The Case of The Syrian War
- Alba Q.
- Jan 4, 2021
- 4 min read
The very meaning of reparation and restitution is based on the assumption that one can repair a wrong or can pay back the stolen, the damaged. But is it even possible? in some cases maybe! in some cases at least it can be a healing process, a reconsideration of the future, and hope. But still, what possible process can give back the stolen identity? the stolen life? the oppressed ideology? the loss of the power of imagination? and if even somebody has the answers, who determines the conciliation conditions?
Colonization and occupation do not always result in slavery as the traditional way. (it is horrifying that the human race has a tradition in slavery, no?) sometimes the desire to occupy a land, oil reserves, mines, etc., or the desire to vanish an ideology or identity, ends up in a war - not exporting cheap labour- for instance, the Middle East conflicts. in this blog entry, I write about the Syrian war that has begun in 2011 after national protests in Syria inspired by Arab spring movements and still going on with different actors. It is oversimplification if we consider the war between Syria and Turkey or civil conflicts in Syria as tribal disagreements. Rather, one should see the ideological conflicts and power relations in the region, not only among the countries that exist within the borders of the Middle East but all supporters, big policymakers, etc. If we are searching for reparation and restitution, at some points we need to know who caused the damage (finding the responsible and declaring them as so, can be the very first step of the reparation procedure) and who was the victim and why?
This text is an anthropological attempt to explore the possible answers to the question of reparation and restitution based on interviews with Kurdish activists in Europe, Refugees in Turkey, and some other confidential interviews. In the following I explore two topics raised by the Syrian war:
Women and the Middle East
As Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, declared “The freedom of the Kurdish people can be viewed as inseparably bound to women’s freedom.” “This statement emphasizes a core tenet in the reinvention of the PKK’s ideology as articulated by Öcalan: the understanding that freedom can only be achieved through the defeat of the patriarchal system.” (Pinar: 2017) So here we see the essence of Rojava as women’s freedom. Any attack on the North Kurdistan should be understood as an attack to an ideology, or as Meral Çiçek suggests: “a war against women” which is highly in opposition with fundamental policies toward women in the Middle East. Also, we should see the economic result of women’s liberation which again is in opposition to feudal, sectarianism, and neo-liberal policies of the countries involved in the Syrian war. AsMies illustrates correctly: “Whereas the concept patriarchy denotes the historical depth of women’s exploitation and oppression, the concept of capitalism is expressive of the contemporary manifestation, or the latest development of this system. Women’s problems today cannot be explained by merely referring to the old forms of patriarchal dominance. Nor can they be explained if one accepts the position that patriarchy is a ‘pre-capitalist’ system of social relations which has been destroyed and superseded, together with ‘feudalism’, by capitalist relations, because women’s exploitation and oppression cannot be explained by the functioning of capitalism alone, at least not capitalism as it is commonly understood. It is my thesis that capitalism cannot function without patriarchy, that the goal of this system, namely the never-ending process of capital accumulation, cannot be achieved unless patriarchal man-woman relations are maintained or newly created. We could, therefore, also speak of neo-patriarchy” (Mies: 1998, P38)
The answer to the question of reparation in the case of war against women’s freedom ideology, cannot be anything but smashing the patriarchy and fundamentalism in the Middle East. Is it possible and if so, when? After women sacrificed numerous martyrs?
War and Refugees
Based on my interviews with some Iranian and Afghan refugees in Turkey, it has been almost two years that numerous refugees could not register their cases and are still in limbo. My narrators among Kurdish activists in Europe understand this situation in Turkey based on the idea that Turkey uses refugees as leverage to get help from NATO and the West to invasion Syria and especially Kurdistan, and at the same time prevent any relation between Rojava and the West.
Grounded on this fieldwork report, the possible reparation for this crime against human rights should be paid not only by Turkey but all countries involved in the limbo in which refugees are stuck.
Here a text by Rudit Berxweder which can be helpful to see the situation there and also the active actors:
In contradiction to what I wrote in the introduction about not exporting cheap labor, are not refugees becoming cheap laborers in many cases? (“the new progress of capitalism” maybe we can call this process?) My narrators who are refugees from Syria in the European countries told me stories about how they have been forced to leave the country due to the war and now are workers in companies without any insurance or future. Even college professors, specialists, etc. Becoming refugees maybe saved them from war but changed their social, political, and economic capitals in a way which is not possible to reclaim anymore. Then any attempt to reparation or restitution the lands or so forth becomes meaningless.
“As sociologists, we are aware that the ‘refugee’ label is powerful and complex, both in its use to define the human experience and a category of people, but also in terms of the identity and subjectivity of those who bear the label. At one and the same time one can be proud of being a ‘refugee’ and having survived unspeakable horrors; but also it marks a lack of homeland and of previous social status and identity and self-worth, a lack reinforced by racist abuse in all its guises (Harrell-Bond, 1999; Levy, 1999; Crawley, 2000; Cohen, 2001). (O’Neill: 2003, P8)
References:
Mies, Maria. Patriarchy and accumulation on a world scale: Women in the international division of labour. Palgrave Macmillan, 1998.
O'Neill, Maggie, and Tony Spybey. "Global refugees, exile, displacement and belonging." (2003): 7-12.
Tank, Pinar. "Kurdish women in Rojava: from resistance to reconstruction." Die Welt des Islams 57, no. 3-4 (2017): 404-428.
Comments