In the fifth part of this in-depth interview, Duran Kalkan, member of the KCK Executive Council, spoke about the 46th anniversary of the PKK as well as the way the organization will enter the new year of struggle.

The first part of the interview can be read here, the second part here, the third part here, and the fourth part here.

The Kurdish freedom movement is entering a new year of struggle. This transition is characterized by various discussions. While the international pressure for the release of the peoples' leader Abdullah Öcalan is increasing, and accordingly, the demand for a democratic solution to the Kurdish question, the Turkish state is trying to escape this, trying to play with the agenda and creating false expectations. What can you tell us about this?

The PKK is entering its 47th year of struggle more prepared, planned, and determined than ever before. We will develop the 47th year struggle with the central aim of physically liberating Rêber Apo [Abdullah Öcalan] , becoming stronger in every field and achieving important results. This is our stance; this is how we enter the year. Based on this, we salute the 47th anniversary of our party and call on all comrades, our people, and international friends to struggle harder and be even more successful in the 47th year struggle.

Not long ago, we received the greetings of Rêber Apo. I greet him with deep longing and respect. On the occasion of the 46th anniversary of the founding of the PKK, I congratulate Rêber Apo’s. I state that in the 47th year we will fight stronger and achieve greater success following the path of the Rêber Apo and the party.

On October 23rd, Rêber Apo’s nephew Ömer Öcalan came to Imrali, and they held a meeting. Rêber Apo expressed the situation clearly in this meeting. He expressed essentially two points: firstly, the isolation continues, and secondly, he said that if the appropriate conditions are created, he has the power to play a role, to play a role in the solution of the Kurdish question and democratization. While revolutionary, democratic, and patriotic circles are discussing and trying to understand what Rêber Apo expressed in order to take steps, other circles are speculating in a negative way and searching for ways to ensure their own interests.

The developing struggle and the level that the Third World War has reached, which continues on a global scale, have indeed put the Turkish state, particularly the AKP and MHP fascism, into a complete deadlock and brought it to collapse. This catastrophe is stemming from the state’s anti-Kurdish colonialist, genocidal mentality, and politics, and mainly from the AKP and MHP fascist dictatorship. We were warning them many times that they were dragging Turkey into a catastrophe. But they did not listen; they did not want to listen; they did not want to understand. Now that reality has caught up with them and imposed itself on them, they started to panic. They started to speak about Kurdish-Turkish brotherhood, called for national unity, expressed their fear of Israel attacking them, and said Rêber Apo should come and speak in the parliament. But they didn’t just invite him to talk, as if he is in a position where he can go wherever he wants and speak wherever he wants; they wanted to force him to declare the liquidation of the movement.

The Turkish press is a center of special and psychological warfare, and they are doing heavy propaganda, claiming and speculating many things, many of them far away from any reality. They are trying to discuss Rêber Apo in the same way. It has become clear that they have made no preparations for the circumstances they are currently facing. When they realized the danger that they were facing, they started to put forward some things in panic and try to divert the agenda. They want to direct public opinion.

Our global freedom campaign aiming for the physical liberation of Rêber Apo has faced a lot of difficulties. It exposed the system of isolation, torture and genocide of Imrali. This exposure has spread all over the world. Now, everyone is aware of this situation. Politicians, lawyers, artists, academics, intellectual circles, women, young people, all kinds of societies, and peoples. No one who hears about the Imrali system can fit it into any form of law and morality. Everyone who hears about the Imrali system demands the freedom of Rêber Apo. Accordingly, there is very serious pressure created by this. Obviously, the conspirators wanted to alleviate it, to weaken it, to loosen our level of action. They started with random discussions, dropping a word here or there, creating hopes and expectations, trying to change the general agenda in order to push through their own and thus weaken the struggle. That was their calculation.

But their masks fell rather quickly. Indeed, the action by comrades Asya and Rojger revealed everything. It destroyed their calculation, the game. It unmasked them. Our people should not listen to the games of the conspirators. They have no meaning, no value. They say a lot of things about us, about the PKK. None of them are true. They are hoping that if they say something, it may be totally wrong and empty, and repeat it dozens of times, people will start to believe it. Therefore, no one should pay attention or listen to them. As Rêber Apo clearly put it, the isolation continues. That indicates the necessity to struggle against it. He said that if appropriate conditions are met, he is able to play a role. That means we should focus on this. How can appropriate conditions be created? Through struggle. So the duty falls on us, on everyone of us, to increase the struggle further. The guerrillas must struggle more intensely, as must the people in the four parts and abroad, particularly the women and the youths. Everywhere we must develop our struggle for the physical freedom of Rêber Apo. There must never be any misconception, regression, or relaxation in this regard. But I’m convinced that no one will fall for their games anyway. However, it may be that some people have question marks in their heads, which is why we want to show them the real situation.

On November 16th in Cologne, Germany, our people once again revealed their stance. On February 17th, the global freedom campaign had a peak, and it marked the point from when this campaign started to be a mass mobilization. The Kurdish people, their international friends, those who organize and carry out the campaign abroad had clearly expressed their loyalty to Rêber Apo, how much they want Rêber Apo’s physical freedom, and how much they see themselves in this freedom. What was shown back then in February was now again made clear a couple of days ago in the rally in Cologne. Also, the protests of our people, women, and youth continue in all four parts of Kurdistan. The people are standing up in Rojava and also in northern Kurdistan; the resistance against the attack of implementing trustees continues uninterrupted. The Turkish state never stopped attacking and continues to conduct massacres.

While on the one hand, they block and forbid Rêber Apo from meeting his relatives or lawyers, they try to confuse people’s minds day and night through the organs of the special war they call the press. This is a special war, and people must not believe them. After all, the facts and the situation are clear. They left almost no stone unturned in Rojava. And on November 6, they gave a new six-month disciplinary punishment to Rêber Apo, and eventually they have already prepared the next one to announce in May.

The issue is clear. If they want to do something, they should take some steps; they could do it easily. If they had really changed their mind, renounced their fascist, colonialist, genocidal mentality, and politics, and now favored the solution of the Kurdish question, they could act accordingly. Rêber Apo is in front of them. The Kurds have never let a hand that reaches out to them hang in the air. Now they are not at a level where they cannot understand the situation. That is something they seemingly do not understand.

We can define their agenda as fabricated, developed to create grounds for new fascist attacks, to create grounds to realize through fascist usurpation what they could not get through elections. Without being fooled by these, we will develop and deepen our struggle for Rêber Apo. We need to raise an uproar against the ban on visits with lawyers and family members. We need to expose them in legal circles all over the world. There is no justification for the ways they act. The ongoing discussions have nothing to do with reality. It’s all a game. We as a whole people, in the four parts of Kurdistan and our international friends abroad, develop our global freedom campaign and take up the struggle. We will enrich actions everywhere, making them more permanent and more result-oriented. We will develop new methods of action. Like this, the truth will come out. Everything will become clear.

The PKK is entering its 47th year and can look back on a long history of resistance. What can we expect in the coming year and what discussions are currently taking place, particularly with regard to Turkey and Turkish society?

The PKK was officially established with the first congress held on November 26 to 27, 1978. So now it is the 46th anniversary and, accordingly, there are celebrations everywhere. In particular, the news of Rêber Apo’s health and his greetings have made the women, the youths, our people and international friends in the four parts of Kurdistan and abroad extremely excited and enthusiastic. All of this is reflected in these celebrations on November 27th.

There are also actions on the occasion of November 25th, the international day for the elimination of violence against women, which means the struggle for women’s freedom. The PKK is a women’s party and the essence of the PKK’s struggle is the struggle for women’s freedom. Rêber Apo has become the leader of this by developing Jineoloji. For more than 50 years he has been pioneering it. The united struggle of women shows itself in the streets every day. Kurds in all four parts of Kurdistan and all over the world developed actions on this occasion as well.

I would like to greet all these actions, rallies, seminars, marches, and other gatherings celebrating the anniversary of the founding of our party. I congratulate all comrades, especially Rêber Apo, our heroic guerrilla forces, our women and youth movement, our people, and our international friends on their party feast. I wish them great success in their struggle for freedom and democracy in the 47th year of the PKK. Again, by commemorating comrade Haki Karer, the first great martyr of our party, I commemorate with respect, love, and gratitude all our heroic party martyrs and martyrs of the freedom struggle, starting with comrade Haki Karer and extending to today’s pioneers, comrades Asya Ali and Rojger Helin. I reiterate once again, on the occasion of this party anniversary our promise to keep their memories alive and achieve their goals.

There is a need for the reality of the PKK to be recognized and well understood. This means a correct understanding of the reality of Rêber Apo. There is a certain effort in this direction. In fact, for the last 40 or 50 years, the reality of Rêber Apo and the PKK had been one of the most discussed topics in Turkey and in many other parts of the world. There is no regression in this. In its 46th year, the PKK has waged a struggle equal to previous years. With great courage and sacrifice, it has overcome all difficulties and obstacles, set the agenda, and developed a struggle that imposes the democratization of Turkey and the Middle East on the basis of Kurdish freedom on the entire political environment. The debates show this. If this were not the case, the PKK would not be discussed so much today. Moreover, there would not have been so many falsehoods about the PKK. There would not have been so much work to confuse the public, especially the Turkish public, to distort their consciousness and their knowledge about the PKK. These are the results of the PKK’s 46th year of struggle. It is an indication that this struggle is having more and more influence on Turkish society. A correct understanding of the relationship between the PKK and Turkey is needed.

The PKK is a movement with its own uniqueness and distinctive characteristics, and never before has there been a leadership like that of Rêber Apo. He was laying the organizational foundations of the PKK at the Cubuk Dam with Kurdish young people; he was staying in a house with Haki Karer and Kemal Pir, carrying out joint revolutionary work with two revolutionary young people from the Black Sea region, laying the foundations of an organization in Kurdistan. There was no problem with working and discussing with revolutionary youth from the Black Sea region. That is the level of relationship, the level of understanding with the Turkish people that is needed. It started with ADYOD, founded in the spring of 1974, then continued as FKBDC in the early 80s. Today it has come to HBDH. The PKK is in all alliances that want Turkey to be democratized. It is not detached from the reality of Turkey. The reality of the PKK reveals how Kurdish liberation and the democratization of Turkey go hand in hand, how they are not contradictory but two fundamental developments that feed each other and are indispensably linked to each other.

No one can say that the PKK is a narrow power and that it is not concerned with Turkey’s problems. Just as it broke away from narrow Kurdish nationalism, struggled against primitive nationalism, reformist, surrenderist petite bourgeoise nationalism, and transformed itself into a Kurdish freedom movement that envisions the democratization of Turkey and the Middle East, it also struggled against social chauvinism, which is the effective cause of the Turkish problem. What is meant by this social chauvinism? An understanding has been created that the existence of the Turks excludes the existence of the Kurds and that their existence makes freedom impossible. The ideology of the Turkish state is directed against the Kurds. Therefore, they were not able to analyze Turkey correctly. They could not develop the revolutionary line in the struggle correctly. Now, just as the break with Kurdish nationalism and the struggle against it was not a break with Kurdishness, Kurdish existence, and Kurdish freedom, but on the contrary, a better integration with them, the break with Turkish social chauvinism and the struggle against it is not a break with Turkish society and Turkish democratization, but on the contrary a stronger integration with it.

In the context of the Imrali trial, Rêber Apo said, “We have waged a struggle for democracy in Turkey; we cannot accept anything else.” He emerged from the revolutionary democratic movement in Turkey. The PKK and the reality of Rêber Apo need to be understood from this aspect by looking at the historical developments. In addition to understanding its connection with Kurdish society, the Kurdish people, Kurdish history, and its unity with Kurdish reality, we must also see and understand its connection with Turkish society, Turkish democratization, Middle Eastern democratization, and, moreover, with free and democratic humanity. From the beginning, the PKK has always considered these strategically. It has always seen Kurdish freedom in the democratization of Turkey, the democratization of the Middle East, and the free and democratic march of humanity. It defined them as strategic allies, saw them, and carried them out in this way.

As we enter our 47th year, the struggle of the 46th year has revealed these realities, and they are affecting the environment in Turkey. So many circles are discussing, trying to understand, and are trying to understand honestly. We salute them, we respect them, but there are many, many more who try to deflect.

What will the 47th year struggle look like? We are entering this year on the basis of the global liberation campaign aiming for the physical freedom of Rêber Apo and on the basis that the campaign has started to yield practical results. We have declared that the physical liberation of Rêber Apo will no longer be a propaganda demand but will become a fact that will be realized step by step in practice. Based on this, we will develop the struggle for the physical freedom of Rêber Apo in a planned and organized manner everywhere. We are prepared for this as a movement. There are no problems or weaknesses in evaluating the past, foreseeing the future, and planning the 47th year struggle through our leadership, all our cadres, and our committees. They are extremely clear, precise, and determined; they have the power to identify and plan tasks, and these are being done.

We are entering the 47th year on the basis of the accumulation of the struggle of the 46th and previous years. We are more prepared, planned, and determined than ever before. We will develop the 47th year struggle with its central aim of achieving the physical freedom of Rêber Apo, much stronger in every field, and we will win big. This is our claim. On this basis, we salute the 47th anniversary of our party and call on all comrades, our people, and international friends to struggle harder and win more in the 47th year struggle.