From Black Rose Anarchist Federation

The anarchist movement in Turkey is a growing, vibrant, and strong force. Just a few small collectives and papers ten years ago, anarchists are now organized across Turkey and North Kurdistan. With their increasing impact and visibility, anarchists have now become a target of repression as Turkey has slid into war and dictatorship. The Black Rose Anarchist Federation is asking for your support for their struggle for freedom in the face of violence and repression!

From It's Going Down

The first anarchist battalion has been launched in Rojava, and with that a new call for revolutionary anarchists from around the world to join them. Rojava Solidarity NYC (RS NYC) conducted an interview with the members of the International Revolutionary People’s Guerrilla Forces (IRPGF) about how they got started, how they have experienced revolutionary life and the possibilities for anarchists when an autonomous region supports the movement.

From It's Going Down

Today we announce the formation of the International Revolutionary People’s Guerrilla Forces, an explicitly anarchist, militant group in Rojava seeking to defend the Revolution and advance the cause of anarchism.

From Freedom: Anarchist Media, Publishing and Bookshop (UK)

Late last month the editor of Meydan anarchist newspaper in Istanbul was sentenced to a year and three months in prison for “supporting terror,” the latest in a string of attempts by the Turkish State to shut down dissenting voices against Erdogan’s government. Today we are proud to publish a translation of Meydan’s uncompromising response, from their latest edition.

From Freedom News

The editor of Meydan Gazette in Istanbul was jailed for a year and three months on December 22nd for “propagandising the methods of a terror organisation” in a free-speech case which dragged on for nearly a year.

Libertarian perspectives for the Middle East

The interview that we share here was produced during August 2016, just two weeks after the coup attempt of the 16th of July. This also happened a month before the beginning of the big Turkish manoeuvre on the orographic right side of the Euphrates in the Syrian territory to counteract the presence of the SDF militia that had taken that region from ISIS, strategical for the supply lines of the Caliphate.

The coup, which has been an inevitable reality of the state presence in this geography since the military coup of 1980, arose after 36 years, on the night of July 15. Many state buildings were blocked for a few hours during the military mobilisation based in Istanbul and Ankara. The coup started with flypast of fighter jets in Ankara and blocking of bridges in Istanbul by soldiers, and continued with taking hostage of chief of general staff and tank noise and gun shots in the streets. Many state buildings were shot by F16s and helicopters including the parliament building and the headquarters of National Intelligence Organisation; There were clash of arms in many places between soldiers and police.

From Tahrir-ICN

With a population of 30 million, the Kurds are the world’s largest stateless people. They form the majority of Kurdistan, a region in Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq. Since 1999, their struggle for self-determination has taken an anarchstic turn, and communities in Kurdistan have established direct democratic governance modelled on the anti-authoritarian neo-Zapatista movement and the theories of US anarchist Murray Bookchin. While Kurds comprise the majority, the movement has been diverse and multi-ethnic. For example, in the canton of Jazira in Rojava (Syrian Kurdistan), Kurds, Arabs, Syriacs, Chechens, Armenians, Muslims, Christians and Yazidis co-exist and share political power.^[1]

Airs on WSFM-LP 103.3 in Asheville / streaming at AshevilleFM from 3am EST on June 13th, 2016, through June 19th, then in radio version or podcasting at radio4all.net.

From CrimethInc. blog

In the latest installment in our series exploring the anarchist critique of democracy, guest author Paul Z. Simons offers us a meditation on revolutionary forms of organization. Drawing on his experiences in Rojava in 2015, he contrasts conventional democratic practices with what he has seen of democratic confederalism and evaluates the federation of communes as a model for North American anarchists. At a time when the ruling order has been discredited but there are very few proposals for how else to shape our lives, Simons suggests some much-needed points of departure.