Borderlands, Self-Rule Movements and State-Society Relations in Chiapas and Northern Syria from a Historical Perspective

This paper addresses the historical and conjunctural drivers underlying the emergence of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Union Party ( PYD ) and the pro-Mayan Zapatista National Liberation Army ( EZLN ), asking how the geographical location of ethnic groups is related to the emergence of self-rule movements. To investigate this, a comparative historical review of state-society relations in Chiapas and Northern Syria was implemented in combination with frame analysis. I argue that the historical location of the Kurdish and Mayan populations in the borderlands of, first, former empires and, later, of their nation-states, has led the PYD and the EZLN to elaborate similar political projects that challenge traditional models of political autonomy. Through the prism of borderlands history, the paper prioritizes an approach from the “margins” and “peripheries” over that of the national centres of power.