Center for Research on Globalization, Canada
Oct 26 2014
The Kobani Riddle and the Islamic State (ISIL)
By Pepe Escobar
The brave women of Kobani – where Syrian Kurds are desperately
fighting ISIS/ISIL/Daesh – are about to be betrayed by the
“international community”. These women warriors, apart from Caliph
Ibrahim’s goons, are also fighting treacherous agendas by the US,
Turkey and the administration of Iraqi Kurdistan. So what’s the real
deal in Kobani?
Let’s start by talking about Rojava. The full meaning of Rojava – the
three mostly Kurdish provinces of northern Syria – is conveyed in this
editorial (in Turkish) published by jailed activist Kenan Kirkaya. He
argues that Rojava is the home of a “revolutionary model” that no less
than challenges “the hegemony of the capitalist, nation-state system”
– way beyond its regional “meaning for Kurds, or for Syrians or
Kurdistan.”
Kobani – an agricultural region – happens to be at the epicenter of
this non-violent experiment in democracy, made possible by an
arrangement early on during the Syrian tragedy between Damascus and
Rojava (you don’t go for regime change against us, we leave you
alone). Here, for instance, it’s argued that “even if only a single
aspect of true socialism were able to survive there, millions of
discontented people would be drawn to Kobani.”
In Rojava, decision-making is via popular assemblies – multicultural
and multi-religious. The top three officers in each municipality are a
Kurd, an Arab and an Assyrian or Armenian Christian; and at least one
of these three must be a woman. Non-Kurd minorities have their own
institutions and speak their own languages.
Among a myriad of women’s and youth councils, there is also an
increasingly famous feminist army, the YJA Star militia (“Union of
Free Women”, with the “star” symbolizing Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar).
The symbolism could not be more graphic; think of the forces of Ishtar
(Mesopotamia) fighting the forces of ISIS (originally an Egyptian
goddess), now transmogrified into an intolerant Caliphate. In the
young 21st century, it’s the female barricades of Kobani that are in
the forefront fighting fascism.
Inevitably there should be quite a few points of intersection between
the International Brigades fighting fascism in Spain in 1936 and what
is happening in Rojava, as stressed by one of the very few articles
about it published in Western mainstream media.
If these components were not enough to drive crazy deeply intolerant
Wahhabis and Takfiris (and their powerful Gulf petrodollar backers)
then there’s the overall political set up.
The fight in Rojava is essentially led by the PYD, which is the Syrian
branch of the Turkish PKK, the Marxist guerrillas at war against
Ankara since the 1970s. Washington, Brussels and NATO – under
relentless Turkish pressure – have always officially ranked both PYD
and PKK as “terrorists”.
Careful examination of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan’s must-read book
Democratic Confederalism reveals this terrorist/Stalinist equation as
bogus (Ocalan has been confined to the island-prison of Imrali since
1999.)
What the PKK – and the PYD – are striving for is “libertarian
municipalism”. In fact that’s exactly what Rojava has been attempting;
self-governing communities applying direct democracy, using as pillars
councils, popular assemblies, cooperatives managed by workers – and
defended by popular militias. Thus the positioning of Rojava in the
vanguard of a worldwide cooperative economics/democracy movement whose
ultimate target would be to bypass the concept of a nation-state.
Not only this experiment is taking place politically across northern
Syria; in military terms, it was the PKK and the PYD who actually
managed to rescue those tens of thousands of Yazidis corralled by
ISIS/ISIL/Daesh in Mount Sinjar, and not American bombs, as the spin
went. And now, as PYD co-president Asya Abdullah details, what’s
needed is a “corridor” to break the encirclement of Kobani by Caliph
Ibrahim’s goons.
Sultan Erdogan’s power play Ankara, meanwhile, seems intent to prolong
a policy of “lots of problems with our neighbors.”
For Turkish Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz, “the main cause of ISIS is
the Syrian regime”. And Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu – who invented
the now defunct “zero problems with our neighbors” doctrine in the
first place – has repeatedly stressed Ankara will only intervene with
boots on the ground in Kobani to defend the Kurds if Washington
presents a “post-Assad plan”.
And then there’s that larger than life character; Turkish President
Tayyip Erdogan, aka Sultan Erdogan. Sultan Erdogan’s edicts are well
known. Syrian Kurds should fight against Damascus under the command of
that lousy fiction, the reconstituted (and to be trained, of all
places, in Saudi Arabia) Free Syrian Army; they should forget about
any sort of autonomy; they should meekly accept Turkey’s request for
Washington to create a no-fly zone over Syria and also a “secured”
border on Syrian territory. No wonder both the PYD and Washington have
rejected these demands.
Sultan Erdogan has his eyes set on rebooting the peace process with
the PKK; and he wants to lead it in a position of force. So far his
only concession has been to allow Iraqi Kurd peshmergas to enter
northern Syria to counter-balance the PYD-PKK militias, and thus
prevent the strengthening of an anti-Turkish Kurdish axis.
At the same time Sultan Erdogan knows ISIS/ISIL/Daesh has already
recruited up to 1,000 Turkish passport holders – and counting. His
supplemental nightmare is that the toxic brew laying waste to “Syraq”
will sooner rather than later mightily overspill inside Turkish
borders.
Watch those barbarians at the gates Caliph Ibrahim’s goons have
already telegraphed their intention to massacre and/or enslave the
entire civilian population of Kobani. And yet Kobani, per se, has no
strategic value for ISIS/ISIL/Daesh (that’s what US Secretary of State
John Kerry himself said last week; but then, predictably, he reversed
himself). This very persuasive PYD commander though is very much aware
of the ISIS/ISIL/Daesh threat.
Kobani is not essential compared to Deir ez-Zor (which has an airport
supplying the Syrian Arab Army) or Hasakah (which has oil fields
controlled by Kurds helped by the Syrian Arab Army). Kobani boasts no
airport and no oil fields.
On the other hand, the fall of Kobani would generate immensely
positive extra PR for the already very slick Caliph enterprise –
widening the perception of a winning army especially among new,
potential, EU passport holder recruits, as well as establishing a
solid base very close to the Turkish border.
Essentially, what Sultan Erdogan is doing is to fight both Damascus
(long-term) and the Kurds (medium term) while actually giving a free
pass (short-term) to ISIS/ISIL/Daesh. And yet, further on down the
road, Turkish journalist Fehim Tastekin is right; training
non-existent “moderate” Syrian rebels in oh-so-democratic Saudi Arabia
will only lead to the Pakistanization of Turkey. A remix – once again
– of the scenario played out during the 1980s Afghan jihad.
As if this was not muddled enough, in a game changer – and reversing
its “terrorist” dogma – Washington is now maintaining an entente
cordiale with the PYD. And that poses an extra headache for Sultan
Erdogan.
This give-and-take between Washington and the PYD is still up for
grabs. Yet some facts on the ground spell it all out; more US bombing,
more US air drops (including major fail air drops, where the freshly
weaponized end up being The Caliph’s goons).
A key fact should not be overlooked. As soon as the PYD was more or
less “recognized” by Washington, PYD head Saleh Muslim went to meet
the wily Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) leader Masoud Barzani.
That’s when the PYD promised a “power sharing” with Barzani’s
peshmergas on running Rojava.
Syrian Kurds who were forced to abandon Kobani and exile themselves in
Turkey, and who support the PYD, cannot return to Syria; but Iraqi
Kurds can go back and forth. This dodgy deal was brokered by the KRG’s
intel chief, Lahur Talabani. The KRG, crucially, gets along very well
with Ankara.
That sheds further light on Erdogan’s game; he wants the peshmerga –
who are fierce enemies of the PKK – to become the vanguard against
ISIS/ISIL/Daesh and thus undermine the PYD/PKK alliance. Once again,
Turkey is pitting Kurds against Kurds.
Washington for its part is manipulating Kobani to completely
legitimize – on a “humanitarian”, R2P vein – its crusade against
ISIS/ISIL/Daesh. It’s never enough to remember this whole thing
started with a barrage of Washington spin about the bogus, ghostly
Khorasan group preparing a new 9-11. Khorasan, predictably, entirely
vanished from the news cycle.
In the long run, the American power play is a serious threat to the
direct democracy experiment in Rojava, which Washington cannot but
interpret as – God forbid! – a return of communism.
So Kobani is now a crucial pawn in a pitiless game manipulated by
Washington, Ankara and Irbil. None of these actors want the direct
democracy experiment in Kobani and Rojava to bloom, expand and start
to be noticed all across the Global South. The women of Kobani are in
mortal danger of being, if not enslaved, bitterly betrayed.
And it gets even more ominous when the ISIS/ISIL/Daesh play on Kobani
is seen essentially for what it is; a diversionary tactic, a trap for
the Obama administration. What The Caliph’s goons are really aiming at
is Anbar province in Iraq – which they already largely control – and
the crucial Baghdad belt. The barbarians are at the gates – not only
Kobani’s but also Baghdad’s.
Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the Globalized World is
Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble Books, 2007), Red Zone Blues: a
snapshot of Baghdad during the surge (Nimble Books, 2007), and Obama
does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009). He may be reached at
[email protected] .
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-kobani-riddle-and-the-islamic-state-isil/5410011