Abdullah Öcalan actively led the Kurdish liberation struggle as the head of the PKK from its foundation in 1978 until his abduction on February 15, 1999. Now, writing from isolation in Turkey’s Imrali Island Prison, he has shaped a new political movement in the Middle East called Democratic Confederalism, which is rapidly developing and spreading across the Middle East because it combats powerful religious sectarianism while also providing the blueprints for a burgeoning democratic society.
 
Bringing together Öcalan’s ideas in one slim volume for the first time, The Political Thought of Abdullah Öcalan contains a selection of his most influential writings over his lifetime. These ideas can be read in light of Öcalan’s continuing legacy during the ongoing revolution and the battle against conservatism and religious extremism. As the political situation in Syria intensifies, this book offers a timely and essential introduction for anyone wanting to come to grips with his political ideas on the Kurdish question, gender, Democratic Confederalism, and nationalism.
 

Abudullah Öcalan was the most wanted man in Turkey for almost two decades until his kidnapping and arrest in 1999. He has been in prison ever since. He is the founder of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK). From 1984, under his leadership, the PKK fought for an independent Kurdish state in southeast Turkey. In a sustained popular uprising, tens of thousands of PKK guerrillas took on the second largest army in NATO.



Since his imprisonment, Öcalan has written extensively in Kurdish history. This book brings together his writings for the first time. Breathtaking in scope, it provides a broad Marxist perspective on ancient Middle Eastern history, incorporating the rise of the major religions (Islam, Christianity, and Judaism), and defining the Kurdish position within this, from the ancient Sumerian civilization through the feudal age, the birth of capitalism, and beyond.



"Very readable. It is a tour-de-force."
---Ghada Talhami, D. K. Pearsons Professor of Political, Lake Forest College

"We would expect Abudullah Öcalan to write a political treatise. Instead, he has penned a monumental history of the ancient Near East that offers a grand vision. . . . This is the first truly postcolonial history of Mesopotamia."
---Randall H. McGuire, Professor of Anthropology, Binghamton University