PKK Executive Committee member Murat Karayılan spoke about the current process during a program broadcast on Stêrk TV.

Karayılan said: "The period we live now is not an ordinary period. We are going through an important process, so we need to evaluate and handle this process accordingly. As it is known, there has been a war in our region for years. This war is aimed at redesigning the region. There are many forces now that want to strengthen their positions in the region. Both international and regional forces have tried to participate to the reshaping of the region in order to protect their interests.

All states and forces are spending their energies in this effort right now. The Kurdish people is one of the most ancient peoples of these lands. However, as everyone knows, the treaty signed 100 years ago did not include the Kurdish people [in the shaping of the region]. They were not considered a nation and their existence was ignored. The Kurds, for example, did not have the right to establish a state nor did they have the right to self-determination. Now we need to take part in the redesign of the region. We must have status. Therefore, the Kurds must be united and have a common nation strategy."

Importance of national unity

Karayılan added: "There are many different parties in the 4 parts of Kurdistan. Of course, each and every one of them should keep their different ideas, but we should have a common strategy. If not, this time we really risk wiping out. If Kurds are not included in the redesign of the region this time, the policy of destruction carried out against the Kurdish people will reach its goal. We are going through an important process for the future of the Kurdish people.

None of the occupation forces around Kurdistan want the Kurdish people to have status. Especially the Turkish state's current politics is dangerous for the future of the Kurdish people. Obviously, this policy carried out by the Turkish state is also dangerous for the Arab people, because Turkey wants to occupy everywhere with the old Ottoman mentality. But Turkey represents a much greater danger for us Kurds. Why is that? Because the Turkish state has a mind-set by which it wants to grow by destroying the Kurds. In other words, it sees the existence and status of the Kurds as dangerous for it." 

The South Kurdistan parties are still carrying out a tactical policy 

Karayılan continued: "The Turkish state is now implementing its strategy. Is not a matter of seeing the PKK as dangerous but not the KDP or PUK. This is just a tactic. A few days ago, Turkish President spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said in his statements about Rojava: "They are trying to establish a place for the Kurds there, we will never accept this", so the US and France should not help the [Kurdish] forces there. The Turkish state sees all the Kurds and the Kurdish community as dangerous for itself.

When we look at the politics of the Kurds against this mentality we can say that South Kurdistan does not read the Turkish state's invading mentality correctly. There is a wrong approach. So a strategic process is going on right now. Therefore, there is a need for the issue to be approached strategically. However, the KDP and the PUK still carry out tactical politics."

Karayılan warned that "if the politics currently being carried out in South Kurdistan does not change, it would represent a danger not only to one part of Kurdistan but to the entire Kurdish people. We have to take precautions against this situation. For example, KDP officials are very wrong if they think that if the PKK, or even the PUK, are weaker, my power will be greater. Because if the PKK is defeated, then it will be the turn of the KDP.

When we look at the strategic alliance of the Turkish state, namely the AKP, MHP, Vatan Party and Ergenekon, the situation becomes clearer. The status of South Kurdistan will be targeted as well as the PKK is targeted. Because Turkey wants to be an imperial state in the region."