Ercan Jan Aktaş

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Social scientist, writer, and activist. His work focuses on social peace, violence, militarism, gender, and conscientious objection. He contributes to Yeni Özgür Politika, Yeni Yaşam, and...

Social scientist, writer, and activist. His work focuses on social peace, violence, militarism, gender, and conscientious objection.

He contributes to Yeni Özgür Politika, Yeni Yaşam, and bianet with articles, interviews, and in-depth reports on current politics, migration issues, social peace, and gender. He continues his work in academia, journalism, and activism as a political refugee in France.

Ercan Jan Aktaş

Why should Demirtaş be released?

Why should Demirtaş be released?

If we truly wish for the children of Anatolia and Mesopotamia to grow freely—in their own languages, joys, and dreams—then the path lies through the release of imprisoned hopes, the reckoning of justice, and the restoration of politics itself.

15 October 2025

Ercan Jan Aktaş

Building a communalist revolution through the Rojava experience

AN ANARCHIST READING OF ÖCALAN - V

Building a communalist revolution through the Rojava experience

The authoritarian legacy of real socialism and the hollowed-out representative structures of liberal democracies no longer respond to humanity’s quest for freedom.

7 September 2025

Ercan Jan Aktaş

The anarchist face of democratic modernity

AN ANARCHIST READING OF ÖCALAN - IV

The anarchist face of democratic modernity

For Öcalan, capitalist modernity is a system that suppresses all possibilities of social liberation, prioritizing economic growth, centralized power, and a homogeneous society. Its political form is the nation-state.

Ercan Jan Aktaş

The codes of democratic modernity through the critique of capitalist modernity

AN ANARCHIST READING OF ÖCALAN - III

The codes of democratic modernity through the critique of capitalist modernity

Öcalan’s concept of “democratic modernity” is a holistic counter-paradigm to capitalist modernity’s centralized state apparatus, industrialist economy, and nation-state formation.

Ercan Jan Aktaş

The construction of actually existing socialist practices

AN ANARCHIST READING OF ÖCALAN - II

The construction of actually existing socialist practices

From the late 1990s onward, Öcalan interpreted the collapse of the Soviet Union not merely as a victory of imperialism but also as the structural failure of state-centric socialism.

Ercan Jan Aktaş

Will the revolution be with or without the state?

AN ANARCHIST READING OF ÖCALAN - I

Will the revolution be with or without the state?

For Öcalan, who declared that “the state is one of the most dangerous inventions in human history; it is the crystallized form of monopoly on power," the idea of a “stateless democracy” occupies a central place in his ideological transformation.

Ercan Jan Aktaş

Democratic nation: an antidote to the poison of the nation-state

Democratic nation: an antidote to the poison of the nation-state

According to Öcalan, the democratic nation first and foremost acknowledges ethnic, religious, cultural, and gender pluralism. He does not equate the nation with the state; instead, he sees the nation as a form of social organization and solidarity.

Ercan Jan Aktaş

On the edge of a life outside the system: dystopia or simply reality?

I CAN’T NOT TELL (2)

On the edge of a life outside the system: dystopia or simply reality?

Our greatest value—what can hold us together and protect us in every town, every street of the world—is our comradeship, our organized and collective way of being.

Ercan Jan Aktaş

'One more tourist, one less neighbor! Tourists go home!'

I CAN'T NOT TELL(1)

'One more tourist, one less neighbor! Tourists go home!'

To build a more just, sensitive, and sustainable travel culture in the world of the future, we must say yes to being a “traveler,” not a “tourist.” A traveler is someone of the road—one who accumulates experiences—and those accumulations serve the stories to come.

Ercan Jan Aktaş

'Those who oppose the Kurds will lose, those who side with them will win'

ISRAEL-IRAN WAR

'Those who oppose the Kurds will lose, those who side with them will win'

We spoke with Dr. Sayid R. Darati about the Israel-Iran war and the potential impact of the conflict on the Kurds.

Ercan Jan Aktaş

What does Öcalan's perspective mean to whom?

Q&A WITH SAYİD DARATİ

What does Öcalan's perspective mean to whom?

Dr. Darati compares Turkey in 2025 to the Ottoman Empire in 1918: "The Middle East is burning, Anatolia is fragmented; the state has no chance of survival except by reaching an agreement with the Kurds."