/Rojava/ general

nice meymey there boi.

...

Can someone disprove the "ethnic cleansing" charge that keeps getting thrown at Rojava/YPG?

wut?

seems there are sunni arabs worried about getting annexed into a new kurdish state. also, I believe some of their towns got messed up when ISIS was driven out by YPG.

the kurds on the ground won't know who is with ISIS and who isn't. I haven't seen any evidence yet, but it's not hard to imagine that some fucks ups have happened. it won't be quite as bad as, say, western forces bombing entirely the wrong town in afghanistan, but it could still get quite bad.

the thing is, nobody trusts each other over there, and the US don't actually have a plan on how to deal with territories taken back from ISIS. even after ISIS is defeated, all the various factions will still hate each other's guts. the western world just happens to like the kurds at the moment because they were loyal to the US in the past and they turn out to be the only competent ground force available for stomping ISIS.

huh, wrong image. oh well. pretend I said something about erdogan smear-campaigning and insisting all kurds are terrorists.

Is he a Maoist or a Stalinist

Let me repost some stuff where a guy answered questions about the movement's ideology:

"Concerning ideology I have just this one question:

Since Noam Chomsky and Murray Bookchin are one of your main influences, why doesn't the movement consider itself anarchist?

Is it jus tbecause the word "anarchist" has the meaning of "chaos, violence, destruction"? Or is there an ideological reason you don't see yourself as anarchist?"

-"There are good critiques of anarchism by Ocalan. Namely, it never really identified with the masses or at least have strong grassroots connections (it was in someways overly intellectual), it was very dogmatic/it never changed as the world changed, it was overly individualistic, it did not talk about how to change the state itself, it never had a strong impact on society (historically), etc. All of this can be found in The Roots of Civilisation (book 3 I believe).

That's one element. Also, don't forget, we have to synthesis what's good about anarchism. It's rejection of authoritarianism, it's ecological aspects, and so on.

You have to separate what has not worked with what has worked. A longer piece can be found on this here, specifically in regards to the anarchist-elements of Ocalan's ideology that we are using: roarmag.org/2014/08/pkk-kurdish-struggle-autonomy/"

"Thanks for your reply (…) After that, it is as you said, that it became purely intellectual and it has been a very long time since the masses have identified with anarchist ideas so critique is definitely in order. But the only thing that is really important is that anti-authoritarian socialist ideas are spreading, and if the PKK have become open to these ideas, than this is defintely a very good step forward. "

-"Yes, and we celebrate May Day every year to commemorate the sacrifices of the early anarchist movement."

So as you can see, because Ocalan dared criticize anarchism he is actually Stalin reborn and will soon show up at your door to kill you with a pickaxe. Thanks for listening.

There's been secret meetings in recent days between Damascus and TEV DEM about the future of Rojava comrades. These are crucial times for the revolution.

...

I think the most simple and effective way to dispel the ethnic cleansing meme is to read the single amnesty international report that it's based on. Not only does it never accuse the YPG of ethnic cleansing, but even still the whole report is based on rather flimsy second hand information. What they accusing the YPG of doing to Arabs has been done by the YPG many times over to Kurdish villages. So the accusation never made sense.

The YPG do have an image problem in some Arab areas though.

reddit.com/r/syriancivilwar/comments/3dtszo/comment/ct8l1el?st=1Z141Z3&sh=d30f777d

These things heal over time though. IS anti YPG propaganda also has a part to play.

keep your head in the sand comrade

This. Just yesterday 'Rojava' (means West in Kurdish) was officially removed from the name of the project as to remove any element of Kurdish nationalism. It's now officially known as the Democratic Federal System of Northern Syria.

...

...

enoughisenough14.org/2016/12/29/interview-with-an-anti-fascist-activist-fighting-in-syria/

New interview with a volunteer

What would you rather have? The YPG forcefully seizing all businesses and resources, then handing over control to vanguard cronies followed by the mass murder of "kulaks", "revisionists" and small business owners?

But really, you should stop acting like being critical of theory and practice is bad.

Theory is nice, but we need practise. We can improve on the practice just as we can improve on the theory.
Besides, what would you rather have us do? Avoid revolution out of fear we might do something unorthodox?

Make a substantive criticism first faggot. Shitposting doesn't count

So, there's a couple of things playing into this. I've read parts of the amnesty report and parts of the YPG response report, and I'll have to say the response - while pretty silly at times - does hit the head on the nail most of the time.
There's just no evidence that any of the claims that people make about the SDF happens at anything near the scale that is implied. Most of the evidence used in the Amnesty report are either second-hand stories, or second hand stories backed up by satellite images of destroyed houses, which of course proves close to absolutely nothing.
What I have seen people report though, and what the YPG does admit to, as far as I understand, is a number of isolated incidents of mistreatment of PoWs, escaping Daesh, and civilian supporters of Daesh. Also, it seems that most of these incidents have been committed by HXP draftees, who are not as ideologically motivated as the YPG, not volunteers, &c. I'll admit to not actually looking too much into this, but some YPG officers wrote about this somewhere, if you look for it you'll probably find it.

Like the other responder I linked also mentioned, there's a pretty massive disinformation campaign going on from both Daesh, AKP-drones and Baathist tankies, which one really has got to take into consideration. This doesn't mean that one should disregard criticisms of Rojava, but that one should realize that in the exact same way as one would have some healthy skepticism towards any subject where the sources contain serious vested interests in controlling your belief, you need to actually look at the conclusions that are loaded into the claims being made. e.g. "we must disregard Rojava entirely because they're supported by the U.S.", or "we must disregard Rojava entirely because there are these isolated incidents of serious mistreatment of PoWs".

I'm generally very supportive of Rojava (DFSNS?), and think it's probably the most important leftist societal development in the world in decades. But from my understanding isn't private property still pretty much the dominant property relation with regards to most manufacturing/production?
From what I've read of society in Rojava currently, I think it has a lot of potential as a revolutionary transition to more libertarian leftist political systems, which definitely includes systems that one would traditionally describe as socialist, but I wouldn't describe them as socialist themselves.
Am I totally in the wrong here? Does the civilian peace-keeping forces in conjunction with the justice system not uphold private property rights in any sense that we are used to? Or do you think that the system can still meaningfully be described as socialist with private property rights and production under SNLT?

wew

A figure that's cited on here often is 80% of the economy is "socialized". If you have conflicting sources please share them

Hey guys out of curiosity, I'm currently in university studying psych, I'm pretty fit (competitive weightlifter) but have no combat training in particular. Would it be better to finish my studies (I have one year left) and join my country's reserve army to receive military training, bone up on Kurdish and Democratic Confederalist theory and then in a year volunteer for the YPG? Or would it be better to fly over ASAP and receive indoctrination and training there? I would like to finish my studies if possible but I also desperately want to help the cause, does my first plan sound like a better option or should I just nut up, put my studies on hold and volunteer now?

If I were in your shoes I would get my degree first but without knowing more about you I can't say what's right for you. You should keep in mind though that a year from now the situation in Rojava could be entirely different, so if it's of the utmost importance that you go it might be a good idea to go now.

Also keep in mind that it can take a while before they're ready to bring you in so you might be able to finish up your degree while you're on the waiting list.

You should learn kurdish before you leave. Beyond that, I think you should go as soon as possible.

I sent off an email asking the question in my post and some other questions to the. I also have asthma and a history of depression and am curious if they can treat those things and if they would want someone in their army who

I would like to go as soon as possible but it seems like with the new difficulties smuggling people and the ever increasing waiting list I might have to wait that long anyway. If I can get there sooner I still might aim to go at the end of 2017. If I go over untrained and ignorant I will need to spend 3+ months being trained and even more time indoctrinated before I'm useful. If I ditch my degree and go over before the end of the year it will probably be the same amount of time either way. Plus if I finish my studies I might be able to help the fighters suffering from PTSD or depression as a councillor.

*has those problems.

The degree might make it easier for you to actually get there. Along the way, you can say your objective is humanitarian aid and mention the degree and your interest in PTSD counseling. You'll be less suspicious at the airport etc.

This kind of aid might become your goal anyway. Even if you go immediately, by the time you actually get out of boot camp the whole region will have changed and the focus might already be on reconstruction.

There is a big problem with suicide in the YPG because Kurdish culture is very insular and stoic when it comes to dealing with trauma so I think if you could help set up the infrastructure to help with that it'd be great. I'm sure you could set up something through TEV DEM to help with that.

You guys actually raise a really good point I hadn't considered until now. I wanted to go over and fight but there probably aren't that many people going over to be psychs/counsellor. I think I will wait until I've graduated and then head over. I'll try and get in contact soon and make plans to go end of 2017. In the meantime I'll get started on learning Kurdish, I'll need to be fluent if I'm gonna treat anyone.

I'm glad you figured out a plan. When you eventually write a book about your experiences, don't forget to dedicate it to user & user!

I myself am not so sure what I could do to help right now, but in the future they might need more tech guys.

Since I started following Rojava and the Kurdish struggle I've really come to have a burning hatred towards Turkey and I'm wondering why people don't look at Turkey like they do Israel

Haha we'll see user. First I gotta graduate and then get myself to Rojava alive. This plan does fill me with a purpose which feels nice but I've got a long road ahead if I want to really get this going.

I think that Rojava will almost certainly need help with establishing/maintaining IT infrastructure once the region has stabilised and maybe even beforehand. You should get in contact and see if there's a need. Who knows user maybe we'll meet over there, look out for an Aussie doing counselling haha.

Rojava Plan used to be great for bringing non soldiers (as in teachers, builders, artists etc) over. It's a shame that broke down

If you're doing/learning software, look up some of the foss tools that they use / develop, might be that they could use more hands.
If you're more general tech or still open to specialization, look into communications infrastructure, especially decentralized or decentralization of implemented infrastructure.

I definitely feel the same; in fact I was silenced at my local BDS for wanting to build more support for Rojava because apparently it would upset the Turkish supporters of the group.

People who only dish out solidarity when it's fashionable and convenient are not my comrades. It isn't that long ago when speaking up for Palestine was viewed very negatively even among certain circles in the left.

The idea that we should remain silent on oppression because it might hurt some feelings is disgusting tbh.

As an Irishman I'll never forget how people like John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn ceaselessly defended Irish people at the height of anti Irish sentiment during the troubles.

That would be great, user! I'd love to meet you there. The sense of purpose will likely help us finish our studies.

Though I still have a long way ahead of me I can probably look into the most obvious tools and start contributing as a programmer. I know they use gnu privacy guard, for one thing.

I'm feeling a bit down right now, though. My friend predicts a future where the west will let Turkey get away with everything.

This is one of my more "normie" friends. He never talks about conspiracy theories, and our conversations are either about movies or just full of easy, vanilla mainstream views. Today I asked him rather flatly, "why is nobody talking about ISIS being driven back? Kurds are about to make history, yet there's nothing about it in the mainstream media anymore. Everybody just keeps talking about fucking Russia. Why is there no news on the Kurds?"
Then my friend told me something that made my skin crawl. "Well, that is probably so you don't grow too attached to them. The US doesn't like dealing with these little factions for long. They prefer dealing with strong, tightly controlled states. States such as Turkey, which is a NATO member no less. The US needs Turkey to stay happy, especially now as relations with Russia fall apart. Probably the Kurds will be betrayed." My friend is a student of political science.

How do we deal with this worst case scenario? The only solution I can come up with on short notice is to spam social media about the YPG's progress (but not quite enough to get you ghost banned, which is what happens when you spam, say, wikileaks on facebook and twitter).

People everywhere need to have it rubbed in their faces that YPG is destroying ISIS. This image needs to be kept alive, to make it harder for the US to suddenly cut off support and then pass the ball to Erdogan.

If you're still learning, I think sticking with application layer stuff is a good idea.

Your friend's not stupid, and that analysis is not in conflict with what many people here predict.
I also think that you're right in thinking that the public outcry in support of Rojava will be a necessary part in ensuring the future of Rojava's foreign relations.
But, I think that it's not the only thing that has the potential of influencing this prediction.
Like your friend says; the US likes dealing with strong controlled states. The internal conflicts of Turkey can put this stability into jeopardy, they just had a coup attempt and are at this point still fighting a decades long and currently escalating internal insurrection. Disregarding what these domestic instabilities might result in politically in Turkey, they might make it impossible to collaborate with them on their terms without committing political suicide, as a European or American politician.
Journalists in Northern Syria / Turkey have an important role to play in determining the outcome of the coming conflicts.

I'd like to see some more of Ocalan's books translated to English. Apparently he's written many. I've only read the democratic confederalism one (and it's more of a booklet outlining the basics of the ideology).

Anyway I know the personality cult is creepy but he seems based. i think the Kurds will take it extremely bad when he dies though.

muh "actually existing imperialism" is more than a tactical challenge to "work around"

Well, good. I hadn't considered this yet. Turkey isn't exactly stable right now, and so it is hardly an ideal partner for the US. That will give YPG some breathing room.

From the essay I read, Bordiga appears to be yet another organicist (like DiaMat/fascism) who clouds his holistic metaphysics by constantly calling everyone else spiritualists and retarded. I don't see any reason to read further.

And half of the start was just "Marx completely BTFO libtards, how will they ever recover". It was extremely self-congratulatory, highly speculative, and nothing you wouldn't have understood from Marx's own criticism

...

Ahahaha, nope

Care to retort to ?

Why can't you be more empirical? :^)

It's a joke
Postmodernism a shit

Most of them are written in Kurdish then?

How long would it take to actually master Kurdish for purposes of successful translation work?

I see.

Also, checkem.

There are a lot of books already translated like The Roots of Civilization and Manifesto for a Democractic Civilization. Worth reading.

You're a traitor to everything left communism stands for.

Pardon, do you know if there are links to pdf files in an older thread? I don't see anything in the /lit/ thread (the one with the touhou showing her arm pits).

I'd like to read Manifesto for a Democratic Civilization, if that's also what you recommend as a starting point.

By the time I finally become useful to Rojava and then manage to get smuggled across the border, YPG will have already crushed Daesh five times over.

For now I'll just donate money to the Kurdish Red Crescent. It doesn't sound as heroic, but at least money is fast.

...

Easy on the memery, friend. He already admitted to making a spook- I mean joke.

How old is this image anyway?

Hearts of Iron IV: A Kurd Hope

Happy new year to Rojava!

On euronews, they ran a story on ISIS being under siege but only spoke of "Iraqi forces" and US air support. It seems mainstream media are ignoring Kurdish efforts, presumably to avoid angering the Turkish state.

Meanwhile, Turkey has suffered a devastating terror attack carried out by lone wolves inspired by ISIS. One could argue that the Kurds are doing Turkey a favor by properly annihilating Daesh. It would be nice if the international community actually recognized this favor.

Turkey happily let ISIS use and abuse its border without ever reproaching them for years. Once the YPG took these areas off ISIS, Turkey immediately stepped in, invaded Syria and has been shelling Kurdish towns and cities every since. Really makes ya think huh.

k*rds are below human and saddam did nothing wrong
fuck all you cucks

6 months I think?

Jesus H. Christ. How long has this been going on?

Do you have any links to articles about it?

t. turkroach

Nice post from a previous non ideological volunteer

what happens when Assad teams up with Erdogan and betrays Rojava? will they be crushed quickly or will it start a new war?

demconua.wordpress.com/

hopefully this catches on

I suppose Rojava got a few lucky breaks:

1. ISIS will probably keep resurfacing for a while and so the US will continue to rely on YPG to do all the dirty work of searching for hideouts.
2. Erdogan is weakened. Guy purged his own army and is increasingly unpopular in the west.
3. Assad is weakened. He relies on Russian support. The Russians just want to block the plans for le secret qatar-turkey pipeline and don't really care for the rest of the region.

Thanks for linking this!

I hope this is true but it seems unlikely especially given the recent truce between Assad and rebels. Assad will want to get rid of Rojava and while the Turkish military is weakened it could still occupy northern Syria if it needed to. Erdogan is certainly unpopular but I don't feel like the west or Russia would care enough to intervene if he went after Rojava.

Today the SDF captured West-Tareq, East-Tareq, Himarayn and an-Nahud, this is going at a fast pace. Anyone care to explain why IS can't seem to respond to this Blitzkrieg?

Superior combat tactics combined with airstrikes.

anfenglish.com/women/ypj-spokeswoman-we-also-fight-for-a-mental-and-intellectual-liberation

Arab women are joining the YPJ in such numbers that the YPJ are gonna create an Arab equivalent of the YPJ and they're gonna set up an Arab women's academy to educate Arab women in the philosophy and the politics of democratic confederalism and Rojava.

They also aim to double or triple the amount of YPJ members in general.

How cool is this? Everyday the grassroots participation grows and sinks deeper and the multi ethnic component grows wider. Not to mention the ideology is spreading into every aspect of society.

Oh shit really? Seems like they're really stepping up as the replacement to the Syrian Rebels. Maybe they'll eat some of their support as well.
W-what if they w-win?

Lol truce don't mean shit, rebels want Assad gone and that's that.

...

Well they've swallowed a lot of the secular rebels groups and inducted them into the SDF. But the Islamist rebels and their supporters view them as traitors.

current situation around raqqa

SDF doing a good job of isolating the city and taking Taqba dam (should be done soon enough)

RIP comrade

Briton Ryan Lock killed fighting Islamic State in Syria - bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38492921

An Italian-Canadian comrade was also killed.

Manbij offensive happened about 5 months ago.

...

Promising news is that negotiations between the regime and the PYD on the future of Rojava have already started. A second round of talks will begin soon.

From what I have read, it seems the regime started the talks with a hardline stance of wanting complete control of Northern Syria, but Russia told them to cut that shit out and to start seriously discussing autonomy and self governance, and how that would work out. Which sounds positive!

people vastly overestimate what say Assad has anymore, he's essentially owned by Russia and Iran now.

MAKE GREATER KURDISTAN GREAT AGAIN
youtube.com/watch?v=rpNy6Lh08xc
(kek)

Why's that?

because they agreed not to attack Assad for now and focus on ISIS.

YPG collaborated with rebels at the start of the revolution but as they grew more Islamist and ugly in their ideology, the YPG stopped their collaboration with the rebels and opted for a neutral stance toward the government. Thus the traitor accusations.

twitter.com/TurkeyUntold/status/801821264025362432

absolutely crazy how Turkey is treating the HDP

i really really hate turkey

aawsat.com/home/article/822236/قيادية-كردية-لـ«الشرق-الأوسط»-وضعنا-شروطًا-للدخول-بمفاوضات-مع-النظام

biji :D

super rare ocalan memes, be careful with these

The more I see Arabs and Turkmen in Rojava get involved in the Communalism; the more hope I have for Syria as a whole.

It honestly annoys me how much people think that the SDF and Kurds are one in the same when only a half of the SDF fighting force is actually ethnically Kurdish

Iraqi Kurds are honestly the runt of the litter when it comes to the Kurdish community.

It's a shame too, because most people who only follow events in Iraq and Syria on a superficial level don't see the difference and think the Peshmerga are the ones fighting ISIS in Syria too. It's why I don't like the label "the Kurds" when talking about these things.

even in Iraq, which is supposed to be Peshmerga jurisdiction, it was was the PKK and YPG who stepped in to save the Yezidis from being genocided in Singal because the Peshmerga ran away and left them to die.

Peshmerga is a lot more keen on "non-ideological" fighters and the KRG are the ones policing the Iraq-Syria border so western volunteers can't join up with the YPG. If they're really the "runt of the litter" that should be a good thing when independence comes.

weird how Turkey literally invaded Syria with like 8,000 troops and nobody really seems to care

just been another bombing in turkey. this one likely done by DHKP-C.

Any links for this?

Watch how every victim magically turns into a civilian and the media not metioning the fact that its the anniversary of the killing of a child during the Gezi protests.

Terror attacks as symbols are stupid and never have worked and never will work.

wow I just watched that RT documentary on the YPJ… it was so beautiful :')

So much of the coverage of the YPJ is so hackneyed and lame but that doc was so, so good. no sensationalism or anything like that. would highly rec.

youtube.com/watch?v=uqI0a4VgEs8

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_military_intervention_in_Syria

or just google euphrates shield

Shout-out to our hue comrades

Source of the picture?

twitter.com/Dr_Partizan/status/817149671827193856

I presume how Dr Partizan gets these images off the fighters' facebook pages

...

imgur.com/a/DSXkd

Nice album of international volunteers (mostly Turks) in Rojava

So these are Turks using a Spanish republican flag? That's kind of dumb.

Well if they're not all Turks and they're there for ideological reasons then it makes sense to use a flag that represents left-wing struggle.

It doesn't. It reflects the Republic of Spain; a bourgeois liberal state which existed from 1931 to 1939. If you really wanna think of yourself as the second Brigada Internacional, use the red and black or some shit.

From what I understand from Spaniards I know personally; the Spanish republican flag represents left-wing struggle in Spain. Though it is used by both communists and left-leaning liberals.

In this case it is being used by the communist Spanish Hoxhaist party 'Reconstrucción Comunista'.

Syrian War is so crazy. A war where a Spanish Hoxhaist can kill a Chinese Islamist.

Many more fighters from the Iranian PJAK lost their lives in Rojava, they are all over the frontines fighting with their KCK allies.

It's an ambiguous kind of feel

Seeing our internationalist comrades fighting in Rojava makes me very proud to be a leftist tbh.

You fucked this image up, Anton Leschek number 17, and there is no number 20.

I thought it was called democratic cofederation.

It is, but democratic confederalism is in large part a development of communalism so OP's not exactly wrong either.

Awesome pics user

The MLKP symbol is very nice

Indeed, it's a nice reminder that the flame of internationalism lives on

I'm happy and sad. Happy to see leftists fighting ISIS. Sad to see they're authoritarian leftists.
I did spot at least three anarchists though. That's nice.

The Manbij offensive really gave me hopes the kurds could unify the cantons. Shame they got cockblocked by t*rkey and the moderate beheaders.

There's also many ethnic Turks who have died for Rojava. But their identities can't be revealed because their families will be targeted by ultra nationalists mobs if that happens :(

pretty huge Kurdish rally in Paris rn commemorating some Kurdish activists who were assassinated (likely by Turks). plenty of YPG and PKK flags there.

impressed at how well the Kurdish diaspora can mobilise.

Chinese comrade

Love at first sight.

lotta of deaths recently

What a qt

loads of Turks get butthurt over how well liked the Kurds/YPG are all over the world

Most Turks are rabid nationalist retards tbh. Like seriously I never knew those fuckers were so nationalistic.

Turks are the most brainwashed nation on earth, its hilarious to see them struggle with reality when they leave their holes.

youtube.com/watch?v=appF_hCMxmU

This vid is months old, so I'd say it's safe to assume that there's now 1,000+ foreign volunteers in Rojava. Which is breddy decent numbers.

Democratic Confederalism with Chinese characteristics

I've noticed that too, fucking depressing

Good progress being made, big battle for Taqba coming next. Still skeptical as to how serious they are about taking Raqqa, but I'll celebrate anytime there's more yellow on these maps.

What is Rojava's end game?

spreading democratic confederalism across the whole middle east

Fully automated feminist gay space communalism.

Turks also have a much more militant Left by todays standards. The MLKP, DHKP-C, included along with the PKK.

I'm guessing joint assault from west and north with air support. Should be good, but obviously needs to prepare for probable counterattack from influx of fleeing ISIS from Iraq and forces from the south.

Doesn't that mean every state is their enemy and will gang up on them?

Is that really feasible?

Rojava has only succeed because of a series of highly unusual and complex factors (the entire Syrian war) which is very unlikely to occur anywhere else.

Even another war isn't going to feature the same kind of multi-factional, chaotic nonsense that's allowed the PYD to thrive. A similar uprising during, for instance, the Libyan civil war probably would have been crushed almost immediately.

The whole "the entire middle east thing" is of course utopian and unrealistic. But Ocalan viewed the ideology as a solution to the Middle East's problems, not just the Kurds. So I think Rojava will act as the paradigm and if anyone else in the region expresses interest, the necessary people will be sent to help set things up.

Also the HDP party in Turkey which advocates the same ideology got like 6 million votes, which is pretty good I think. All their members have been thrown in jail now though, sadly.

does anyone know if erdogan is still trying to legalise execution

because ocalan might be one of the first to go if it happens

Naaaaaaaah.

He's already essentially a martyr. I think it was Erdogan's lawyer who was saying he should be executed if they can approve capital punishment.

No. Their end game is not that Utopian. It's reuniting both Kurdish cantons and obtaining, if not formal independence, at least full autonomy.

...

Dead Kurdish PKK fighters infront of Ataturk Statue with text reading: No one can break this country

A strong message to the YPG i guess :)

How do we stop this shit country?

That's what armies are for.

In all honesty; I hate Turkish nationalists more than I hate neo-nazis in my own country. Every aspect of their fucked up and arrogant world view is disgusting.

So isn't this another pretty good indicator that YPG is doing all of the fucking work in destroying ISIS?

It really seems to me that the mainstream media is being as vague as possible about the conflict. They never say anything about the Kurds anymore, and give the impression that it's the Iraqi government (lol) who are driving back ISIS. There is also no mention of Turkey invading the north of Syria.

No one can dispute that the YPG is doing the most against ISIS in Syria because it's objectively true.

The Grey Wolves are much more heavily armed and dangerous than any huwhite nationalist group which in contrast are mostly toothless LARPers, so yeah they pose a much bigger problem for the left in general.

Turkey is just in general a fairly violent place for a country that is not quite third world.

practice without theory is impotence.

youtube.com/watch?v=AME4o5avic0

that vid is fucking amazing

it's not crazy if you realize that this is essentially a war led by different factions of capital, whether they're the Kurds, Islamists or Ba'athists.

When YPG wipes Daesh off the face of the earth and makes some kind of truce with Assad, there will be fewer refugees fleeing the region. As a result, Europe will (hopefully) stop mollycoddling Erdogan.

Erdogan is doing it for us by destroying their society and economy.

What are you talking about? All of Turkey's problems are caused by outside forces who are all personally jealous of Erdogan!

Gülen did it!

let putin nuke it

you[clap emoji]can't[clap emoji]call[clap emoji]youtself[clap emoji]a[clap emoji]true[clap emoji]leftist[clap emoji]if[clap emoji]you[clap emoji]don't[clap emoji]support[clap emoji]the[clap emoji]leftists[clap emoji]groups[clap emoji]fighting[clap emoji]right[clap emoji]now[clap emoji]for[clap emoji]their[clap emoji]sovereignty[clap emoji]your[clap emoji]third[clap emoji]worldist[clap emoji]piece[clap emoji]of[clap emoji]shit

because of the al raqqah offensive.I hope they can use it as a strong bargaining chip in negotiations,if they are able to take it

Anymore news on negotiations?

This post, offers some of the best news in the entire thread. I hope it holds up.

I assume Russia and Iran simply want to cordon off the area to piss off the US and foil the Qatar-Turkey pipeline plans, so they don't care if Assad loses some territory in the north. I'm worried they might still turn on Rojava though, as soon as ISIS is destroyed.

what?

reporting this thread, if any of you soft assed obese guys come here police will arrest you and you'll enjoy exocit middle eastern prison trip.

Nice meme Mehmet

The latest news on negotiations has been the stance put forward by the Rojava representatives:

he's not saying have no theory, he's saying that theory without practice amounts to nothing i.e. leftcommunism.

How is the DFNS a faction of capital? They have their own interests separate from the US, Russia etc. Also, to refer to DFNS as "the Kurds" is a misnomer considering that there's an ever increasing amount of arabs and non-kurds joining the self government.

spotted the turkroach

HOLY SHIT, OUR GUY DIED?

You're thinking of PissPig. Although Micheal Israel was a very fine comrade too.

youtube.com/watch?v=TavAfIBYpGk

PissPig is alive, and part of the Raqqa offensive. You can see his Armored personnel carrier at 0:35 in this video realised earlier today. He's probably inside it.

enjoy your prison rape faggots :^)

So are you a random Holla Forums stormie or an Erdogan fanboy? I'm not really sure which is worse at this point.

Yeah.
I legit thought it was Pisspig.

Is that /ourguy/?

See what I mean about Turkish nationalists. Can't even take a small amount of criticism without making pseudo-macho threats.

feels good man

It's not pseudo-macho, machismo has always been hysterical and super-sensitive.

similar kind of stature but it's very hard to tell

We don't negotiate with terrorists

...

It has happened before and it will happen again.

Yeah, I noticed something about Holla Forums types. They really are just as hilariously sensitive as all the tumblr teenagers they whine about. Buncha pavlovian dogs.

You're arguing with the same leftcom dude who keeps whining about YPG et al being phonies. As in, they totally pawns now because they accepted help from the US. They obviously should have turned down said help and just let themselves be surrounded by Daesh and wiped the fuck out, right? That's the leftcom-approved method of progress.

You don't scare anyone here, Erdogan fanboy. You're just another sad, brainwashed individual. Go worship your cult leader and try not to get purged in the process.

this is why turkey is the most hated country on /int/

So, first Erdogan's regime allows ISIS on its borders for years, smuggling oil. When they finally do move in to "fight terror" it's only to start shelling civilians in areas held by Kurds, even though Syrian Kurds are doing all the heavy lifting in the fight against ISIS.

Is there anything more disgusting than Erdogan right now?

Erdogan's Turkish fanboys on 4/pol/

That's really a thing? I had no idea.

Somebody please nuke 4/pol/ already.

sad thing is Erdogan is adored both inside and outside Turkey despite all these things

Turkroach salt here bois

Got anymore Rojava-related twitter accounts to share, comrade?

I've seen turks on there complain that's he's not nationalistic enough

lads is ypginternational.blackblogs a reasonable place to email to be recruited? If not where do I go? I want to die anyway so I might as well do it in a useful way.

Just listen to Death in June until the urge subsides.

Who's pisspig why is he /our guy/?

Commie volunteer from San Francisco who had a presence on "weird twitter"

Oh ya, I read an article about him. He seemed like a huge hipster, not the type of guy who'd go on imageboards.

Why is he called pisspig?

Yeah that's the official way of doing it

that's his twitter handle

pretty sure you you're supposed to contact them here ypgrojava.org/english at least that's what a comrade said in the previous thread

ypgrojava.org/Contact-Us
>We thank you all for your help, if your email is about how to join us please contact this website for joining ypg-international.org/ or Facebook
facebook.com/YPGInternational/

Thanks for clearing that up comrade

Serçavan, heval.

Yeah, that's the official place to go. If you do go; please keep us updated. Good luck comrade.

Just reading about the days when the PKK trained in PLO training camps in Lebanon and fought on behalf of the PLO in the Lebanese civil war.

Sad that those days of revolutionary solidarity are gone and the Palestinian resistance has stagnated and been infiltrated by Islamists :'(

Ocalan has talked about DemCon being a solution to the Palestinian crisis. I wouldn't be surprised to see collaboration once more.

SDF took a fucking castle of ISIS recently. Awesome stuff.

Yeah thats the official place that is integrated into the YPG.

independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/donald-trump-presidency-turkey-recep-tayyip-erdogan-us-turkish-relations-barack-obama-inauguration-a7517801.html

King Roach already sucking Trump's balls to get him to ditch the YPG

Qal'at Ja'bar castle used to be a Turkish exclave until 1973 so the Turkish nationalists are probably really pissed about this.

Please read some stoicism before making your decision user. You won't be much use to anyone when you're coming apart at the seams, so you might as well calm your mind first. In fact, by the time you actually get there, ISIS might already be wiped out (dang YPG being too darn good at killing Daesh!) and you'll be needed for reconstruction efforts.

Anyway, read a motherfucking book. Lock yourself up in a library or something and turn off any devices, then read Seneca or Marcus Aurelius. Your pick.

ISIS will be around for another year or two. Should be mostly gone by then.

...

I hope Trump's military advisers go against this shit and ignore Turkey.

The Kurds have been consistently loyal and effective. Erdogan has done fucking nothing except bitch and moan.

kurdishquestion.com/article/3771-yazidi-group-calls-for-the-pkk-to-remain-in-sinjar

Really shitty how the PKK are being forced to leave Sinjar out of diplomatic egotism (ahem, Turkey and Iraq) when the local Yazidis want them to stay.

If you don't know, the PKK saved the Yezidis from an ISIS genocide a few years ago. The peshmerga left the Yazidis to die. Iraq left them to die. Now the Yazidis are expected to trusts both the Peshmerga and Iraq with their lives again.

...

At least sinjar has it's own YPG now, via the YBS

Stoicism is Cynicism-lite, it's true, but it's better than having a normie mind and can lead to deeper philosophy.

Dumping some nice posters I found

post your own if you have them

They probably will. I've been thinking a lot about this a lot and the major points I've come to is:
All of this combined is enough for the US to tell Turkey to fuck off and possibly get them expelled from NATO if they keep acting like this. It's also enough for Turkey is just invade the DFNS and start another war, possibly with the rest of Syria.

If this is true it explains why the PKK is being stubborn and refusing the leave. who knew the KRG can't be trusted after all.

I wonder what is going to happen with the KRG. Turkey is using them to be the "good Kurd" compared to the PKK "bad Kurd", but I can't see all the Kurdistan nationalists there not doing anything if Turkey tried to invade Rojava.

Good thread bump 612

To the bunkers!

Are there Kurdish versians of these?

I don't think they'd ever get kicked out of NATO

You're doing allah's work gomrade

dailysabah.com/d/politics/2017/01/09/ypg-spreads-marxist-ideology-incites-conflict-in-syria-with-us-help-report-says

wtf I love the YPG now

(Daily Sabah is essentially Erdogan's mouthpiece)

#ISIS repelled the #TAF backed #FSA attacks.
Turkish Special F. are deploying in west of Al Bab

I am enjoying this so much.

I've said this before here and I'll gladly repeat it: There is 0% chance of this happening. Turkeys strategic role in NATO and as an American ally is just too important. If human rights abuses and internal instability was a problem, the US would have cut ties to the Sauds decades ago.
Especially now when US state, parliament and media have been escalating conflict with Russia at every single turn.
Turkey has an interest in bettering their relations with Russia with regards to trade (e.g. energy) and internal affairs (kurds), sure, but there's just no fucking way in hell that they'll get kicked out of NATO. Turkish secession from NATO is WW3 initiation type shit.
The US is going to pick Turkey over the Kurds at every turn they can, like they have historically. The current problem is that doing so would be the same as picking ISIS, which is currently a bigger issue than Turkish relations, which means that their hands are tied.

They really want to plant that mind worm.

Bumping for Apo

twitter.com/Metin4020/status/818923439784333313

this would be brilliant

Practice without theory merely reflects what is already there. Theory without practice isn't even theory.

"Left"-"coms" might as well not exist.

In comparison to Assad and his guys?

While the YPG is definitely doing the most it's a bit ridiculous to count out the work Assad and especially his Shia allies have done in the conflict

idk, sorry comlad

BASED

what do you need a degree for when you're gonna be beheaded by some goat fucking with a butterknife anyway?

Do you want the news articles to refer to you as a beheaded college dropout or graduate?

ISIS gets it's ass kicked quite regularly by SDF

It's not the instability and human rights abuses per se that would matter, it's Turkey's and Erdogan's unreliable, disobedient behavior in general. The Sauds might be tyrannical Islamists, but they know that they better obey the US or they'll become another Iraq. Turkey is acting like they don't have to listen to the US and that if the West is being mean to them then maybe Russia will be nicer and the US will just have to deal with it. They've already accused the US of aiding terrorists, threatened them with taking away a strategic airbase, and refusing to cooperate with the US' only ally in Syria and even directly attacking them.
Historically the Kurds have been irrelevant and Turkey had been a reliable ally. Now the Kurds are a major faction in the Middle East, who are sane, reliable, and aren't doing anything the US doesn't want them to do, whereas Turkey is falling apart, isn't reliable or trustworthy, and is being directly hostile to the West and friendly with the East.

I am sure comrade will do very well.

So I am at a crossroad in my life. I'll be going to uni soon but I am seriosuly considering joining the YPG.
Maybe this is all a "phase" but working 9-5 every day for consumerism scares me. I really don't want the typical wasted life. I'll also be conscripted this summer so I guess that would give me some knowledge if I actually want to do it and it'll get me some experience beforehand. I do believe in democratic confederalism and I recognize Rojava as the most important revolutionary event in the 21st century.
My concerns aren't with death, I've had my bouts with depression, I am more worried over my family.
I know they'd see it as some anti-social/deranged act, even though my mother is an iraqi-kurd and my grandfather was politically active leftist (communist, I think) under ba'ath rule. Am I just another victim of romanticism, too influenced by Homage to Catalonia?
When thinking about the fact that I might not come back I can only recite a poem my Muhammad Ali:
Better far— from all I see—
To die fighting to be free
What more fitting end could be?
Better surely than in some bed
Where in broken health I'm led
Lingering until I'm dead
Better than with prayers and pleas
Or in the clutch of some disease
Wasting slowly by degrees
Better than a heart attack
or some dose of drug I lack
Let me die by being black
Better far that I should go
Standing here against the foe
Is the sweeter death to know
Better than the bloody stain
on some highway where I’m lain
Torn by flying glass and pane
Better calling death to come
than to die another dumb,
muted victim in the slum
Better than of this prison rot
if there’s any choice I’ve got
Kill me here on the spot
Better for my fight to wage
Now while my blood boils with rage
Less it cool with ancient age
Better violent for us to die
Than to Uncle Tom and try
Making peace just to live a lie
Better now that I say my sooth
I’m gonna die demanding Truth
While I’m still akin to youth
Better now than later on
Now that fear of death is gone
Never mind another dawn.

Don't fight for a romantic ideal comrade. You will only be disappointed. Do what you want.

i hope so too

I can't tell you what to do comrade. Just know that it's your life to live and that people more often regret what they didn't do than what they did. Don't let fear decide for you, and don't denigrate your dreams by calling it romanticism or "just a phase".

That's a really cool poem btw, thanks for sharing.

A living heavy meme

Learn some Kurdish while finishing your studies, a huge amount of Kurdish fighters are in dire need of psychological support. Even when the war is over they will need your help. I bet my ass that they will love you there.

The problem with that analysis is that you're disregarding that Erdogan is doing this - acting disobediently - precisely because they have that pull, with regards to the US.
Erdogan is showing Obama/Trump that if they want him to lend strategic use of his country and army to NATO, then they better help him with regards to keeping the country stable. And I just don't see a future where the US won't pick fucking the Turkish and Kurdish people over, just to preserve that.
Except that the DFNS is not a fucking country with strong state control (their army is primarily volunteer, how the fuck does that come in handy for NATO?), doesn't have a huge army with tons of air bases, does not hold any American nukes, does not hold strategic control over the black sea, does not have strong ties with the other regional states, I could keep going honestly. You're delusional if you think that this has any real chance of happening.

I think you're right in the sense that the Turkish instability + Erdogan's complete disregard of American / European interests in the region are what will give DFNS it's shot at autonomy. But thinking that this will lead to the downfall of Turkey as a western ally is taking that line of thought too far I think.

chris-kutschera.com/A/Ocalan Last Interview.htm

Interesting interview from before he went to jail.

I find this part interesting because the Apoist/Bookchinist ideology undoubtedly is changing the nucleus of Kurdish society in the areas it's really taken hold in (Syria and Turkey). And as we're seeing in Syria it's spreading far beyond just Kurds too.

Apo found a way.

That's my plan user. I've already started a bit of work on some Kurdish. I really suck at new languages but a year should be enough haha.

Also as a general update. I shot an email to YPG with some pretty general inquiries. I received a group email back saying that I'll get a response soon. I have heard responses are pretty slow but promising start my dudes!

Thank you. Family comes first though, and I have other dreams like showing my momma the world before it's too late. I'd also feel that I'd be disrespecting her achivement of surviving iraq and the soviet union

user when you get to the YPG training camp it's integral that you represent Holla Forums on the graffiti shitpost wall.

...

It'd be fun if we somehow met over there a year from now

dailysabah.com/politics/2017/01/11/us-says-pyd-should-be-included-in-syria-peace-talks

What is the US's endgame in supporting the PYD?

Ain't no game, sucka'.

Although, seriously, I think they just prefer them to ISIS and Assad.

It's probably pressure from the PYD, as in "if you don't champion our cause diplomatically, we'll call a halt to the Raqqa offensive".

That, and also right now municipalism is sadly not quite the international movement it could be.

Holla Forums sure has a hard-on for supporting rebels that terror-bomb Turkish cities.

that's actually the best thing about them, and why we all love em

when you get over there look out for a 6'2" brown haired aussie who does counselling

What do you guys think I should write??

AND IT WAS ALL YELLOW

paint Stirner on the wall

"Read Bookchin"

Looks like Turkey is tired of waiting to attack Manbij
twitter.com/4rj1n/status/819220917956018177

...

That might be true but that doesn't mean the US is going to allow them to get away with applying their leverage. The US has to tolerate that now and they probably really don't like it and are trying to figure out how to take that leverage away from Erdogan, possibly through supporting the Kurds.
They don't need a strong state for the US to be able to use them to further their ends. Most western armies are mostly volunteer anyway, the US exclusively; not sure why that is relevant as long as there is an army.
Airbases can be built or captured, and a huge army isn't helping Turkey any.
I don't think that's a problem.
That's true, but if the SDF becomes a major component of a future Syria then that could change.
The US already has Israel, Iraq and the Arabian peninsula under their thumb, Turkey isn't needed for that.

My point is that ultimately Turkey isn't acting like a good puppet and Erdogan has already shown his rebelliousness. Shit, if Turkey had a real coup and the new government was fully compliant with the US then maybe the US would withdraw all support to the Kurds and let Turkey do whatever they want with them, but even then I think the US would keep them around to hedge their bets.
I don't think the US would be the one to initiate that. I think what might happen is Turkey goes too far over too many lines, the US retaliates somehow, possibly with sanctions or giving the SDF real weapons to use against Turkey, and Turkey gets so butthurt they leave NATO and do something with Russia and Iran.

youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=h-wz-DspP60

Trump's Secretary of State says YPG are our "greatest allies" in Syria and promises to double down in support for them.

Erdogan BTFO.

N O I C E

in a way I do want to see SDF and the Turkroaches fight because I know the SDF will make the Turks bleed heavily

At the start of the Euphrates Shield when they engaged with each other Jaysh al Thuwar and Afrin YPG put up a heroic defense and continually repelled Turkish attacks despite being vastly under equipped.

or is this a Holla Forums stealth post?

...

President's Erdoğan's spokesperson replies to CENTCOM's tweet which shared SDF's General Commands statement claiming to have no affiliation to the PKK: 'Have you lost your senses? The United States must stop trying to legitimise terror organisations.'

youtube.com/watch?v=bB42pxokF3Q

youtube.com/watch?v=8HHBJZZpfwE

"The US must drop support for the YPG so Erdogan's relatives can smuggle more ISIS oil while supplies last."

Ocalan being in prison is perfect. Prevents the personality cult from getting out of hand.

...

...

The SDF need more time.

Right now, the mainstream media seem set on ignoring the fight against ISIS as much as they can. They don't want to admit to the US fuck ups in Syria, they don't want to talk about commie Kurds and they definitely don't want to talk about Assad fighting ISIS.

When ISIS is finally crushed by the SDF, the media will be forced to pay attention and might even shut the fuck up about Trump for once. SDF will get the glory of victory (Assad still being ignored) and then Turkey will look like huge cunts for shelling SDF (which will hopefully no longer be ignored).

>Filthy communist state, worshiping their eternal leader Apo.

>Better than Turkey, Syria, iraq and Iran.

Onur plz keep your autism to yourself

Gülen did it.

tfw buthurt Turks even come to leftypol

I think it's already out of hand, but in a pretty harmless way.

Ocalan's face adorns flags and walls all over Rojava but his role is symbolic and not practical. He's like a Kurdish Jesus. He is going to die in jail and he's essentially been put into solitary confinement by Turkey.

kinda sad that both ocalan and bookchin never got to see their ideas take hold and kick start a revolution though :'(

I guess Ocalan has at least heard little reports about it.

what's the deal with the Armenian Kurds and the Kurds in Khorasan?

youtube.com/watch?v=RbIB-e3yOg8

...

Kurdish Yazidi refugees that fled to Armeniaare now claiming land in Armenia after becomming the majority in some towns and villages in Armenia.

careful dont cut yourself

what is actually wrong with you Turks?

Is something bothering you buddy ?

...

Just wondering why a second rate country becoming a tinpot dictatorship is full of fascist fucks.

...

Cus of the K*rds. If we just genocide them then the region would be finaly peacefull.

...

ah, of course.

it was the Kurds who toppled Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi!

it was the Kurds who created Saudi Arabia and Wahhabism!

it was the Kurds who created the Israel-Palestine conflict!

it was the Kurds who drew up the borders at Sykes-Picot!

it was the Kurds who repressed citizens across the whole region for decades!

...

how is it that no matter what board turks are always the worst posters jesus fucking christ

there's one Turkish Stalinist on 4/pol/ who is pretty funny

...

Get fucked, fascist.

This is brilliant. YPG will get the glory of victory over ISIS. Meanwhile, Erdogan will look like a stupid cunt for protesting US support while shelling Kurdish towns.

Yea, that's what I meant. As long as he's in jail, being Kurdish Jesus is fine. If he was actually free and present to seize the power and prestige they've given him, things might turn to shit.

The Iraqi Army are finally starting to go deep into Mosul and ISIS defenses are starting to crumble. SDF should analyse how the Mosul offensive went, and learn from its faults and positives before they take Raqqa. Raqqa won't be as bad as Mosul because it's a lot smaller but it will still be a meat grinder.

Apparently at the start of the Mosul offensive ISIS launched 50 car bombs per day at the Iraqi Army. Jesus christ.

thank you based SDF

When is the dam offensive starting?

youtube.com/watch?v=6slysZyL6sA

It's within touching distance, but I gather the offensive will be quite complicated because of Taqba's position. Maybe in the next month or so it'll begin.

libcom.org/library/anarchist-critique-pkk

I read this "critique of the PKK". Beware it's shit.
The author's bias is shown where he straight up calls western supporters of the PKK "cheerleaders" from the get-go. Not to mention, he does not cite a single source for his claims. Most of it is just masturbation, i.e it's critique for the sake of being critique.
Then he argues the following:

1.The movement isn't actually socialist, or leftist, for that matter. I do take issue with this. Altough the means of production, and other classical leftist concerns, aren't prioritized doesn't mean that the movement isn't actually leftist.

2.Women have been revered too much, this feminist progressivism is causing some kind of "societal pressure" on women.
I don't understand how there's too much gender equality in a region where extremism is the norm.

3. The organization is terrorist because it had a bad history at it's height of the conflict between the PKK and the turkish state. When faced with the fact that the organization has changed on every level since the 80's, he states
Again, a clear bias.

4. He argues that the "exceptional circumstances", which I indeed consider exceptional, should not forbid criticism. This I agree with, but the argument as a whole is directed against western supporters, "cheerleaders", and not against the PKK itself.

5. Then he states that the PKK recieves arms and aid from the U.S, even though the U.S have marked the PKK as a terrorist organization because of Turkey. He doesn't make any distinction between syrian kurds and turkish kurds on any administrative level. He calls Rojava a PKK front.
Not only this, but his main argument is "muh ideological purity". He rails on the SDF for accepting U.S aid, not understanding the regional politics of it. He also dismisses the argument that the SDF needs the american support to defeat ISIS and to survive. He states:
and
Straight up insults.

6&7 is just railing on the history of the PKK. He calls Öcalan a cult of personality, even though there will always be some intellectual paragon in any ideological movement. He also calls Öcalan a stalinist tankie, yet cites no sources.

8. His last argument is accusing the SDF of genocide, based on the amnesty report that >>1189875 discussed.

...

So fucking hyped tho

Therein the author displays the problem with all these big editorials from leftist publications on whether 'we' should support Rojava or not. Often the author reads a few articles and watches a few YouTube videos and decides to bend Rojava into whatever they want based on that superficial knowledge.

When the ideology of the PKK was changed there was mass resignations and much conflict within the party. Many within the PKK who saw the Kurdish struggle as defined by a necessity for a Kurdish state couldn't reconcile their views with this new almost post nationalist, universal ideology. The whole structure and nucleus of the party was changed and many higher ups felt undermined and also resigned. It was a very difficult and arduous process.

I think in the PKK there might still exist some authoritarian tendencies, so the transformation isn't even fully complete. A PKK fighter on reddit was saying some of the older members are still MLs, but their rigid adherence to the past renders them irrelevant in the party.

The YPG is a much purer and distilled version of the new ideology because it's newer. The YPG didn't have the transitional hiccups and lingering essence of Marxist Leninisnm because democratic confederalism is all the YPG's ever known. They've only been around since 2011.

Thank you for this post.
What are your sources, books or are you kurdish yourself who rembered when it happened? Is that a too personal question? sry im high

This is a really good book that goes into further details on what I touched on. Roar Magazine articles and interviews on Rojava are also exemplary and are often done by people directly involved with the project.

The PKK/YPG guy on reddit I mentioned is this guy: reddit.com/user/pkk1978

He did a great AMA here: reddit.com/r/syriancivilwar/comments/3dtszo/ama_was_in_kobane/

Thank you

Seconding this book. It's the current go-to text for an in-depth study of Rojava, right now. Janet Biehl is also Bookchin's widow and collaborator for decades.

shit it's just like Fallout New Vegas

I wonder if Ocalan can speak English. He tried to arrange a meeting with Bookchin but it didn't happen for whatever reason, I think Bookchin was in poor health.

Its ok, a bit to heavy on the propaganda.

You guys would probably appreciate this
youtube.com/watch?v=eBfK3ye_SBc

documentcloud.org/public/search/projectid: 23929-ocalan-bookchin-correspondence

really cool find here.

with Dan Chodorkoff, some thirty years ago in Vermont, the school has since become
highly diversified and does not consistently reflect my views. Part of its staff has drifted
toward anarchistic views that I regard as juvenile and uniformed, with which I have no
sympathy. I say this to ask you to write directly to me at Janet’s e-mail address, where I
can at least enjoy a private correspondence free of interference from these “libertarian”
children.

Man he was pretty vile against his opponents, makes him more entertaining to read though.

incredible
this is hysterical now

lmfao

This is such a shitshow I almost feel like they're not actually trying to capture Al Bab, just preventing the SDF from capturing it so they won't be closed off to that ISIS oil. Either that or Erdogan's purged really, really fucked up the military.

washingtonhatti.com/2017/01/14/turkish-fm-cavusoglu-us-should-invite-the-terrorist-group-daesh-too-if-pyd-invited/

It's this, and also low morale.

Nah they just dont dare to commit, just look how they covered up the fact that two of their soldiers got burned alive by ISIS. They fear the blowback actually commiting the necessary forces woud have. So the try to rely on their rebel mercenaries, which are probably some of the worst fighters in all of Syria.

And I thought I might have become the first beachnigger there.

Seems there's a few for sure. Would love to see statistics for the different nationalities represented amongst the volunteers.

I think I met these guys once.
I'm not sure though

You cant judge the numbers by their english social media activity, in general the more political ones are the less public ones I think. There are many Americans but I also have read reports that there are a lot of Germans and Italians there too which are less active on social media(and more political).

My understanding is that the largest groups of foreigners are Kurds from other countries (mostly Turkey I suppose) and anarchists and communists from Western Europe, especially Italy, France, and Germany, where those ideologies have historically been strongest.

Uh, nice datapoint.

I'd guess the numbers, starting from 'most' would be something along these lines:

1. Diaspora Kurds
2. Turks (as in ethnic, leftist Turks)
3. Germans
4. Americans
5. French/Italians/Greeks

I know this isn't really a discussion that matters or is even worth having for that matter so please don't respond to this but fuck me because I'm just too autistic to not point this out:
It doesn't really make any sense having the Kurdish diaspora as a separate category, since a very significant portion of the Kurdish diaspora lives in Germany e.g., which means that you count them twice. Unless you mean something like """"ethnically German""" which just doesn't make that much sense in Europe.
It would be sort-of like saying "ethnically Californian". There's at most a vague category of like Mediterranean latin vs. anglo/celtic vs. germanic vs. scandinavian vs. slavic, but it's still pretty arbitrary since there's are some, like, really fucking well defined but also really small ethnic groups like the Magyar (that don't fit into any of those categories) and the Irish, but if the Irish are ethnically separated from Anglos, then maybe the Polish should be separate from more continental Slavs, that have some separate cultural history. But who's Polish and who's Slavic? What about the Franco, who speak a latin language, but culturally has a lot in common with both the Anglo and the Germanic? What about the Roma?
It's a fucking nightmare that all boils down to drawing weird lines, that's mostly based on some specific cultural elements like what version of a folk tale you tell or some other stupid bullshit like that.
There's a reason why almost everybody just looks at nationality and national borders; it's easy and it makes sense, but it just fails completely when you have to compare to places where ethnicity is a lot more well defined, and using nations and nationality makes a lot less sense, like for example with the Kurds, or most of Africa.

anthrobolojy audism bls

basnews.com/index.php/en/news/middle-east/324388

positive developments!

And that's why ethnicity is a spook.

Nobody cares because the Turks have been fucking up. They've been 'on the brink' of taking the same shitey town for months and months now. Since last September I think.

I love how the turkroaches actually thought Trump's anti-Islamic cabinet would prop up king roach and his islamist allies.

If the resident Turkish shitposter is reading this: How fierce is your impotent rage right now?

trump has business interests in turkey
also americans are notorious backstabbers, especially towards kurds, so i wouldn't be be so certain of us foreign policy just yet

November. ISIS made a nice infographic about the whole thing. Keep in mind this is just for the *outskirts* of the city. Turkish forces have not been able to get into the actual city at all. That's where the real fighting will be.

No!
Our army is the strognset!
W-we just don't want to h-hurt civilians… y-yeah, that's it…

t. Berkay Mouglouboglou

I've actually seen some Turks saying this.

twitter.com/worldonalert/status/815938764803555328

but look at this. Turkey is going full on Grozny on Al Bab and killing loads of civilians in the process whilst ISIS hide in tunnels.

Preaching to the choir. KC /int/ is a fucking goldmine of butthurt Turks trying hard to not seem butthurt over their doner republic lurching towards civil war.

Its mental. They all hate Erdogan, but will support him so long as he bleeds the Kurds.

Ah yes, the old "I hate Erdogan, but…" routine. They only hate Erdogan for his Islamist tendecies, but they love it when he indulges in nationalist and neo Ottomanist politics.

All Erdogan has to to maintain power is to say "Islam stronk" to the rural conservatives and say "Turkey stronk, we will crush PKK" every now and then to seculars and he's all good.

I don't know, I think this has a relatively high probability of being a positive development for the DFNS, but I think we should always be wary and keep our eyes open when it's the party politicians making the deals and offering the concessions. What if the people aren't willing to make those concessions? How would the parliament force those concessions unto them?

Jesus fucking Christ, that can't be right. It's a tiny-ass city, that amount of pounding would have reduced everything to rubble.

Oh.

Reminder that Öcalan sold out Marxism and you niggas are shilling for a US-backed pseudo-nationalist movement with leftist iconography thrown in here and there

No.

You finally figured out that nobody falls for it when you call them nationalists, so now you've switched to 'pseudo'-nationalist?
What does that even mean?

I'm not sure if it's my duty to educate you on things that elementary.
Interesting knee-jerk response. And let me guess you, at no point, bothered to question why you hear it so much to not hurt your fanboy feelings.

Not really. US is using Kurds to take part of the land from Assad. Kurds might be commies but Russia/Iran is a bigger worry for US now.

Actually the West was going to give Kurds a country as a part of Turkey one century ago but a wild pro-West Attaturk appeared so they keeped Turkey as a one country to use it to counter the Bolsheviks…

So? Democratic confederalism looks pretty socialist to me. Perhaps not ML, but socialist nevertheless.

It's in the US geopolitical interests. I don't see how that invalidates the revolution. Even Russia is backing them.

What are you? A Trotskyist? Having a national identity, recognizing it and wanting to preserve it is not irreconcilable with socialism.

Translates into

Translates into

Also, I did actually look into it when the SDF was accused of mistreating Arabs and other non-kurdish ethnicities. Do you know what I found out? It was mostly bullshit made up by Turkish nationalists and Ba'athists.

Google Murray Bookchin faggots

it's like poetry

Interesting times!

source?

twitter.com/CivilWarMap/status/820987920920281089

twitter.com/sayed_ridha/status/820950214001336320

medium.com/@_alhamra/deir-ezzor-rebel-military-council-allies-with-ypg-and-syrian-elite-forces-for-raqqa-campaign-58a66f828f59#.qy03r0de1

Syria has another 2 or 3 years of fighting left easily. Lots to be done still.

isn't it the SAA that's attacking?

twitter.com/AfarinMamosta/status/820733451028537344

PISSPIG SIGHTING AT 0:14

kek, the absolute madman

Why would the SAA attack when they are the ones who are under siege in Deir Ezzor?

Godspeed large son

Raising Kobani from rubble
realmedia.press/raising-kobani-rubble/

Are you sure that this is PISSPIG? Anyway, whoever that is has gathered some propper equipment.

This post came out weird. My point was: if pisspig survives and makes it back to the US he has to go on Chapo.

Is this just what happens every time you purge the military?

ISIS just released a pretty spooky video of their sleepers cells walking around Istanbul, warning that they'll attack again soon.

streamable.com/mh0hv

Turkey is in a very bad position with ISIS. Because of letting them abuse their border they're no doubt infested with sleeper cells. Now that Turkey is attacking ISIS positions, all these sleeper cells will start to be activated.

All this destruction just to spite the YPG.

Are you able to describe in little better detail what the hell I just watched?

reddit.com/r/syriancivilwar/comments/5odnj0/comment/dcim379

Read this translation and summary

Fuck that's scary.
I have a friend that's staying in Istanbul for 8 hours in two days.
I feel like I should warn him.

Yeah I'd do that.

What kind of madman goes to Turkey at a time like this though? Their tourism is dead for a reason

A kurd whose family is being drafted for the Al-Bab offensive

Oh fuck. Forced to fight essentially against your own people's interests.

I didn't know Turkey was sending conscripts to Al Bab. That will only deepen their problems there, conscripts will get shredded if the special forces are even struggling

Fucking hell Turkey is disgusting

Yeah.
The thing is that they're Syrian nationals who are refugees in Syria. As far as I understand, they were told that they could join the Jabhat Al-Sham group and fight at Al-Bab in exchange for Turkish citizenship or be ejected from the country.
It sounds really shady, and of course they've got nothing on paper, but I believe my friend and honestly at this point it wouldn't surprise me.

No joke, honestly, you should get that shit to a journalist. Preferably somebody who speaks Turkish and who writes for some large or semi-large independent news outlet, like the Intercept or something.

There's been rumours about recruitment of Syrian refugees for Euphrates Shield but I'm inclined to believe it now. Disgusting.

A PYD official was saying they warned Rojava's citizens from fleeing as refugees to Turkey because they knew they'd start a recruitment effort.

Surely this is a breach of human rights.

Problem is that Turkey doesn't have any obligations towards human rights entities. Only that flimsy UN one, whose name escapes me at the moment, and whatever they have written into their constitution. So it doesn't matter, outside of any trade sanctions that other nations might impose. The EU has threatened with sanctions &c., but Turkey just threatens with opening the gates for refugees to flee into Europe again, which ties their hands politically.
It's either watch as Turkey makes graver and graver human rights abuses, or let reactionaries into political power over the EU, which honestly is a shitty fucking choice to have, even as a liberal shithead EU politician.

Yeah.
The point is to get them up here.
Let's see if it works.
Perhaps they will talk.

Fuck man, I hope all goes well. Good luck to your friend and his family.
Where is he taking them? US? Germany?

Wait, on second thought, don't answer.

very good news as a lot of people were making out that everyone in and around raqqa loves ISIS and will be hostile to the SDF

Updates from the frontline, courtesy of pisspiggranddad

Apo just talked to his brother in Imrali a few days ago, and he said if the people will not defend Rojava or Bakur councils from attacks, they deserve to be BTFOd.
Being this based is beyon belief.
Also, here is a video for hevallos about communalism in Rojava: vimeo.com/182379157

I thought the Turkish authorities put an end to his meetings with his lawyers and his brother

they did for a while but it wasn't worth the international pressure.

New thread when?

Mods decided to make this thread cyclical instead of having new threads spam the board

I really want to go out there are write a comprehensive book on the YPG from an independent socialist perspective. I have no idea how I'd even get there but fuck that would be a dream come true.

Oh sweet, that explains why the other thread was removed.

mobile.nytimes.com/2017/01/17/world/middleeast/obama-isis-syria-kurds.html?_r=0&referer=

Potentially a big few days for the YPG/SDF.

Obama has been in slight madman mode recently with the whole Israel and Chelsea Manning things so hopefully he pushes ahead with giving the YPG heavy weaponry.

Turkish butthurt would make it doubly nice to see.

Come on over Holla Forums

C O M F Y
O
M
F
Y

chathamhouse.org/sites/files/chathamhouse/publications/research/2016-12-08-governing-rojava-khalaf.pdf

northeast, the Democratic Union Party (PYD) has announced its intent to establish the federal
region of Rojava. The PYD took control of the region following the Syrian regime’s handover in
some Kurdish-majority areas and as a consequence of its retreat from others. In doing so, the
PYD has displayed pragmatism and strategic clarity, and has benefited from the experience and
institutional development of its affiliate organization, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The
PYD now seeks to further consolidate its power and to legitimize itself through the provision of
security, services and public diplomacy; yet its local legitimacy remains contested.

Units (YPG/YPJ) have been an effective force against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS),
winning the support of the local population, particularly those closest to the front lines.
Conversely, in areas further from combat zones, the PYD has less support, with locals citing its
brutality and authoritarianism. While many in Arab-majority areas appreciate the YPG’s expulsion
of ISIS, the PYD is seen with fear and distrust as a result of its human rights violations against rebel
groups and its perceived linkages with the regime. The PYD continues to suppress critical civil
society voices and political opposition.

consolidating its power. Service provision varies across Rojava: in areas where the PYD co-exists
with regime authorities, a myriad of institutions have developed, sometimes creating parallel
structures. Meanwhile, in areas where the PYD enjoys greater control, power remains centralized,
despite the PYD’s claims to decentralize power to the local level. In Arab-majority areas such as
Manbij, locals report that the PYD ensures that only representatives that are loyal to it are able
to govern, undermining the legitimacy of the new structures in the eyes of the local community.

sophisticated programme of public diplomacy. The PYD appeals to international audiences
by presenting its fight against ISIS as a battle between universal liberal values and extremism.
However, for many Kurds, it is the undertones of Kurdish nationalism that entices them. Balancing
the apparent contradictions in its discourse is likely to become more difficult in the event that ISIS
is defeated on the battlefield.

However, Turkey’s continuing opposition means that prospects for the PYD to build international
support for its political goals are slim. This places greater import upon locally-derived legitimacy,
an area where the PYD continues to fall short. Only by ensuring real representation of civil society,
opposition and Arab and Syriac constituents can Rojava achieve this legitimacy. Failure to move
past security and stability-based arguments will greatly diminish the long-term prospects for the
survival of the Rojava project.

Homage to Rojava?

Nice, that should shut the "m-muh Kurds are ethnic cleansing" types up

How do we solve the Turkroach problem?

I guess that's as close to it as it'd get. I have no idea how to even start but it's better than anything I am currently doing.

Good luck

If you are serious doing a 6 month stint with the YPG and then after having learned the laguage well and experiencing the military side changing to civilian areas would probably be the most reasonable approach.

Being able/learning to write decently is probably also necessary along with honing some civilian skill that can be useful in Rojava(they lack almost everything so anything will do)

Internet is so shitty there, some other fighter there said that he has hours of raw footage from a captured ISIS headcam, but he cant upload it because the file is to big.

An ENKS official (Kurdish nationalist party/Turkey vassal) recently claimed that PYD/YPG are ethnically cleansing Kurds from Rojava too.

So really you gotta hand it to the YPG, they ethnically cleansed everyone equally.

I see your KRG pepe and raise you a Rojava Saleh Muslim pepe (ultra rare)

And yet ISIS are putting out feature length 1080p films with high class editing and cinematography.

If the YPG had propaganda on the same level of ISIS there'd be twice as much foreign volunteers as there currently is.

I have a friend's whose co-worker shows her ISIS videos all the time, but I'll bet neither have heard of Rojava etc

it's simple: remove kebab

Very nice

Medium Rare YPepeG for sale

a ex YPG volunteer on Holla Forums was saying the ideological 'training' was much more thorough and rigorous than the combat training and that they had to read a load of leftist authors (other people mention names like Emma Goldman and Chomsky being on the course)

He also said that the ideology is extremely important to the average YPG fighter and that it gives them extra motivation and makes em better soldiers.

youtu.be/dhnLqAUdYKk

After watching this I'd like to know Zizek's opinion on Rojava. He's talked about the Kurds before but only in a general sense. Vice should jet him over there for a week and following him around with a camera.

He says in this vid that direct democracy will never last beyond 2 or 3 months but Rojava's been going strong for about 5 or 6 years at this stage.

I wonder why ISIS propaganda is so good and well made. Who the fuck is making it? Why doesn't the SDF have a similar quality of propaganda? How can they obtain a similar level? Do they even care?

It's probably partly funded by rich saudis with the footage transferred out via sneakernet..

Serious question - not trolling.

Why is it imperialism when the US gives rebels arms, but it's not when YPG gets them? Like regardless of who you support, I thought being on the Left meant being against interventionism on principle?

I don't understand, who are you criticizing?
SDF? Us? The USA?

We're against it but not when it helps us. Welcome to politics!

Also, not all intervention is imperialistic.

It's still likely imperialism and the US is trying to make the SDF a puppet, but good things can still be done with an evil motive, and right now the things being done are good.

It's imperialism but it doesn't make the SDF wrong for accepting aid, I certainly would if I were in their situation.

I think YPG commander Cuban Kendal sums up the situation well

Intervention against the oppressor is not the same as intervention against the oppressed.

Avant-garde forces of the alternative have a pretty poor track record thus far…

t. george w bush

was funny see all the le moderate rebel shills like Charles Lister freak out the other day when some Huffington Post article said Arab SDF fighters get lessons in the Apoist ideology before they fight.

Just you wait. DFSNS will be the exception because they don't give a fuck about socialism.

And Fidel Castro.

syria.liveuamap.com/en/2017/19-january-erdogan-just-said-that-after-the-capture-of-albabwe

When is that buffoon getting couped? He's long been doing overtime on this Earth.

Wow it's really surprising that Erdogan has opted for peace :')

Honestly, if Turkey ever needs International Brigades to deal with Erdogan I'd go in a heartbeat

He's in the middle of changing the Turkish constitution so he can have full power and rule until his death, essentially.

Also a HDP female MP literally got beaten up members of Erdogan's party in parliament a few hours ago and had be taken to hospital.

Turkey, one helluva place.

links?

reuters.com/article/idUSKBN153238

Besides translators, what does Rojava need right now?

no I mean about the HDP MP

twitter.com/turkeyuntold/status/822168095481561089

Just about everything, really.