Reassembling the political: the PKK and the project of radical democracy

One of the most important secular political movements in the Middle East, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) underwent a profound transformation in the 2000s. What the PKK has experienced in this period was a comprehensive restructuration of its organization, ideology and political-military struggle, changing its course towards a project of radical democracy. In this article we explore the content of this new project, and its practical implications. Through this discussion, our study addresses a gap in Turkish and Kurdish studies. Only few studies deal explicitly with the political ideology of the PKK. The data for this article has been collected through a study of Öcalan’s defence texts and his ‘prison notes’, along with key PKK documents, such as congress reports, formal decisions and the writings of its cadre, such as Mustafa Karasu. We conclude that the project for radical democracy is based on the conception of ‘politics beyond the state, political organisation beyond the party, and political subjectivity beyond class’ and can have the opportunity to change the centralist tradition in Turkish political system as well as the statist and class reductionist political thought in the Left in Turkey

OPEN SOURCE AND COMMONS IN DEVELOPMENT

N° ISBN - 978-2-7380-1284-5International audienceThis article discusses the interrelation between open source knowledge development and the production of research commons in four development-oriented research networks with an Indian/Dutch composition. The main objective of the article is to describe the planned research activities aimed to understand the functioning of open source and commons from the perspective of local development. The article discusses three hypotheses which will be further investigated in the coming years by the Open Source and Commons Research Group of CTC1, namely:. • The social-technical dynamics in the knowledge development of genomics and other life sciences technologies transform the private-public research setting into more open source and commons oriented research networks • The open source approach will show a trend towards a blurring of the designer-user dichotomy, as the user will also be challenged to become co-designer, which will create new opportunities and incentives for involving resource-poor client groups and farmers in the process of technology development • Commons represent a new social condition of knowledge production (to be distinguished from private and public). By describing the planned research activities the authors aim to stimulate a critical reflection and debate on the social relevance of scientific commons and the opportunities for inclusive technology development that appear to be emerging due to the changes in knowledge production and property regimes

Crafting Space, Making People: The Spatial Design of Nation in Modern Turkey

Much has been written about identity politics in Turkey, mainly focusing on citizenship issues and analyses of state discourses. This article is concerned with a different dimension of identity-politics: the molding of society and identity through the construction of space. Based on a discussion of two cases, this contribution analyzes state attempts to craft ‘assimilating spaces.’ The first case discusses plans and activities to redesign the countryside in the 20th century. State institutions thought the principal shortcoming of rural Anatolia was the dispersed settlement structure and small size of the myriad rural settlements. In order to be able to establish the authority of the state in the countryside and develop a national body of people it was thought that a new rural settlement structure had to be developed, either by abolishing or clustering small rural settlements. The latest and most serious attempt to redesign the countryside was made in the war-affected Kurdish southeast at the beginning of the new millennium. However, this program encountered problems as a result of institutional disagreement and opposition from returnees. The second case discusses the issue of village- and street names and how through naming strategies a discursive national space was designed. Drawing on recent examples from the Kurdistan region in Turkey, this article show politics of assimilation were embedded in the state's discursive spatial practices, but also how these were resisted at the local level. Turkish nationalist discursive arrangements are challenged and a new discursive social space developed. Data for this article was obtained mainly through archival research, in particular the study of documents of state institutions, and field research

Village Evacuation and Reconstruction in Kurdistan (1993-2002)

The countryside has been used as a medium for warfare and affected by counterinsurgency, but this has received relatively little attention. Transformations of the countryside in Turkish Kurdistan serve as the basis for discussing: Turkish counterinsurgency strategies from both military and political perspectives; the evacuation and destruction of villages in the course of campaigns; and development plans for the war zone. A major conclusion is that the Turkish government’s reconstruction and development plans continue the war by using other means.Résumé :Le monde rural a souvent été le théâtre de luttes armées et de contre-insurrections. Pourtant on a prêté peu d’attention à ce phénomène. L’observation des transformations récentes des campagnes du Kurdistan turc permet de discuter des stratégies de contre-insurrection turque, d’un point de vue à la fois militaire et politique ; de l’évacuation et de la destruction des villages lors des conflits ; et des plans de développement relatifs à la zone en guerre. Cette étude révèle que les plans de reconstruction et de développement mis en œuvre par le gouvernement turc prolongent la guerre, mais en usant d’autres moyens

Fruitless attempts? The Kurdish initiative and containment of the Kurdish movement in Turkey

Following the victory of the Kurdish party DTP (Demokratik Toplum Partisi, Democratic Society Party) in Turkey's southeastern provinces in the local elections of March 2009, Turkey witnessed the AKP (Adalet ye Kalkinma Partisi, Justice and Development Party) government's Kurdish initiative, the closure of the victorious Kurdish party and waves of arrests of Kurdish activists and politicians. This rush of action constituted a renewed effort to contain and roll back the political and societal influence of the Kurdish movement. But what is it exactly that the government and the state were attempting to contain, and why? This article considers the recent moves of the ruling AKP, the judiciary, and the Turkish Armed Forces in regard to the "Kurdish problem" in Turkey's southeast, interpreting them as different responses to the regional success of the Kurdish movement

Soberanía alimentaria y el principio campesino

El concepto de soberanía alimentaria fue lanzado por las organizaciones de la sociedad civil en la década de los noventa y ha alcanzado un desarrollo importante en la actualidad.Hoy en día, organizaciones internacionales como la FAO se hallan comprometidas con el debate sobre soberanía alimentaria. Esto, por un lado, es una muestra del éxito del concepto y de la aparente necesidad de ir más allá de las complicadas ofertas existentes, como las de la alimentación como derecho humano y de la seguridad alimentaria. Por otro lado, está presente el riesgo de que el concepto de soberanía alimentaria sea despojado de su confrontante contenido, e integrado en los "negocios como habitual". Este artículo discutirá el movimiento de soberanía alimentaria como un principio ordenador alternativo, capaz de confrontar a la organización económica internacional existente y capaz de ir más allá de las ofertas de alimentación como un derecho humano y de seguridad alimentaria. Después de una breve discusión sobre los antecedentes -la persistencia del hambre y la pobreza y la amplia brecha entre ricos y pobres, parte del actual sistema económico mundial- la soberaníaalimentaria es discutida dentro del contexto de una re-campesinación de los desarrollos agrícolas. Se argumenta que el concepto de soberanía alimentaria nos permite ir más allá de la modernización agrícola, y del principio campesino en agricultura.Concluimos: el concepto de soberanía alimentaria nos obliga a pensar sobre alternativas en el desarrollo, no sólo en el mercado internacional, sino también en otros ámbitos, por ejemplo, en la formulación de agendas de investigación y desarrollo tecnológico

The Kurdistan Workers Party and a New Left in Turkey: Analysis of the revolutionary movement in Turkey through the PKK’s memorial text on Haki Karer

One of the banners the left had been marching behind in the 1970s was that of a ‘Fully Independent Turkey!’ – and yet, while these radical voices evaluated Turkey’s status as that of a semi-colony (of Western capitalist imperialism), it had turned a blind eye to Turkey’s own role as itself a colonizing country, vis-à-vis Kurdistan. In this article, we will discuss the contentious relationship between the PKK and the left, and the critique of the PKK on the left in Turkey (i.e. the perception of the PKK as Kurdish nationalist left by the Turkish nationalist left). We will argue that the PKK, itself emerging from the revolutionary left in Turkey sought for an ideological and political transformation of radical politics in Turkey, one that would free the left from the blind-spot of what was called ‘social-chauvinism’, an attitude in which there was only Turkey, no Kurdistan. We think such a study is of interest for those who want to understand the nature of the political struggle of the PKK. Data for this article has been collected by means of interviews and literature study

Comparative effects of oleoyl-estrone and a specific β3-adrenergic agonist (CL316, 243) on the expression of genes involved in energy metabolism of rat white adipose tissue

Background: The combination of oleoyl-estrone (OE) and a selective b3-adrenergic agonist (B3A; CL316,243) treatment in rats results in a profound and rapid wasting of body reserves (lipid). Methods: In the present study we investigated the effect of OE (oral gavage) and/or B3A (subcutaneous constant infusion) administration for 10 days to overweight male rats, compared with controls, on three distinct white adipose tissue (WAT) sites: subcutaneous inguinal, retroperitoneal and epididymal. Tissue weight, DNA (and, from these values cellularity), cAMP content and the expression of several key energy handling metabolism and control genes were analyzed and computed in relation to the whole site mass. Results: Both OE and B3A significantly decreased WAT mass, with no loss of DNA (cell numbers). OE decreased and B3A increased cAMP. Gene expression patterns were markedly different for OE and B3A. OE tended to decrease expression of most genes studied, with no changes (versus controls) of lipolytic but decrease of lipogenic enzyme genes. The effects of B3A were widely different, with a generalized increase in the expression of most genes, including the adrenergic receptors, and, especially the uncoupling protein UCP1. Discussion: OE and B3A, elicit widely different responses in WAT gene expression, end producing similar effects, such as shrinking of WAT, loss of fat, maintenance of cell numbers. OE acted essentially on the balance of lipolysislipogenesis and the blocking of the uptake of substrates; its decrease of synthesis favouring lipolysis. B3A induced a shotgun increase in the expression of most regulatory systems in the adipocyte, an effect that in the end favoured again the loss of lipid; this barely selective increase probably produces inefficiency, which coupled with the increase in UCP1 expression may help WAT to waste energy through thermogenesis. Conclusions: There were considerable differences in the responses of the three WAT sites. OE in general lowered gene expression and stealthily induced a substrate imbalance. B3A increasing the expression of most genes enhanced energy waste through inefficiency rather than through specific pathway activation. There was not a synergistic effect between OE and B3A in WAT, but their combined action increased WAT energy waste