Democratic confederalism

Democratic confederalism^[1][2] (Kurdish: Konfederalîzma demokratîk), also known as Kurdish communalism or Apoism,^{[nb 1]} is a political concept theorized by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan about a system of democratic self-organization^[4] with the features of a confederation based on the principles of autonomy, direct democracy, political ecology, feminism, multiculturalism, self-defense, self-governance and elements of a cooperative economy.^[5][6][7] Influenced by social ecology, libertarian municipalism, Middle Eastern history and general state theory, Öcalan presents the concept as a political solution to Kurdish national aspirations, as well as other fundamental problems in countries in the region deeply rooted in class society, and as a route to freedom and democratization for people around the world.^{[8][9][10][11]}

Although the liberation struggle of the PKK was originally guided by the prospect of creating a Kurdish nation state on a Marxist–Leninist basis,^[7][12] Öcalan became disillusioned with the nation-state model and state socialism.^[13] Influenced by ideas from Western thinkers such as the libertarian municipalist and former anarchist Murray Bookchin,^{[14][15][16][17]} Öcalan reformulated the political objectives of the Kurdish liberation movement, abandoning the old statist and centralizing socialist project for a radical and renewed proposal for a form of libertarian socialism^[18][19][20] that no longer aims at building an independent state separate from Turkey, but at establishing an autonomous, democratic and decentralized entity based on the ideas of democratic confederalism.^[21][22]

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