Radical possibilities and abolitionist practices: lessons from resistance and world-building in Istanbul and Northern Kurdistan

This essay contributes to the growing transnational conversation on abolition by examining two historical cases of grassroots world-building in Turkey: experiments with direct democracy in 1970s Istanbul and the Kurdish freedom movement in Northern Kurdistan during the 2010s. Highlighting how US abolitionists themselves draw inspiration from struggles in the Global South, including Kurdistan, this essay urges scholars studying resistance, urban violence, and policing to engage seriously with these examples; doing so is crucial not only to honour and learn from the resistance of these communities and better understand the logic and geographies of state violence, but also to challenge colonial epistemicide. The selective targeting of these grassroots initiatives by the Turkish security apparatus underscores both their radical potential and the threat they pose to patriarchal, capitalist, and colonial state formations. Ultimately, the essay contends that abolition is not a utopian ideal, but an active, ongoing project forged through the creative persistence of communities living under systemic oppression.