NEWS CENTER – In the year in which the Treaty of Lousanne (1923) – the treaty which divided Kurdistan into 4 parts between Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran – completes its 100th anniversary, the moment is critical. The revolutionary struggle entered its 50th year in 2023, 25 of which our leader Rêber APO is trapped in total isolation. The last time there was any information from Ocalan was on April 25, 2021 during a phone call with his brother Mehmet Ocalan; Rezan Sarıca and Nevroz Uysal, two of Öcalan’s lawyers, were able to meet with their clients after 8 years, from May 2nd to 22nd, from June 12th to 18th, and from August 7th, 2019. Since then, there has been no visit .
Under this reality and the occupiers’ concept of control and psychological warfare, the Turkish fascist state tries to distance the Kurdish people from the ideas and praxis of Reber APO. Since his kidnapping in 1999, there have been several policies and methods used by the state to try to distance the people from the revolutionary line developed by Ocalan, however, this has not materialized. Under this reality, already under the period of Erdogan’s government and the policies of the AKP-MHP regime, there was the period of negotiations for a ceasefire between the Turkish state and the Kurdish revolutionary movement. In 2013, it was announced that these conversations were progressing promisingly and the Kurdish people began to hope for a political solution to the problems encountered and experienced in the territory.
But once again these Turkish state policies proved to be a special warfare method of deception, in particular since the assassination in Paris of the vanguard of the revolutionary movement and women’s liberation line, Heval Sara, in early 2013. Despite this attack, Rêber APO’s warnings for the moment and its dangers, the revolutionary movement still believed that a solution far from armed struggle on a large scale would be possible – since this method that had been used in the 1990s left thousands of martyrs. In 2015, during the presidential and parliamentary elections, Erdogan was elected but lost his majority in parliament due to the growth of the party which defends the freedom of all peoples and fights for a democratic Turkey – the HDP, developed by the revolutionary movement Kurdish and composed mostly of Kurds, but also of Arabs, Turkmens and other peoples of the region. Not accepting the election results, the Erdogan regime vetoed and rejected the eligibility of hundreds of mayors, governors and HDP deputies.
THE WAR FOR AUTONOMY IN BAKUR
Under this authoritarian reality, the revolutionary movement in Northern Kurdistan, Bakur (occupied by the Turkish state) then declared the autonomy of dozens of regions, following the example of the Rojava revolution and its system of Cantons that took place 2 years earlier. What followed was an intense militarization of these regions, initially by the police, which was answered with the strength of the people and the resistance, especially of the youth of the YDG-H. However, in a short time, the Turkish regime declared a state of emergency for these regions and called on people to withdraw from the region, imposing strict control in cities and curfews.
The people kept resisting, but began to have difficulties from the moment that the basic supplies of daily life were cut off. In addition, the armed struggle had begun and this led to an extreme militarization of the state in the region, war tanks, war planes and artillery were used against young people who resisted bravely and heroically with pistols and automatic rifles. Even under an unequal and unfair reality, the resistance of the Kurdish people and their youth made history. Under the line of people’s revolutionary war this process lasted for months until the Turkish fascist state took control of the region again.
SRI LANKA’S GENOCIDAL POLICY
As in the revolutionary struggle developed in Sri Lanka, which lasted for decades, this reached a point of tension where there was not so much advancement either by the state or by the revolutionary forces. Under the guise of developing a solution to the conflict, the revolutionary movement was deceived while the military forces of the hegemonic power reorganized and modernized. When they launched their final operation against the revolutionaries, they physically surrounded them until they developed a military victory…the policies used by the Turkish state and the other countries occupying Kurdistan find themselves in a situation where they develop this policy. Under this concept, since 2015 the Turkish fascist state has launched annual operations against the Kurdish revolutionary movement located in the Free Mountains of Kurdistan in Bashur, South Kurdistan and even attacking Rojhilat Mountains, East Kurdistan dozens of times.
CURRENT SITUATION
Since 2015, violence has ravaged communities in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey and – at times – reached the heart of the country’s largest metropolitan centres. An unprecedented outbreak of fighting and attacks in some southeastern urban districts in the first half of 2016 was followed by a gradual shift in violence towards rural areas and the territory of Southern Kurdistan, northern Iraq. The most recent operations of the Turkish fascist state have focused on the free mountains with the objective of the complete destruction of the PKK guerrillas, for dozens of times the representatives of the fascist state have come to the public and promised that this will be the last year of ‘the fight against terrorism’ ‘, however, once again they were always silenced by the revolutionary posture and the unwavering practice of the party’s militants and their epic resistances.
Under the name of Operation Claw, since 2020 the Turkish fascist state has focused its attacks on the region of Zap, Metina and Avashin, which is a strategic point on the border between North and South Kurdistan and an area controlled by the guerrillas since the 1990s. However, due to unparalleled resistance and a unique revolutionary posture, the PKK has resisted these attacks in these 3 uninterrupted years of war and the fascist state has so far not achieved its objectives in the region. Because of this, they began to use prohibited weapons such as chemical gases and thermobaric bombs in guerrilla positions since 2021, under extrapolating and inhumane measures – and still, they did not achieve their objectives.
With the support of KDP (Kurdistan Democratic Party) collaborators of the Barzani family, the Turkish state has slowly occupied the territory of northern Iraq and built military bases in the region. Furthermore, on an economic level, the Turkish fascist state has become the biggest contributor to the Kurdistan Regional Government (a semi-autonomous state within Iraq and controlled by the KDP since 1992). Opponents of the Barzani regime are silenced with censorship, imprisonment and assassinations.
JIN JIYAN AZADI – An expected revolt but still, a surprise
With the revolution in Rojhilat Kurdistan, the call for freedom not just in Rojhilat and Iran, but across the world received new impetus. With the slogan “Jin, Jiyan, Azadî” women in Rojhilat Kurdistan began to express their opposition to the oppressive regime in Iran. With this reputation and the spread of rebellion in Rojhilat and Iran, they attracted worldwide attention. This call was heard at rallies and demonstrations in the streets of Europe, in the European Parliament and in the German Bundestag, this slogan became a popular hashtag in digital media. But, as has been critically noted in many places, Jin, Jiyan, Azadi is not just a slogan printed on a T-shirt and therefore symbolizes your feminist attitude. Jin, Jiyan, Azadi is a way of life, it is an attitude in life, affecting all areas of human life. This must be well understood in the inflationary use of that term.
“I always say that the conditions under which ‘Jin and Jiyan’ cease to mean woman and life reflect the decay and dissolution of society. Unless we analyze this reality and mobilize for the path of freedom, those elements we call the revolution, revolutionary party, leaders and militants cannot play their intended role” – Reber APO
It is obvious that patriarchal regimes do not accept the awakening of freedom-loving women and try to attack them in various ways and force them into a renewed sleep of death. Women in Rojhilat and Iran, in European countries, in South American countries, in Afghanistan and in Turkey must strengthen their self-defense mechanisms and, above all, be ideologically grounded. The best reading on this can only be the books of those who, with their research, their analyses, but also with their actions, became the killer of the male-dominated mentality and, therefore, made the international systems of domination their enemies. The one who did everything to awaken women from the sleep of death and took their strength and conscience to the heights. Reber APO. Through Reber APO’s dedicated work and effort, Kurdistan became the source of hope for freedom across the Middle East and around the world. Because in Kurdistan women rose, recreated and organized themselves according to their original role in the sense of “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi”. The greatest heroines emerged from the female YJA Star army, who sacrificed their lives for freedom, against everything that destroys life and threatens freedom.
The fact that this revolt took the streets of Rojhilat and Iran with the vanguard and attitude of women was something that generated fear and fear in the Iranian state and consequently in several other states in the region. The idea of the propagation of the Women’s Revolution developed by the revolutionary movement of Kurdistan is something that unifies the dominant forces of the Middle East and the World in the fight against this line. Meetings between representatives of the 4 states occupying Kurdistan, and also with the active participation of the Russian state, have taken place dozens of times since the beginning of this popular uprising.
AGREEMENTS BETWEEN OCCUPIER STATES TO DESTROY THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT
More than ever, cooperation between the occupying states reached a new level. Meetings and exchanges of information, which used to be carried out surreptitiously, are now held in an open and clear manner, in a way that makes their message clear to the people of the region. These states are not willing to retreat even one step to the popular desires of a democratic region, on the contrary, they are willing more than ever to dedicate themselves to the repression of this desire and the development of a unified line in the face of this reality.
In this way, attacks on the revolutionary movement are frequent and constant. Whether in the cities of Turkey and Bakur with the arrest of hundreds of journalists, lawyers, students and even old women who are mothers of revolutionaries or with the drone attacks in Rojava targeting the leaders of the movement. Whether in Bashur, with the murders of the vanguard of the Women’s movement and the Jineolojî or in Rojhilat with the public execution of dozens of young women who stood up against the misogynistic Iranian system…the movement and those who stand side by side with it and its ideal are being attacked from all sides.
RÊBER APO’S REVOLUTIONARY LINE WILL NEVER BE STOPED
After 50 years of revolutionary struggle, thousands of martyrs and stories of resistance such as the resistance in the prison of Amed, the guerrilla struggle in Gare, Gire Sor, Werxele, Heftanin, Zap, Dersim…of militant personalities who fought until their last breath, militants who preferred to take their lives rather than surrender to the enemy. The line of the revolution in Kurdistan is based precisely on keeping alive the memory of its martyrs, fighting to build the world for which they gave their lives, precisely because of this it is impossible for the forces of hegemonic power to be able to defeat the Revolution.
There may be better or worse moments of the conjuncture, but with the perspectives and examples given by Rêbertî and his practice, his resistance and victory in Imrali, the movement is able to overcome any difficulties. In the same way that the Hevals are resisting at that moment in the free mountains against all the enemy’s technology and its constant attacks, all those who walk in Rêbertî’s line are resisting the attacks of the system of capitalist modernity. Rêber APO says that if the day comes when there is only one member of the party, the PKK will still live and rise again.
For every step by the enemy, the revolutionary struggle gives 2 in response. Between mistakes and successes, real problems, economic difficulties, a political and economic embargo in the region that is not even recognized as a country, the Revolution lives on. The People’s Revolutionary War line continues to be constantly developed, the peoples of the region find in the paradigm of Rêber APO the alternative for a free life. The revolutionary movement continues to grow, with the participation of young people not only from the Middle East but from all over the world. Kurdistan is a beacon of hope for another world, where everyone is considered and respected, where socialism is lived in a true and pure way. The moment is critical, the conjuncture complex and complicated, but more than ever, the windows of revolutionary opportunities for a historic advance are in front of us.
