Statelet of Survivors: The Legacy of the 1927 Mount Ararat Rebellion in Northeast Syria

Statelet of Survivors: 

The Legacy of the 1927 Mount Ararat Rebellion in Northeast Syria

Monday, April 1, 2024 @ 6:15 p.m.

In-person at Columbia University

Knox Hall, Room 208, 606 W. 122 St., New York, NY

Syrian Kurds and their Arab and Christian allies have embarked on one of the most radical experiments in self-governance of our time. In defiance of the Assad regime, the Islamic State, and regional autocrats, this unlikely coalition created a statelet to govern their semi-autonomous region.

In Statelet of Survivors, Amy Austin Holmes charts the movement from its origins to what it has become today. Drawing from seven years of research trips to northern and eastern Syria, Holmes traces the genealogy of this social experiment to the Republic of Mount Ararat in Turkey, where a self-governing entity was proclaimed in 1927 based on solidarity between Kurds and Armenian genocide survivors.

Founded by survivors of modern-day atrocities, the Autonomous Administration does more to empower women and minorities than any other region of Syria. Holmes analyzes its military and police forces, schools, the judicial system, the economic model it has implemented, and strategy of empowering women who were once enslaved by ISIS

Amy Austin Holmes is Research Professor of International Affairs and Acting Director of the Foreign Area Officers Program at George Washington University. Dr. Holmes has published widely on the global American military posture, the NATO alliance, non-state actors, revolutions, and military coups.

 

To learn more about the event and Dr. Holmes, click here.

Co-sponsored by

Columbia University Armenian Center

Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies (MESAAS),

National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR)