Reassembling the Political: The PKK and the project of Radical Democracy

Abstract

In this line of discussion, Hardt and Negri elaborate on how in different struggles, the rebellions of different singularities can be brought together as a form of revolutionary assemblages, beyond the hegemonic articulation posed by Laclau and Mouffe. They discuss "the parallel coordination among the revolutionary struggles of singularities" (Hardt and Negri 2004: 344). However these parallel struggles of identities or Reassembling the Political: The PKK and the project of Radical Democracy

Future Options of the Kurds.<sup>1</sup> Part I: The Current Situation

“…In a nutshell: After the implosion of the Soviet communist model at the beginning of the 1990s, the PKK repositioned itself as far-left movement. Previously, they adhered to some form of muddled Marxism-Leninism (Akkaya & Jongerden, 2012;Sheikhmous, 2013, see also his assessment of 1992; Zisser, 2014;Bonsey, 2017;Leezenberg, 2016;Černy, 2018). Then under the influence of a little known American politi- bertarian municipalism" to their own version of local and decentralized governance among different peoples and ethnic groups in specific regions, which they called "radical democracy", "autonomous democracy" or "democratic confederalism".…”

Religious minorities and secularism: an alternative view of the impact of religion on the political values of Muslims in Europe

“…Since 1999, even the KKP (Partiya Komunistê Kurdistan, Communist Party of Kurdistan) movement has reframed its political discourse by stressing radical democracy. Scholars agree that the Kurdish movement moves from the need for a pluralistic, democratic system of governance (Akkaya and Jongerden 2012).…”

Mapping action and identity in the Kobani crisis response

“…The general dynamics changed somewhat after the arrest of the PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan in 1999, with the movement entering an official peace process with the state, renouncing separatist armed struggle and shifting its ideology to embrace "radical democracy" for all in Turkey (Akkaya and Jongerden, 2012). Nonetheless, pro-Kurdish actors have in the main part, and sometimes wilfully so, retained their "challenger" status.…”