The Co-Presidency of the KCK (Kurdistan Communities Union) Executive Council released a statement on the 25th anniversary of the international conspiracy of 15 February 1999 that led to the abduction of Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan in Kenya and his forced departure to Turkey where he has been held in conditions of strict isolation and torture since.  

The KCK statement released on Tuesday includes the following:

“It has been 25 years since Rêber Apo (Leader Abdullah Öcalan) was taken into captivity by an international conspiracy. On its 25th anniversary, we once again condemn the conspiracy and all the forces involved in the conspiracy with great hatred.

The Kurdish people have been in an uninterrupted struggle against the conspiracy for 25 years. The struggle to reunite with Rêber Apo to defeat the conspiracy has turned into a struggle to assert freedom in Kurdistan. It has become the language, identity, will, and way of life of the Kurdish people. While the international conspiracy intended to break the Kurdish people from their struggle for freedom, the Kurdish people stood up against the conspiracy and increased their struggle for freedom, getting closer to freedom day by day. This struggle, which started under the ‘You can not darken our sun’ campaign, has become universal today and continues internationally. After 25 years, even though the conspiratorial forces pressed their views by continuing the isolation and torture system of Imrali, the conspiracy and its perpetrators were exposed, weakened, and defeated. The struggle against the conspiracy, on the other hand, has grown, and today it has become universal and the expression of free life. We commemorate with great respect and gratitude our immortal martyrs Halit Oral, Aynur Artan, and Selamet Menteş—the comrades who realized the significance of the conspiracy from the first day on and formed a circle of fire around Rêber Apo. By remembering our comrades Halit Oral, Aynur Artan, and Selamet Menteş, we also commemorate with great respect and gratitude all the martyrs of the revolution and democracy; we bow with respect in the presence of their memories; and we reaffirm once again our promise of commitment, struggle, and success to them.

During a process in which the contradictions and conflicts between the forces of capitalist modernity in the Middle East and around the world have deepened and the struggle against the conspiracy has become universal, it has become more important than ever to bring the conspiracy to consciousness and to understand its historical truth. The international conspiracy of February 15th was carried out by the US. The US wanted to eliminate those they considered obstacles in order to redesign the Middle East. Rêber Apo and the PKK were at the forefront of this. Because Kurds had no place on the political map of the Middle East, the absence of Kurds in the design of the Middle East was a result of the system of capitalist modernity and the first rule of the game. The USA, as the head of the capitalist system, acted according to this rule while giving a new shape to the Middle East, targeting Kurdish unity in the person of Rêber Apo.

After the First World War, the Kurds were excluded in the re-designing of the Middle East by the forces of capitalist modernity. In 1921, at a meeting held in Cairo, it was decided that the Kurdish question would be denied and unsolvable, and Kurdistan was divided into four parts. The nation-states of Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and Iran were founded on the basis of Kurdish denial and extermination. The genocidal colonialist Turkish state, as the power that best protects and develops the interests of the system of capitalist modernity in the Middle East, has been assigned responsibility for the genocide of the Kurds. The Turkish state has been characterized from top to bottom by Kurdish denial and hostility. Every Kurdish awakening and objection to colonialism was suppressed with massacres by the Kurdish-hostile Turkish state. The forces of capitalist modernity have also approved of the Turkish state’s policies of Kurdish genocide. When Rêber Apo created a new political philosophy in Kurdistan and the Turkish state failed against the new Kurdish awakening, the powers of capitalist modernity stepped up in order not to lose their interests in the Middle East. They supported the Turkish state to prevent the freedom struggle from succeeding. The US invoked NATO’s Article 5 against the Kurdish people’s struggle for freedom. Indeed, the international conspiracy led by the US and Israel was coordinated by NATO.

During a time when hegemonic powers were making new plans for the Middle East, Rêber Apo wanted to take the Kurdish question to a new stage and pave the way for a democratic process in the Middle East by finding a political solution. For this, he preferred to go to Europe because Rêber Apo understood that Europe was the source of the emergence of the Kurdish question. The sovereignty of capitalist modernity was being developed in the Middle East through the unresolved Kurdish question. Under the rule of capitalist modernity, the Middle East was transformed into an arena of exploitation, war, conflict, and genocide. In the arena of the Middle East, the people were offered as bait to the forces of capitalist modernity and their collaborators, the nation-states. The biggest bait offered to predators was the Kurdish people. Rêber Apo wanted to disrupt this game, and for this purpose, he wanted to force Europe to find a solution by going there. As it is known, Rêber Apo left Syria on October 9, 1998, and went to Europe. However, the conspiratorial forces led by the USA aimed directly at the destruction of Rêber Apo. But when Rêber Apo defeated their plans, they sought to achieve their goal through the Imrali isolation and torture system. The Imrali isolation and torture system was created solely for this purpose. Thus, with the destruction of Rêber Apo, a Kurdish-Turkish war would break out, Kurds would be subjected to genocide, Turkey would continue to be the controlling power of capitalist modernity in the Middle East, and the interests and dominance of capitalist modernity in the Middle East would continue.

Rêber Apo’s approach against the conspiracy, and the uniting of the Kurdish people around him, prevented the conspirators from achieving their goals. By taking the most meaningful attitude in history, Rêber Apo prevented the conspiracy from reaching its goal through him. By putting the consciousness of freedom in the hands of humanity through the development of thought that he underwent, he not only thwarted the February 15 conspiracy but all the conspiracies of history. He gave the most meaningful answer to all wickedness by drawing the path for human beings to live noble, beautiful, and righteous lives. By developing the theory of ‘Democratic Modernity’ on Imrali and by developing the paradigm of democratic society based on ecology and women’s freedom, he presented the system of free life to humanity.

As can be seen, today, those who seek freedom and democracy all over the world find their search in Rêber Apo. The Kurdish people have also demonstrated the greatest resistance in history, showing the whole world what loyalty, resistance, and goodness are against betrayal, oppression, and evil. The Kurdish people rose up from the first day, with the ‘You can not darken our sun’ campaign, paid high prices, and continued their march towards freedom without ever stopping. The infinite devotion and love of our people for Rêber Apo made them resilient to all kinds of attacks, and they knew how to overcome all kinds of difficulties and save themselves from being consumed by the predators. Rêber Apo has not only saved himself from being prey, but with his persistent and uninterrupted struggle, he has delivered a manifesto for a free life to the peoples of the world, including women and oppressed social segments, thus serving the liberation of all humanity.

Since the conspiratorial forces, especially the AKP-MHP government, have not given up on their objectives, they are attempting to sustain the international conspiracy. However, the Imrali isolation and torture system has reached far beyond any legal or moral value. With the internationalization of the struggle against the conspiracy, there are no grounds to continue the conspiracy. Despite this, the fascist AKP-MHP government insists on the policy of absolute isolation because it has an anti-Kurdish mindset. Because the AKP is a project developed to bring the conspiracy to its ultimate conclusion, in order to understand the reality of governments and powers in Turkey, it is necessary to consider them in association with this conspiracy. Bülent Ecevit was initially assigned to accomplish the conspiracy. With the theses he developed, Rêber Apo prevented the conspiracy from being pursued through Ecevit. When Ecevit failed, the AKP and Tayyip Erdoğan were put in charge. When the AKP failed, the MHP and Devlet Bahçeli were placed next to them. Now that these two fascist chiefs are in charge, they are insistently pushing for the conspiracy to come to a conclusion, even though there are no grounds left, because they know that if this does not happen, it will be the end of them.

The aim of the international conspiracy was to make Kurds and Turks fight each other, to turn the Middle East into an area of conflict, and thus to maintain the dominance of capitalist modernity in the Middle East. Rêber Apo and the Kurdish people have frustrated this policy with their attitude and resistance. This struggle led to the emergence of a ‘Democratic Nation’ and a philosophy of common life with the peoples of Turkey and the Middle East. It has become a part of the universal struggle by meeting the quest for freedom of the peoples of the world, including women, youth, and progressive humanity. It is this reality that frustrates the conspiracy. Of course, the conspiratorial forces have not given up on their goals. They want to accomplish their dirty and malicious ambitions by maintaining the Imrali isolation and torture system, keeping Rêber Apo in captivity, and carrying out the Kurdish genocide. But the passion and struggle for freedom are much stronger and have now reached a level that will abolish the conspiracy completely. The freedom campaign launched internationally on October 10, 2023, with the slogan ‘Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan, a Political Solution to the Kurdish Question,’ will achieve this goal and will leave the conspiracy completely ineffective. With this belief, we once again call on everyone to participate strongly in the freedom campaign.

The most meaningful response to the international conspiracy and the conspiratorial forces is to participate strongly in the freedom campaign. Let us join the freedom campaign in all four parts of Kurdistan and all over the world. Let us destroy the conspiracy and build a free life.

Down with the February 15 conspiracy!

Long live Rêber Apo!”