Fréderike Geerdink
Interesting dynamics going on around the planned elections in the autonomously governed regions in North and East Syria later this month: Turkey considers them a threat to its security and pumps up the heat to derail them. Violence, lies, bribes, diplomacy, Erdoğan uses everything at his disposal to delegitimise the vote. Because Kurds and their democratic expression, Turkey can just not find a way to deal with it.
The elections in AANES, as the autonomously governed regions are officially called, will be held on 11 June. This fine website explained nicely how it all works: there are two major alliances (one comprising 22 parties, one of six parties), and three parties participating independently. There are candidates for positions in seven cantons and almost 200 municipalities. In several areas, the vote cannot be held because Turkey occupies them, including in Tell Abyad (Girê Spî), Ras al-Ayn (Serê Kaniyê) and Afrin (Efrîn).
Democratic structures
The piece linked above explains the different goals of the elections. One of the goals is to solidify the legitimacy of the decentralised democratic structures, and to again present the system as a solution to the war and the Assad dictatorship in Syria.
In a sense, that is a threat to Turkey. Not in the way that Turkey perceives it though. Turkey – not just Erdoğan but parties across the political spectrum, except of course the DEM Party – likes to portray it as ‘separatism’. This wrongly suggests that the autonomous regions want to secede from Syria, which would also shake the foundations of Turkey’s unity, which in turn is equal to terrorism in their ultra-nationalist ideology. The terrorism narrative in their eyes then justifies using violence against the AANES once again.
The real threat is that the bottom-up democracy the AANES has been building since 2012 without wanting to break Syria up, is that real democracy would trigger aspirations of Kurds and other groups in Turkey for an actual say in their daily affairs and the decentralisation of Turkey’s strongly centralised government structure. And yes, this shakes the foundations that Turkey is built on to the core. Not in a violent matter though, as Turkey wrongly portrays it, but in a democratic manner.
Backed and financed
Turkey threatens to invade the AANES again, but it also tries to spread the story that the elections aren’t democratic. Example at hand: this piece at Rudaw, the media channel in the Kurdistan Region in Iraq that is directed by (a faction within) the KDP. The KDP is the party that cooperates with Turkey in the war against the PKK, but it is also the party that is connected to the Kurdish National Council (KNC) in Syria, which is backed and financed by Turkey (which remains unmentioned in the Rudaw article). Accusations are made without any evidence, including that members of the security forces will be forced to vote for the PYD (the biggest party in AANES, which is part of one of the alliances), and that citizens are also ‘threatened’.
Trump card in the article is a US spokesperson, who says AANES ‘does not have conditions for free and fair elections’ as described in UN Security Council Resolution 2254. I looked that resolution up for you and the man is right: that resolution is about elections in the whole of Syria after Assad and the opposition agree on a new constitution – which the article doesn’t mention and therefore it’s bad faith journalism. Resolution 2254 dates back to 2015 and there is no progress whatsoever in implementing it. Then accusing the only actor that is actually investing in Syria’s future of undermining democracy, is outright preposterous.
Paying people
What is Turkey meanwhile doing, besides threatening violence and spreading false propaganda and misusing US spokespersons for it? It is paying people in the formerly autonomously governed regions of Afrin, Serê Kaniyê and Girê Spî and in other Turkey-occupied territories, to demonstrate against the elections (with proof!).
This is totally on character for Erdoğan’s government. During the AKP era, especially after the promising first couple of years, civil servants (local administrators, teachers, police officers, etc) were transported by bus to AKP rallies, especially in the Kurdish regions. Whoever didn’t board the bus, was at risk of losing their job. Erdoğan knows exactly what he can accuse others of because he can pick it from his own play book.
Social Contract
Don’t understand me wrong: I don’t think the autonomously governed regions of North and East Syria are some kind of revolutionary paradise that functions perfectly. Of course it is not. And nobody in their right mind would say that it is. And the AANES does acknowledge that, and with the elections it is actually trying to advance their democratic legitimacy, just as they did recently with their new so-called Social Contract. I think that should be applauded and supported.
May the people of Syria win!
Fréderike Geerdink is an independent journalist. Follow her on Twitter or subscribe to her acclaimed weekly newsletter Expert Kurdistan.
