The theories of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan on the democratic nation, democratic confederalism and self-government, and his theory of democratic autonomy are to be taught at Potsdam University in Brandenburg, Germany, as part of a course entitled “A Series of Seminars on Anarchist Philosophy, Murray Bookchin’s Concept of Social Ecology and the case of the Rojava Revolution”.

Twenty-five students have already enrolled in the class, to be taught in the winter semester.

Academics Özlem Yeniay and Dr. Max Oliver Schmidt will give the course in the Sociology Department of Potsdam University, headed by Prof. Dr. Jürgen Mackert, as part of the programme “Centre for Citizenship, Social Pluralism, and Religious Diversity”.

Yeniay provided information about the content of the course to the Fırat News Agency.

“It is very inspiring that classes about democratic confederation and self-government, which envision a model of non-state organisation, are to be taught at a public university,” she said, adding that the seminar will be given via video link.

Yeniay also shared information about the process and content of the course,

“We will look in detail at the writings of Bookchin and Kropotkin to discuss the idea of self-government and especially democratic confederation in Rojava [Syrian Kurdistan],” she stated.

“We will go to the origin of these concepts in Öcalan’s writings, or from there to Bookchin’s texts, within the context of Rojava. We have put Öcalan’s books on the democratic nation and democratic confederation directly into the curriculum. We have Bookchin’s texts. In the first few weeks, we’re focussing on how we will discuss such matters academically. How can we fight the hierarchy and build tomorrow? There’s a bit of methodology in it. For this reason David Greaber and anarchist anthropology are included in the recommended reading.”

Abdullah Öcalan was captured in Kenya in 1999 and has been kept in solitary confinement in Imrali F-Type prison in Turkey for 22 years. He has written several books while he has been in prison.