ON 27TH FEBRUARY, ABDULLAH ÖCALAN CALLED THE PKK TO DISSOLVE AND LAY DOWN THE ARMS. ON 1ST MARCH 2025. THE PKK RESPONDED WITH THE DECLARATION OF A CEASEFIRE, MAKING SURE THAT IT IS NOT AN END BUT A NEW BEGINNING FOR THE STRUGGLE. THE MESSAGE OF ÖCALAN IS A VALUABLE AND UNIQUE CALL FOR PEACE AND DEMOCRACY IN A WORLD IN WHICH WAR IS INTENSIFYING AND SPREADING DAY BY DAY.
Öcalan’s call is both a call for peace for the Kurdish people and the peoples of the Middle East and a call for building and reinforcing the borther-sisterhood between Kurdish and Turkish people. In a Democratic Society, co-existance and cooperation between peoples is a fundamental issue. And in the current geo-political scenario, the Republic of Turkey has lost the mission given to it when it was built 100 years ago. This has something to do with the latest developments on the region. After the overthrow of the Syrian regime, Iran is almost out of the race to become a hegemonic power in the Middle East. The Iranian control of most of the military and paramilitary forces in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq was lost after the fall of the dictatorship in Syria. In this frame is mainly the USA and Israel the ones who are benefited. Turkey was also let out of the Syrian process. It was assigned a secondary role, while Saudi Arabia is becoming the main actor in the new Arab world. This is an obstacle for the plans of Erdogan in the Middle East. Actually, the mission asigned to Turkey is far from that of an independent power: Turkey has only to maintain certain inestability in the region, like it did by educating and funding paramilitary organizations like the Syrian National Army (SNA) and HTS in order to keep them alive.
But what is the role of Turkey in the Middle East? What are the foundations of the Turkish state that have allowed their government to control the country so long through a policy of war and occupation? To understand this, we need to go a little bit back in time.
In the begining of the 20th Century the European powers collided in the Middle East. It was a territory which was occupied mostly by the Ottoman Empire. This Empire represented the remaining of the old-state tradition in a world increasingly occupied by the Nation-State. This kind of bigger States were actually an obstacle for the policies of imperialism in the region. Italy, France and England had a strong pressence in the Middle East, limited by the existence of the Ottoman rule, even if they had strong agreements and collaborations. When First World War broke out, the region was one of the theatres of action. As a result, the winners of First World War decided to reconfigure the Middle East and divide the territories of the loosers. That’s how they tried to divide the Ottoman Empire in different small Nation States. In that time, an internal movement leaded by Mustafa Kemal struggled to create a modern Nation State out of the feudal-like state of the Ottomans. But this, together with the war of Independence of Turkey (1919-1923), led to the lost of territory. One part of the formerly Ottoman territory was handed over to Greece and with its other parts the Nation States of Syria and Iraq were created. This was the outcome of First World War in the Middle East. The current borders of the Middle East were agreed on after a period of treaties, one being the last one the Treaty of Lausanne (1923). Before, there were the Sykes-Picot treaty (1916) and the Sevres treaty (1920), in which a autonomous Kurdish region shoud be secured. Both of them tried to partitionate what today is Turkey in different micro-states. The Turkish War of Independence prevented this and a role was given to the new Turkish Republic: guarantee stability and western interests in the Middle East spreading the Nation State form and open the way for the creation of Israel, then take a responsability in its defense. The internal contradictions in Turkey, with the constant development of the national, class and women liberation struggle during the 20th and 21st Centuries, which were handed by external intervention and repression, never allowed Turkey to really develop a strong basis of development beyond the given role and the external support. Even if it is NATO’s second biggest army, the hegemonic powers will not always support Turkey in its geopolitical projects and its existential questions. Now Israel is the most benefited actor in the Region, Turkey is not needed anymore.
Now Iran has been weakened, and Syria is not a threat to Israel anymore. Palestine has been under constant attack for two years, and after the genocide, they are not a threat to Israel anymore; Hizbullah has been weakened enough. The Abraham agreements have led to the normalization of relations between Israel and most of the Arab countries. Therefore, the security of Israel is almost ensured in the region.
Then, what is left for the Turkish Republic? It has completed the task assigned 100 years ago. It enters its second century while staying alone in the international arena. The Turkish Republic is facing a balkan-like partition process. Their obsession with war against any form of opposition, and especially against the Kurdish people and their Guerrilla have created a deep political, economical, moral and military crisis in Turkey.
How to get out of this crisis? What is the road map for the peoples in Turkey towards democracy? That’s one side of the importance of Öcalan’s peace plan. The sister and brotherhood between Kurds and Turks could prevent this partition from happening and solve the deep crisis of the Republic.
To understand this deeply, we need to understand what Öcalan, the Kurdistan Liberation Movement, and the Kurdish people in general have achieved in the last years and what their demands are. Since the International Conspiracy in 1999, Öcalan, the founder of the Workers’ Party of Kurdistan or PKK and known by the Kurdish people as «Rêber APO» (leader APO), has been held in solitary confinement in the Prison Island of Imrali. For the last 4 and a half years, no visits have been allowed into Imrali. From Turkey to the Middle East to the entire world, different campaigns, actions, and events have been developed with the aim of Öcalan’s freedom. In October 2023, when everyone was preparing to face the new era in the Middle East, the Kurdistan Liberation Movement launched the campaign «Freedom For Öcalan– Political Solution for the Kurdish Question». In this frame, a worldwide campaign started. The walls of Imrali were not strong enough to limit the importance of what Abdullah Öcalan was developing: the Democratic Modernity paradigm is being studied more every day, and concrete projects to organize according to the paradigm are being developed internationally. Especially the youth, women, and young women see themselves represented in the paradigm. This means that the International Conspiracy that led to the kidnapping and imprisonment of Öcalan in 1999 and that was led by Mossad and the CIA, together with 32 other intelligence services, ran into a void. Turkey was not able to comply with its assigned role as a prison guard for the Middle East in general and for Öcalan in particular. But Öcalan, with a strong struggle, managed to resist having a clear source of strength: the struggle of the peoples for its liberation and, especially and at the center, the trust in the Women’s Freedom Movement, which is the guarantee for the success of the struggle, as he himself declared most recently.
The Kurdish people in the four parts of Kurdistan and Europe, the peoples in the Middle East, and internationally, have been in a constant mobilization for the last months, not allowing the Turkish state to make any step in Kurdistan without consequences. The politics of the detention of democratically elected representatives and its replacement by trustees in the Kurdish municipalities, the attacks on the guerrilla and the Democratic Autonomous Administration territories in North and Eastern Syria are part of the war against the Kurdish people and the peoples of the Middle East. The resistance, which puts the Turkish state in an existential crisis, also makes a big part of pressuring the state for a peaceful resolution. The guerrilla, even under attack from chemical and tactical nuclear weapons, has not only resisted but also developed technically and ideologically with the development of the free common life. This, together with the resistance of the peoples, especially led by women and youth, and the geopolitical situation, shows that the Turkish state has no other option than dialogue with Öcalan to continue its own existance. The Turkish state tries to impose a situation in which Öcalan is not leading a process, but the different Kurdish organizations in the Middle East and abroad have made it clear that without the possibility of normalized communication with Öcalan and without giving him the conditions for work and health, this process is not going to work. Therefore, the demands of the Kurdish people nowadays are that Öcalan must be granted conditions to lead a peace process.
Under the leadership of Öcalan, the Kurdish Liberation Movement has insisted on a just and peaceful solution for a long time. The first message of Öcalan in October 2024 was clear: «I have the theoretical and practical strength to move the Kurdish question from the field of conflict and violence towards the field of democracy and legality.» The call of Öcalan for the dissolution of the PKK and its disarmament happens in this frame. The military technology, the destruction of the peoples’ economy in order to feed a war against Kurdish people, and the hard hits that democracy has suffered in the last years put Turkey in an uncomfortable situation: they need to talk to Öcalan, the only person who can bring peace to Turkey and the Middle East, or stop existing. That is the frame on which Turkey has to approach the peace plan. The «Call for Peace and Democratic Society» released by Öcalan on 27th February focuses on the democratic solution for the Kurdish question, which leads to the brother and sisterhood of the peoples, able to evolve in the whole Middle East and the world. Not only the ethnical, national, and cultural problems in the region could be solved by this approach; this is the way to solve the problems of society as a whole, not falling into half-solutions that remain only for some time.
The role of the youth, and especially the women, in the peace process is of central importance in order to build peace in a world at war. It is important that the internationalist forces, all nations and oppressed peoples, and the democratic and socialist people of the world take responsibility and support the demands of Öcalan and the Kurdish people until a democratic and peaceful outcome to the current crisis is reached.
In the next article, we will talk more deeply about the call of Öcalan. We will also deepen the demands that come with it from the Kurdish Movement, such as the possibilities that this historical call opens for an overcoming of the situation of social, economic, political, and military crisis in Turkey and the Middle East.
