KCK Executive Council co-chair, Cemil Bayık said that there is a great war in the Middle East and underlined that this war is both a great opportunity and a great danger for the Kurds. Emphasizing that the Kurds can have status in the Middle East if they use the opportunity, Bayık said: "If the Kurds do not develop an initiative, this historical opportunity will be missed. Those who start an initiative other than the Kurds and carry out a policy of exterminating the Kurds will succeed and the Kurds will suffer much greater blows than in the past. If they cannot take advantage of this opportunity, the policy of denial and annihilation will continue. Turkey will target not just Kurds but all peoples with its genocidal policies in such an environment. Therefore, not only the Kurds, but everyone will lose. In order to avoid such an outcome, the Kurds should develop an initiative in this process and prevent things going the way Turkey wants.”

Reminding that the Turkish state is an occupying and genocidal state, Bayık added that the AKP-MHP government has developed injustice, cruelty and a gang-style environment everywhere.

Noting that the PKK is fighting against this fascist and genocidal power, Bayık pointed out that the KDP, on the other hand, carries out a policy that legitimizes the occupation of the Turkish state.

Bayık said that the excuse used by the KDP to justify Turkey’s attacks in South Kurdistan, Rojava and North Kurdistan – the presence of the PKK – means that “the KDP is actually blaming the PKK and not the Turkish state and therefore justify the attacks. It sees the invasion and genocide attacks justified. Kurds cannot accept this. The PKK stands and fights against this policy."

We publish parts of the interview.

Why the 'End isolation, fascism, occupation; Time to Ensure Freedom" campaign?

Leader Öcalan devoted his whole life to the Kurdish people and humanity. He never favoured an individual life. 'If there is to be a life, it must be for freedom, I do not accept a life other than a free one' he said. That is why he put his whole life at the service of the Kurdish people and humanity. If the Kurdish people are alive in Kurdistan today, if they have rebelled, if they do not accept anything other than freedom, if they struggle for this, if the Kurdish people are known all over the world today, if the Kurds are respected, if the Kurdish people are loved, all this is the result of the struggle of Leader Öcalan. In this sense, the struggle developed by the leadership is very important. So everyone is in debt to Leader Öcalan. Everyone should pay him back.

Leader Öcalan is not only the leader of the Kurdish people, but also a leader for the whole Middle East and humanity. He sees their problems as his own and provides guidance on how to solve them. He shows how to fulfil their demands for freedom and democracy. That's why everybody is in debt to Abdullah Öcalan and should fight for his freedom. The freedom of Öcalan is an international, humanitarian, democracy, moral and conscience problem. Therefore, the solution of this problem is not only an issue of the PKK and the Kurds, it is an issue for everyone. Anyone who says they want freedom and democracy should take the solution of this problem as a basis. If today everyone reclaims freedom for Öcalan and says it is time for him to be freed, if everyone sees it as his/her duty to ensure it, that person will be bound by this.

The Kurdish problem and Öcalan are intertwined. The freedom of Öcalan is the freedom of the Kurdish people. The freedom of the Kurdish people is the freedom of Öcalan. Historically, if a leader is captured or tortured, his people are also captured and tortured. This is the truth. The people are not free unless the leader of that people is free. Nobody accepts the freedom of that people. The freedom of that people is not seen as a right. Therefore, if the Kurdish people ensure the freedom of Öcalan, it will also ensure its own freedom.

The policy of the occupying fascist Turkish state towards Öcalan is being carried out against the Kurdish people, the forces of democracy, the peoples of the Middle East and humanity. That's why Turkey is carrying out very dirty policies. A policy is carried out not only against Öcalan, but against the peoples, humanity, democracy, humanity and justice. Now that politics has no legitimacy or meaning. Nobody can reclaim that politics anymore. For example, the CPT [Committee for the Prevention of Justice]. We said for years that Öcalan was tortured, but they were persistently silent against this situation. But in their last report, they have accepted that he is indeed being tortured.

The CPT was obliged to say that isolation is implemented against Öcalan. They had to accept this as a result of the struggle of our people. If our people did not struggle, the CPT would not admit this. Because the struggle of our people and our struggle have revealed the true face of AKP-MHP. We showed that the AKP-MHP government is a big problem for humanity.

Kurdish friends, who defend freedom and democracy, now argue that Öcalan should be liberated. It is time to free Öcalan. This is what all the Kurdish people, the forces of freedom and democracy, everyone in the world who struggle for democracy and freedom want: freedom for Öcalan. We are therefore carrying out our work on this basis. I salute and pay my respects to everyone who takes the freedom of Öcalan as a basis and works for it.