Iraq: Kurdish Villages With No Government

In a group of Kurdish villages in the Qandil mountains in Iraq, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) is the only active body that maintains security in the region. Namo Abdolla writes in The New York Times, “It is a place without a government, and without disorder. It is, perhaps, in many ways, an ideal example of what philosophical anarchists wish to see in a larger community.” The PKK, which holds a Marxist view of the state, has organized the villages to deal with their own affairs as independent municipalities.