russian bourgeois society a socialist society, for about forty years they tried to tell us what happened in Iran was a revolution. And recently they tried hard to convince us what happened in some of the Arab countries was the “Arab Spring” or “Arab Revolution”. The same applies with regards to an economic crisis. For more than 150 years we have been told that these crisis were capitalism crisis not us. They tell us this to confuse and deceive us as if the capitalists in general have to pay the price, not us. So we should think this crisis is nothing to do with us and we should believe that it is business is as usual.

Many of us cannot form our opinions and analyse things independently and think freely. In other words, we are influenced by the Media. We also think by the brain of somebody else, so that much of our thinking and analysis of issues like economics, politics and social issues are shaped by the Media, famous people and academics that write or talk about them.

During his time, Karl Marx noticed that in the future the duration gap between the crises will get shorter and the crisis time will get longer. However, the whole crisis, whether it remains for a short or a long time has never been the crisis of a capitalist system. It has always remained our crisis. It was us who paid the price by losing our job, consequently becoming homeless as well. We lost many of the achievements that we gained before, and then we became weaker and weaker. It was the capitalism system which escaped the crisis and emerged stronger than before by reorganising itself in a new form and beginning to attack to us.

Although I believe Marx’s entire political theory failed and some parts of his economic theory are questionable, for the problems of his economic theory, he should not be blamed at least for a couple of reasons. First his analysis of the economy in general, especially after the second half of last century onwards, working class and the system, should not be expected. At his time the capitalism system compared to the present one was very weak but the working class movement was more united and stronger than now. Second we should not look to Marx as a God or at least a fortune teller to see his doctrine is correct for now and the future as a medicine for our present sickness. Whoever thinks about Marx this way, is not only unfair to and insulting him, but in fact, him/herself is a parrot just using a brain of somebody who died a long time ago rather than thinking by his/her own brain.

In this article, I am only relying on evidence, statistics on one hand and the current economic, political and social situation under this crisis on the other hand.

I believe it was us that built this system not capitalists; it is us that created money, wealth, capital and everything else. Meanwhile it is us that can live without money, the capitalism system, in a society free of private ownership and power of authority. It is us managing and maintaining every cell in society while capitalists never without using our power, our workforce alone can even make one simple thing, and carry on their normal life and manage maintaining this system even for a minute. It is us actually producing everything, but it is they who benefit. In short it is us all the time holding this system not the capitalists and elites, therefore, whenever and wherever the system became faulty and problematic, it will be us who will be at a disadvantage and pay the price.

What is the economic crisis?      

The Oxford Dictionary definition for the economic crisis is “A situation in which the economy of a country experiences a sudden downturn brought on by a financial crisis. An economy facing an economic crisis will most likely experience a falling GDP, a drying up of liquidity and rising/falling prices due to inflation/deflation. An economic crisis can take the form of a recession or a depression. Also called real economic crisis”

The definition of Google for economic crisis is “   A downturn is part of the economic cycle (sometimes referred to as trade cycle or business cycle) The UK definition of a recession is – negative economic growth for two consecutive quarters. The definition of an economic downturn is less strict than a recession”…..” A situation in which the economy of a country experiences a sudden downturn brought on by a financial crisis. An economy facing … some financial assets suddenly lose a large part of their nominal value”

Many economists believe the current crisis is the worst the world has seen since the great Depression of 1930s.

For Marx “Capitalism IS an economic system that is inherently crisis-prone. It is driven by forces which cause it to be unstable, anarchic and self-destructive”

Marx with Frederic Engels described capitalism in the Communist Manifesto as “a society that has conjured up such gigantic means of production and of exchange, [that it] is like the sorcerer, who is no longer able to control the powers of the nether world whom he has called up by his spells.”A few questions here are coming up: Has that really happened? The sorcerer no longer controlled the power? When and where after 170 to 180 years we have seen that?

Elsewhere Marx argues that crises “carry the most frightful devastation in their train, and, like an earthquake, cause bourgeois society to shake to its very foundations.” Have we really seen bourgeois society shake to its very foundation?

Whatever the definitions of the crisis, this crisis happened and continues although the apologetic capitalists repeatedly say there will be no more “bust and slum”.

For Marx the causing of the crises are over-production, under-consumption, luck of purchase power and disproportion.

And the only solution from Marx and Engels for the above was democratic economic planning–socialism: “If the producers as such knew how much the consumers required, if they were to organize production, if they were to share it out amongst themselves, then the fluctuations of competition and its tendency to crisis would be impossible. Carry on production consciously as human beings–not as dispersed atoms without consciousness of your species–and you have overcome all these artificial and untenable antitheses. But as long as you continue to produce in the present unconscious, thoughtless manner, at the mercy of chance…crises will remain; and each successive crisis is bound to become more universal and therefore worse than the preceding one; is bound to impoverish a larger body of small capitalists, and to augment…the numbers of the class who live by labour alone”

There is no doubt that the chaotic form of production of the capitalism system and private ownership contradict with workforce of production. This brings crisis with itself which in the end brings disaster to the vast majority of us on one hand and accumulate the huge amount of capital in the hands of a tiny minority on the other hand.

If the causes of crisis is due to over-production and this causes the stagnation of economic, then at present time this ‘reason’ is questionable for me. At present because of the new technologies this problem to certain extent can be resolved by reorganising, making plans in advance before the stagnation starts in the market. No doubt nowadays any major company can find a huge amount of information within second, by using one click they can work out anywhere in the world where they have a branch how much goods, are sold, the profit and loss, the boom period for that particular branch, the number of customers they have, how many workers they have, their work conditions and their performances, and much more. Obviously things have changed very much since when Marx was alive, so they can gather all the above information in a matter of minutes. This may be a reason nowadays as to why the crisis is financially rather than the crisis of the business and trades, although it always ended up with the economic crisis.

However, here I am not attempting to find the causes of crisis but the influences and the implementation of crisis on the vast majority of us. It is true that from here to there a few capitalists, a few companies, banks will be bankrupted or even collapse but whatever happens, the system in general is intact and safe. It looks like an earthquake that comes and goes damaging some area but the rest of the world will remain undamaged.

We usually do not know much about the crisis or we do not feel it until the governments   impose the austerity policy.

Imposing the austerity policy:  

What has been so far introduced to us as capitalism’s crisis, in fact, was neither the crisis of capitalists nor the crisis of the capitalist system. When there are competitions and struggles between the varieties of the corporations, companies happen to cause bankrupting or collapsing some of them. In this situation capitalism through its nation states via its political representative, the parliamentary system imposes austerity on nation and citizens. Their justification for that, as they say, are the economic, is very bad, that without taking a serious measures the entire economy in the country even in the Continent will collapse then we will lose everything.

With this justification their vicious attack from privatising, selling the state ownerships and assets, reducing wages and pensions, sacking workers, reducing and cutting benefits, increasing working hours, imposing the worse work condition, putting up the prices of everything starts, to increase the rent, closing down the public services, forcing the worker to accept any shit jobs while there are millions unemployed in the market.

Austerity, as all of us know, brings so many more problems, like making the unions and working movement much weaker, decreasing corporation tax, increasing crime, racism and fascism, extending the hospital waiting list, homeless and homelessness list and list of eviction and repossessions usually go up.

The crisis situation for which the austerity is imposed brings us terrible packages which we are the only losers. It stays with us and it will be our crisis until   we will be completely aware and conscious about the situation and understanding fully of its causes. Unless we rise up against it by organising ourselves and work collectively to reject the parliamentary system, using direct action and direct democracy to bring back the power from the corporations and their political representative, the government, our crisis will continue and worsen.

In the absence of the above, this system will remain and the economic crisis will stay with us for a long time as well. History has shown us that after each economic crisis the capitalist system became stronger than before by organising itself better and becoming more efficient. Just looking back after the Great Depression what happened in the end of 1920s we can see instead of revolution, in fact, capitalism emerged so strongly it managed to launch WW2. Once the war was over again it managed to create so many small, big, short and long wars: civil wars, religious wars, nationalist wars in so many countries. No doubt these wars made the movement of people weaker and the system much stronger.

If we look at the current crisis closely on the World level and its impact on us we can start from the Oxfam report of 19/01/2015 that says half of global wealth held by 1%. The report shows that the share of the world’s wealth owned by the best-off 1% has increased from 44% in 2009 to 48% in 2014, while the least well-off 80% currently own just 5.5%.And also the report added that on current trends the richest 1% would own more than 50% of the world’s wealth by 2016. The report mentioned that last year, 2014, the 85 richest people on the planet have the same wealth as the poorest 50% (3.5 billion people).

In separate research the Equality Trust, which campaigns to reduce inequality in the UK, found that the richest 100 families in Britain in 2008 had seen their combined wealth increase by at least £15bn.

In this crisis in Europe the riches, the bankers and the companies are getting richer and making more profits while this crisis for us is getting deeper and making us poorer. We see the rate of unemployment has increased. For instance : In Italy the rate of unemployment rose to 12.4%, in Portugal 13% in France 10.5 % in Greece 25.6%, In Ireland 9.7%, in Germany 4.8%, in Spain 22.7% in UK 5.4% and in US 10.3%. The unemployment rate among the young people is much higher; for example, in Greece it is 56%, in Spain 53.5%, in Italy 43.9% and in Croatia 45.5%. According to Joseph Stieglitz, the former deputy of the World Bank, the rate of unemployment among the young African Americans   between 17 and 20 years old who have graduated from high school but not enrolled in college is over 50%.

Although a few of the Banks and big companies have been bankrupted or collapsed, the vast majority of them have benefited from the current crisis. Their profits have gone up compared to previous years. Here is an example of some of them; the profit of Walmart in 2014 was $16.4Bn –an increased of 2% since 2013. The profit of the first season of JP Morgan for this year that disclosed on 14/07/15 has gone up by 5.2% and the Electronic Arts predicts the profit of each of its share go up by $2.85, twice the profit of last year. Amazon online retailers Luxemburg Unit took £5.3bn sale just from British internet shoppers that rose by 14%. . Apple profit for last year increased by 6% to $39.1bn compared to 2013. Costco profit $20.6bn, IBM profit is $12bn, Microsoft profit $22.1bn increased by 1%, Google $14.4bn, the profit increased by 11%. Coca-Cola $7.1bn and Nike $2.7bn, was increased by 8%. These are only a few examples among 10 more of the world’s top corporations that their profits have gone up on our expenses.

In UK according to a report from Sunday Times of 15/04 that listed down the rich people shows the 1000 wealthiest people in the UK are now worth £547bn, not counting what’s in their bank account. The report says “The figure has more than doubled since a total of just under £250bn was recorded in 2005, despite the world economy being gripped by a punishing recession over much of the last decade”. The list also includes 117 billionaires – up from 104 last year.

What we see here should not actually shock or surprise us because; first the rate of corporation tax when Winston Churchill was in power was 97%. When Margaret Thatcher came to power it reduced to 60% and under the Labor and then Conservative gradually reduced to 20%. It was just recently disclosed that the taxpayers are handing businesses £93bn a year by subsiding them and tax break, a transfer of more than £3,500 from each household in the UK. Second the income of ordinary family has since 2008 gone down by 10% and also more than 900,000 people live on food banks. This figure has since last year gone up by 38%. In the meantime the gender pay gap has not closed after 70 years.

While we look at the actual evidence on day to day life with having more than 1.7 million workers on zero-hour contracts, reducing or cutting the benefits, selling the state properties and its assets including social housing , increasing the gap between the poor and the richer, the standard of people’s life lower than 5 years ago, the home owners rate from 70% reduced to 64% and the number of eviction in a day reaches more than 1000 , only between July and September of last year the number of evicted rent payers arrived to 11,000 and 2805 mortgage borrowers lost their homes during the quarter. And also it is expected if life goes on like now, the average UK household will be in debt by £10,000 by end of 2016, the number of Housing Benefit claimants have gone up by 500,000 and the working family claiming housing benefit more than doubled between 2009-10 and 2014-15 and now stands at more than 1.1 million,   the rate of young unemployment among ethnic minorities   went up by 50%, the cost of bringing up a child compare to years before increased by £2,000 ,   one of five UK earn less than living wage and more….How can you say this crisis is capitalism’s crisis not ours? And how can the crisis be “like an earthquake, cause bourgeois society to shake to its very foundations”?

When we have a spirit of defiance and challenge, we do not have to accept anymore of the above. When we resist orders from elites and their states, when we fight back, not surrendering, and believe that we can make changes. When we have the desire and the tendency of rebellion, the consciousness of being used and exploited and, the mentality of resistance that are extremely important for the job to be done. Then, we can freely and loudly say capitalism is in crisis not us.