Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) Executive Committee Member and People’s Defense Central Headquarters  (HSM) Commander Murat Karayilan spoke about current developments in a special program for the Denge Welat Radio.

Karayilan pointed to the Turkish state invasion of the South (of Kurdistan, Bashur in Kurdish), the special war policies put into practice in Dersim and the restructuring project for the guerrilla. He stressed that the Turkish state’s invasion attack against Xakurke is part of a larger plot to occupy Southern Kurdistan and said the following:

“The enemy aims to take Southern Kurdistan under control by occupying all strategic locations as part of the concept they wish to develop. But just because they have that concept and are aiming for it, it doesn’t mean that this is how things will happen. Because they do not have the strength to make it so.

That is why they want to develop their concept step by step. Because they are faced with a strong guerrilla resistance. For instance, now they came to hold Sekif, but behind Sekif there is the guerrilla in the Gelisim, Qebra Zahir, Martyr Ahmet and Martyr Beritan regions, as well as the Xinere region. It is not that the enemy has come and invaded all of Xakurke and destroyed everything. They first look to settle in those empty hills they go hold. They plan on staying for a long time, that is why they first try to go this route. For instance they now hold the area from th Are Strait to behind Ermus, and the Sekif hill and some others near it. They are trying to settle there. A few days ago there were guerrilla actions at the Martyr Sarya hill behind Ermus. These locations are behind Sekif, but guerrilla actions continue there. The enemy can’t just act however they like. They are trying to lay roots where they are now. When they see guerrilla approaching from one side, they immediately send scout planes and helicopters to defend themselves with air support. If they did not do that, they couldn’t stay there. They couldn’t hold on against the guerrilla’s hold on the area. The guerrilla would destroy them all.”

TURKISH STATE KNOWS THEY WILL LOSE BAD IN THE SOUTH

Karayilan said the guerrilla has displayed an effective resistance against the Turkish state’s plans to occupy all of Southern Kurdistan and continued: “The enemy can’t just go enter anywhere they like. Why am I stating that? Because there are certain comments that one would think the enemy was to just go through one side and come out on the other. But the Turkish state doesn’t have such strength! Like I said before, they aim to pit Kurdish organizations against one another in Southern Kurdistan and create provocations among them to weaken them so they can advance.

The Turkish state knows that they can’t advance as they wish. Because the guerrilla has not left their 1 km vicinity. The guerrilla is always around them. The guerrilla is in there among the enemy. Wherever the enemy controls, the guerrilla is there. So it is not that easy to invade Southern Kurdistan. The Turkish state knows they will lose bad if they attempted to invade all of the South in a short time. Their generals know that very well. So they want to advance piece by piece, invading just one place at a time. With this operation they developed, they invaded Sekif and the Are Strait. Here I want to add that the enemy targeted these areas deliberately.

They knew that the guerrilla didn’t have extensive infrastructure preparations in these areas, so they launched their attacks there. If the guerrilla had previous preparations, the enemy would not have been able to settle there easily. But we are the guerrilla, this is not important for us. The enemy can come settle in some locations. With the new guerrilla style of fighting for the times, with professional units, we will fight and paralyze the enemy with various tactics. We can disrupt every move by the enemy and stop them in their tracks. The guerrilla has some efforts in Xakurke to this end. I can’t say these efforts are great or terrible. The comrades are working. A certain level of meaningful resistance continues. Most importantly, the comrades continue with their long term preparations, which is important and significant.”

WAR WILL BE ROUGH

Karayilan said the Turkish state has occupied only a part of Xakurke and is trying to settle there: “The enemy may want to advance after they settle there. They may wish to invade more parts of Xakurke, or advance towards the Xinere line. They may wish to advance through other lines. These are possibilities. But we are resolved to resist to the end against the Turkish state’s concept to strategically invade Southern Kurdistan.

All our people and our esteemed people of Southern Kurdistan in particular must know this well: We as the PKK, as HPG the vanguard force of the PKK, will not allow the Turkish state to invade the lands of Southern Kurdistan. We will wage a strategic war here. This won’t be just a regular battle. It will be rough. Because the enemy hasn’t reached the red line, the strategic areas yet. If they approach there, the war will deepen and grow.

In this framework, comrades are making preparations. I can say that much for now. I don’t want to make big statements just as things are starting. But we are determined to make this resistance a historic resistance. We want to achieve a great victory against the Turkish state with this resistance. Our calculations and plans are to that end, and we are quite serious.”

THOSE WHO WON’T SUPPORT US SHOULDN’T TRY TO STOP US EITHER

Karayilan pointed out that the invading Turkish state has been targeting civilian vehicles and roads, and looking to create provocations through conflict and chaos: “All Southern Kurdistan politicians, all our patriotic people, all the youth of Kurdistan must know that we are determined to develop a historic and modern resistance against invasions. Nobody should stand in our way. Those who can should support us. We want our people to support us, especially our people of Southern Kurdistan should support us. But those who won’t should at least not try to stop us.

Now the Turkish MIT is looking to gather intelligence on us from all sides. They aim to carry out airstrikes based on that intelligence and achieve results. As such, nobody should give this enemy, the murderers, any information. The ones who do should not be allowed to continue among the community. All should have a stance against those who spy for the Turkish state. If our people stand by us in this matter, we will teach the fascist Turkish state a lesson in Zap and Xakurke, in those valleys. We are absolutely determined in this matter. We will hold them to a historic account and make them regret it. We have preparations to that end.

We are not ones to cower and hide from the threats and planes of the enemy. The Turkish state is fighting us with planes alone. And we are focused on how to void these enemy planes and smother them on land. We will resist to the end on this basis, our resistance will continue to deepen. Our expectation from our people in all four parts of Kurdistan, from the women and the youth, and from Kurdistan forces and organizations to support us in this resistance.”

RESTRUCTURING PROJECT BY THE GUERRILLA

Karayilan spoke about the guerrilla’s resistance and pointed out the following: “At this time we believe the restructuring project is very important. The process has shown that if we achieve a deep-rooted transformation in the guerrilla, if we transcend classic methods and old guerrilla habits to put the new guerrilla line into practice, we can prevail. That is why we think this project is very important. We have been working on it for a year. We believe most of our comrades are aware of this. There is a multifaceted renewal in progress for the guerrilla.

The new team style we developed for the guerrilla will allow for an increase, not decrease, in scope for the fight as they mobilize and take on a semi-autonomous character. The most concrete examples of this have emerged in practice. The action along the Avashin line in Bezok is a striking example for this. The guerrilla went to the heart of the enemy in a coordinated unit style and carried out a strike to destroy the enemy in broad daylight, successfully completing their action and lifting 6 weapons in the process.

There are many other examples. As expertise and professionalism develops in the new unit style, the strike force will become masters and achieve more results. On this basis the most effective defensive style is an active defense. A force that is constantly in action will give the enemy a harder time and secure its own forces.”

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