For the past few years, most people would have come across news stories of how Kurdish fighters in Syria, especially women, have been crucial in battling the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Very few, however, would be aware that in the north and eastern parts of Syria these same Kurdish fighters are part of a revolution as progressive, profound and potentially as far-reaching as any in history.

In the north and eastern parts of Syria, an attempt to create an alternative system to hierarchical states, capitalism and patriarchy is underway and should it fully succeed it holds the potential to inspire the struggle for a better, more egalitarian Middle East, Africa, South Africa and indeed world. As in any revolution it has had its successes and shortcomings, but it is already an experiment worth reflecting on as it shows a far different world could be built to the extremely unequal and increasingly right-wing and authoritarian one that exists today.

A Glimmer of Hope: The extraordinary story of a revolution within the Syrian civil war

Shawn Hattingh

For the past few years, most people would have come across news stories of how Kurdish fighters in Syria, especially women, have been crucial in battling the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Very few, however, would be aware that in the north and eastern parts of Syria these same Kurdish fighters are part of a revolution as progressive, profound and potentially as far-reaching as any in history.

In the north and eastern parts of Syria, an attempt to create an alternative system to hierarchical states, capitalism and patriarchy is underway and should it fully succeed it holds the potential to inspire the struggle for a better, more egalitarian Middle East, Africa, South Africa and indeed world. As in any revolution it has had its successes and shortcomings, but it is already an experiment worth reflecting on as it shows a far different world could be built to the extremely unequal and increasingly right-wing and authoritarian one that exists today.

The start of Rojava

In the aftermath of the Arab Spring in Syria, most of the country descended into a hellish nightmare as a vicious civil war erupted between the brutal Assad regime and equally reactionary groups claiming to be inspired by Islamic fundamentalism. Compounding this was the intervention of imperialist powers such as the US and Russia, and regional powers such as Turkey, Israel and Iran. One area where there was a difference was the mainly Kurdish enclave in the north of Syria known as Rojava. 1

There, on 19 July 2012, popular protests erupted against the Assad regime. Government buildings were occupied and taken over by the people. Many of the people involved in this had been building a popular movement for almost a decade that had the vision of implementing a radical concept — Democratic Confederalism.

The vision of Democratic Confederalism

Democratic Confederalism was first outlined by Abdullah Ocalan, who began his political life as an adherent of Stalinism and was the head of the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PPK) that had been engaged in a guerrilla war for the national liberation of the Kurdish people in Turkey.

In 1999, Ocalan was captured in Kenya — in an incident involving intelligence agencies from Turkey, the US and Greece — and tried for treason by the Turkish state. He was initially sentenced to death, but that was commuted to a life sentence as, at that point, the Turkish state had aspirations of joining the EU.

Since then, he has been held on the prison island of Imrali, often as the only prisoner, and now in total isolation since April 2015 — indeed the right-wing Erdogan regime has even denied visitation by his family members and lawyers (presently hundreds of people across the world are on hunger strike demanding an end to his isolation).

In the early 2000s, Ocalan nonetheless began a process of reflecting on what went wrong with past revolutionary struggles, most notably the Russian Revolution and the communist party’s rise to power as head of the Chinese state. During these revolutions, the energy of millions of people was released, a hope of a better future grew, only to flounder on the rise of the totalitarian states that emerged.

At the same time, Ocalan also began reading the works of libertarian socialist and social ecologist Murray Bookchin, as well as studying the experiences of the anarchist-syndicalist inspired Spanish Revolution of 1936 (which was one of the most radical revolutions in terms of worker democracy and control; although it too is not well known).

Ocalan came to the conclusion that the main reason past revolutions had failed is that they did not put an end to the structure of the state. Rather, communist parties entered the state and through that process, the leaders of these parties became rulers and a new elite within those societies.

In these states figures such as Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, Mao and those loyal to them held real power; not the majority of people. Ocalan, therefore, argued that all states, whether claiming to be revolutionary or not, were hierarchical and subjugated, oppressed and exploited the majority of people.

He also argued states were inherently patriarchal and first arose in societies where a minority became an elite ruling class, but also importantly, in ones in which men began oppressing women and exploiting their labour. He concluded, due to their very structures — which centralised power — states could not escape or be altered to fundamentally shift away from their original purpose: Enabling an elite to hold power and rule over society.

Ocalan maintained that if a revolution was to be achieved, women’s liberation would have to be a central component. He also reasoned that capitalism needed to be replaced, but so too did the state. To replace these he argued for a communal economy that was based on the socialisation of the means of production and production for need, not profit.

He also argued such an economy needed to be ecologically sustainable and democratic. To replace the state, he maintained federated assemblies and councils should be created and they should function on the basis of direct democracy.

This, he felt, would prevent the emergence of an elite as within direct democracy there could be no hierarchy as delegates were always subject to the will of assemblies at the base of society. Monopolisation could not take place in a socialised and democratic economy.

By the mid-2000s most people involved in the Kurdish national liberation struggle in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran had come to adopt Democratic Confederalism. With this, they began to attempt to forge a new world in the shell of the old by building a mass movement of community-based councils and assemblies across southern Turkey, northeastern Syria, northern Iraq and northwestern Iran.

In this, direct democracy, feminism and participatory praxis replaced undemocratic notions of hierarchy and vanguardism as defining features of the Kurdish national liberation struggle.

Implementing Democratic Confederalism

Since 2012, when the Syrian state left the north and eastern parts of the country, people in this area known as Rojava — Kurds, Turks and Arabs — expanded these structures of direct democracy. As part of this, they set up thousands of communes — made up of 60 to 100 households — right across Rojava to run the society from the grassroots on the basis of a radical democracy without a state.

People themselves, through participation in the communes, decide through direct democracy on policies, plans, and how to meet needs in their own communities. They democratically deal with issues such as crime at a local level and use restorative justice as opposed to punitive justice in order to constructively heal communities.

This includes dealing with issues such as gender-based violence. Due to having a history of being involved in a movement based on direct democratic organisations, people were already familiar with such politics and putting such a system fully into practice was not alien.

The communes, in fact, have full autonomy and are where true power resides. Through mass meetings, they are the sole decision-making bodies regarding the economy, services, development, education and defence in the areas they cover. No structure or institution has any right or ability to override decisions made by the communes.

The communes, while being autonomous, are federated into neighbourhood assemblies — in this, the communes send mandated and recallable delegates to neighbourhood assemblies to share their ideas, views and plans to ensure co-ordination from below. Recallable delegates from the neighbourhood assemblies are then sent to City Assemblies. These are all linked through delegates that are sent to a structure that covers the entire region, named the Syrian Democratic Council.

By 2016, a form of representative democracy had also been introduced in the Syrian Democratic Council. Other parties and formations — who were not mandated delegates from the communes and assemblies — also began to participate in the Syrian Democratic Council through an election.

This has proven to be a controversial issue. Some argue that the introduction of a form of representative democracy in the Syrian Democratic Council undermines the direct democracy envisioned in Democratic Confederalism. They contend it introduces practices similar to those of a state. Others argue that it was a necessary step to ensure unity of the people of Rojava in the face of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) attacks and some form of international recognition.

Linked to this argument, its proponents contend that as a minority of parties and organisations had refused to participate in the communes and neighbourhood assemblies some form of representative democracy in the Syrian Democratic Council was necessary to also give such people a say. Those defending this move also point out that the communes remain the real holders of power and the Syrian Democratic Council cannot override their decisions nor impose any policy, practice or law on them.

Ultimately it does seem to be the case that the communes do hold real power, although introducing elements of representative democracy in the Syrian Democratic Council holds the real danger of introducing new hierarchies. An important development, though, is that women play a central role in this system of Democratic Confederalism. Each assembly or council — including the Syrian Democratic Council — have to ensure gender parity among delegates. To have a quorum in commune meetings at least 40% of the participants have to be women.

In the process of the revolution, real strides have been made to create a genuinely democratic form of people’s power with women playing a central role. As the fighters from Rojava have rolled back ISIS, new areas have joined the system of self-governance based on Democratic Confederalism. Presently 4.6 million people live and participate in this system, now known as the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria.

On the economic front, there has been an attempt to replace capitalism with a communal economy. At the heart of this experiment are worker self-managed co-operatives that produce not for profits, but to meet peoples’ needs. Besides being based on workers’ democracy, these co-operatives are also accountable to everyone involved in the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria through being answerable to the federated communes.

Large industries, of which oil is the only real one, and ex-state-owned commercial farms have also been socialised — that is, ownership is by all. By some estimates, 70% of economic activity is conducted through co-operatives. Small-sized businesses still do exist, but these are required to be based on meeting peoples’ needs and are reportedly accountable to the communes — to temper profit motives and price gouging.

Threats from many sides

Over the course of almost seven years, the people of the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria — mainly through democratic militia — have fought off the many dangers that have been posed to the revolution, which have included the forces of the Syrian state, ISIS and the Turkish state.

In the process a tactical military alliance was formed in 2015 with the US — it only arose because the Kurdish forces proved the most capable in combating ISIS. The US, as always, has only adhered to the tactical military alliance for its own purposes and has categorically refused to politically recognise the existence of the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria. It recently mooted that its troops would pull out of Syria in a move that will give the Turkish state a free hand to militarily intervene against the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria.

In January 2019, the Turkish state in fact began to make plans for the invasion of northern Syria to end the revolution. The Turkish state fears the revolution will spread into Turkey itself and it does not want an experiment in direct democracy, feminism, ecology, anti-statism, and anti-capitalism to succeed.

Already in 2018, the Turkish state invaded part of Rojava, Afrin, and is now unleashing plans to invade the rest of north and eastern Syria. These plans have been condemned by the peoples of the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria. They have called for a genuine international peacekeeping force to be deployed to prevent the invasion. Indeed, if such an invasion occurs there will be a massive escalation of the war in Syria, which will at the very least lead to thousands more deaths and hundreds of thousands of new refugees. 1

Showing us the potential for a better way

Despite some weaknesses and the threats the revolution faces, it is a beacon of hope. For South Africans, the revolution in northern and eastern Syria holds real lessons and potential hope.

When the liberation movement in South Africa gained state power, it promised to use this to improve people’s lives, end racism, address sexism and bring about equality. This has flatly failed to happen.

Ocalan’s analysis that once in state power, former liberation movements become a new elite and new rulers that develop self-serving interests precisely due to their new power and privileged positions they occupy, has proven to be correct. It is exactly why we sit with corruption throughout the state in South Africa as officials abuse the hierarchical power they have to enrich themselves.

Democratic Confederalism, as is shown in Syria, offers another way to run society. Its direct democracy can temper corruption and create greater equality as power cannot be centralised in such a system and wealth cannot be accumulated individually.

Developments in the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria also demonstrate how a non-racial society can be built through a radical democracy and that gender relations can be changed through a participatory revolutionary process. This is something that is desperately needed in South Africa where gender-based violence, sexism and racism are everyday occurrences.

In South Africa, we are saddled with one of the most corrupt private sectors in the world. Practices such as price gouging, collusion, transfer pricing and tax evasion/avoidance are prevalent in the private sector.

Working conditions, especially in the agricultural sector, are often harsh and even brutal. Pay is often low, which is one of the reasons we are one of the most unequal societies in the world. Unemployment, too, is rife and precarious work a growing phenomenon.

Past revolutions have shown, however, that nationalisation is often not the answer. Developments in Syria to create a socialised communal economy that is democratic shows another path could be followed.

In order to create a more democratic and egalitarian path (which Democratic Confederalism shows can be done), a new mass movement with a new vision, clear ethics, sound principles and truly democratic practices in South Africa is needed.

Without such a movement we will remain mired in a society defined by exploitation and corruption. To build such a movement will be no easy task, but it is what is needed: What the revolution in northern Syria shows is that it can be done.

Un breve aggiornamento su alcuni recenti episodi inerenti alla questione palestinese, tra repressione di Stato e lotte popolari

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ORDINARIA AMMNISTRAZIONE IN PALESTINA

(Gianni Sartori)

Altri due manifestanti palestinesi hanno perso la vita venerdì scorso per mano dei soldati israeliani. Il primo è stato abbattuto (ma si registrano anche numerosi feriti) nel corso delle ormai abituali manifestazioni settimanali al confine della Striscia di Gaza. Qui - il 25 gennaio - circa 10mila palestinesi si erano radunati per manifestare e alcuni di loro avrebbero lanciato non meglio specificati “proiettili” contro i militari appostati sulla linea confinaria.

L'altro palestinese, un ragazzo di 16 anni, è stato ucciso in Cisgiordania dove i soldati avevano aperto il fuoco contro un gruppetto di adolescenti. Stando alla ricostruzione ufficiale, questi ragazzi avevano lanciato dei sassi verso i veicoli israeliani transitanti sulla strada 60. Nella medesima circostanza – appare francamente eccessiva la definizione di “scontro” - altri due giovanissimi palestinesi sono rimasti feriti.

Da segnalare, forse in sintonia con quanto si applica nei confronti dei volontari anti-Isis e pro-curdi italiani, la repressione esercitata da Madrid su chi solidarizza con un altro popolo oppresso da decenni. Assieme ad altri due militanti, Angeles Maestro Martin, responsabile dell'associazione Red Roja, aveva organizzato una colletta a favore dei palestinesi. Una prima parte della modesta cifra raccolta era stata consegnata a Leila Khaled - figura storica, icona quasi, della resistenza - in occasione di un giro di conferenze nella penisola iberica. Il ricavato di una seconda colletta veniva invece consegnato direttamente all'Autorità nazionale palestinese.

L'accusa nei confronti degli esponenti di Red Roja (che dovranno presentarsi in tribunale il 5 febbraio) è piuttosto grave: “finanziamento del terrorismo”.

Addirittura.

Proseguono intanto, anche in Europa, le iniziative a favore della scarcerazione di Ahmad Sa'adat, segretario generale del FPLP (Fronte popolare per la Liberazione della Palestina). Dal 15 al 22 gennaio varie manifestazioni, sit-in e cortei si sono svolti in una quindicina di paesi. A Berlino, Goteborg, New York, Baltimora, Copenaghen, Bruxelles, Tolosa, Tunisi, Atene, Alicante, Milano, Dublino, Nottingham, Buenos Aires, Manchester...

A sostegno dell'esponente palestinese detenuto da 17 anni si sono espressi vari partiti e organizzazioni. Oltre ad altri prigionieri politici come il comunista libanese George Abdallah.

So, this year and every year, the MACG joins the call to abolish Australia Day. Our vision is of a stateless communist society, a Workers’ Commonwealth worldwide and operating on the basis of consistent federalism. Here, in the land that is currently called Australia, the Workers’ Commonwealth will be the vehicle through which non-indigenous people work with, and learn from, indigenous people how to live sustainably in the land, as they did so successfully for over 60,000 years before the First Fleet brought British colonialism to these shores.

Invasion Day, 26 January, is now the largest day of Left wing mobilisation in Australia. Attendances are much greater than those at May Day and are only exceeded by set piece events organised by the unions. Increasing numbers of both indigenous and non-indigenous people are turning out on this day and their demands are increasingly radical. These are welcome indicators of the growth of a movement which rejects the racism on which Australia is founded.

The capitalist media in Australia have been campaigning for over thirty years to generate Australian nationalism and focus it on an officially designated “Australia Day”. Indigenous people have never accepted this and have pushed back. In the face of this resistance, it has become increasingly difficult for the capitalist class to maintain their myth of a happy and united society that celebrates its nationhood. Constant reminders from indigenous people about the invasion of this land and the genocide and dispossession which followed have been causing more people to listen. The voices of indigenous people are amplified. A discordant note has been introduced.

“Change the Date”

In response to this problem, some progressive elements inside the capitalist class of Australia have started pushing the argument to “Change the Date” of Australia Day. Recognising the appalling insult to indigenous people of celebrating the start of genocide, dispossession and racism, they have begun arguing that Australia’s national day should be moved to a different date in the year.

This suggestion has run into two problems, besides the predictable opposition from the racist establishment. Firstly, there is the matter of an alternative day. The obvious date, in terms of its appeal to nationalistic sentiment, is Anzac Day. That is controversial, both because of the strict militarists who want to retain Anzac Day as it is, and progressives who are reluctant to boost a celebration of militarism even more. Other, less obvious, dates have failed to gain either recognition or traction. Some are proposing shifting the date at some time in the future when a treaty is negotiated.

The second problem, more substantive, is that a growing number of indigenous people in Australia are opposed to “Australia Day” being celebrated at all. Not only is Australia’s history a shameful litany of crimes against indigenous people – genocide, dispossession, wage theft, discrimination, child removal, police brutality and more – but the crimes continue today. There can be no pride in genocide, no matter what date it is celebrated. Now that the Invasion Day rallies have taken up this call, the “Change the Date” campaign is exposed as not being about justice for indigenous people, but about allowing the settler population to celebrate nationalism without having Australia’s institutional racism rubbed in their faces while they do it.

Abolish Australia Day

The Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group endorses the demands of the Melbourne Invasion Day rally for 2019: Aboriginal Sovereignty, not Constitutional Recognition; Stop Taking Our Kids; Abolish Australia Day; Stop Deaths in Custody; Shut Down Prisons. All strike at the racist foundations of the Australian State. Some, though, are only achievable through a workers’ revolution that abolishes capitalism. It is only libertarian communism, the Workers’ Commonwealth, and not the racist Australian capitalist State, that can negotiate just treaties with the indigenous peoples and nations that have never ceded their sovereignty. It is only the Workers’ Commonwealth that can shut down the prisons. It is only the Workers’ Commonwealth that can end deaths in custody by abolishing the police.

So, this year and every year, the MACG joins the call to abolish Australia Day. Our vision is of a stateless communist society, a Workers’ Commonwealth worldwide and operating on the basis of consistent federalism. Here, in the land that is currently called Australia, the Workers’ Commonwealth will be the vehicle through which non-indigenous people work with, and learn from, indigenous people how to live sustainably in the land, as they did so successfully for over 60,000 years before the First Fleet brought British colonialism to these shores.

ALWAYS WAS, ALWAYS WILL BE
ABORIGINAL LAND

Con oltre un secolo di ritardo la Germania si scusa per il genocidio commesso in Namibia contro le popolazioni indigene. A quando il turno dell'Italia per Libia, Etiopia, Jugoslavia...?

I TEDESCHI CHIEDONO SCUSA PER IL GENOCIDIO DI HERERO E NAMA (E FORSE L'ITALIA DOVREBBE PRENDERE ESEMPIO)

Gianni Sartori

Con colpevole ritardo - ma non si può seguire tutto in tempo reale – apprendo che il processo definito (forse in maniera non del tutto appropriata) di “Riconciliazione” per lo sterminio di Herero e Nama in Namibia (all'epoca “Africa tedesca del Sud-Ovest”) va compiendo ulteriori passi avanti.

Nel 2018 la Germania (Stato colpevole e reo-confesso) aveva ammesso pubblicamente le proprie colpe e - in Agosto – la Chiesa evangelica tedesca (EKD, luterana) chiedeva perdono per quello che viene considerato il primo genocidio del XX secolo. Precedente sia a quello armeno, sia a quello ebraico, ma non ovviamente il primo della Storia. Basti pensare a quello subito da”indiani” e “indios” nel continente americano per mano degli europei (rispettivamente anglosassoni e latini).

Il sistematico massacro di Herero e Nama si colloca tra il 1904 e il 1907, ossia nel periodo delle “guerre herero” (un eufemismo, in realtà si trattava di colonizzazione brutale e sanguinaria).

Per soffocare la ribellione dei nativi, il generale Lothar von Trotha ricorse ad ogni possibile mezzo “non convenzionale” (altro che “guerra”!) come l'avvelenamento dei pozzi.

E' passato alla Storia il comunicato – in stile nazista ante litteram - rivolto dal generale tedesco agli Herero sopravvissuti dopo la battaglia di Waterberg:

“ Il popolo Herero deve lasciare il paese. Ogni Herero che sarà trovato all'interno dei confini tedeschi, con o senza arma, con o senza bestiame, verrà ucciso. Non accolgo più né donne nè bambini: li ricaccerò alla loro gente o farò sparare loro addosso. Queste sono le mie parole per il popolo Herero”.

Nel novembre 1904 – su preciso ordine del cancelliere del Reich von Bulow - iniziava la costruzione dei Konzentrationslager (tradurre mi sembra superfluo) per gli Herero (in gran parte donne e bambini) sopravvissuti. Prima schedati in quanto “idonei al lavoro” o meno, gli indigeni vennero utilizzati sia come schiavi, sia come cavie per esperimenti definiti “medici” e “scientifici” (sterilizzazione, inoculazione di germi del vaiolo, della tubercolosi, del tifo...). Metodi artigianali (un “banco di prova”), propedeutici a quanto il nazismo opererà poi su scala industriale.

Lo “scienziato” tedesco (scienziato? Pazzo criminale piuttosto) Eugen Fischer

compì esperimenti sui figli – mulatti - di donne Herero e di coloni bianchi arrivando alla conclusione che “per le razze inferiori l'unica soluzione era quella dello sterminio totale”. In nome della purezza della razza. Non è poi secondario ricordare che Fischer divenne rettore dell'Università di Berlino avendo tra i suoi studenti nientemeno che Josef Mengele, l'allievo destinato a superare il maestro.

Se all'inizio dell'occupazione tedesca gli Herero erano circa 100mila, alla fine ne rimanevano soltanto 25mila. Cifre analoghe a quelle registrate in Libia, colonia italiana.

Solo nel 1985 le Nazioni Unite arrivarono a definire lo sterminio pianificato di Herero e Nama come “genocidio” (anche se talvolta, minimizzando, si è parlato di “tentativo di genocidio”). All'epoca, ricordo, la Namibia era ancora sotto l'occupazione di Pretoria che vi aveva introdotto l'apartheid e combatteva aspramente – grazie anche ai “volontari” neofascisti europei – contro il movimento di liberazione SWAPO.

Risaliva al 2004 un primo, modesto “riconoscimento della proprie responsabilità” da parte del Governo tedesco.

Ma per quanto “modesto”, sempre meglio dell'Italia comunque. Roma (come da millenaria tradizione) si è specializzata nel confondere le acque (in base al luogo comune - non verificato - degli “Italiani brava gente”) in merito ai vari massacri perpetrati dal proprio esercito contro le popolazioni civili. Dalla guerra di Spagna (bombardameni su Barcellona) alla Libia, dall'Etiopia (uso di gas micidiali, esecuzioni di massa...) alla Yugoslavia nella Seconda guerra mondiale.

Per non parlare del collaborazionismo fascista nella deportazione e sterminio degli Ebrei.

Il 29 agosto del 2018 Berlino ha poi restituito i resti mortali di persone Herero e Nama portati in Germania nel corso del periodo coloniale (1884-1919) e in occasione di tale evento è stato celebrato – presso la Franzosische Friedrichstadtkirke di Berlino - un culto commemorativo a cura della Chiesa evangelica tedesca e del Consiglio delle Chiese in Namibia. Dopo la cerimonia, i resti sono stati consegnati ai rappresentanti del governo namibiano in un atto ufficiale del ministero degli Esteri tedesco e dell'ambasciata di Namibia. Due giorni dopo, il 31 agosto, nella capitale namibiana – Windhoek – si è svolta un'analoga cerimonia di Stato.

Era intervenuto Ernst Gamxamub, vescovo della Chiesa evangelica luterana nella Repubblica di Namibia (chiesa membro della Federazione luterana mondiale). Congiuntamente, anche Petra Bosse-Huber, vescova per le relazioni ecumeniche e responsabile per i pastori all'estero.

Nel suo sermone Gamxamub ha rivolto un appello affinché possiamo “imparare dal nostro passato per scrivere nuovamente il nostro futuro, caratterizzato dai seguenti valori: dignità umana, rispetto, uguaglianza, buona convivenza”. Per la Pace e la Giustizia.

“Insieme ai discendenti delle vittima – aveva poi aggiunto Petra Bosse-Huber – intendiamo mantenere viva la loro memoria, sostenere pubblicamente il riconoscimento del genocidio e lavorare per sconfiggere i torti commessi dal domino coloniale tedesco”.

A quando un'analoga ammissione di colpa per l'operato italico nel secolo scorso?

Gianni Sartori

Nel Bakur (territori curdi sotto amministrazione-occupazione turca) il partito di Erdogan (AKP) continua a saccheggiare e sfruttare le risorse naturali (petrolio, minerali...) di questa regione curda. Anzi, le operazioni di estrazione negli ultimi mesi hanno subito una significativa accelerazione.

BAKUR OPPRESSO E SFRUTTATO

(Gianni Sartori)

In passato il Kurdistan – grazie anche alle sue abbondanti risorse naturali (acqua, terreni fertili, minerali...) – ha consentito a numerose comunità e civiltà di autodeterminarsi, garantendo sia ai curdi che ad altri popoli presenti nella regione i mezzi per svilupparsi autonomamente.
Oggi - sotto forma di un “colonialismo interno” da manuale - i minerali estratti nel Kurdistan, una delle terre più ricche al mondo di risorse naturali (disgraziatamente per i curdi, verrebbe da dire), vengono raffinati e lavorati all'ovest, nella Turchia propriamente detta. In particolare, da anni il petrolio estratto in Kurdistan viene dirottato verso la Turchia.
Come è – relativamente – noto la quasi totalità del petrolio “turco” proviene dalle regioni curde (da Batman, Adiyaman, Amed, Sirnak- Silopi, Siirt, Urfa, Mardin-Nusaybin...) dove sono presenti anche grandi riserve di rame, cromo, piombo, argento, carbone, lignite...
Tutto questo ben di dio viene estratto per venir trasportato nell'ovest, in Turchia per essere poi venduto (previa raffinazione e lavorazione) all'estero.
Senza che alla popolazione curda ne derivi alcun beneficio.
Il petrolio, in particolare, viene sistematicamente incanalato - “dirottato” - grazie agli oleodotti verso le raffinerie turche di Izmir-Aliaga, Kocaeli, Iprash, Kirikkale e altre dell'Anatolia centrale e di Hatay, Dortyol...
E' ormai più di un secolo che lo stato turco estrae petrolio dai giacimenti curdi e recentemente – come ho detto – questo sfruttamento ha subito un'impennata, un'accelerazione, con nuove campagne di esplorazione (promosse dall'AKP, per esempio a Hakkari-Van, ma anche a Çukurca, Şemdinli, Bitlis) per individuare e scavare nuovi pozzi.
Dietro tutto questo, la Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) che poco tempo fa – in maggio – ha realizzato un altro campo di estrazione petrolifere nel distretto di Çukurca(Hakkari). Berat Albayrak – ex ministro dell'Energia e delle Risorse naturali – aveva già annunciato lo scavo dei primi pozzi in profondità “nella regione di Semdinli e a Cizre e Van a Siirt, nel nord”.
Significativo – per quanto scontato – ciò che hanno dichiarato alcuni abitanti – curdi - delle regioni interessate dallo sfruttamento intensivo delle risorse da parte di Ankara:
“Noi non vogliamo che lo Stato turco estragga le nostre risorse. Vogliamo essere noi a utilizzarle”.
Soltanto puro, legittimo buonsenso direi.
Qualcuno lo vada a spiegare a Erdogan, per favore.
Gianni Sartori