No, the kedi didn’t go anywhere, they were just a bit winded. But they have all kinds of plans to suggest to you.
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“Kedistan is a webzine with an original and libertarian spirit that treats of ongoing events in the Middle-East, notably in Turkey, of cats, and of sub-Mediterranean culture”. This is what you can read if you click on Why Kedistan on the home page.
The text is five years old. We don’t know if the qualifiers “original and libertarian” were always on call, but what we do know is that, coming close to five years now, almost 3 000 articles went through the cats’ claws, all centered on that part of the world and which can now be found on the Kedistan web links.
So, are the kedi tired of publishing? Yeah, a bit…
And also affected by a situation in the Middle East that doesn’t lend itself to outrageous optimism, be it in Turkey, in Irak ou in Northern Syria. The waters of the Tiger or of the Euphrates are far from quenching the thirst of a better future for the peoples of Mesopotamia nor of turning the wheel at Kedistan. Repeating the same analyses ad infinitum, and commenting on screwy political deals, waves of repression, exponential growths in militarization would drive any cat batty, no?
Following the attention created around the mobilizations caused by the Gezi events and, amid the war in Syria, the appearance of the political project in Rojava, Kedistan filled an information void along with others, for a while. Especially since the massacres of Kurdish populations and destruction of their towns were under-reported.
We’re rather pleased to have drawn the mainstream press on other roads than that of Damascus, to Ankara, Istanbul, Kobanê or Qamislo. And we are especially pleased by the white pebbles gathered along the road over these five years, and that turned into the kedi’s guides, just as they do in the tale. A huge thank you to those who brought us so much in terms of political understanding of the region, because they had set out on the road before us… They have enriched Kedistan’s links and networks. You will encounter them by wandering through the 3 000 archived articles, or by heading straight to their publishing sites.
And finally, thank you to our faithful readers of all ages who used the magazine as a tool, held us up and even helped the magazine’s financial survival.
This tool also proved useful for solidarity and public awareness campaigns. It played its part, we know it.
So Kedistan stops here?
We must say we took our time before reaching our decision. The hyperactive Kedistan rushing to extinguish every fire has lived, that much is certain.
Everything will stay online, but the rythm of publication will no longer be of 7 or 8 articles per week (or even 10, as sometimes happened). Our concerns will continue to gravitate around Mesopotamia, but we refuse to keep on echoing news other activist sites handle very well with great constancy.
During the solidarity campaigns we met and connected with hundreds of big-hearted individuals and associations. This network is essential and remains active. But we were also somewhat damaged both morally and financially by other encounters, not always positive, with people devoid of scruples or natural-born crooks. These people rubbed us the wrong way and it took a while before the social media gossip died down… As someone said “overall, the results are positive”.1
We also knew we would not be satisfied with simply leaving “archives“and that the kedi would be tempted, from time to time, to pick up on a campaign or on a pressing matter of activism…
So we may as well agree on an acceptable format in which we will publish from now on, on a voluntary basis as has always been the case, with the understanding that we’ll pass our turn when the information is available elsewhere, and that we will share it on social networks, alternative information sites having flourished in the past few years. We may as well say that we will not feel guilty if we don’t talk about everything, everywhere and every time… We may as well state it upfront, moving forward gets tiring when it isn’t done in sync with reality.
However, in order to rest, we will open a new column, next to the old ones, that of the nomadic cats, that of “breakaways across the world”, and in several languages.
So many major issues call to us, beyond the frontiers of Mesopotamia, because they call for planet-wide approaches…Therefore, the kedi will stick their paws into such questions from now…
Briefly stated, Kedistan will change a bit, because in a cat’s life, five is the age of adulthood, the time to move on.
Besides, each kedi hungers for his or her own cat-flap outside the magazine, this one with translation projects, that one with drawing, writing…
The editorial team with be tightened, will change, will diversify and Kedistan will be open to even more guests, more translations… But without the sword of urgency dangling over our heads.
We will go into further details in an upcoming article, and slowly, the new configuration will take shape.
A new one-year subscription drive will open mid-September, with reading and consultation remaining free of charge, as always.
Yes, free access to Kedistan will remain as a fundamental principle, and its presence on the web, always at the same address.
Oh yes… This is important:
The Big Four and Google in particular have decided that “norme https ” was to replace the “http” address.
We were told this would guarantee better “visibility” and a so-called “reinforced security”. For banks, maybe, but for a website like Kedistan and others, this is just a way the Big Four have found to caution against “non secured information”. Do not pay any attention to their so-called “security” warnings appearing on your browser or when you click on a link. Our website is secure and you have nothing to worry about. We pay for that, by the way. Google will have to wait before we adopt their norms…
To be continued…