Cemil Bayık, co-chair of the KCK Executive Council, spoke at length about Abdullah Öcalan's call, its meaning and where it comes from. 

Here is part one of the speech.

"Rêber Apo [Abdullah Öcalan] has proclaimed the manifesto for the 21st century. It is of great importance for both us as a freedom movement and for our people and international friends to truly understand the essence of this manifesto. We are, of course, trying to fully understand Rêber Apo, and based on that, we approach the duties and responsibilities that the process puts before us.

With his declaration, Rêber Apo has put some fundamental problems and, at the same time, the solution to these on the agenda of everyone. By doing so, he aims at solving the Kurdish question through democratic political means rather than on the grounds of war. Since the beginning of this struggle, it has always been Rêber Apo’s quest to find a solution to the Kurdish question. What he has put out now in front of everyone could be this solution. That is why he called it the paradigm of peace and democratic society.

Capitalist modernity has intervened in the Middle East to the detriment of the peoples. And this intervention, which led to great upheavals in the Middle East, is still continuing today. Against this intervention from the outside at the hands of the forces of capitalist modernity, Rêber Apo developed the peoples’ intervention. He showed how the peoples of the Middle East could get out of this impasse, and how a democratic Middle East could emerge. That is the perspective that Rêber Apo put in front of the peoples. He again, in his declaration, revealed why real socialism collapsed and on which principles the socialist understanding and struggle should be developed instead. Real socialism collapsed mainly for internal reasons that may have been to a certain extent accelerated by external factors. It was related to the understanding of state, power, and nation, and it was also related to the understanding of the party. With the collapse of real socialism in the Soviet Union, states, parties, and organizations shaped according to real socialism collapsed. With his manifesto, Rêber Apo aims to eliminate the negative effects of real socialism and to develop a more correct socialist understanding. Rêber Apo presents his analysis to all the forces waging a socialist struggle and addresses the question of how a more correct socialist understanding can be developed, thereby giving socialism a new significance.

It is crucial that the women comrades consider the manifesto as the beginning of a renaissance. Rêber Apo stands for freedom and democracy. He paves the way for the development of a free life, a free society and a free personality, and has made it very clear that no freedom can yield results without the development of women’s freedom. He has placed women’s liberation at the foundation of all freedoms, and highlighted the relationship between women and socialism, women and democracy, women and freedom, women and socialism. As Rêber Apo has put it, those who aim for freedom, democracy and socialism must take women’s freedom as the basis of their struggle. As a measure of whether an organization, a struggle, or an individual is socialist or not, the approach to women and the approach to the line of women’s liberation are decisive. Rêber Apo has based the manifesto of the 21st century on this basic pillar and put it in front of everyone.

To be capable of fully understanding today’s developments, one must have a good understanding of history and particularly of the developments of the relationship between the Kurdish and the Turkish nations in history. The settlement of the Turks in Anatolia was realized through the Kurdish-Turkish alliance. Again, the development of the empire of the Turks was based on this alliance. Whenever the Turkish state, and even before the Ottoman state, the Turkish nation faced serious dangers, it overcame these dangerous situations with the support of the Kurds, relying on this alliance. This is a well-known fact that no one can deny. At the very beginning, there was an alliance developed with Sultan Sencer. This alliance had a crucial role in the development of the Ottoman Empire, as shown in the battles at Malazgirt and Chaldiran.

Later, when the Ottomans faced disintegration, when the Turkish state and the Turkish nation faced a great danger, Mustafa Kemal, again relying on the Kurdish Alliance, again with the support of the Soviets at the time, pulled the Turkish state and the Turkish nation out of this dangerous situation, and the Treaty of Lausanne was signed. Until Lausanne, the Turkish state attached great importance to the Kurds. Until then, Kurds were granted autonomy. There are many correspondences that show this. There is also the Constitution of 1921. Later, when the Turkish state received the title deed at Lausanne and the danger to itself ceased to exist, it thought that it no longer needed the support of the Kurds and the Soviets, so it amended the Constitution of 1921. In other words, it broke the Kurdish alliance. In order to turn towards the Kurds, it enacted the Takrir-i Sukun Law, and based on this, it developed the Constitution of 1924 with many further practices alike to follow.

The role of capitalist modernity is, of course, decisive in this. Because the system of capitalist modernity has put the nation state model in front of Turkey. It has not only tasked Turkey with the task of developing this state in Turkey, but has also given it the task and responsibility of developing the nation state system all over the Middle East. For this reason, the Turkish state has taken monism as a basis in Turkey. The Turkish state is based on a fascist understanding following the mentality that only accepts one nation, one homeland, one language, and so on. Denial and extermination of the Kurds were brought to the agenda, and many massacres developed on this basis.

Turkish-Kurdish relations regressed mainly after the establishment of the Turkish state. This is the direct result of the nation state created by capitalism. Because the nation state is based on uniformity. It is based on eliminating the existing variety of cultures, peoples, and languages by creating a uniform nation state. This has been the basis of the Turkish state. Turkish-Kurdish relations, which were based on voluntariness for a long time in history, have been poisoned. The Turkish state and subsequent governments constantly blame the Kurds. It constantly develops propaganda that the Kurds have betrayed them, that they are separatists, that they want to split up their country. It poisons society by doing so and creates enmity against the Kurds. And this despite the fact that it was they themselves who committed treason and separatism. Looking at history, it was the Kurds who gave the Turks the crucial support in all critical periods. They have overcome all dangers with the support of the Kurds. If they have made Turkey their homeland, it is thanks to the Kurds. This fact is distorted today. If relations have deteriorated, if brotherhood has deteriorated, it is not the Kurds, but the Turkish state itself, the Turkish governments, the capitalist modernist system behind them. It is the nation state understanding.

Today, the nation state system is being destroyed, particularly in the Middle East, which is being reshaped and restructured. But it is not yet clear exactly how the outcome will be and what kind of further methods will be implemented. For this reason, the Turkish state, which is fully based on the nation state system, is now facing a serious turning point. It can no longer insist on the system as before. They still try to, but no matter how much they do, this system has been overcome. The restoration of Turkish-Kurdish relations is possible only if the understanding and solution of the democratic nation are taken as a basis. If the understanding of the democratic nation model is not taken as a basis, if a change in mentality is not realized on this basis, and if the old mentality is insisted on, that is, if the nation state is insisted on, it is not possible to improve these relations. For this reason, Rêber Apo has put Turkish-Kurdish history in front of everyone again. He has paved the way to redevelop the voluntary alliance of the two peoples in history. Turkish-Kurdish brotherhood and unity is only possible with the acceptance of the existence and rights of the Kurdish people. The policy of denial and annihilation must be abandoned by recognizing the natural rights of the Kurdish people and society and by developing the democratic nation as a solution. This is the basis of the call and manifesto developed by Rêber Apo.

We hope that the Turkish state, the government, especially those who love Turkey and consider themselves patriotic, will become aware of this reality, give up the insistence on the politics of denial and destruction, and take the democratic re-establishing of the broken relationship with the Kurds as a political basis. Rêber Apo, the Kurdish people, and the freedom movement are once again trying to fulfill their historical responsibility to restore this relationship and to eliminate the distortions and perversions. I hope that the Turkish state and government and Turkish society in general will fulfill their part of this historical responsibility.

Since the denial-extermination policy was carried against Kurdish society, everything that belonged to the Kurds was destroyed. Kurdish society was basically dying. It was at that moment that Rêber Apo launched his historic intervention. The situation at that point was against the Turks as much as it was against the Kurds. Rêber Apo brought this up many times, pointing out that the Turks can’t live without the Kurds, and the other way round. He often highlighted that the annihilation of the Kurds would bring about the annihilation of the Turks themselves. Since all ways were blocked and the Kurdish people and society faced great danger, Rêber Apo had to develop the armed struggle in order to open the way for democratic politics. Apart from developing the armed struggle, there was no other way for Kurds to express themselves, it had been eliminated. In order to conduct democratic politics, it was necessary to protect one’s own existence. Until the martyrdom of our comrade Haki Karer, there was no such aim to develop the armed struggle. Until then, work was being carried out in society. The work was a political work. But when Haki Karer was murdered, it was understood that in order to be able to work, it is necessary to be able to protect oneself. That’s when armed struggle came on our agenda. The aim was to create a political environment for Kurds; to create a political, legal environment. This was created through armed struggle. In this respect, the armed struggle was right and legitimate. As a result, the Kurdish people began to live again and got back on their feet. It has reappropriated the values of Newroz and serhildans have flared up.

Rêber Apo had achieved this goal in this way. Despite all the heavy circumstances, he had created a people who claimed their future, their freedom, and their values. The Kurdish people had become a people striving for freedom and democracy. What had to be done now was to complete the resurrection with liberation. That is why Rêber Apo said, “The resurrection is complete; the next step is liberation.” He wanted to take the Kurdish question out of the armed struggle and bring it to a political democratic ground and solve it on this basis. He took steps towards this in 1993, and Turgut Ozal tried to approach this initiative accordingly. Turgut Ozal had made a great effort to crush the developing freedom movement, but in the end he realized that the issue could not be solved in this way and that Turkey would only suffer. Therefore, he aimed to follow Rêber Apo in his efforts to solve the issue through democratic political methods. He saw that this was in the interest of Turkey and took steps on this basis. Rêber Apo declared a unilateral ceasefire for the development of this process. Jalal Talabani, the back then secretary general of the PUK, acted as a mediator between Turkey and Rêber Apo during this period and made efforts to develop this process. But the mentality of the Turkish state, based on denial and annihilation, sabotaged these efforts, and Turgut Ozal was murdered. But Rêber Apo did not give up on this goal. He constantly endeavored to take the movement and the struggle to a political and democratic ground. He put such a task before the 5th Congress. He put change, transformation, and restructuring in the movement before the Congress. Although the Congress took some steps in this direction, it could not bring about the kind of change, transformation, and restructuring that Rêber Apo was striving for. Still, Rêber Apo continued this again, always having his aim in mind.

Later on, it was Necmettin Erbakan who took the initiative and formulated some letters addressing Rêber Apo, who responded. Mr. Erbakan had also at some point realized that Turkey’s interest lay in the solution of the Kurdish question, and accordingly he was trying to create the ground for this. But Mr. Erbakan was removed from power before he could take any important steps. Power in Turkey had developed a strong mechanism for self-preservation. Those who were hostile to Kurds could come to power. If the one who came to power carried out the enmity and was successful, he could stay in power. Otherwise he could not stay in power. Rêber Apo wanted to bring the process he started in 1993 and further developed in 1995 with Mr. Necmettin Erbakan to its goal in his August 15 evaluation in 1998. He wanted to complete the change and transformation, the restructuring. For this purpose, he again declared a unilateral ceasefire. But this was responded to with the International Conspiracy. The answer to the question of why someone would want the Kurdish question to remain unsolved, to remain on the ground of war, can in fact quite simply be answered. The war was not only profitable for some powerful circles in Turkey, there were also those who were profitable in the international arena. For this reason, they did not want the Kurdish question to be solved and were sabotaging it. And we must note that as much as we wanted to neutralize them, our efforts were insufficient.