Thomas Schmidinger Boeken

Part I: The Long Struggle for Autonomy 1. Backgrounds and Methods of Social Science Research in a War Zone 2. Kurds, Arabs, Armenians and Assyrians: Rojava as a Part of the Ethnic Diversity 3. Muslims, Christians, Jews, Aleivis and Ezidi: Religious Pluralism in Rojava 4. Kurdistan: Land Without State or Land Against the State 5. Syrian-Kurdistan Under French Protectorate 6. Kurds in Independent Syria 7. In the Cross-Hair Pointer of Panarabism: From the United Arab Republic to Baathism 8. Special Census and Statelessness 9. Kurds Under Baathist Rule 10. Between Two Short Springs: Rojava Under Bashar Al- Assad 11. The Landscape of Kurdish Political Parties 12. From Revolution to Civil War Part II: Voices from Rojava 13. Rojava, Quo Vadis?

In early 2018, Turkey invaded the autonomous Kurdish region of Afrin in Syria and is currently threatening to ethnically cleanse the region. Between 2012 and 2018, the "Mountain of the Kurds" (Kurd Dagh) had been one of the quietest regions in a country otherwise torn by civil war. After the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011, the Syrian army withdrew from the region, enabling the Party of Democratic Union (PYD) to introduce a Kurdish self-administration and later to establish the Canton Afrin as one of the three parts of the heavily Kurdish Democratic Federation of North-Syria, or Rojava. This self-administration, which had seen multi-party elections in 2017, included autonomy for a number of ethnic and religious groups, and provided a safe haven for up to 300,000 Syrian refugees, is now at risk of being annihilated. In this volume, Schmidinger provides a comprehensive history of the region and gives inhabitants of a variety of ethnicities, religions, political orientations, and walks of life the opportunity to speak for themselves. As things stand now, the book might seem to be in danger of becoming an epitaph for the "Mountain of the Kurds," but as the author writes, "the battle for the Mountain of the Kurds is far from over yet."

Yezidi survivors speak out in this important history of persecution and genocide

Rojava in Syria is highlighted as a symbol of radical democracy, communalism, and gender equality. However, the book delves into the complexities of this territory, challenging the often simplistic views held by Western radicals who project their values onto the revolution. It aims to provide a deeper understanding of the unique social and political dynamics at play in this region, moving beyond superficial interpretations.

The book delves into the historical persecution of the Yezidis, a Gnostic religious group from Upper Mesopotamia, highlighting a significant attack by the Islamic State on August 3, 2014. This brutal assault resulted in thousands being enslaved or murdered, with around 100,000 fleeing to Mount Sinjar, marking a tragic chapter of genocide and permanent exile for the community. The narrative sheds light on the resilience and suffering of the Yezidi people throughout centuries of violence and displacement.

This book shares papers from a conference taking a deeper look at the victims of ISIS and beyond that all religious minorities of Iraq. This is the first book that considers all the religious minorities that existed in modern Iraq, including both historic communities and new groups that recently came with labour migration, especially to the Autonomous Region of Kurdistan. The book resulted from a conference in 2018 organized exactly at the site of the Simele Massacre in 1933. The campus of the American University of Kurdistan is located on the site of the first big massacre against a religious minority in Iraq. The conference entitled ‘Beyond ISIS: Minorities and Religious Diversity in Iraq and the Future of Êzîdî, Christians, Shabak, Yarsan, Mandeans and other Religious Minorities in the Middle East’ brought together Iraqi and international scholars, activists, and religious and community representatives. This book contains papers presented at the conference that included contributions on Iraq’s religious diversity and the historical and contemporary consequences of genocide and persecution on the religious minorities of Iraq.

This book is based on papers presented at the conference. However, it is not a typical publication of academic conference proceedings because the topics are not completely congruent with those of the conference. Some lectures that could not be held due to travel restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic were submitted as book contributions. In addition, I also wrote a short contribution on the Jewish history of the region, which has been often neglected in previous presentations of the region. The various authors for this volume have been intensively involved with the region in recent years. However, the authors do not only focus on the situation on the ground, but also on the international context of the autonomous administration. The conflict in Syria is no longer just a civil war, but a transnational conflict with important roles played not only by actors such as Russia or the USA, but also Turkey or Iran. Given the transnationality of the conflict and the role of the hegemonic powers, these authors share thoughtful analyses from very different perspectives. It is important to share these diverse views with the world so that the tragic conflict might become more comprehensible. This does not mean, however, that I necessarily advocate each particular position taken by the varied contributors to this book. The intent is to offer you multiple perspectives and certainly not a common narrative.

Die sudanesische ArbeiterInnenbewegung war eine der stärksten ArbeiterInnenbewegungen Afrikas. Sowohl die Gewerkschaften als auch die Kommunistische Partei spielten in der Unabhängigkeitsbewegung und in der Entwicklung des unabhängigen Sudan eine bedeutende Rolle, ehe sie unter General Numayri zerschlagen wurden. Der Aufstieg und die Niederlage der sudanesischen ArbeiterInnenbewegung wird in dieser Arbeit mit ähnlichen Entwicklungen in Ägypten, Algerien, Syrien, im Südjemen und im Iraq verglichen. Diese Arbeit ist jedoch nicht nur von historischem Interesse. Nach ihrer Niederlage zu Beginn der 1970er Jahre konnte sich die sudanesische Arbeiterinnenbewegung wieder teilweise erholen und spielt so bis heute eine wichtige Rolle in der Opposition gegen die islamistische Militärdiktatur.