Ecological Solidarity and the Kurdish Freedom Movement

Stephen E. Hunt is academic skills coordinator for the Faculty of Business and Law at the University of the West of England.

Stephen E. Hunt has put together an incredibly rich collection of informative, thought-provoking, and daring contributions in this rare gem. Contributions range from chapters on theoretical aspects of ecology to those on environmental activism and blossoming empirical innovations a la democratic confederalism—from excavations on cultural origins of nature protection to novel perspectives that emanate from contemporary eco-conservationist ideals in Kurdistan. This book offers more than a wide range of analyses on Kurdish politics; it also points towards new political possibilities that have global relevance.

• Introduction: Ecology in the Kurdish ParadigmPart I: TheoryChapter 1: The Value of Social Ecology in the Struggles to ComeFederico VenturiniChapter 2: Social Ecology in Öcalan’s ThinkingCihad HammyChapter 3: Ecological Self-Governmentality in Kurdish Space at a Time of Neoliberal AuthoritarianismEngin Sustam Chapter 4: Radical or Reactionary Tomatoes? Organizing against the Toxic Legacy of Capital’s EnvironmentalismNicholas HildyardPart II: Positive Initiatives for Ecological ChangeChapter 5: Ecology Structures of the Kurdish Freedom MovementErcan AybogaChapter 6: An Interview with HDP Ecology Commission Co-Spokesperson, Menekse Kizildere. Chapter 7: Greening and Feeding the City: The Difficult Path to the Implementation of Political Ecology in Diyarbakir/Amed, 2015-2017Clémence Scalbert-YücelChapter 8: Regenerating Kurdish Ecologies Through Food Sovereignty, Agroecology, and Economies of CareMichel P. PimbertChapter 9: Free Life Together: Jinwar, the Women's Eco-villageFabiana Cioni and Domenico PatassiniChapter 10: Women’s Subjectivity and the Ecological and Communal EconomyAzize Aslan; translated from Spanish by Karen TiedtkePart III: Social Movements and Environmental ActivismChapter 11: Environmental Activism in Rojhelat: Emergence and ObjectivesAllan Hassaniyan Chapter 12: The Kurdish Freedom Movement and Gezi: Strategic Reluctance and Tactical AmbiguitiesKumru Toktamis and Isabel David Chapter 13: Hasankeyf, the Ilisu Dam, and the Kurdish Movement in TurkeyLaurent DissardChapter 14: The Kurdish Ecology Movement and Human RightsMarlene A. Payya Almonte and Thomas James PhillipsChapter 15: The Internationalist Project to Make Rojava Green AgainStephen E. HuntPart IV: Nature Protection and Kurdish AlevismChapter 16: Dersim as a Sacred Land: Contemporary Kurdish Alevi Ethno-Politics and Environmental StruggleAhmet Kerim Gültekin Chapter 17: The Philosophy of Ecology and Rêya Heqî: Religion, Nature, and FemininityDilsa Deniz Part V: Conflict and Environmental DestructionChapter 18: Forest fires in Dersim and Sirnak: Conflict and Environmental DestructionPinar DincChapter 19: Breaking the Kill Chain: Exposing to Challenge British State and International Corporate Complicity in Turkey's Killer Drone IndustryCeri GibbonsPart VI: ConclusionsChapter 20: “To Plant the Tree of Tomorrow”: Seeding and Spiraling Ecologically Aware Democratic Autonomy Beyond the Kurdish Freedom MovementStephen E. HuntChapter 21: Concluding Reflections on the Kurdish Ecology InitiativesStephen E. Hunt