Duran Kalkan, member of the KCK Executive Council, spoke about the ongoing war against Gaza. 

Part two of this interview can be read here and part one here

What can you tell us about the ongoing conflict in Gaza?

Some time ago, Armenians in Karabakh were facing genocide. People were suffering. Now the same situation is happening in Gaza. But some people talk very cheaply. They always look after their own interests. Like Tayyip Erdoğan when he spoke in Istanbul a few days ago. It was like an election rally for the mayor of Istanbul. He talked about Gaza, he recited prayers, but the calculation behind it was to win the elections in Istanbul, to turn it into election propaganda. The Palestinian people have been brought to such a situation where they are being sacrificed and slaughtered. God damn anyone who sheds blood for material interests. That is definitely not our approach. We do not have an interest-driven approach. We have established friendship with the Palestinian people on the war fronts. Our movement and the Kurdish people have given the greatest support to the Palestinian resistance. We defend the just cause of the Palestinian people until the end. Genocide is being practiced in Gaza and we strongly condemn it. But how much those who say they are acting in the name of the Palestinian people represent these people, how much they think about the interests of the people or how much they have become an extension of other interests; this must be seen and understood well.

Israel is doing everything against the civilian population. This is part of the Third World War, centered in the Middle East, which has been going on for more than 30 years. The only solution to this is Rêber Apo’s philosophy of ‘democratic nation’ and ‘democratic confederalism’. Rêber Apo has already stated that it will be best implemented as a mentality and a policy, as a project that will even solve the Palestinian-Israeli problem. He called it the most serious conflict. This is our stance as a movement. We are against these mentalities and ideological structures that clash in the form of religionism and nationalism. We are ideologically against them. Politically, the Palestinian people are victims of a conflict of interests. We are opposed to this conflict of interests. In this respect, Jewish democrats and socialists criticize the Netanyahu government. We support their struggle and the just cause of the Palestinian people. If the Palestinian people, the Jewish people and the workers of Israel had imagined and based themselves on living together on the basis of their own characteristics in the line of a democratic nation, according to democratic confederalism, and not with two separate nation states and the poison of nationalism and religionism, if such a mentality and policy had developed, these conflicts would have been prevented.

On October 1, there was an action in Ankara which shook the whole Turkish Republic. On October 4, attacks on the basis of Hakan Fidan’s declaration of genocide were launched against Rojava. There was a strong reaction against these. In an attempt to prevent this, the AKP-MHP clung to Palestine and tried to deflect the agenda and hide the truth from Turkish public opinion. That state press, the press directed by the Turkish intelligence service, the center of special warfare, is distorting the facts. It is waging a psychological war. No one should trust them, no one should be a tool for them. Tayyip Erdoğan’s rally in Istanbul was just like that. He turned it into an election rally. It turned out that he was actually negotiating, in the sense of: “You call YPG terrorists and I will call Hamas terrorists”. That is what he openly declared. The October 7 rally revealed who started the war. Tayyip Erdoğan personally took the responsibility. He spoke as the commander-in-chief of the war. No one shell be fooled by this psychological warfare.

No one questions the cause of these conflicts. Instead of asking why there is no ceasefire, why there are no results, they a screaming their opinions at the top of their lungs. The result is always emphasized. Humanitarian aid deliveries, for example.  Yes, they are also important, we don’t say anything about that, but we also need to see the causes. If the causes of problems are not found and eliminated, the problems cannot be fixed. In this respect, there have been approaches and evaluations based on very topical, shallow and excessive results. These were not very correct. There is also a historical dimension to the problem. Genocide has been practiced on the Palestinian people for 75 years. We are against this genocide and in favor of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people. But, historically, the Jewish people have also experienced many genocides. A democratic government and free life in their homeland is their right too. We are also against the massacres practiced on the Jews. In this respect, the problem has historical dimensions. It has connections with the development process of the Third World War, which has been going on for more than 30 years. I have mentioned this before and do not want to repeat myself there. There are also important things in terms of ideology and current politics. For example, there is an ideological conflict, deputies of the same ideology clashing with each other. If this ideological approach, that mentality, that is, the nationalist religious mentality, is not overcome, if democratization in mentality and thought does not develop, this strife will always be experienced. There will never be a solution.

In terms of current politics, some debaters stand out. Trade routes; these discussions have developed after the announcement of the energy route from India, Syria, Israel, Cyprus to Greece. This is important. China and Russia wanted to establish relations with Europe through Ukraine, but the war in Ukraine put an end to this. Turkey joined in and liked it. No matter how much the Tayyip Erdoğan administration tried to make the old Silk Road work again, the southern route was finally announced. The states reached an agreement. Turkey was excluded because of Tayyip Erdoğan’s mentality and politics. It was left off this path. The old Silk Road was rendered inoperable. Because there is no confidence, there is no stability, there is war. Even states and the capital did not see it in their own interest. The sycophants say, “Tayyip Erdoğan has brought Turkey to something,” but in reality Erdoğan has brought Turkey to disaster, he has made Turkey lonely. As a result, he got up and started to sabotage.

For example, the Karabakh war was developed by the AKP, by the Tayyip Erdoğan administration. It is trying to open a new road from Central Asia through Turkey. For this, Azerbaijan captured Karabakh. Now it wants to take the Zengezor Strait and connect Armenia directly to Turkey by narrowing Armenia even more, taking territory and pushing Armenia and Iran aside. They also fought back. They did not give the opportunity. It was he who waged the war there. This is also how Hamas started the war. I mean, why did Hamas launch 5,000 missiles all of a sudden? And it did it on October 7th. We need to look at the timing, why it happened, who directed it. Tayyip Erdoğan is trying to open a road in Karabakh by occupying it, and he wants to sabotage the agreed road on the Israeli line and the Palestinian line. There was an attempt of provocation. There is such a struggle here. Those who agreed on the road wanted to clear it. Those outside the planning, Turkey and the AKP administration, wanted to sabotage this road project. That’s why it directed Hamas. Hamas is supported by many circles, Iran also supports Hamas. This is not a secret. But Tayyip Erdoğan definitely has a hand in this latest attack. Tayyip Erdoğan directed Hamas just as he directed IS, which went to Damascus, to attack Kobanê on September 15, 2014, he now directed Hamas to attack Israel and caused such a war to start. It is doing this in order to sabotage that place, to make it unreliable and to make the road supposedly pass through it..

Now, I don’t know if it will yield results or not, but what is this war? We need to know who is fighting this war. Tayyip Erdoğan is in a panic, because his guilt is being exposed. He is the one most involved in this. Secondly, he may have been deceived. In other words, he may have been manipulated. Some forces may have given the impression that you can do this job easily. Tayyip Erdoğan is trying to protect Hamas now that there has been a complete turn against Hamas. First he wanted to sabotage it with Hamas. He realized that the calculations turned out to be different; this time Hamas will be weakened and destroyed, so he is trying to protect it.

We should think like this. When Saddam Hussein’s government attacked Kuwait on August 2, 1990, were the CIA and Mossad unaware of this? What were they doing? Why didn’t they prevent it? Because they didn’t want to prevent it. America started the Third World War based on Saddam’s attack on Kuwait. It brought 150 thousand soldiers to the Middle East. This is how it works. For example, until the attack happened on September 11, 2001, America had supported the establishment of Al Qaeda – didn’t the CIA and MOSSAD know about it? Why didn’t they prevent it? They entered Afghanistan and Baghdad as a result of this. In other words, they did a military occupation. So they wanted to take advantage of it. When they saw those tendencies, they supported them. For example, were the CIA and MIT asleep during the coup attempt on July 15, 2016? Was Hakan Fidan, who is now challenging the Kurds, as the Undersecretary of MIT asleep? He wasn’t. Why didn’t he prevent it in the first place? Because they controlled and strengthened Tayyip Erdoğan with him; 40 days later, on August 26, 2016, they launched an invasion attack against Syria through Jarablus and Iraqi territory through Çukurca. Biden and Masoud Barzani were in Ankara when this attack began. They gave their approval. If this had not happened, if there had not been that coup attempt, if Tayyip Erdoğan had not achieved such power that it bypassed the parliament, he would not have been able to do that.

Even Tayyip Erdoğan knows how many tunnels there are under Gaza. The Israeli army also explains this. But was Mossad, for example, asleep when they were preparing 5,000 missiles to launch an attack? Why didn’t it prevent it? Let’s not say he did it himself, but at least he hoped that he would benefit from something like that. After the July 15 coup attempt, what did Tayyip Erdoğan say? “This is a blessing from God”. And this was “God’s favor” to Netanyahu. Actually, it was not God’s grace but Tayyip Erdoğan’s grace. Tayyip Erdogan gave that grace and brought about this bloodbath. Now, when the calculation at home doesn’t fit the market, this time he is trying to throw Turkey into the fire. He has almost brought Turkey into conflict with the whole world.

Hamas is a Muslim Brotherhood movement and the Greater Middle East Project was actually a project for the Muslim Brotherhood to dominate the Middle East. What did Tayyip Erdoğan say back then? He proclaimed, “I am the co-chairman of this project.” AKP, Hüda Par, Qatar, Morsi, FSA are all part of the Muslim Brotherhood movement called Ahwal-i Müslimin. And Tayyip Erdoğan is also at the helm of it. How is it possible to see Hamas’ relations with Iran and not see its relations with Tayyip Erdoğan? He is definitely the one with the most fingers in this attack, the one who started this conflict process. Israel, America and others were waiting for an opportunity to spoil this path. Perhaps they directed Tayyip Erdoğan from a distance, just as they did with Saddam, so that we would not say anything. And when Tayyip Erdoğan mobilized Hamas to sabotage it, they received God’s blessing.

Now they say they will destroy Hamas. And to destroy Hamas, they want to destroy Gaza. They are practicing genocide on Gaza. What mentality and politics brought the people of Gaza to this kind of sacrifice? What is the role of Hamas in this? What is the role of the Muslim Brotherhood, what is the role of Tayyip Erdoğan? This needs to be seen. Now he is afraid that this will be exposed. Before, he was hiding it, and then, when it was exposed, he openly embraced Hamas. Now he is trying with all his might to save Hamas by saying “there must be a ceasefire”. In other words, he is trying to achieve a ceasefire and save Hamas by loading on humanitarian issues.

Güneri Civaoğlu, while interviewing Rêber Apo at the beginning of 1990, asked him about the situation of Hafez Assad and Saddam Hussein. Rêber Apo replied: “Hafez is approved. Saddam has a case”. Now it seems that there is approval for Iran and trouble in Turkey. If Turkey is not saved from the fascist, colonialist, genocidal mentality and politics of Tayyip Erdoğan and the Republican Alliance, the system he is a part of will put Turkey on the operating table. If they continue with this mentality, Turkey will be damaged, it will lose Cyprus, and even disintegration may be on the agenda. I want to express this here. After a while, the turn will come directly to Turkey. It already has. But when I say Turkey, I mean the AKP and MHP mentality.

A democratized Turkey, a Turkey that creates a solution to the Kurdish question, will never come to such a situation. In this respect, the peoples, laborers, women and young people have a big role to play. Democratic and socialist forces have a role to play. Based only on the results of the conflict, neither the Palestinian people nor the Jewish people can get out of this situation, nor can humanity wage such a righteous struggle. This fight for interests must be opposed, imperialist plunder must be opposed. The Palestinian people, the Jewish democrats and the peoples of the world must oppose this. I am making a call in this regard. We could say that states should be a little bit more democratic and sensitive, but the logic of the power and state system is clear. We need to fight against them. We need to be able to fight more effectively. The development of democratic modernity against capitalist modernity is the development of the line of the ‘democratic nation’ and ‘democratic confederalism’. This is the only solution. If this mentality and politics do not change, if we do not fight on this basis, we will face more genocides and bloodbaths. I have always defended and will always defend the just cause of the Palestinian people. But the laborers of the Jewish people also have their just cause. Provided that they are on the right line and have a democratic approach, we will act together with them as well. Therefore, first the Palestinian and Jewish peoples, socialists, revolutionaries and democrats must solve the problem among themselves. Humanity and democratic circles should also support this. So this is such an effective strategic situation. In other words, a new world, a new alternative world. An alternative world against this power and state system must be developed on this basis. Otherwise, by serving this or that circle of interests in other ways, these problems cannot be solved, nor can a correct humanitarian approach be adopted.

There was the Aydin Youth Movement in Turkey. After the death of a young man in an elevator, there was a movement against the AKP-MHP fascism’s approaches and policies that did not serve the youth. The World Youth Conference is said to be the first of its kind, it therefore is really important. I send my greetings to them and wish success to the youth who are organizing this.

I would also like to make a call to our Kurdish youth. They should participate actively, they should not see themselves alone. They should listen to their comrades and try to understand them. They should bring Rêber Apo, the Kurdish freedom movement, our women’s freedom policy, and the theory of ‘democratic modernity’ to the conference, discuss them well, and represent them. Because youth is the future. The future is in the democratic modernity. The youth who will create the future will create a free and democratic future for themselves to the extent that they comprehend and assimilate the paradigm of democratic modernity developed by Rêber Apo and organize and struggle on that basis.

Rêber Apo once said, ‘We started young, we succeed young.’ On the basis of this slogan, the Kurdish youth owes it to the Kurdish youth to work to bring the youth of the world to a consciousness, responsibility, and organization that will take stronger ownership of their future. Because they were the ones who saw and learned the reality of Rêber Apo before all the youth. We hope and believe that they will represent it well. This will be an important start. The answer to wars like the one in Gaza and similar places will be provided by the youth who take control of the future by becoming conscious and organized on this basis, and who succeed in creating the future along the lines of freedom and democracy. On this basis, I greet you once again and wish you success.