• Mardoniush [she/her]
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    4 years ago

    Rojava cool and based and critical support for AES, but the idea of an independent Kurdistan that the Turks would let survive was always non-viable.

    They should have cut a deal with Assad earlier.

    • ConstipationNation [he/him]
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      4 years ago

      AES was never supposed to be an independent Kurdistan, the PYD/YPG line has always been that they seek an autonomous region within a federalized Syria. The whole idea that they were/are trying to build an independent Kurdish state came from both anti-Kurdish propaganda and Western analysts who refused to try to understand the revolution in depth and on its own terms and instead made generalizations about it being a nationalist project.

      • Mardoniush [she/her]
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        4 years ago

        Yeah, I've read both Bookchin and Ocalan, so I'm aware of the extra national nature of DFNS.

        I'm trying to say that even though Assad is an ass, he's not half as genocidal as Erdogan, so some concessions to him would have left them in a stronger position

        That said they had shitty decisions to make and I cant blame them for trying to hold out defese integration as long as possible, even if it cost them Afrin.

    • Civility [none/use name]
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      4 years ago

      I mean, Assad and the Syrian Ba'athists are violently anti-Semitic Nazi style fash and have been since forever.

      Fully in support of Syria not getting carpet bombed and all, but it's entirely understandable the YPG didn't run to them for aid except as a very last resort.

        • Civility [none/use name]
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          4 years ago

          It's kind of hard to find one big source, I kind of learned about it by pulling bits and pieces from all over the place, and it's hard to find good sources without some form of brainworms/really weird focuses but I can give it a shot.

          Saddam Hussein was a Ba'athist so most recent US soures in particular are completely fucked, and Western leftists don't tend to work too hard to correct the record because again, not only are they fash they're heavily associated with the Western alt-right.

          Got halfway through doing this in rely to your post in the other thread and gave up when life got busy. I'll try and do it incrementally here so wherever I have to stop you still have something.

          Basically, you're looking for a history of the Ba'athist movement.

          I say they were "Nazi style" fascists because a) they were massive stans of the OG Nazi party, gave fleeing Nazis government positions, fully buy into the whole "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" thing, did state backed pogroms as soon as they took power, invite Neo-Nazis for state visits to do TV rallies, and Jews are still banned from holding government jobs (most of them, in a collectivized economy) or political office in Syria today.

          Will edit/update with links as I find them.

          The Ba'ath and Syria: 1947-1982 by Robert Olson seems good, I'm having trouble pirating it though.