Ecological Struggle as Ethos of Decolonisation: Emergence of a Decolonial Ecology in Bakur (Northern) and Rojava (Western) Kurdistan

This article examines why the Kurdish Freedom Movement has adopted ecological struggle as a foundational pillar in its politics of decolonisation and the reclamation of autonomy. Framed within the context of colonial and ecocidal developmentalism, the research analyses how policies initiated during the Ottoman Empire and perpetuated by Turkish and Syrian nation‐states systematically dismantled Kurdish economic and ecological foundations to entrench colonial dominance. Conceptualising these dynamics as an ecocidal developmentalism, the article elucidates how ecocidal sociospatial designs have functioned as mechanisms of elimination, targeting the sociopolitical, economic and cultural fabric of Kurdish society under the guise of development in Bakur (Northern Kurdistan) and Rojava (Western Kurdistan). In response, the Kurdish Freedom Movement embraces an ecological struggle rooted in communal ownership, ecological stewardship and indigenous epistemologies through the political ontology of Democratic Autonomy. This ethos challenges colonial and capitalist structures by advancing grassroots governance, women's liberation, social justice and eco‐economy, thereby contributing to the emergence of a decolonial ecology.