SpookyGenderCommunist [they/them, she/her]

Andor is a secondarily a Star Wars show, which is to say that it’s not concerned with its own lore and self-referential circle jerking like most other Star Wars media is at this point.

It is, first and foremost, a political thriller, and the story of one man’s political radicalization into doing commie space terrorism.

Do we know what article or book this table came from?

I’ve, once or twice, MLs over-correct and try to deny the personality cult that has organically arisen around the Kim family in the DPRK.

But that’s such an utterly meaningless thing to care about, when the worlds richest man feels comfortable enough to go mask off, and do a Nazi salute on live television, and when the new administration is attacking Trans people so aggressively.

Like, for a supposedly queer friendly instance, those are some fucked up priorities.

Their relationship with the US is really tentative. The US is far more invested in Iraqi Kurdistan than anything, because the US actually supports the project of Iraqi Kurdistan, whereas they don’t with Rojava. Instead, Its a weird alliance of convenience that, given other machinations in the region, I just don’t see lasting.

The thing I keep coming back to though, and a thing I see my fellow MLs completely gloss over in discussions of Rojava, is their relationship with Turkey, and Turkish/Kurdish relations more broadly.

Turkey is in many respects an ethno-nationalist political project, founded on the forced assimilation, and ethnic cleansing of, Most famously Armenians, but also Greeks, Kurds, and other ethnic minorities.

Given the splitting of Kurdish homelands across 4 separate countries, the Turkish communist movement has had to grapple very extensively with the Kurdish national question. For instance, On The National Question by Ibrahim Kaypakkaya is all about the National Question as it relates to the Kurds.

One such actor in this had been the PKK, who’s decades-long insurgency has the Turkish state very much on edge, to the point that any Kurdish actor, even the most milquetoast lib ones, get smeared as PKK sympathizers. This extends to Turkey’s continual and ongoing violations of its neighbors sovereignty, going into both northern Syria, and Iraq, to “address PKK terrorism” whether the PKK is actually present or not.

Rojava has repeatedly asserted that it desires to be an autonomous region within a sovereign Syria, and not be an independent state. With its constitution stating: “Syria is a free, sovereign and democratic state”. An independent Rojava would be unable to defend against Turkish invasion.

Speaking of invasions, Turkish backed jihadis are currently taking more Rojava territory in the North west, and have been ethnically cleansing parts of that region for a handful of years now.

If we care about a sovereign, independent, Syria, I think opposing Turkish and Israeli violations of sovereignty is currently key. And if we care about weakening the west, we should consider critical support for a Kurdish polity on the border of NATOs second largest power, I think that deserves our critical support.

And if the US wants to strain relations with a key ally, by continuing to support Rojava to the dismay of Turkey (something I don’t think will happen long term, but hypothetically if that does happen), I say let NATO weaken itself further.

The SDF and HTS/Turkey are deeply antagonistic towards each other, and the SDF was largely cooperating with Assad on the ground, while also recieving US air support.

The realities of this conflict are far more complex than you’re suggesting.