NEWS CENTER
INSISTING ON HUMANITY IS INSISTING ON SOCIALISM – Rêber APO
“The international significance of our struggle is due to the fact that many national liberation struggles in other regions of the world do not pursue their internationalist goals any further; furthermore, our movement is an international movement because of the ethnic diversity of Mesopotamia and the Middle East; another factor of internationalization lies in the role of Turkey, which is intended to play an important role as a member of NATO in the Middle East. Therefore, the revolution in Kurdistan has taken on a central role for internationalism all over the world. A socialist renewal is indispensable that puts the human being, its nature and its freedom at the centre of society. To repeat an epoch with an old, classical understanding of revolution, with old fighting methods or people’s wars, no longer meets the requirements of the times. The new order of humanity needs a more developed, up-to-date socialist solution with new moral, philosophical and scientific aspects. The necessity of a new internationalism against imperialist disorder also arises from this.
We, the PKK, will use our strength to become more a party of society, humanism, humanity and internationalism than of national liberation. Because the perspective of humanity has been darkened. We must open up new horizons. Despite all the current difficulties, we must continue to develop humanity. This will lead us to a new phase of internationalism. Even after the collapse of real socialism, attacks against socialism continue. Europe is making every effort to bury socialism forever. The situation is similar to the European era of restoration. As in the decades following the French Revolution (the first half of the 19th century; translator’s remark.), there is a strong desire to prevent any progressive change. An immense hostility to socialism was stirred up, which led Europeans to distance themselves from the revolution. Nevertheless, it does not eliminate the contradictions within the capitalist system.
On the other hand, scientific socialism must be updated. For it is not the essence of socialism that has collapsed, but old tactics and strategies that were not appropriate to the present time have failed. Furthermore, there is a need for an alternative development of society. We believe that in our practice we have taken steps in this direction. Socialism is more necessary than ever for humanity. Humanity will either survive with socialism, or it will perish in the barbarity of capitalism. If we do not want the destruction of humanity, we must work consistently on socialism. Our goal is the liberation of the human who has been destroyed by the capitalist-imperialist system. So it is out of the question that we surrender to capitalism.
Only at first sight is the revolution in Kurdistan national; at its core it is a revolution of humanity. Its result will not be a national republic, but a revolution for a republic of humanity. We do not want to create new borders. Borders are not very important to us. We try to create creative humans and a creative people. That is our contribution and a step forward for scientific socialism.
The democrats and socialists of the West must denounce the hypocrisy of their states. This would be an important act of international solidarity with the Kurdish people and peoples all over the world. No crime is as unforgivable as genocide. All capitalist countries have their share in the genocide in Kurdistan. It is not for nothing that we, who do not accept our physical and psychological annihilation, are labelled as the No. 1 terrorist organization in the world. That is why great stagings were held in Europe. For example, the murder of Olof Palme was used against us to discredit the PKK as a terrorist organization. Germany, too, is not attacking us because of some violent protests. They want to destroy socialism with us, and because they cannot, they get angry. We are proud to defend socialist ideals in Europe.
For the liberation movement in Kurdistan there are more and more chances to achieve successes and progress. The Kurdish people have developed into a fighting people. The international imperialist system is attacking us to destroy us. We are offering a difficult resistance. If we throw imperialism out of Kurdistan, our revolution will be at least as effective as the October Revolution, perhaps even more effective. The gradual realization of liberation is also an example for the peoples in the region and the peoples in similar situations. It stands for the renewal of socialism at a high level, for the revolution of women, for the revolution of morality and, in this sense, for the possibility of developing a new philosophy. We may not experience it fully ourselves, but it is a good development for humanity, for our people and for our friends.”
THE FORMATION OF THE PKK AND THE ROLE OF KEMAL PIR AND HAKI KARER
Kemal Pir, one of the leading cadres and one of the founders of the PKK was not Kurdish himself. Kemal Pir was a Lars comrade, from the occupied North Turkey. Once he was aked: “What do you mean by Kurdistan?” 40 years ago, the court judge replied to the colonel, “The spreading area of the Kurdish language is the definite border of Kurdistan.” Kemal Pir would express that he saw the power of this change in the PKK as follows: “It was also a national liberation movement in Kurdistan. Revolutionary movements in Turkey then represented disintegration tendencies in 1974;but this movement acted as a tidying up. In other words, it was acting as a collector in revolutionary circles. This movement, which emerged in 1972 and is known today as the PKK movement, was not an organization but an ideological and political movement. This movement acted as a consolidator, it was a consolidator, and it had something in its future, that is, things of victory. It still exists, I believe it.” Emphasizing that he decided to join the PKK, especially because it is not a nationalist movement, Kemal Pir also opposed the imperialism drawing the political map of the Middle East, which is a mosaic of Kurds, Turks, Arabs, Persians and peoples in his defense. Kemal Pir said The political map of the Middle East is a political map drawn by bourgeois collaborators of imperialism, feudal and comprador bourgeois. Such a political map is not possible as an anti-imperialist, I cannot accept it. I am in favor of political maps drawn by the self-will of the peoples.”
Haki Karer Rêber Apo [Abdullah Öcalan] had characterized comrade Haki Karer with the words: ‘He was like my hidden spirit‘. It has now been 45 years since his assassination on May 18, 1977 in Antep as a result of a plot by the “Sterka Sor”. With his death, May became the month of the martyrs and the day of his death the day of the martyrs. We as the Kurdistan Freedom Movement thus begin the 46th year of the martyrs. The fact that he, as a friend from the Black Sea, was one of the first to leave shows how much importance and value Haki Karer attached to the liberation struggle of Kurdish society. He was one of the first friends of the chairman Apo. After the chairman was released from prison in 1972, he went to Haki and Kemal’s apartment at the suggestion of a friend. He then lived with them in the same house. Kemal and Haki as revolutionary youth immediately accepted that another revolutionary friend lived with them. This relationship and acceptance are also important to show the revolutionary character of Haki Karer. Heval Haki was also not a Kurdish member and came from the North of Turkey, from Ordu Provinde in the Black Sea region.
PKK ON LEBANON
The occupation of Lebanon by the Israeli state on 2 June 1982 was basically an attack and a push against the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), because Israel had occupied Palestine and the Palestinian population and the liberation forces had spread to the neighboring Arab countries. The leader of the PKK had been in the Syrian/Lebanon area since July 1979 and had established relations with organizations linked to the PLO. In order to assess the possibilities of the military training created, the first PKK group came to Lebanon in September 1979.
In 1982, the PKK forces within the Palestinian resistance had eleven martyrs. The first martyr was the comrade Abdulkadir Çubukçu from Êlih (Batman), who lost his life in an air raid in a camp near Beirut. During the Israeli occupation on June 2, two comrades were lost in eastern Lebanon and eight in southern Lebanon at Arnon Castle (Nebatiye area). Heval Sabri was in southern Lebanon and reached our forces after nine days under Israeli occupation. Heval Cuma spent three months within the siege of Beirut and in the end, when the Palestinians were released, he was able to reach our forces again. If Heval Cuma’s group had also been captured, the number of our prisoners would have been much higher.
Comrade Abdulkadir Çubukçu on May 1, 1982 reached us, even the leader Apo went to Lebanon and attended the funeral service together with the Palestinians. On this basis, leader Apo had prepared his Mayday assessment. This death has seriously strengthened our cooperative relations with the Palestinians. The Turkish state had intervened and demanded the extradition of all these prisoners. Israel was receptive to this and wanted to extradite them. But our comrades had all claimed to be Palestinians or from other Arab countries. In the end they had to cross many countries. They got as far as an airport in Syria. Syria did not take care of them. Later they chained themselves at the airport in Athens and with this action they demanded asylum. So they managed to get from there to Europe. It was a real struggle and a long journey.
THE FIRST ARABIC INTERNATIONALIST ON THE PKK
Aziz Arab joined the guerrilla ranks in 1985. Although there was a language problem in the ranks of the guerrilla, he faced the difficulties of the mountain, but he never complained about it even for a day. Heval Aziz, in a letter he wrote to his father, even in difficult mountain conditions, says, “Father, if you knew what the Turkish state is doing to the Kurds, you would join the struggle” and invites even his old father to the struggle. He almost found what he was looking for and waiting for. He was disciplined, sensitive and self-sacrificing comrade. He was much loved and respected. Sometimes when they went to the villages, patriots show more interest in him when they learn that he was from the Arab people. Maybe Arabic and Kurdish people had difficulties to communicate, but they learn and understand the peculiar language in life of the guerrilla. Heval Ezîz Ereb, who joined from Jordan, once wrote:
“My name is Ezîz Ereb, I am from Jordan. Ezîz Ereb stated that he was impressed by Apo’s ideas that liberate individuals and societies, lists the reasons for joining the PKK as follows:
The reason for my participation in the party is not only to empty my existing energy, but to liberate my colonial and slave personality, which I carry as a mentality. Leader Abdullah Öcalan’s ideas have liberated personalities and society. Ezîz stated that the Turkish state is the enemy of all peoples, especially Kurdish Arabs and Assyrians, and that it uses all kinds of prohibited weapons and administrations against the peoples, and also emphasized that it has come to fight against the Turkish invasion. As a Jordanian Arab, I invite all young people, especially Arabs, Kurds and Assyrians, to the victory and freedom war of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party PKK, which is the hope of the peoples.
Long live Leader Ocalan!”
HEVAL RONAHI AND HER VANGUARD ROLE
Andrea Wolf, Şehid Ronahî was a German internationalist who was assassinated on October 23, 1998 in Çatak in northwestern Kurdistan along with six other Hevals by Turkish soldiers after they were captured alive. Şehid Ronahî was a member of the ARGK (Arteşa Rizgarîya Gelê Kurdistan), the People’s Liberation Army of Kurdistan, and a member of the women’s units of the YAJK (Yekitîya Azadiya Jinen Kurdistan) the free women’s association of Kurdistan. Şehid Ronahî was a fighter, an internationalist who broke away from the leftist struggles in Germany and sought freedom. Until today, Şehid Ronahî has not lost influence with her struggle, her goals and her attitude. Many young internationalists who come to Kurdistan today bear her name, carry on her struggle and walk in her footsteps.
When she went to Kurdistan, she had the opportunity to go see the people’s Leader, she went to the him, and there the discussion between the martyr Ronahi and the Chairman had progressed. During these discussions, friend Ronahi gained a lot of trust. She received great strength from the interpretations and perspectives of the Chairman. Because the struggle of Kurdistan can create opportunities for a free life through resistance under any conditions. There were many studies on the ruling system and personality changes. In addition, Rêberti always believed that friend Ronahi would play an important role in the future as a revolutionary woman. In this way, Comrade Ronahi was trying to transfer the experiences she had during his freedom struggle in Germany to her own struggle in Kurdistan. Before moving to Kurdistan, she was involved in many movements and activities. That’s why she had important experiences. In addition to that, she went to Latin America, where she got to know the people’s struggle for freedom and carried out its development. In this way, she shared all her experiences with her friends, at the same time, she told her friends how to protect herself against abusive men and how she did it herself.
Comrade Ronahi used to say at that time; “It doesn’t matter which step is forward or which step is behind, the important thing is that we revive the spirit of the revolutionary struggle, and we take new steps based on this responsibility and seriousness”. Heval Ronahi proved this with her life, and in this way she gave hope to many other friends. Today many internationalists follow her steps and joins the revolutionary struggle under this line.
MARTRYS SARA DORSIM, BAGER NUJÎYAN AND ŞIYAR GABAR
Sara Dorşin (Sarah Handelmann) was one of the many internationalist fighters who fought in the ranks of the Freedom Movement against the fascist-colonial Turkish army in Kurdistan. She was martyred in the air attack of the invading Turkish state on Medya Defense Zones on April 7, 2019. Comrade Sara was born in Germany in 1985. She was introduced to the capitalist system’s animosity against people when she was young, and she started to search for something. Comrade Sara got involved with several socialist organizations, and was very impressed by the Kurdish Freedom Struggle. She came to see the annihilation policies imposed upon Kurds as if they were done to her own people. Comrade Sara donned herself with the consciousness of the people’s democratic union, and believed that salvation from the capitalist modernity system that rots people and fractures and exploits society lies with democratic modernity, and that a political-moral society is only possible through that. As a result of her search, Comrade Sara came to the Kurdistan mountains in 2017 to join the PKK movement that was shaped around leader Apo’s ideology of a free life. Comrade Sara became a guerrilla in the vast mountains of Kurdistan, and adapted to mountain life quickly. She also got further acquainted with Leader Apo’s ideology of free women. Comrade Sara took her place in the free women’s units of the YJA Star, and formed strong bonds with the comrades around her in a short time. She quickly became a beloved comrade.
Jakob Riemer – Şîyar Gabar, gave his life in the fight against Turkish fascism. On 9th July 2018, comrade Şîyar Gabar fell during a Turkish military operation in the Çarçella area, in Gever in occupied Northern Kurdistan. With his life and struggle, his effort and sacrifice, Heval Şîyar has left his mark everywhere and has become an immortal part of our struggle. From Germany to Kurdistan, from Hamburg to the free mountains of the guerrilla territories, thousands of comrades who had the honour to accompany him on his way, who were allowed to learn from him and taught him, remember and commemorate the guerrilla fighter Şîyar Gabar with awe and respect. Also for Internationalists in North East Syria Şîyar Gabar is a source of inspiration and strength till this day. With his decision to move to the mountains of Kurdistan at a young age and to take part in the armed struggle, he is an example of revolutionary consistency and a determined life. For S. Şîyar there was no running away from the contradictions. He saw the world around him with open eyes and could not and did not want to accept the life that the system tries to impose on the youth today. Surrendering to the senselessness of a life of consumption and meaninglessness was not an option for S. Şîyar, and so he set out on a quest that would take him to the top of the Zagro Mountains. In the PKK, S. Şîyar found the answer to his questions, found in it the search for a meaningful life, for friendship and freedom itself, and did not let anything or anyone distract him from his path. Even if life on the mountains is marked by the effort, adversity and brutality of war, it was still for S. Şîyar the place where he managed to unite his heart and soul; the only place where it became possible to live a life in accordance with his own ideals and values.
Michael Panser -Bager Nûjiyan, fell and became immortal on December 14, 2018 during a Turkish air strike on the Medya defensive areas in South Kurdistan. Our hearts are full of pain, our heads full of memories. Heval Bager was a friend who remains in our memories above all with his insatiable and euphoric search for truth. His search and curiosity for revolutionary liberation movements has taken him to many places around the world. His greatest passion was to share his experiences and ideas with other people, to discuss them and to find his companions. In 2012 he traveled for the first time to Kurdistan, where his deep connection with the philosophy and revolutionary leadership of the PKK and Rêber Apo began. However, he was driven by the idea of sharing his experiences and enthusiasm for the Kurdish liberation movement. He was convinced of the universal significance of the revolution in Mesopotamia for all freedom seekers, resisters and revolutionaries in the world. In a few years he managed to connect many people and movements with the liberation movement and to build bridges. In 2015 he himself returned to the revolutionary areas of Rojava to become part of the social change and also took his place in the defense of the Yezidi people in Şengal. In 2017, however, it led him back to the liberated mountains of Zarathustra in search of wisdom, true friendship, struggle and free life in the PKK. Heval Bager followed in the footsteps of other German revolutionaries such as Rosa Luxemburg, Willi Münzenberg, Hans Beimler, Ulrike Meinhof, Andrea Wolf, Uta Schneiderbanger, Ivana Hoffman, Kevin Jochim, Günter Hellsten, Jakob Riemer and Sarah Handelmann. In the life of Bager Nûjiyan we see for ourselves an example of internationalism and the search for truth, freedom and brotherhood of peoples. We express our heartfelt sympathy to his family and all his friends. We turn our grief into anger, our anger into the responsibility to realize his dreams and efforts of another world, be it in Mesopotamia, Chiapas or East Germany. We commemorate all the martyrs of the Revolution who gave their lives for freedom. Their struggle is ours!
ALINA SANCHEZ, THE VANGUARD FROM LATIN AMERICA
Alina was born in Argentina in 1986. She was in search of freedom and through this search arrived in Kurdistan in 2011. To the mountains of Kurdistan. There she got to know the thoughts of Rêber Apo, the ideology of women’s liberation and the guerrilla’s way of dealing with nature. She was enthusiastic and a loving revolutionary with a big heart. After finishing her medical studies in Cuba, she set off again for Kurdistan. This time she went to Rojava and supported the construction processes of the autonomous self-government and was involved in the construction of the medical, health system. During her work, she was traveling in Hesekê and fell due to a car accident on March 17, 2022. Alina has built bridges from Latin America to Kurdistan, from the mountains to the cities and metropolises. Those who met her quickly took her to their hearts. In deep attachment, Alina is remembered in Latin America with stories, encounters, wishes and dreams, by all those who are also in search of a more just world.
Her path to walk on she found in the paradigm of democracy, ecology and woman’s liberation. I had the luck to meet her once again in Rojava. She worked in the hospital of Serekaniye. It was in the time when the offensive to liberate Minbic was started. A historical struggle against ISIS was continuing. To safe the wounded from the battlefield comrade Legerin and the whole health workers worked day and night. Every death slipped over her look like a shadow. It was readable from the look on her face how hard this pain was to loose a person physically. And to get a person back to life… In this moments one could see how the eyes of comrade Legerin were filled with light and how the sun was glimmering in her face. She worked in hard conditions. In this circumstances we had a chat for some hours. We shared our thoughts, criticisms and suggestions on the Revolution of Rojava. And yes, once again I saw what kind of deep ideological analyse my comrade made, with the point of view of our new paradigm and our existing positive and negative experience of this revolution. She was not a spectator. I saw in her the standing of a vanguard woman that was taking her revolutionary responsibility. She had ideas and thoughts on everything from criticism to solutions. She was someone that didn’t gave up while confronted with difficulties but shared her quest for a solution with others. That way she was a vanguard for a communal life. She had the maturity, wherever it should be, in which revolution of the world, to be able to keep this standing, to take this responsibility.
Democratic Confederalism offers a way to organize these societies, respecting their characteristics and multiculturalism. It is increasingly clear that Rêber Apo’s ideas, although developed from Kurdish society, can be applied to other societies because of their universalism, their recognition of the existence of differences in society, the importance of women’s liberation (without it, it is impossible to overcome the current state and system), the negation of dogmatic ideas and the creation of a revolutionary personality focused on its morals and ethics, one way of visualizing the veracity of this is, for example, the participation of internationalist comadres in the party and the exchange of experiences this creates within the party. This is one of the beautiful faces of the movement, the way everyone has a space and a voice within the party, in the struggle for human freedom. The natural characteristics of the Latin and African people, such as the lack of joy, comradeship, celebration and an internal flame that calls for a change in society, would be more than welcomed by Rebêr Apo’s understanding and would complement with more colors, the rainbow that is the Kurdish struggle. People from all continents and from all corners of the global earth working together, communally, to build a real alternative to the capitalist system.
