Resurgence and Revolution - by Aliza Marcus

Book Synopsis

A riveting current history of the Kurdish rebel PKK group

Aliza Marcus' new book tells the remarkable story of Kurdish revolution in the Middle East led by the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) -- the rebel group whose insurgency in Turkey has impacted countries, conflicts, and Kurdish demands throughout the region.

Combining reportage and scholarship, Resurgence and Revolution explores the PKK's resurgence from the brink of defeat after the capture of its leader, Abdullah Ocalan, in 1999, and the brutal internal split that followed. The book tells the story of how Ocalan - operating from prison -- reshaped the PKK to extend the group's influence beyond Turkey's borders, setting the stage for the group's dominance of northeastern Syria and the unlikely partnership between its allied forces and the U.S. in the fight against ISIS. Based on interviews with PKK fighters, their supporters, and opponents in Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and Europe, Marcus traces the group's ability to maintain power in Turkey and extend its activities across borders, using PKK rebels' own voices to show why young people join and fight for the group and its affiliates in Syria and Iran.

For the more than 30 million Kurds in Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria - and for the leaders of these countries -- the PKK is a force that cannot be ignored. Understanding the PKK and what drives its supporters is crucial for understanding Kurdish demands and potential solutions.

The fall of the Assad regime, and a new peace process between Turkey and the PKK has changed the dynamics for Kurdish demands and their control over territory in Syria. Resurgence and Revolution is a compelling and necessary read for understanding the impact of a resurgent PKK, the future of the Middle East, and the enduring struggle of the Kurds to rule themselves.

Review Quotes

"If you really wish to know the story of the PKK, the Kurdish movement which, more than any other, mobilised Kurds in their struggle for freedom, Aliza Marcus' Resurgence and Revolution, in tandem with her previous Blood and Belief, brilliantly lets the PKK membership tell their own story, their successes and travails in Turkey, Syria and more widely from 1999, when Abdullah Öcalan was captured, until what may prove the PKK's final disarmament in 2025. Her book is replete with detail and insight, and thus essential reading for understanding not only the course of the PKK's campaigns, but the mind-set and controversies behind them."-- "David McDowall, author of A Modern History of the Kurds"

"In recent decades, the Kurds have emerged as major players in the Middle East. There is nobody better able to explain the dizzying changes for the PKK--the dominant Kurdish actor in Turkey and Syria--than Marcus. Resurgence and Revolution tells the extraordinary story of how the PKK, a US designated terrorist organization, sponsored a Syrian Kurdish movement that engineered a social revolution in the most conservative part of Syria and became America's main ally in the war against Islamic State and al Qaeda. Marcus draws on decades of personal experience to create a narrative that is fantastically well researched and highly readable."-- "Ambassador Peter W Galbraith, author of The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War Without End"

"Marcus' book tells the complicated, fascinating story of the PKK, the most important Kurdish nationalist group in Turkey and Syria. Told with a storyteller's verve and authoritatively informed by extended interviews with key participants, Marcus is an empathetic but skeptical narrator: Her approach blends scholarly detachment with a willingness to inhabit the swirling narratives to understand people's motivations and capture the realities of how and why the PKK has managed to continue its dominance in the region. As she did in her masterful earlier work, Blood and Belief, Marcus illuminates the compelling, wildly contradictory, and ruthless Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK's founder and still its leader, even after more than three decades in prison in Turkey."-- "Amb. William Roebuck, Former Deputy Special Envoy to the Global Coalition Against ISIS"