Nationalism of Abdullah Öcalan

The nationalism of Abdullah Öcalan refers to the views of Abdullah Öcalan regarding nationalism. Although he was initially a Kurdish nationalist, he eventually shifted away from it.

History
When Öcalan founded the PKK in 1978, his original ideology was Kurdish nationalism mixed with Marxism–Leninism. Öcalan abandoned the idea of a nation-state as well as state socialism around the time of his arrest in 1999. Öcalan became heavily inspired by the teachings of Murray Bookchin, an anarchist, libertarian socialist, municipalist, andenvironmentalist ideologue who opposed nationalism.

After his arrest, Öcalan created democratic confederalism, a form of libertarian socialism that does not seek the creation of a Kurdish state, but rather an autonomous, democratic, and decentralized society. He claimed that democratic confederalism was not only for Kurds, but a solution for all problems stemming from authoritarianism, systematic oppression, ethnic conflicts, or religious violence in the Middle East and the world. Democratic confederalism advocates for ethnic, religious, cultural, and political multiculturalism. Öcalan created the ideology as an alternative for nation-states and the separatist conflicts that emerged from minorities living in them. While Öcalan initially disassociated from nationalism, he began staunchly opposing it after creating democratic confederalism, which he presented as an anti-nationalist, multi-ethnic, internationalist political system and movement for everyone.

Öcalan rejecting nationalism was one of the reasons for the conflict between the PKK and other Kurdish groups.

Democratic confederalism is anti-capitalist. It is very decentralised, and its political system is composed of many units that make decisions, with the base of them being the local community, also known as the commune, which either represent a single village or a single street of a city depending on size. Communes are a gathering of several hundred people who meet to make decisions and discuss issues. They have nine committees, Self-defense, Education, Reconciliation and Justice, Women, Youth and Sports, Health, Martyr families, Arts and Culture, and Economy, although some communes such as rural ones may have it slightly adjusted by the addition of an agricultural committee or the removal of an economic committee. Above communes, there are councils, which are groups of communes. Councils have equal members and range in amount of communes in rural or urban areas depending on size of the commune. 60% of council members are elected, and 40% are chosen from the higher levels based on quotas that ensure the participation of all ethnic groups, genders, and religions. Above councils, there city assemblies made up of council members from the city and surrounding areas. Above city assemblies there are regional assemblies which are made up of a board of city assemblies that represent on the level of their region or province or canton. Above that, there is the ruling level which is made up of an equal amount of representatives from each region who cooperate based on consensus. Decisions are made from the communes and councils and work their way until the ruling level to see if a consensus is made to implement them or to keep them in their respective region. Levels are divided between female branches and male branches which are completely equal. Öcalan wanted this system not only in Turkey, but around the whole world. This system was implemented in the AANES, who claimed that it was the only solution for the sectarian conflict in Syria.