HPG guerrilla Haki Pir talked about making himself a revolutionary and life in the PKK.

The first part of this interview can be read here.

How did you come up with your revolutionary idea and practice?

Many drops of water fell into the glass, but the drop that filled it was the PKK's struggle against ISIS and the thinking behind it. I commemorate with respect and gratitude all the martyrs of the revolution who ensured the liberation of Rojava, and I promise that we will always keep their struggle for humanity alive. Everyone has been following this war closely. In response to the fascists who support ISIS in this war and those who say that they support the Kurdish people and the PKK but do not contribute to democracy, I decided to join the ranks of the PKK in search of a real life.

How do you see life in the system and life inside the PKK?

Years ago, there was a sentence in the Turkish TV series “Valley of the Wolves”: “Death is nothing but death, my rose, I risked living for you.” It may sound like a joke, but this sentence was our social reality at that time. The choice between trying to show oneself brave and fearless by simplifying and trivializing death, and a life full of suffering in which life becomes torment and torture... Both choices are expressions of poverty, lovelessness and exhaustion. We used to be proud of this phrase, which does not contain any social, moral and human values, and there are still many who are proud of it.

In the PKK, I met Kemal Pir and his struggle. Everything he did in life and struggle became our principles. With his words “We love life so much that we are ready to die for it,” anyone who has a little morality and conscientiousness knows how to live. A life without true love, longing, hope, sorrow and peace cannot be balanced or liberated. It is a virtue to live against those who have sworn to destroy social values ​​and humanity, never to bow down, to ask for nothing and to be convinced that they will win. To live for peace and to face all wars for peace.

For such a meaningful and dignified life, PKK fighters have renounced money, possessions, career, family, pleasure, egoism, egocentrism, in short, all the obligations through which the system made life unbearable for society. By giving up all these, they learned what must never be given up: freedom, dignity, one's own culture, society and humanity...

What would you like to say as a PKK fighter with Turkish identity in view of the occupation attacks carried out by the Turkish state in Southern Kurdistan for more than four years?

The fact that the war, which has been going on for many years and has the Imrali torture system at its center, continues in the form of occupation and annexation attacks is an indication of great destruction not only in Turkey and the Middle East, but also in a universal sense. Once again, it has been shown that all international organizations and agreements are not there to protect the will of the peoples, but to ensure the survival of the monopolies of power. This war, which is being waged against the will of the Kurdish and Arab people, is an ethnic, political and cultural genocide. The war, which is being waged with secret negotiations and massacres, will also bring great material and moral destruction to the peoples of Turkey. It must be understood that the name of Turkey and Turkishness is only a facade for this war.

The "infinitely valuable Turkishness" created by the elite in the interests of their own interests and the interests of their partners abroad by seizing power is an insult to the ancient Turkish people and their culture. Turkishness is used as a means of renouncing human and moral virtues. Unfortunately, the price of trying to exist through destruction is the denial of one's own existence. Our own culture is now a museum piece. Especially recently, the fascist AKP/MHP regime, with its Turkish-Islamic synthesis, has turned all state institutions into criminal organizations and the Republic of Turkey into a center of crimes against humanity. The crimes committed by the Turkish government have been proven and brought to light hundreds of times; everyone knows this. The fact that the palace is waging all kinds of wars in the name of the Turkish people in order to preserve its glory is a shameful situation for the Turkish people who have not fallen for the false game of an alleged Umma and Turkishness and have not denied their original culture.

The people of Turkey have nothing to gain from these attacks of occupation and annexation. The regime is trying to impose its fascist Sharia ideology on its neighbors, it is waging a war aimed at profit and maintaining power. Where the massacre is not complete, the regime is deploying all of Turkey's military and administrative resources to implement occupation and, ultimately, annexation. The only obstacle to the spread of this inhuman, bloody ideology is the Kurdish people and the freedom fighters of the PKK. It is not just the Kurdish people and their values ​​that are being defended here. It is the fight of humanity, all peoples, faiths and social values ​​against the state system that despises nature, women and morality.

How does this war affect the economic, sociological and psychological situation of the Turkish people?

The cause of all the problems within Turkey's borders is the insistence on continuing this genocidal war. This war, which has no other reason than ideological expansion and political interests, is not an expression of Turkey's struggle for survival, but of the fascist AKP-MHP regime. It is using all of Turkey's material and moral resources on this war. The peoples of Turkey have been living in fear and terror for years, and the result of the war is not the cause. The main purpose of the government, which is constantly systematically producing chaos, is to channel all possible resources into the war, to create legitimacy and to generate a "homeland question" in order to suppress the real problems of the people.

The fascist alliance, which is spreading the lie of the loss of the country, has nothing to offer other than security policy. Consuming without producing will inevitably lead to the end. All the research and statistics conducted in Turkey show that the people are experiencing a collapse in every respect. In my eyes, mothers and fathers who give away their milk money for war and say, “My child can grow up without milk” are cursed people who have lost their sanctity. That those who eat caviar talk about protecting the country is a denial of the Republic that was created by eating dry bread.

What do the Turkish people need to improve their living conditions? As a PKK fighter and a Turk, what can you tell your people?

The establishment of the democratic model built by Rêber Apo based on the paradigm of free life and free society is the only and permanent solution. Any attempt to find a solution other than this will end in chaos and war. Erdoğan's sultanate and the opposition's attempt to introduce a parliamentary system are a vicious circle and an undemocratic search for a solution.

As long as the standard of living is determined by the policies of the ruling party that forms the state, only the state and state-affiliated capital will thrive in these so-called developing countries. Democratic modernity is a metapolitical, social formation without party-political orientation and requires the widest possible participation and representation. Any society without moral and political values ​​needs chauvinistic, arrogant and authoritarian political figures. Today's immoral and apolitical political struggles are exhausting Turkey and draining it more every day. The process initiated under the name of normalization was a pause for political maneuvering and tactical developments. Real normalization can only be achieved through an organized and active struggle initiated by the people. There are still dynamics in Turkey that can set this struggle in motion. We are in a period where a struggle must be waged that brings together a variety of groups such as women, environmental activists, workers, working people, pensioners, youth, civil servants and the unemployed. The common demand of all these groups is an equal, fair and free life.

There were many precious sons and daughters of this people who stood up for a free life. In this sense, Kemal Pir is always one of those who hold the torch in the forefront. Kemal Pir made great efforts for the line and struggle of the PKK. He represents the strong practice that Rêber Apo brought forth. With his socialist and revolutionary personality, who rejects Turkish nationalism and prevents the development of Kurdish nationalism, he is the bearer of a struggle that all Turkish youth must recognize.

"It was not enough for me to recognize and know the world, I had to change it, I had to fight for its change," he said, not remaining silent against the unjust and distorted order around him. It was part of his lifestyle not to stand idly by and watch moral and human social values ​​disappear before his eyes. He saw the future of Turkey in the PKK freedom movement and fought with firm belief in it. He loved his homeland too much to leave it to a handful of elitist, chauvinistic, self-serving fascists and devoted his entire life to creating an equal and free life without expecting anything in return. In the prison of Amed, resisting until his last breath, he rejected the impositions of a slavish, submissive and cowardly life and said: "We love life so much that we are ready to die for it". Kemal Pir is a source of inspiration for all those who dream of a fully independent, equal, free and democratic Turkey with all the values ​​he created with his life and struggle.