Thomas Schmidinger

Looking for an expert introduction to Rojava? A more nuanced take on the situation?

Thomas Schmidinger will be at Five Leaves Bookshop on Wednesday 12th September at 7pm to discuss the conflict, present and past, and his new book Rojava: Revolution, War and the Future of Syria’s Kurds published by Pluto Press.

The Kurdish territory of Rojava in Syria has become a watchword for radical democracy, communalism and gender equality. But while Western radicals continue to project their own values onto the revolution, the complexities of the situation are often overlooked or misunderstood.

Based on over 17 years of research and fieldwork, Thomas Schmidinger provides a detailed introduction to the history and political situation in Rojava.

Outlining the history of the Kurds in Syria from the late Ottoman Empire until the Syrian civil war, he describes the developments in Rojava since 2011: the protests against the regime, the establishment of a Kurdish para-state, the conflicts between the parties about the administration of the Kurdish territory and how the PYD and its People’s Councils rule the territory.

The book draws on interviews with political leaders of different parties, civil society activists, artists, fighters and religious leaders in order to paint a complex picture of the historical conflict and the contemporary situation.

Thomas Schmidinger is a Political Scientist and Cultural Anthropologist based at the University of Vienna. He is Secretary General of the Austrian Association for Kurdish studies. He is the author of Rojava (Pluto, 2018), which received the Mezlum Bagok award. He has written extensively on Kurdistan, Sudan, Kosovo, jihadism, migration and Muslim communities in Europa.

In association with the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation and Pluto Press

Admission £3, including refreshments, redeemable against any purchase. Please let us know you are coming on [email protected]