Between welatparestî and natewparestî: antagonistic forms of Kurdish autonomy

Abstract

Based on ethnographic work in Iraqi Kurdistan and among the Kurdish diaspora in Europe, this article discusses the Kurdish construction as a people who have the search for autonomy as one of the main characteristics of their identity. This autonomy, however, is not built in a unitary way, but takes shape in two great projects of Kurdish liberation, called welatparest and natewparest: the first an autonomy against the state, materialized in the project of Democratic Confederalism and led by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, and the second an autonomy depending on the state, concretized in the project of the Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq and led mainly by the Barzani clan. The article also shows how both projects reflect antagonistic class interests in Kurdish society, disputing the Kurdish identity itself and the paths of the Kurdistan self-determination movement, both in the territory and in the diaspora. The article also shows how the indigenization of the Kurdish liberation movement led to an intersection of struggles, paradoxically resulting in its internationalization. By claiming an autonomy that opposes the state model and conventional nationalism, the welatparest camp found resonance in indigenous, autonomist and anti-colonial movements around the world. This process allowed Democratic Confederalism to become not only a local proposal, but a transnational reference for struggles against the state and capitalism, articulating alliances that go beyond Kurdish borders and expanding the scope of its claim for self-determination.