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The Kurdish Movement and the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria: An Alternative to the (Nation-)State Model?
- Source :
-
Journal of Balkan & Near Eastern Studies . Jan2020, Vol. 22 Issue 1, p47-67. 21p. - Publication Year :
- 2020
-
Abstract
- Is the Rojava model really deconstructing the model of a state or is it potentially a new state form? Does the 'democratic confederalism' model that the Kurdish movement claims to be implementing in Northern Syria draw on/reproduce different modes of identity/belonging than that of the nation and the state? This paper argues that the shift from a nationalist movement towards a project that offers a stateless solution seems to be incomplete and needs to be further questioned. The first section begins with a brief discussion of the notion of statelessness and the historical background and ideological transformation of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and its 'paradigm-shift'. The second section shows that despite positive aspects towards a post-national stateless model, the narratives of the representatives of the Kurdish political movement in Rojava display nationalist elements by prioritizing the Kurds and their cultural identity and a political power at the top of which Öcalan's personality cult stands; and engages with the concept of the multitude, proposed by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri whose work on radical democracy is theoretically relevant to the Rojava model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- *SOCIAL movements
*KURDS
*CULTURAL identity
*STATELESSNESS
*NATIONALISTS
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 19448953
- Volume :
- 22
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Journal of Balkan & Near Eastern Studies
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 141718357
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1080/19448953.2020.1715669