MESOP TODAYS RELEVANT QUOTATION BY PROFESSOR MICHAEL GUNTER (USA) ON “DEMOCRATIC AUTONOMY” – PYD & PKK
In the book you try to describe what democratic autonomy means but you express skepticism about it. Why do you think it’s too good to be true?
I don’t completely dismiss it. But just as when Lenin first came to power in Soviet Russia, he said he would just administer things and the state would gradually disappear. Of course, the exact opposite actually happened: One of the most monstrously centralized bureaucratic states in history emerged through the Communist Party.
I think it is largely impossible to administer somewhere through this theory of democratic autonomy because the power would simply not be there to hold together the different segments of society. Indeed, despite the theory of democratic autonomy, in practice it is clear that what is holding Rojava (Syrian Kurdistan) together is the power of the PYD and its brother organization the PKK. Despite the talk about democratic autonomy, in reality a traditional military power – the PKK and PYD – is holding it all together. Interview in Hurriyet 25th October 2015 / Watch more: www.mesop.de