Duran Kalkan, member of the KCK Executive Council, talke about the latest developments in Kurdistan, Turkey and the Middle East. 

Kalkan said: "The course of the war has now changed. The policies followed by the Turkish state, this AKP-MHP administration, can no longer withstand the guerrilla. On the contrary, the process of the guerrilla crushing them has begun. The guerrillas have taken the initiative. They are now running from success to success; and they will continue to do so."

In the last few weeks, there have been very successful actions by the guerrilla forces that have dealt heavy blows to the Turkish army and have been widely discussed in the media. What can you tell us about this? What has changed? Will this continue? And how does the war affect the other players in the region?

On behalf of the leadership of the PKK, I congratulate the commanders and fighters of the ‘People’s Defence Forces’ (HPG) and ‘Free Women’s Units’ (YJA-Star) who carried out the revolutionary operation in the name of the martyr Helmet Dêrelûk. This operation has crushed the fascist hordes of the AKP-MHP on the Amediyê mountain in the region of Zap. I salute their historic resistance, their historic resistance that dealt a fatal blow to fascism, their historic resistance, the whole war waged in Zap. I, also, respectfully, gratefully and by expressing my love, commemorate all our heroic martyrs who were martyred by fighting against the colonization of the Medya Defense Zones and all over Kurdistan, by commemorating the comrades Serxwebûn and Rizgar, the heroic martyrs who gave their lives in this operation.

The guerrillas have always resisted and are resisting. But the past months were a period of significant changes in the war. Even the Turkish rulers had to admit this. “We have switched from defense to offense,” is what they said. Once again, they also praised their techniques a lot. ‘We have such and such a technique, such and such a national technique,’ they would boast. One of their techniques crashed. The friends who examined it say that it is in four pieces, each piece is produced by a different country. None of them are made in Turkey. That’s how domestic and national they are. Turkish society, public opinion is being deceived. And they therefore use the technique like a stick. They got it from NATO, and from everywhere else. They gave them all the means of Turkey and used them like a stick. We told them this: This is not only in your hands, someone else can learn it and use it against you. Now Kurdish youth have learned and they are using it. It is obvious what they have become. We have always warned them, we said that they could be defeated, that they were acting dangerously. They did not listen to the warnings of our ‘Central People’s Defense Command’ (NPG). Now they are experiencing this. In the middle of winter, they scattered and threw those fascist hordes that they had paid for on the tops of the mountains. Now they can’t protect them, they can’t even pull them back. Then, of course, when they are shot, they act surprised, and say that traitors came and shot them. How did they come and shoot them? Which traitor are you talking about? Why did you go there in the first place? This is the situation.

The war has changed. The guerrillas have been talking about change, renewal and restructuring for a long time. This process shows that these things have come to practice. The guerrillas are revealing a new style of warfare. In Zap, like also in all Medya Defense Zones, our headquarters called it tunnel and team coordinated warfare. All the ways, methods and techniques of this have been learned. Now it is being practiced this winter, as it has been tested in previous winters.

And they are going to continue this process, this is just the beginning. The guerrillas have renewed themselves, developed a new style of warfare. They have developed a new system to defend themselves and are now in the mode of tactical offensive. They have moved from defense to attack. There is a new situation and the latest actions show that.

In fact, also the actions carried out throughout the summer have developed step by step. The three revolutionary operations conducted in late November, late December and mid-January crushed the fascist AKP-MHP hordes. Of course, this will continue, and we will see what will happen. Initiative is completely in the hands of the guerrillas; they have seized initiative. They have carried out and will carry out these overwhelming revolutionary operations. There is no other way.

It was not us who caused this situation, neither was it the guerrillas. Those who attacked the guerrillas are responsible. Now the aggressors are struggling and crying. Some of them are trying to bully their way around this defeat, some of them are claiming to be theorists and masterminds of war, even though they have never seen war in their lives. They blame others and they are trying to cover up their defeat.

Since 12 January, the AKP-MHP fascist administration, all its ministers, everyone including the press, have been shocked. The question is how they want to change and manipulate the given situation. They will deflect the agenda and will try to deceive the society of Turkey. That is what they are after. However, the facts are too clear to be covered up.

We have revealed the identities of those who fought there; none of them are soldiers, in fact they are all fascist MHP gangs hired with money and specially organized for the massacre of Kurds. That is why Devlet Bahçeli is so influential in the administration, even though he has never been in government. They are all mercenaries. All of them are specially trained for the genocide of Kurds, for massacring Kurds. This has been revealed, it is clearly seen that this is the case.

Now there are some people making new evaluations; discussing why this happened. There are others who have come to their senses and are questioning. There were mothers and families who wanted to dissent, but the government silenced them accusing them of being traitors. The government wants to prolong its existance through the blood of others. We are talking about collapse and destruction. They are trying to prevent collapse and destruction in this way.

I can state the following. The course of the war has now changed. The policies followed by the Turkish state, this AKP-MHP administration, can no longer withstand the guerrilla. On the contrary, the process of the guerrilla crushing them has begun. The guerrillas have taken the initiative. They are now running from success to success; and they will continue to do so.

This is a new situation, a new process and it will impact all regional developments. It will have an impact on politics, social life, everywhere. Everyone should know this. Therefore, they should approach the results of these actions and the war in this way. No one should fall into deceit. The aggressors are now listing the snow, blizzard and fog as excuses for defeat. There may be a blizzard, but it affects everyone the same. Does the guerrilla not experience snow, winter? Why can they carry out such actions under such conditions? This is the truth; the rest are all excuses.

The guerrillas now fight day and night, summer and winter. They fight in the mountains, the plains, and they fight in the cities to some extent. When the guerrilla makes urban warfare more effective in the plains, a great victory will emerge. Now the guerrilla are straining the enemy but only then will victory emerge.

There has been such a change, transformation and development in the guerrilla. Recent actions have shown this, not once, not twice; this is a continuation. It is not a coincidence; it expresses a way of organization and a style. The guerrillas continue to execute the war by organizing themselves in teams and squads via the tunnels trusting their preparations, especially in the geographies in question.

The government threatens to hit other places, claiming to break and attack. The Turkish army has no power to occupy. On the contrary, insistence on occupation will cause it great defeats. The guerrilla will strike crushing blows against the invasion attacks from now on, inflict greater defeats, and win greater military victories against the invaders.

Turkish society and intellectuals should evaluate and discuss. What are they doing there? What are they doing in [the south Kurdish areas of] Zap, Avaşîn, and Metîna, outside the borders of the Turkish Republic? They have spared neither the Syrian border nor the Iraqi border. They are attacking everywhere. It is as if they were going to occupy the world. If you use power in this way, you will be confronted with counter-struggle. If they want to attack, they will have to accept and face revolutionary counter-attacks, there is no other way.

The guerrilla actions have shaken the system, shocked it completely. That shock is still being felt. They were trying to hide it from the Turkish society, and they are still trying to hide it. They still have not admitted their losses because they know that if the results were published Turkey would face riots and internal outrage. People are questioning how those people died, why they have been in this snow and how many of them are left. What the government announces is only a fraction of the truth. If 60 people were shot, they only admit to 6 people, a tenth. And this is not just about the deaths, someone should go and investigate those conditions. What are these soldiers doing in such harsh conditions? Some people compare it to Enver Pasha’s Sarikamiş attack in 1915. They are similar. Soldiers were driven into unforgiving snow without any pity almost a hundred thousand died.

The truth is still being hidden from the Turkish society. The government doesn’t disclose the death toll. Those being sent to die are mercenaries; these people have already accepted when they signed up that the government holds the right to not disclose their death. This is a clause in their contracts.

Some families are refusing, stating that had accepted the conditions of the mercenary contracts, but that this is too much. They wanted to expose the situation, but they were immediately silenced. That’s why they don’t speak out, they don’t explain the situation they are put in, hiding it from the society in Turkey. And then they make up all sorts of excuses. This is the real situation.

Isn’t it strange? They claim that the Kurds wouldn’t be able to carry out such an offensive. They claim that the guerrilla couldn’t do this much without aid. Now they are instigating whether America, Iran, Israel or maybe all of them are behind the PKK. They are conspiring research to this matter. Why? Because the guerrillas have launched a counter that is crushing them. They assume that Kurds couldn’t do this alone, that surely someone else, other states, are behind it. Some allege that the US is organizing these attacks from Northern and Eastern Syria, bringing fighters or weapons from there.

Some parties are complaining that their soldiers on the hill of Amediyê are being shot by people coming from Rojava. What has Amediyê hill got to do with Rojava? Who is coming from where and how? Have you ever seen that geography? Think of the many military lines which have been drawn, you couldn’t even move properly. They are just pontificating, knowing that no one would hold them accountable. As if no one knows the reality of the situation, they instigate and theorize as absurdly as they wish.

You know what lies beneath this? A racist, nationalist, chauvinist spirit and mentality. The American can do it, the Jew can do it, the Iranian can do it, but not the Kurd. There is a mentality and politics that despises the Kurd so much. This is the racist, chauvinist, nationalist, self-aggrandizing, diseased mentality that despises the Kurd, which has been embedded in the psyche and consciousness of Turkish people, women and youth for the last 20 years with the AKP-MHP. There is such a sickening mentality.

Alas, they can no longer deny that they have been hit. The spear does not fit in the sack, they couldn’t hide it. They announce records of 5-6 deaths, but they say that the Kurds could not do it, that others are behind these killings.

They could keep probing; they won’t find anything. The Kurds are doing it. Even if you denied it 40 times, the Kurds are executing this counter. You will always suffer the crushing blows of the freedom seeking Kurds because you deserve it. Unless this poisonous racist, chauvinist, nationalist state of mind is broken in the brain and heart, no humanity can emerge from that sort of Turkishness, no democracy can develop. This needs to be understood as it is. This is a very sick situation; seeing the other person so small, so backward, so little while seeing yourself as the superior race. They used to say that the Kurd could only be a servant. In 1944, the so-called minister of that time said this. They are all fascists; racist, nationalist, chauvinist fascists.

Why do they maintain such a heavy isolation on Imrali, why do they prevent even a word of Rêber Apo from coming out? They have always claimed from the beginning that it is not the Kurds doing this, that Apo is not doing this, that so and so state is behind everything. There has been a conspiracy, for 25 years on Imrali, but still Rêber Apo has managed to draw the line of liberation of the peoples of the world, the oppressed and women.

Now they say: “The power lies with Öcalan. Let’s put a cloak over him so that not a word of his comes out.” They now recognize the greatness of our leadership. This isolation is the confession of Rêber Apo’s greatness, the confession of Rêber Apo’s power. It is a confession of his creativity, a confession of his success. Otherwise, why else would they not even apply their own laws, why else would they not allow a word of his to be disclosed? They know that he has great power. They know that he will create development, that this will harm them. They see his great power and are trying to prevent it. Why? They think that only Rêber Apo could do what he has done, that without him the others cannot. They say, “Therefore, if we silence Öcalan, if we cut his voice, we will make the others fail.” They have accepted Rêber Apo as such. They bowed before his greatness and power. They have submitted to this confession.

They still maintain that racist, chauvinist, hating state of mind and understanding that despises Kurds. He has made himself a power, a leadership, recognized by women, youth and all oppressed humanity. Kurdish women, youth, old people, children, all Kurdish people have become an Apo. They are Apoists now. They have acquired and captured the spirit, will, consciousness and mentality of Rêber Apo. They educate themselves on this basis. They have created a new Kurd, a free Kurd, an Apoist Kurd. You can close the doors as much as you want, trying to impose isolation. Thinking that you can prevent this struggle by crushing individuals is futile. That era has long passed. So, no matter what is done, it can no longer be prevented. The Kurd has become conscious, has organized and reached the level of understanding, distinguishing between right and wrong. They have gained willpower, assertiveness, courage and sacrifice. Rêber Apo has already done and achieved all these in his time. The rest comes down to our daily practice.

If we pay attention, this is happening all over the world. Wherever there is a Kurd, patriotic thought, consciousness, organization and actions are developing. Now the Turkish government is facing such a situation, they are becoming aware. Turkish politics is panicking because the current ruling power sees this. In a state of shock, it shows signs of insanity. Their words are absurd, their demeanor is absurd. They threaten everyone. If not America or Iran, they will threaten PUK or Iraq. They hope to find some confirmation that there are third parties behind the attacks of the guerrilla. Their attempts are futile, they cannot.

Now all the bonds of fascism are indeed untied. AKP-MHP fascism is in the process of dissolution. When the election results came out in May, everyone assumed that the AKP-MHP fascism and Tayyip Erdoğan’s administration became stronger. Now the collapse can clearly be seen. What did we say in the last interview? The guerrilla made their mark towards the end of last year. Again, the start of 2024 was marked by the guerrilla and this year will continue in this way.

2024 will be the year of the guerrilla. It will be the year of victory for the guerrilla. It will be the year the guerrilla crushes fascism, colonialism and genocide. Those who insist on attacking with this fascist, colonialist, genocidal mentality and politics will face the victorious resistance and actions of the guerrilla, they will be defeated, they will be devastated. There is no other way. Those who do not wish to end they do not want their end to be like this should change their mentality, values and politics. Let them learn to become human. Let them empathize a little and learn to value others.

They should recognize the ancient culture and power of the Kurdish people. Indeed, the Kurds have been the biggest supporting force for Turkishness for thousands of years. Have they made a mistake, or have they committed a crime? They have been supportive since Malazgirt. How could you receive so much support from them and then despise them. How could you exaggerate yourself so much and see yourself as great, trying to dehumanize the Kurds. No, if you do that, you will suffer defeat. Someone else will become conscious and organized. The Kurds have reached that state. They will give you the most meaningful and heavy lesson in history. They will hit your diseased brain and heart and make you learn to be human.

Now the Turkish state is experiencing such a situation in the face of the struggle of the guerrilla and the Kurdish people. The continuation of this fascist rule will bring the Turkish society face to face with such a severe situation. So really, people should understand and evaluate the consequences of Tayyip Erdoğan’s rule. They must oppose this. Turkey does not deserve this. This does not benefit the people of Turkey, or the future of Turkey. On the contrary, it leads to disaster.

The stability of Turkishness lies in Kurdish freedom and brotherhood. Therefore, it is imperative to fight for a democratic Turkey and a free Kurdistan, and to defeat this fascist, colonialist, genocidal, Kurdish-hating mentality and politics. They should learn a little about this, they should see the truth. They should wake up. The fighters, the historical resistance fighters are now serving a wakeup call. Now the society, laborers, workers and women of Turkey really need to wake up, see the concrete situation, the reality, and unite with the Kurdish people’s freedom struggle for their own liberation, and free themselves from this fascist, colonialist, genocidal mentality and politics. Our call is on this basis.

In the past, some people who couldn’t accept the strength of the guerrilla would claim that the MIT [Turkish Intelligence Service] was behind the guerrilla actions. They even put forward sick theories that their own intelligence organization was doing this against their state. Now they are looking for a criminal, they want everyone to be like Barzani. They want everyone to be a servant like the KDP, so people should do whatever they say, give whatever they demand. No one in the world will accept that and no one does.

Now they are holding others responsible. First, they wanted to turn to Rojava in case it was the USA. It is as if they were a little scared. Then they turn towards Iran and after Iraq via the PUK. Making allegations about the PUK, and threatening their leadership. They are also attacking like in the massacre of Kirkuk. They massacred a patriotic revolutionary woman from Rojava, from Hesekê in a despicable way. It is not clear what more they will do. What does this show? Actually, MIT are organized everywhere. It is organized all over South Kurdistan and Iraq. They want to take over Kirkuk. It was in the news today; they have established a new base in Duhok. They have more than 100 bases in South Kurdistan. This is occupation, there are occupation attacks.

They want to take Kirkuk. They suffered a heavy blow in the elections. Now they are trying to figure out how to reverse this and prevent a Kurdish governor from coming to Kirkuk. But mainly, of course, they want to bring these forces to the position of the KDP and achieve results that will make everyone attack the guerrilla and defeat the guerrilla on this basis. This is the aim; they’ve put all their energy there as if the guerrilla are attacking in Kirkuk. Again, what does Amediyê have to do with Sulaymaniyah or Kirkuk? Amediyê is closer to Barzani’s headquarters where the Barzanis are in charge.

They also realize that Iran is effective in this area. Therefore, they want to mobilize Iran in order to have some forces attack the PKK. For this reason, the Iranian President was supposed to go two times, but he could not go. The last time, the AKP administration committed a massacre on behalf of ISIS a day before the Iranian presidents visit. Later information was obtained that the murderers traveled from Turkey and stayed in Turkey for years. They came to Turkey via Mosul and obviously they ar MIT agents. Our comrade Cemil Bayik also explained this. He said that the attackers were MIT agents. Our administration made a statement in this regard and confirmed it.

They want to make a deal with Iran to allegedly fight against terrorism jointly. If the President of Iran had gone, they would have discussed this topic. Who is a terrorist, according to them? The PKK. The Turkish government would have said “Let’s attack the PKK together. Look, terrorism is hitting you too, the Kurdish problem is your problem too. They say let’s make a deal together. Then bring Iraq, PUK and KDP on our side and let them wage a joint war against the PKK.” Why should they? Everyone has their own interests.

We are of the opinion that the Iranian state can understand this. Many circles are trying to draw Iran into a harsher war in the Middle East. They want to make Iran fight intensely with America, Britain, Israel, and so on. Turkey is leading this concept. By putting others in a difficult situation, especially the AKP administration wants to make joint actions with Iran against the PKK. We don’t believe that those circles would fall for games. We believe that the Iranian state, the PUK administration and the Iraqi administration will see the truth. In other words, the danger is serious and great. Also, the Turkish administration makes baseless allegations despite being in the process of collapse. The other circles should tell the Turkish government the following: You also have power, do what you can. What do you want from us?

What Turkey wants to say is “come and fight for me and I will be saved.” They won’t, we don’t believe that they will because AKP-MHP is really experiencing its most difficult situation and period. No one should support them because they are in a position of great danger attacking the Kurds, attacking the Free Kurd, being hostile to anyone who wants democratization in the Middle East.

We are of the opinion that these efforts will not yield any results. Neither the Iraqi state is so weak-willed, nor the PUK administration, nor Iran. They have power, they have their own positions. They see their own interests. It is obvious that Turkey wants to trick them with conspiracies and provocations. Then we hope and believe that they will not fall for the Turkish Republic’s game.

Just as the AKP-MHP massacred a Kurdish woman in Kirkuk, they could also massacre an Arab or another race. We need to hold them to account for this. It is necessary to stop MIT from organizing conspiracies and assassinations all over Kurdistan and Arabia. It is necessary to join hands against this aggression, to form democratic unity, a democratic front, an anti-fascist patriotic front for the Middle East. This is our call to all Middle Eastern forces.