Why people knew what they wanted in Syrian Kurdistan but not in other localities of Arab Spring?

If you actually take the time to read the book you can see that it's not just a single girl either.

I was referring to the link to another book which includes part of the quote, I corrected my post on this thread.

Three more sources of Ocalan's rape allegations: Nejdet Buldan's Being a Woman in the PKK, made up entirely of interviews with 10 women, former members of the PKK living in Europe who told the stories of what happened to them. There is another book by another former PKK member, this time actually a woman, mentioned here: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/pkk-and-the-free-female-fighter-rhetori... As far as I know this book was published in the Iraqi Kurdistan. Lastly, the testimony of Semdin Sakik a former PKK leader who was captured after he left the organization by the Turks and became a confessor, in A Tyrant in Imrali, independently verify the other reports mentioned. On the possible objection about the last source, I will simply say that Sakik is no more a confessor than Ocalan himself, who declared his willingness to serve the Turkish state however he can when he was captured.

Although I don't think Kuremkarmerruk would see concrete proof even if Ocalan raped twenty women in front of his eyes.

some quick resources of interest on rojava

Basically a guide to a lot of the Kurdish groupings
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/kurds-2135687288

First hand account a whole year before Zaher's article
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2013/ahmad230113.html

Tag for the Tev Dem on Rojava Report
https://rojavareport.wordpress.com/tag/tev-dem/

The more I read the more I'm skeptical of my optimism in the article I wrote.

The Times reports today that thousands of civilians have fled from their homes as the Kurdish forces of the Kurdish People's Protection Units - the YPG, the USA's closest ally in the war against Isis - has been carrying out a campaign of the ethnic cleansing of Sunni Arabs whose villages it has been burning, looting and destroying for weeks now. These include the settlements around Kobani. Social media shows pictures of the latest attacks in Hasakah province where hundreds of civilians have fled with few possessions. The YPG commander in Ras al-Ayn, Hussein Kocher, said last month that all the young (Sunni) men are wanted by the YPG for "political reasons". The estimates that the paper gives is that ten thousand Arabs have been driven out by the ethnic cleansing of the Kurdish regime.

I badly think this is a surprise. Salish Muslim promised us ethnic cleansing and now, if this article is true, it seems we are getting it.

Devrim

It's not me saying that this has happened. It's news reports. They may well be the truth. They could also be lies. Neither would surprise me.

I don't think that 'apologising' is really the point.

I don't think that it has to have come from the top. In nationalist conflicts, very often these sort of actions do not come from orders from the top, but come from people involved in fighting on the ground. Troops who have lost their friends and comrades in fighting turn around and take reprisals. It's how these things tend to develop. We talked about the way this process works in a piece last year:

https://libcom.org/blog/bloodbath-syria-class-war-or-ethnic-war-03112014

To a certain extent if it is believed by people on the ground to have happened this way it doesn't matter if it is true or not. Even if it is all lies if people believe it, it will still act as fuel to the nationalist fire. Sunni Arabs will hit back at Kurds in revenge, and Kurds will hit back at Sunni Arabs. Thus the spiral deepens.

Devrim

http://www.syriahr.com/en/2015/06/ypg-denies-the-accusations-of-killing-...

I hope people aren't killed because of their ethnicity by anyone. It happens though. Which faction is doing it is really unimportant. The impression I get is that you either don't believe, or don't want to believe that this is true, the reason being that you saw something progressive in what was happening in Rojova. If it is true though it's obvious that something is seriously wrong there.

I don't know whether it's true. There are people who have interests in fabricating a story like this. Nevertheless, I can see reasons why it would be true. Th PYD is trying to consolidate its position and would like to link the cantons physically. In order to do this actions like this are probably necccesary. Of course if you see them as embodying something progressive in the region this would be deeply surprising. If you see them as just another ethnic militia as I do, it is hardly surprising. As for people who would invent this story, Sunni Arab militias has an obvious interest in that, and I wouldn't even put it past Tayyip in order to discredit the HDP before the election though it seems a bit late in the day for that.

The idea that ethnic cleansing is always carried out by states is, I think wrong. While the Ottoman state was clearly guilty of massacres and ethnic cleansing during the Armenian genocide, history shows us that non state actors can be just as guilty of genocide.

Devrim

Video of Arab residents refuting rumors about displacement (PYD source)

There seems to be a lot of folks who think The Times article is bad journalism: an unnamed "Syrian humanitarian organization", article written by a journalist who isn't in Syria, no effort to contact YPG for a quote, single witness, no pictures, etc...as propaganda, this author failed by going with to large a number--10,000. If it was so high, there would be more evidence, more reporting and groups willing to be named reporting.

Human Rights Watch hasn't reported anything like it and they are in Rojava. They don't hesitate to criticize PYD. They also have been criticizing KRG for failing to allow Arab families to return home while letting Kurdish families pass. HRW

And it goes contrary to PYD's ideology, to Tev-Dem's multi-ethnic composition, the integrated Arab and Syriac forces in the YPG/YPJ, the alliance with Arab, Turkmen groups in Burkan al-Furat, and what we know of the treatment of Arab refugees in Cizire canton and Sheikh Masqood.

The Times article is weird in other ways. YPG took over Abdulaziz ten days ago with the assistance of Al-Sanadid.

Realpolitik only? O.K. The PYD/YPG pretty much has to be inclusive of Arabs in terms of Tev-Dem. Why? The geographically largest, with the most resources, with the most population canton is Cizire canton. That's also the canton with a border with Iraq (and Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government). Its 45% Kurdish, 45% Arab, and the rest being Syriacs, Armenian, Turkmen, etc... its also majority Sunni, 24% Christian and probably much of the PYD isn't very religious. The two largest cities of Al-Qamishli and Al-Hasakah are multi-ethnic and have large Arab and Kurdish neighborhoods. Given those kinds of numbers, its practical to engage in multi-ethnic power sharing. The YPG wouldn't have the capacity to displace the Arab population of Al-Hasakah governorate in such a short time without using very violent, obvious actions--and then it would have to deal with an Arab insurgency.

It also needs Arab support to secure the Arab towns and villages that the YPG liberates from Daesh--which is exactly the methodology that the YPG is using. This is all very deliberate and documented by third parties.

In Kobane canton, the Euphrates Volcano is basically YPG + Arab and Turkemen allies. Some of those allies weren't always allies (like the group from Raqqa, that joined Nursa out of duress, got kicked out of Nursa for not being religious enough and then driven into Kobane by Daesh during the siege). But the strategy is generally, YPG/YPJ as mechanized infantry attacks and removes Daesh, with Arab FSA groups holding the Arab villages afterwards.

Democratic Confederalism is a good fit for the kind of multi-ethnic region that Al-Hasakah is. The trouble here politically is to what extent different local villages are in support of the PYD's other progressive goals whether that's gender equality or communal economics. The Syriac Military Council (Mawtbo Fulhoyo Suryoyo or MFS)/Syriac Union Party is probably in agreement with that part of the program--and they've been called the "Assyrian PKK" before. But how much are the Al Sanadid (Shammar Arab tribal milita) down with the whole program? They might be because they've been working with the YPG precursors for a while... but some of those Euphrates Volcano(FSA) groups didn't have that sort of ideology before find themselves forced into Kobane and they are also now cut off from their home communities of Raqqa and Jarabulus. Also, the YPG in Maqsood keeps reaching out to the Arab community in Aleppo, but much of the FSA there is dominated by Islamist groups that want to impose Sharia. So, long term it will remain to be seen how much PYD can spread democratic confederalism and what conflicts occur between community autonomy and the other progressive aspects of the PYD program.

That film's a bit weird. Why do we see the subtitles but not hear the voices of the Arab residents being interviewed?

You are quite right, kurremkarmerruk. I was listening to it on earphones at work and one of the earphones has a dodgy speaker. The voices are there.