“Though the battle might seem so big,
Jah is fighting for we.
Is fighting for me!
See the shadows in dark ages,
Take my soul and set me free.
Jah love me, Jah love me.”

What can and must self-determination mean in the twenty-first century? This is a question that has oriented my inquiry ever since my encounter with the Kurdish Freedom Movement, at least, and perhaps especially with the impressive re-articulation, re-elaboration, re-definition of the concept and principle expressed and achieved by the movement’s leader and inspiration, Abdullah Öcalan, penned from his lonely prison cell on Imrali Island.

Download the 15th Edition of Peace in Kurdistan’s special edition publication here.

PIK Issue 14 – Rasta – Miley A4

 

Dr. Thomas Jeffrey Miley
Dr. Thomas Jeffrey Miley (thomas.j.miley@gmail.com) is a Lecturer of Political Sociology at the University of Cambridge. He is a patron of Peace in Kurdistan and a member of the executive board of the EU Turkey Civic Commission (EUTCC). He has published broadly on struggles for self-determination. He is co-editor of Your Freedom and Mine. Abdullah Öcalan and the Kurdish Question in Erdogan’s Turkey (Montreal: Black Rose Books, 2018).