New Book by Amy Austin-Holmes, ISCS Visiting Scholar

In Statelet of Survivors, Amy Austin Holmes charts the history of one of the most radical experiments in self-governance of our time: a statelet created by Kurds, Arabs, and Assyrians.

The semi-autonomous region has its own military and police forces; schools with language instruction in Kurdish, Aramaic, and Arabic; local governance that empowers women and recognizes Yezidis; an economic eco-system that strives to undo decades of underdevelopment; and a new judicial system to hold perpetrators accountable for ISIS crimes.

Holmes traces the genealogy of the statelet to the Republic of Mount Ararat, a self-governing entity proclaimed in 1927 based on solidarity between Kurds and Armenian genocide survivors.