Dr Thomas Phillips, lecturer in law at Liverpool John Moores University, speaks with journalist Erem Kansoy of the Europe Agenda program.

Topics discussed include the significance of the ideas of Abdullah Öcalan, leader of the Kurdish Freedom Movement, specifically the paradigm of democratic confederalism as a way to realize an alternative, democratic way of governing society, and the peaceful co-existence of different peoples.

Additional topics include the inhumane conditions of Öcalan’s imprisonment and isolation, the importance of both Öcalan’s release and the removal of the PKK from the list of proscribed terrorist organizations as part of a peace process in Turkey, the persecution of the Kurds by the Turkish state and the legitimacy of the Kurdish people’s demands for cultural recognition and autonomy, and the hypocrisy of Western governments in their failure to uphold their self-proclaimed values of democracy and human rights in the case of the Kurds. 

The interview was prepared with the support of the Freedom for Öcalan Campaign and the Peace in Kurdistan campaign in collaboration with Medya Haber TV and Sterk TV.

Peace in Kurdistan - https://www.peaceinkurdistancampaign.com

Medya Haber - https://www.medyahaber.info/