Why #DefendAfrin? Confronting authoritarian populism with radical democracy

12 February 2018

The war in Afrin starkly highlights how the dynamics of power and resource grabs by the US, Russia, and their regional alliances, have shaped contemporary struggles for life and democracy.

Article by

Amber Huff
Salima Tasdemir
Patrick Huff

A demonstration in the city of Afrin, Syria in support of the People's Protection Units (YPG) and the Women's Protection Units (YPJ) against the Turkish military operation against the Afrin Region. 19 January 2018.

On 20 January, Turkey launched a brutal air and ground invasion of Afrincanton in Northern Syria. Turkey claims that the Orwellian-named ‘Operation Olive Branch’ is a fight against terrorism and an effort to secure Turkey’s borders. However, Afrin, one of the three founding cantons of the autonomous rural region in Northern Syria commonly called by the Kurdish name of Rojava, has been one of the most stable and peaceful regions in Syria since the state collapsed in 2012, and part of a radical experiment in decentralised democracy.

This is the third article in a series on ‘confronting authoritarian populism and the rural world’, linked to the Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative (ERPI). The full article can be read here.

Food Sovereignty