Revolução Curda: a trajetória do PKK e o Confederalismo Democrático em Rojava

Abstract

The aim of this dissertation is to understand the complexity of the process of self- organization of the Kurdish people in search of their autonomy and emancipation, which went from a struggle for national liberation to the seizure of state power. We understand that the Kurdish process has its specificities and the Kurdish Revolution is the recent accumulation of a long process of popular struggles and uprisings. For these reasons, we focus on the trajectory of struggles, resistance, and the actions of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, the PKK. The history of the PKK has four significant decades: the 1970s, when it was founded and national liberation was its claim; the 1980s, when armed struggle and guerrilla warfare were adopted; the 1990s, when ideological restructuring took place; the 2000s, when a new ideology of the movement was announced and officially published; and, later, the 2010s, when a new political project was born. Our work makes a geographical and historical cut, limiting itself to Syrian Kurdistan; our choice for this part is justified by the actions of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the People's Defense Unit (YPG) and the Women's Defense Unit (YPJ), which are part of the Kurdish liberation movement. The Kurdish Revolution seeks social transformation through popular self-organization in assemblies. The PKK has become a social movement that in the 21st century has moved towards Democratic Confederalism, a radically democratic political model of social organization.