In an interview with Medya Haber TV, Duran Kalkan, member of the KCK (Kurdistan Communities Union) Executive Council, spoke about the latest developments in Kurdistan, the Middle East and the world, also with a new elaboration on the current situation on Imrali, a contextualization of the activities related to the 9th anniversary of the genocide of the Yazidis, the contemporary significance of August 15, 1984 and the breakthrough of the guerrilla struggle, as well as an assessment related to the recent targeted attacks of the Turkish state on nature and the recent youth conference.

Below we publish the third and last part of the in-depth interview, the first part of which can be found here and the second here.

What has increased in recent decades in general, but especially now in recent years, are the many reports of attacks on nature by the Turkish state. How are these related to the struggle of your movement?

Regarding the attacks on nature, I would like to point out some facts especially to the women, youth, intellectuals, politicians, socialists and revolutionaries of Turkey. The Turkish state is engaged in a war. The fascist AKP-MHP is fighting in Northern Kurdistan, carrying out invasion attacks on Southern Kurdistan and Rojava. Again yesterday, some YPG fighters who were involved in the defeat of IS were martyred by the Turkish state. It is clear that Turkey is trying to protect the legacy of IS and is waging war on this basis.

The Turkish government has allocated everything to this war. Tayyip Erdoğan brags that they have developed the war industry and asks everywhere for support. He even turned Sweden’s NATO-membership talks into a bargain to buy weapons. “Do you know how much a bullet costs?” With this saying, he wants to intimidate the people. He wants to imply that the people of Turkey should listen to what this government says and should accept it. Right now, there is no opposition to war, no demand for peace, no one who opposes the colonialist genocidal war, no one who speaks about the fraternity of the people in Turkey. At least there are very few. After so many years, the war has entered its 40th year. This war is at the root of everything. How will there be brotherhood? How will we get rid of AKP and MHP fascism? How will the economic crisis, depression, oppression and terrorism in Turkey be prevented? …if the reality of war is not seen.

Let us also look at the intellectuals. Economic crisis analysts, social analysts, government analysts analyze Turkey detached from the war in Kurdistan, which shows a big blindness to reality. For example, the CHP could not win the election because they did not oppose the war. Because they did not defend and openly speak for peace, democracy, the solution of the Kurdish problem, the rights of Kurds, and fraternity with Kurds. It is no different from the AKP-MHP.

The forests of Kurdistan are burning. But this is not anything new, they have been burning for years. They have been nefariously cutting down all the forests of [the North Kurdish regions] Botan, Garzan and Dersim for years. They cut down the forests and burn down all the trees that they cannot cut down. This is a form of warfare.

Now they are cutting down the forest of Akbelen. They said that in one week, ninety football fields’ worth of land was deforested. The deforestation in Kurdistan is because of war. But in the case of deforestation in Turkey, people claim that it is only about making profit. Yes, it is about profit, but what is this profit used for? Some robbers are getting rich and use their money for the war against the Kurds. It is used as bullets against them. Turkish society, socialists, intellectuals, women and the youth should not be fooled by the images. They should look at the cause that brought about the result. The main reason is war. And the basis of this war is the anti-Kurdish mentality and politics. Before the witness of the world, the Kurds are being subjected to genocide, physical and cultural genocide. Demographics are being changed and people are being driven out of their homeland. How is this different from what IS has done?

There is a great resistance in Akbelen which I would like to salute. Our nature is being protected there. They wanted to build dams in the Black Sea area. The villagers stood up and resisted. Gezi, one of the most important resistances of the country, started with protecting the forest and trees.

The ecological question in Turkey is important. This government loots, plunders and sells everything. It has already sold the Bosporus and it is also said that they have sold the Black Sea. It is destroying all of nature to find capital for war. After that, it negotiates with the world, goes to Astana, to Europe and now around the Middle East, begging from Arab sheiks. It is said that Erdogan will go to Baghdad in a few days to ask for money. The Prime Minister’s advisor announced that they are coming to ask for support against the PKK. He will bring Iraq into the war against the PKK in order to destroy it. What is he bargaining for? The rivers of the Tigris and Euphrates, whose rivers are the Tigris and Euphrates? This is Kurdish water. He is selling the waters of Kurdistan, trying to turn it into a bargaining chip in order to kill the Kurds. We neither think, nor believe that the Iraqi administration will be a tool for this, because Iraq does not have a Kurdish question like Turkey does. Yes, there are many problems in Iraq and Kurdistan. Problems of implementing democratization, freedom and women’s freedom. Not that Iraq has no problems, but it is not denying the Kurdish existence like the AKP-MHP and the Turkish state do. There is a federal Kurdish administration within Iraq. Maybe it does not run well, but at least there is no policy of denial and annihilation. Therefore, it cannot fall into the line of the Turkish Republic, but if it does, it would be in the most dangerous position.

What role does the KDP play in this?

On the other hand, there is the situation of the KDP. The KDP is playing a very critical role. What they are doing is collaboration and a betrayal that has never been seen before in the world. Without the KDP’s betrayal and support, it would be difficult to find others who are willing to support the AKP-MHP’s fascism. Without the KDP, it would not be able to do even half of what it is doing now. Therefore, the KDP bears as much responsibility for its actions as the AKP-MHP.

On the 100th anniversary of the Treaty of Lausanne, where the decision of the Kurdish genocide had been taken back then, Kurdish intellectuals and patriots from all four parts of Kurdistan and from abroad went to Lausanne, came together to show the unity of the Kurds, to take decisions on the solution of the Kurdish problem, to manifest the will of the Kurdish people to the world. And where was the KDP? It was not there, they were guiding Turkish soldiers in [South Kurdish areas of] Xakurkê and Metîna at the same time. Now there are reports that show that the KDP is trying to help encircle the guerrillas. The AKP-MHP fascism uses the KDP in all its military attacks.

The ecocide you described before is part of a comprehensive concept of war. What kind of repercussions does this in turn have for Turkey itself?

All of Turkey’s problems stem from the unsolved Kurdish question. For understanding Turkey, this fact is important. Turkey deals with the Kurdish question by waging war on the Kurds. And everything has been set up according to the necessities of this war. They cut down trees because they need the money for war. They market the tourism sector to get money for the war. All these things are used for war. Of course, there is also a bourgeois society that capitalizes on this. But the basis of all this is the pressure and terror in the prisons and on society. There is war. This must be seen and the war must be opposed. The struggle against all these crises, forest burning, profiteering and exploitation must be combined with Kurdish freedom and fraternity. How can Turkey be democratic while the Kurds are being deprived of their right to freedom? How will AKP and MHP fascism be stopped? If not so, the forest cannot be protected and the hikes cannot be prevented. Everything has already been sold out. That is why we say that the war must be opposed. Everyone should concentrate on the solution to the Kurdish question as the underlying cause of the war. Therefore, there is more need for a unified struggle.

I would like to call on all our international friends. In this period right now, we have to develop the struggle with all methods and, particularly, the ecological struggle is very important. There are two areas that the hegemonic state system of capitalism attacks. It attacks society, particularly women; and it attacks nature. It wants to destroy them. In order to achieve freedom, to find a space to live freely, we need to wage a multi-faceted struggle against this system, against the system of capitalist modernity. In Turkey, the ecological struggle is essential because there has been too much destruction. Women have taken the lead in the Black Sea region. They cling to their homeland and are committed to a free life. They are doing the same as in Akbelen. Once again, I would like to salute those resisting and wish them success.

If you were able to follow the recent youth conference, what is your opinion about it and what can you say in general about the current situation of Kurdish youth?

Important decisions were made during the Youth Conference. It was an important step taken at the right time. I would like to take this opportunity to salute the youth movement and wish success for the participants of the conference. I would like to call on the Kurdish youth in the four parts of Kurdistan and abroad to study and examine the results of the conference and to implement them in a planned and organized manner.

The young people are very active and there are important steps being made. The stance they have shown in the struggle for the physical freedom of Rêber Apo is important and is seems that it spreads. The PKK was born as an intellectual youth party, and it is still such a movement today. We have guerrillas fighting in the mountains and in the cities. Als,, the women’s organization and movement has developed to a large extent. But it is the Kurdish youth, the youth movement, that spearheads all of these developments. The PKK continues to be a youth movement and a youth party. That is how the youth should appreciate their role and the responsibility it should shoulder.

There is a special warfare in Northern Kurdistan. Prostitution and the use of narcotics are deliberately being developed. A former minister of Erdoğan’s government once said: ‘It is better for the youth to become prostitutes than to go to the mountains’. Patriotism means opposing this and fighting against all of this. In Northern Kurdistan, some young people have gathered and are developing a campaign to resist against special warfare. I wish them success. But they organized such campaigns many times in the past, and were always left unfinished and therefore did not lead to any results. That is why I would like to caution them to be careful, so that this time their campaign will not be left halfway. The only way to fight against the special war is through revolutionary war, through the fight for freedom. In the absence of a revolutionary war, there is no point in making public statements and announcing campaigns. Let’s not fool ourselves, but adopt a more accurate and realistic approach.

‘Fighting leads to freedom, freedom brings about beauty, and it is this beauty that deserves love.’ In other words, if they want to be loved, they will have to wage a struggle as youth so that all our love will be with them. That is something that Rêber Apo said, and it should be the guiding spirit for the Kurdish youth.

Of course, as the Kurdish Freedom Movement, we have a responsibility towards the youth. These criticisms are at the same time our self-critique. We regard them as our own shortcomings that we have to overcome. On this basis, once again, I would like to salute the youth and call on them to develop a more Apoist stance in their struggle for freedom. I am convinced that they will succeed in this.