A-Infos (en) France, Alternative Libertaire AL #268 - Iraqi Kurdistan: In Maxmur, self-management is a combat sport (fr, it, pt) [machine translation]

100 km to the south of Mosul in Iraq, where 20 years ago only "stones, snakes and 
scorpions" survived, today stands a camp of exiles.es people of Kurds Of Turkey. Despite 
the wars in Iraq, the Daech attacks and the betrayal of the peshmerga, these men and women 
managed to create a self-organized micro-society under the protection of the PKK in this 
desert corner. Report. ---- "We want to come back to our village, even if we have to 
suffer for it. Here it's not home, " sighs Asiya, readjusting the white scarf around his 
face marked by the years and events. Through the window of his modest room to live, the 
dust raised by the wind makes the sun a pale round brilliant in a gray sky. It hides the 
top of the rocky, bare hills to the side of which Maxmur's camp is leaning, and clogs the 
horizon of desert plains facing it.

Despite the years gone by, all the inhabitants consider the camp as a temporary refuge and 
dream of a return. Their true home is in their northern Kurdistan village (Turkey), from 
where they were driven out in the mid-1990s by the violent repression of the Turkish 
state. After a long wandering exilé.es[1], temporary camp in temporary camp, Saddam 
Hussein gave in 1998 the current location of the camp to the UN, near the village of 
Maxmur. Generosity of him: 100 km south of Mosul, there was then, as described Nihat, 26, 
as "stones, snakes and scorpions"  ( "stones, snakes and scorpions"). No water, no 
vegetation and a temperature that exceeds 50 ° C in summer.

100 kilometers south of Mosul, the camp of Maxmur.

One of the main streets of the camp. The sky is obscured by black fumes coming from the 
fighting around Mosul.

Feast organized in the camp on the occasion of the anniversary of the liberation of 
Kobanê, Syria.

After a ceremony in memory of a PKK combatant, Beritan, the elderly women make the tour of 
the portraits of their relatives.

Asiya works in a greenhouse. "We do not want anything from the[Turkish]state, just to be 
able to live our culture and speak our language. "

The teachers of Maxmur write the textbooks themselves in Kurdish, to revive this forbidden 
language.

Arrived for 6 months, Agri proposed to the parliament of the camp to open a room of 
kick-boxing.

Mohammed and his family repair a wall of their sheepfold before the winter rains.

Medya gives a music lesson. In the fund, a poster of Sakinê, Fidan and Leyla, murdered in 
Paris in 2013.

The representatives of the district 1 commune meet and discuss the problems of the camp.
Photos: Yann Renoult
"We want nothing from the State[Turkish], just to live our culture and speak our 
language," resumes Asiya. Suspended on the walls around her, photographs, some with faded 
colors. Her husband and one of his sons were killed after joining the PKK and two of his 
daughters are fighting in Rojava. She and other mothers keep the memory of the disappeared 
in the house of the martyrs of the camp, with walls covered with faces. On the most recent 
portraits, the YPS flag, the young Kurdish activists and militants who, having declared 
autonomy in the Kurdish cities of Turkey, were crushed by the Turkish army.

After surviving the Iraq wars, the inhabitants of the camp, abandoned by the peshmergas 
supposed to protect them, abandoned their homes in front of the advance of the jihadists 
of Daech in early August 2014. After occupying the Camp for ten days, they were driven out 
by the fighters and fighters of the PKK who since then ensured the protection of the 
exiles. They also face the hostility of the KDP (Democratic Party of Kurdistan) led by 
Massoud Barzani (also president of the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government), who controls 
the access and surrounding area of the camp. The conflict between KDP and PKK dates back 
to the bloody civil war that broke out between the two Kurdish majority parties in Iraqi 
Kurdistan, the KDP and the PUK in the mid-1990s. The PKK being allied with the opponents 
of the KDP, violent clashes took place between these two forces and the exiles of Maxmur, 
located at the time farther north, paid the price. Until today, about 60 of them and they 
were killed by the peshmergas of the KDP.

Co-chairmanship by a man and a woman

Despite these hardships, the inhabitants of Maxmur succeeded in organizing themselves 
according to a political system based on the ideas of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan. 
Imprisoned since 1999 in Turkey, it theorized from his cell he called the Democratic 
confederalism, thanks to extensive correspondence with Murray Bookchin, thinker 
libertarian municipalism (see G  No. 264 in September 2016). This political project is 
based on three axes: a democratic functioning where local councils have a major role, 
gender equality and the end of patriarchy, and an ecological society project. The PKK 
rejects the idea of a nation-state, in favor of a federalist functioning.

Established gradually, self-organization is openly displayed since the United Nations left 
the camp attacked by Daech. The 15,000 inhabitants are divided into five districts with 
the smallest entity of democratic functioning: the commune, a group of people ranging from 
fifteen to fifty families living in a common space. The councils of the communes, with the 
participation of all persons over 16, meet regularly. We discuss the problems of everyday 
life and neighborhood conflicts, which we try to resolve through discussion. What could 
not be resolved goes back to the Assembly, in which the management of the camp is 
discussed. Ninety-one people are currently sitting. Like all the structures of the camp, 
it is co-chaired by a man and a woman, this being a major principle of democratic 
confederalism.

Kurdistan, the revolution


The monthly record of Alternative Libertaire  in November 2014.

Rojava: A new Chiapas?
What really changed at the PKK
Computer graphics: the Kurdish galaxy
DAF: "Ankara feared revolutionary contagion"
Yes, the people can change things (the Rojava experience)
[video]Kurdistan, the Kurdish Left and self-management , an interview with Cem Akbalik 
(Kurdish libertarian socialist)
Every two years, the representatives of the municipalities elect the latter, who can 
present themselves for only two consecutive terms, as well as twenty-nine representatives 
at a major conference which also allows to discuss the rules of operation within the camp 
. The other sixty came from the various committees and associations of the camp. Every 
month, the twenty-nine representatives and the two co-chairs meet, and every two months it 
is the turn of the whole assembly.

Nine, the committees are another aspect of the camp's democratic life. Their members are 
elected by the municipalities and are responsible for proposing and implementing projects 
in their respective fields: social, self-defense, municipality, "diplomacy", economy, 
education, politics, justice and organization In general. Each project proposed by the 
committees is debated and voted in Parliament.

Major importance of education

The education committee is responsible for organizing the operation of the schools that 
house the 4,000 children in the camp, from kindergarten to high school. An academy offers 
postgraduate training in the field of media, or for nurses, and soon in economics. 
Teachers come from the camp.

One of the projects of the Education Committee was to organize the writing of the 
textbooks, since children study in Kurmanci, the majority Kurdish dialect, which is banned 
in Turkey and differs from the dialect used in KRG, Sorani. This is problematic for young 
people continuing their studies outside the camp. PKK executives attach great importance 
to education. As Ömer points out, part of fifty years having spent fifteen years in 
prison, citing Foucault and read Paulo Freire, "the goal is not for us to destroy the 
existing capitalist system to rebuild something else Its ruins, but rather to educate and 
gradually evolve the mentalities towards another alternative, even if it must take several 
generations ".

"Freedom, revolution, self-management"

AL has published a t-shirt to support the colors of Kurdistan.

The proceeds will be donated to a self-management project in Rojava (Syrian Kurdistan) or 
Bakur (Turkish Kurdistan). Thanks to the artist Pierre Bunk.

Available in standard (S, M, L, XL) and Bow (M, L) on the U online store .

Cultural activities are also encouraged and the lack of equipment does not stop the 
initiatives. Medya, Gerila, PKK, hair dyed with henna and broad smile on his lips, has 
been teaching music for four years. She explains: "For us, art is an integral part of the 
revolution. " Workshops painting, dance are also offered. Recently, a kick-boxing room has 
opened, offering courses for both women and men. In the evening, youngsters or families 
can relax in the two parks built by the municipality.

Women have a separate meeting, not mixed and a akademie. Asiya, a young nurse, explains to 
us that the role of the women's assembly is to take care of everything that concerns 
women, in terms of education and economy, but also in relation to family problems or 
spousal violence .

For the sake of economic emancipation, they have launched a textile activity and a 
cafeteria, the profits of which make it possible to finance their projects. The power of 
the assembly of women in the camp is not discussed. They may decide to withdraw a woman 
from her family if she is ill-treated, with no possibility for the family to oppose it.

Long-term processes

Asiya works as a nurse in the UN-built camp clinic. The doctors come from the KRG, the 
nurses from the camp or the neighboring village. "Since the attack on Daech, we are short 
of medicines. We see about 100 patients each day for basic care. For the rest, you have to 
go to Erbil. "  Maternity absence, deliveries are often in homes. Most of the patients are 
women or children, who come for tummy or kidney problems because of the poor quality of 
the water in the camp.

It is a problem of concern and Bermal Kendan, the co-conveners of the municipality, in 
charge of the camp hardware problems: "We struggled to find new sources of water. (...) We 
depend on Erbil (KRG), but we have little contact with them. For the past two years, 
because of the political crisis, we receive little aid from them, and even if there is no 
official embargo, they sometimes block the goods. We are having trouble repairing 
electrical installations. " Still, the power cuts in the camp are less numerous than Erbil 
thanks to the presence of generators. But part of the drinking water must be purchased 
outside. The main streets are relatively well paved, the buildings well maintained. Unlike 
other examples of settled camps, constructions were not made in an anarchic way. These are 
mainly single-storey houses, with stone and earth walls. Most have a garden that allows 
families to grow vegetables and raise animals for their livelihood.

Discover the report of Yann Renoult in the Qandil Mountains in April 2014.

Part of the food needs of the camp is provided by the economic communes, in the form of 
two collective projects: sheep breeding and greenhouse farming since 2011. From a family 
of peasants in the Hakkari region, Hussein had to learn to Grow under glass. But it 
plagues to buy expensive seeds that do not regenerate. Initially donated by the United 
Nations, they are now in charge. It tries somehow to use manure to fertilize the soil, not 
fertilizer that "dirty earth."

Seven tents out of the twelve are exploited collectively, each requiring the labor of two 
families who then share their income. A part of the production allows the supply of the 
camp shops in cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers. The assembly of the camp wants to develop the 
cooperative functioning so that all the production is sold internally and that there is no 
need to buy in the neighboring village.

In October 2016, the peshmergas block access to the camp

The economic crisis in Iraq did not spare Maxmur. Many adults are out of work. Those 
outside the camp are employed in a precarious way in catering, hotels or on construction 
sites. But regularly the political tensions between KRG and PKK, exacerbated in recent 
years since the declaration of autonomy of Syrian Kurdistan on the model of democratic 
confederalism, mean that the peshmerga block access to the camp, prohibiting all entry and 
exit. As in October 2016, when the KRG banned the area from leaving for several weeks. 
Those who had a job outside have lost it, more precarious the camp.

The self-organization of the inhabitants of Maxmur has been favored by cultural and 
linguistic ties due to their common geographical origin and a hostile natural and 
political environment. The PKK was thus able to test the establishment of democratic 
confederalism, an experiment that proved crucial when it was established in Rojava, where 
the movement was able to extend it to the scale of a region. This extension made it 
possible to show the challenges of social and political cohabitation between parties and 
ethnic groups with different motivations.

The cadres of the movement hope that the autonomy given by democratic confederalism to 
each group will guarantee the solidity of the alliances, while counting on the youth to 
guarantee its implementation in the long term. However, they have no illusions that the 
process will take many years and that they will have to resist the pitfalls of their 
enemies, with Turkey in mind.

Yann Renoult (text and photos)

[1]I use the term "exile" instead of "refugee" because it implies that the persons 
designated to be moved from one state to another. Now, if one does not place oneself in 
terms of borders established against their will, the inhabitants of Maxmur remained in 
Kurdistan.

http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Kurdistan-irakien-A-Maxmur-l
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://ainfos.ca/mailman/listinfo/a-infos-en
Archive: http://ainfos.ca/en