KCK co-chair Besê Hozat answered questions about the results that the Turkish government has achieved after trying to implement the international conspiracy for more than 25 years by creating a system of torture and isolation. 

What was and is the aim of capitalist modernity in upholding the isolation of the Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan? What do they want to achieve by the system of torture that they have created?

The policy of isolation is the continuation of the international conspiracy with a different method and the insistence on the policy of a Kurdish genocide. The international conspiracy has been going on for nearly 25 years in the form of isolation. Although Rêber Apo [Abdullah Öcalan] and his concepts of a democratic nation and a democratic confederal system, as well as the social resistance that developed on the basis of these concepts, made the conspiracy fail, the insistence of the conspiratorial forces to succeed continues. The liquidation policy continues. The aim is to surrender Rêber Apo, the Kurdish Freedom Movement and the resisting Kurdish people. If they do not manage to surrender them, the aim is to liquidate the Leadership, the Movement and the people through a multifaceted policy of pressure, violence and isolation, and to achieve results with a total war of genocide. The policy of a Kurdish genocide is centered on Imrali is connected to the conspiratorial forces. The capitalist hegemonic system and its gendarme in the Middle East, the Turkish state, have been committing crimes against humanity for 25 years with the policy of torture and imprisonment because they have been unable to break Rêber Apo. The torture and isolation spreading from Imrali is an updated method in the Kurdish genocide.

Regarding the law of the Turkish state and the international law to which it is a signatory, everyone who is arrested and convicted, regardless of the grounds for arrest, has the right to meet with their lawyers and family. They have the right to use means of communication and to connect with the outside world. This right is guaranteed by law and the constitution. But the Turkish state has not applied its own law for 25 years. Not only does it not apply its own law, it also disregards international law. When Rêber Apo was first taken to Imrali, he was not allowed to meet with his lawyers for years with the ‘justification’ that the ship to bring people to the island was out of order and that there was bad weather. In recent years, meetings with lawyers have been prevented because of so-called disciplinary penalties. Disciplinary penalties are a new product of the special warfare by the fascist genocidal Turkish state. With the demagogy of disciplinary penalties, it is trying to prevent Rêber Apo from exercising his right as it is granted in international law, also the right known as ‘right of hope’. In the member states of the Council of Europe, the ‘right to hope’ envisages the release of every convict who has been sentenced to life imprisonment and has been in prison for 25 years. The Turkish state, which is a member of the Council of Europe, prevents the implementation of this right under the name of disciplinary penalties. It is trying to make the world accept the policy of extermination spread over time by making the international laws it has signed meaningless, and to bring the Kurdish genocide war to a conclusion.

The genocidal Turkish state aims to break the will of the Kurdish people and take them into captivity through a torture and isolation system. It aims to develop disbelief and despair in society and to create the perception that one cannot achieve anything with struggle and resistance. The genocidal fascism is afraid of Rêber Apo’s ideological and political stance, his power of thought, and is trying to break the effect Rêber Apo has on the outside world. The isolation policy is the result of the Kurdish genocide. The war against Rêber Apo is a war of genocide against the Kurdish people. Rêber Apo represents the Kurdish people’s will for freedom. He is the address for a democratic solution to the so-called ‘Kurdish question’. Every approach against Rêber Apo must be seen as an approach against the Kurdish people and against the solving of the ‘Kurdish question’.

One of the essential dimensions of the isolation system is the political dimension. When we consider it from this perspective, how is the isolation reflected on the outside, how should the connection be established?

The system of isolation on Imrali is de facto at the center of the Kurdish genocide policy. The regime of special warfare on Imrali is not independent from the liquidation concept and Kurdish genocide policies against the Kurdish Freedom Movement. Since the Turkish state’s approach to the ‘Kurdish question’ is based on the policies of denial and extermination, there is a torture-isolation system on Imrali. The fascist AKP-MHP government, along with its policy of genocide, has turned the system of torture and isolation that is being practiced in Imrali into a political tool in its special warfare. It uses the system of isolation against Kurds and peoples as a tool of threatening. The AKP used the process of the so-called ‘peace talks’ developed between 2013 and 2015 as an instrument to completely dominate the state. In this sense, the war on Imrali is the product of a very planned, programmed, comprehensive and in-depth policy based on a long-term strategy. The most refined form of the centuries-old genocide policies is being carried out on Imrali. In this respect, it should be seen as purely ideological and political.

The Turkish state has completely abolished even its own state law in order to bring its Kurdish genocide plan to a conclusion. It has tied the judiciary to Erdoğan and put it under his command. This judiciary has become a political body that aims to genocide against the Kurds. It has turned into a murderous tool that fulfills the instructions of the genocidal fascist administration, as it carries out a significant part of the war against the Kurds. This murderous tool cuts out the tongues of those who dare to open their mouths and makes those who object rot in prisons. The fascist dictatorship is trying to intimidate and isolate the democratic opposition with the weapon of the judiciary. Fascism, while carrying out political, social, cultural, economic, ecological and military genocidal attacks in Kurdistan, has also increased the pressure and violence on society in Turkey with the understanding that the genocidal war will not be weakened. All these pressures originate from the genocide policy centered on Imrali.

The AKP-MHP coalition rules Turkey as a fascist dictatorship. They have not left even the smallest shred of democracy and law in place for fear that the Kurds might benefit from it. It has militarized a significant part of Turkish society, poisoning and rotting it with racist nationalism. The Convention of Turkishness, which was created on the basis of Kurdish enmity, has become the sole law and constitution of Turkey. Genocidal fascism has created a deep rift in society with the Turkish-Islamic synthesist ideology and imposed isolation on the conscience, morality and political stance of society. The fascist state wages war inside and outside, at home and abroad, at home and in the world to sustain its existence.

Did the fascist Turkish state and the international powers achieve the results they wanted with the international conspiracy and the subsequent 25 years of isolation, and if not, what are the reasons?

The isolation imposed on Rêber Apo for 25 years has resulted in nothing but great destruction for the peoples of Turkey. The isolation based on the policy of genocide has deepened the gap that needs to be overcome to find a solution to the ‘Kurdish question’ and has led Turkey completely away from democracy, justice and law. The policy of war has impoverished society, destroyed its moral and political values, created a deep decay in society, and consumed all the economic resources of the state. All of Turkey’s economic resources have been spent on the war against the Kurds. For 25 years, bombs have been raining down on the mountains, plains and cities of Kurdistan. Tens of thousands of gangs and contras have been fed to shed Kurdish blood. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on spying. Billions of dollars are spent on weapons and lobbies to promote anti-Kurdish sentiment. Turkey is breaking records in drug use and sales. The reason for this is the Kurdish genocide war. With the drug trade, social decay is being developed on the one hand and war expenses are being met on the other. Turkey is one of the countries where gang organizations develop the most and is even at the top of the world rankings. It wages war against the Kurds with all forms of gang organization. The main reason why the coup mechanism works continuously in Turkey is the lack of solution in the Kurdish policy based on denial and annihilation.

At the end of 25 years, the point reached is the fact that the isolation policy has not produced any result for the Turkish state and society except the destruction caused by the fascist dictatorship. The Turkish state wanted to surrender Rêber Apo through the isolation policy, but it failed. Rêber Apo’s resistance spread in society and it got universalized. The Turkish state wanted to cut all the impact of Rêber Apo with its isolation policy, but it failed. Today, Rêber Apo’s ideas and theses are discussed all over the world, and he is seen and embraced as the only democratic solution to overcome social and systemic problems. The Turkish state, on the other hand, is isolated from the peoples of the world with its fascist character. The Turkish state aimed to break and surrender the will of the Kurdish people with its isolation policy, but it failed. The Kurdish people increased their resistance for freedom, and with the women’s revolution in Rojava, they became a hope for the peoples of the region and the world. With the slogan ‘Jin, Jiyan, Azadî’, this hope brought free and democratic life closer to people and especially women all over the world. At the end of 25 years, the peoples and women won. The struggle for freedom developed, grew and became universal. It was the fascist Turkish state and the international conspiratorial forces that were exposed and regressed.

What is real and powerful is right and true. Under the leadership of Rêber Apo, the Kurdish people are waging the most just and legitimate struggle in human history. Kurds, one of the most ancient peoples of history and the cultural stem cell of humanity as the people of the geography that created the neolithic society, want their language, culture, identity, freedom and self-government, which have been denied and ignored. They are waging a right and just struggle, which is as halal as the white milk of mothers. It cannot be destroyed by policies of denial, destruction and isolation. Human history shows us that truth has always triumphed over oppression and fascism.