This is the first part of an interview by ANF with KCK Executive Council co-chair Besê Hozat.

Can you explain why the freedom of Kurdish people's leader Abdullah Öcalan is so important and how women should struggle against the isolation imposed on him?

The isolation imposed on Leader Apo (Abdullah Öcalan) is part of the genocide policies imposed on the Kurdish people. The biggest of these fascist attacks is carried out against Leader Apo in Imralı. Leader Apo has been held in an incredible torture system for over 21 years. What the state wants to do is to force a resisting people and humanity to surrender in the person of Leader Apo. For years, Leader Apo has been fighting a huge struggle against these immoral, illegal and non-political genocidal practices. He wants everyone to fight this genocidal fascism.

Isolation in Imrali is one of the feature of fascism implemented against women and Turkey's society. Denial and liquidation policies implemented against the Kurdish society are being implemented in Imrali. The isolation, oppression and psychological warfare implemented in Imralı translate into the war against the Kurdish people. Fascism is also based on the denial of everything Kurdish denial and the elimination of the Kurdish freedom struggle. Fascism policies are best recognizable in the isolation imposed in Imrali and spreading to the whole Turkey. The Imrali system has now become a general policy and practice. To say “the isolation of Leader Apo is the isolation oft Kurds, democracy forces, women, peoples and humanity” is clearly more meaningful than ever today.

III World War has entered a new and final stage

The Middle East-centred III World War has entered a new and final stage. In this stage, the nation states and political power balances of the region are being reshaped. The region is being redesigned on the basis of the interests of global capital. Starting with the 1990-91 Gulf War, getting deeper with the International Conspiracy on 9 October 1998, this III World War dismantled the nation state systems in the region. The current situation of Iraq and Syria is a result of this war. Civil war and chaos in Afghanistan, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Yemen, Sudan and many more are the result of this war. On the other hand, the profound state of crisis and chaos in Turkey and Iran are also a result of the III World War.

Fascist nation-state systems in the region clash with the peoples inside, while outside they experience conflict with the world global capital. Peoples all over the region are in great rebellion against the fascist nation state system and practices. Peoples no longer accept and strongly reject the fascist nation-state system of capitalist modernity. The hegemonic powers of capitalist modernity are trying to establish a new collaboration and colonial order at the service of capitalist modernity in the region by trying to eliminate democratic social dynamics during the III World War through regional reaction and various collaborative forces.

The coronavirus pandemic is a striking example of capitalist modernity crisis and disintegration

It is a fact that the system of capitalist modernity has experienced a deep crisis and is going through a period of disintegration. The global [coronavirus] pandemic is one of the most striking examples of this crisis and disintegration. This wild system which is against society, women and nature has brought our planet to the verge of collapse. There is no longer an ecological balance. The ecological balance of our planet has collapsed beyond deterioration. Industrialism, the mode of production of capitalism aiming at maximum profit led to wars, weapons that destroy nature, global warming, the destruction of millions of animals and plants, problem with clean water resources, deforestation. So much so that there is not a single natural food and drink left to living beings, especially human beings, and humanity longs for clean water. Wars, hormonal foods, polluted air and water have created a cancerous social structure that has disrupted human biology and mental and psychological structure.

The capitalist modernity system saw in the war a way out from this deep crisis it finds itself in. Beginning with the war in the Middle East, it tried to restore the capitalist system. While doing this, it tried to establish its hegemony by attacking all the dynamics it finds in front of him.

Democratic modernity energy

We cannot evaluate the Imrali isolation independently from these developments in the region and the world. The International Conspiracy was carried out in an attempt to realize a new political mind-set and structure in the region. Today, the hegemonic forces of capitalist modernity are against the free women, ecological, democratic nation paradigm developed by Leader Apo and the democratic confederal system. By supporting the isolation imposed by the fascist Turkish state on Leader Apo, they are trying to prevent the region from being shaped on the basis of democratic system. They are trying to attack the values ​​of democracy and freedom that Leader Apo and the Freedom Movement have being building in their 46 years of great. They demand isolation to continue because they think Leader Apo is an obstacle to their plans. The international dimension of the Imrali isolation is linked to the desires of a new order based on the interests of hegemonic forces to the region and the world.

Leader Apo's democratic, ecological, free woman paradigm and democratic confederal system project is a solution that will end the III World War thus preventing such wars and global epidemics (such as coronavirus pandemic) from happening again. The fact that this paradigm and democratic society system becomes dominant in the region and the world means that the region and world societies live on the basis of friendship with nature in democracy, freedom and peace.

Democratic confederalism and women

The democratic confederal system opens up room for democracy, freedom and equality for all women. The only system in which women can express themselves freely and equally is the democratic confederal system. This is the main reason why women see and evaluate the isolation imposed on Leader Apo also as an isolation on women.

Leader Apo has great intellectual, practical work and struggle on the issue of women's liberation. Leader Apo demolished the five-thousand-year-old male-dominated paradigm and created a new free woman-based paradigm and system project. Thus, the Women's Freedom Movement gained ideological and theoretical basis not only for Kurdistan and the Middle East but also for the world.

The struggle against the isolation of Leader Apo is directly related to the women's struggle for freedom. The abolition of the isolation in Imrali will strengthen women's democratic and free life struggle. It will have a major impact on the end of violence against women. It is very important for women to strengthen their struggle against isolation. With the fact and awareness that the struggle against isolation is a struggle against the male-dominated system, modernity and fascism, women everywhere should step up their struggle strengthening their solidarity and unity. Organized women's struggle has a huge impact. Solidarity and common struggle among women's organizations in recent years have brought about very important developments.

Women struggle against isolation Turkey, the region and the world can be carried out through a variety of actions.