Turkey, the Kurds and the PKK

Burak Ünveren1

DW

The PKK has claimed responsibility for an attack on a defense company in Ankara in which five people were killed. Who is the PKK and what do they strive for?

Image: Alain Pitton/Imago Images

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has claimed responsibility for the attack on the Turkish defense company TUSAS in Ankara, according to the Kurdish news agency ANF.

The report states that the "Immortal Battalion," an autonomous unit of the PKK's military arm, was responsible for the attack, which was carried out in response to Turkish "massacres" and other actions in Kurdish regions.

The attack took place shortly after an advance on the possible release of PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan under the condition that his organization disarms. The PKK denies any links between this and to the attack.

Who is the PKK and what are their aims?

The latest attack might have thwarted attempts to release PKK-founder Abdullah Ocalan after years of prison in return for disarming the PKKImage: Christoph Hardt/Panama Pictures/picture alliance

The origins of the PKK

In Turkey, social tensions between Turks and Kurds have been an issue for decades.

Kurds have been demanding more cultural and political rights from the centrally organized Turkish state, while Ankara often frames such demands as a threat to national stability.

Kurds make up around 20% of Turkey's population. While they live all over the country, the largest communities are concentrated in the southeast. Kurdish groups also live in the neighboring states of Syria, Iraq and Iran.

In Iraq, the Kurds hold a semi-autonomous status in the Autonomous Region of Kurdistan, while in northeastern Syria some areas are under the control of the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Within Turkey, two main actors seek to represent the interests of the Kurds: The Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party, or DEM — the third largest party in parliament — and the PKK. The DEM Party is committed to a peaceful, political solution whereas the originally Marxist-Leninist PKK is armed, and its members have engaged in guerrilla tactics.

Abdullah Ocalan is said to control the PKK from behind barsImage: Mustafa Abadan/AA/picture alliance

What are the PKK's aims?

Founded in 1978, the PKK's original aim was to establish an independent Kurdish state. However, since 1984, the PKK has been engaged in an armed conflict with the Turkish state.

According to several political scientists, this conflict is considered a low-intensity war. It has claimed up to 40,000 civilian and military victims on both sides. The PKK is classified as a terrorist organization in the USA and the EU.

Since 1995, the organization has been striving for autonomy and cultural rights for Kurds within Turkey and has given up its demand for independence in favour of a system of self-government.

The PKK is believed to have 60,000 members, including active fighters, supporters and sympathizers.

The Kandil Mountains in northern Iraq are its main base of operations, where it organizes militant campaigns and logistics. Turkey regularly bombs positions of Kurdish groups in Iraq and Syria.

Criminalization of Kurdish politics

Over the last ten years, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP), has increasingly criminalized Kurdish politics in Turkey.

The DEM Party and other factions have been associated with the PKK, although the DEM Party officially advocates a peaceful solution and distances itself from the PKK.

Many Kurdish politicians, including the former chairman of the People's Democratic Party, or HDP, Selahattin Demirtas, have been jailed on terrorism charges.

While some HDP members have family ties to the PKK, such as Omer Ocalan, the nephew of PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan, the HDP has asserted that such connections are individual and do not reflect its policies.

PKK founder Ocalan has been held in prison since 1999.

The same year, he was sentenced to death for high treason. However, before the sentence was carried out, Turkey abolished the death penalty and Ocalan's sentence was converted to life imprisonment in 2002.

He continues to exert influence on the organization from behind bars.

While the victims of the latest PKK attack were buried, Turkey's army targeted Kurdish facilities in Iraq and Syria

Image: Adem Altan/AFP

Is peace on the horizon?

In the past, multiple efforts have been made to create peace.

In the first years of the AKP government in particular, Kurds were given new rights, including educational opportunities in their mother tongue and Kurdish-language state media.

However, lasting peace remains the horizon.

Earlier this month, the far-right Nationalist Movement Party leader Devlet Bahceli surprised everyone by shaking hands with representatives of the pro-Kurdish DEM Party in parliament. He later described this as "perfectly normal for a party of unity in Turkey."

Bahceli, who is considered an important ally of Erdogan in the governing alliance with the AKP, appealed to Ocalan on October 15 to persuade the PKK to give up their weapons. On October 22, he called on Ocalan to announce the dissolution of the PKK in parliament.

On October 24, Ocalan replied from prison: "I have the theoretical and practical power to (transform) this process from one grounded in conflict and violence to one that is grounded on law and politics."

The PKK is said to have around 60,000 members, among them supporters, activists and combat soldiers

Image: Yann Renoult/Wostok Press/MAXPPP/picture alliance

What is behind this?

According to experts, regional developments have influenced Turkey's change of course on the Kurdish issue. But, political scientist Sezin Oney sees "no real peace initiative" in these steps. "The main aim is to minimize the threat posed by armed groups such as the PKK," she told DW.

Oney also stresses Turkey's current economic restrictions: "Turkey has neither the political nor the economic basis to finance a new war," she said.

Political scientist Eren Aksoyoglu, a former parliamentary advisor, agrees. "Turkey sees the Israel-Hamas war as a threat and against this backdrop, the government wants to integrate the Kurdish movement into 'Greater Turkey' and bring all internal actors under control," he told DW.

An AKP politician, who wishes to remain anonymous, confirmed that the geopolitical situation is forcing Turkey to strive for a unified domestic policy and resolve conflicts within the country.

This applies not only to the Kurdish question, but also to other domestic political tensions.

However, just one day after Bahceli's appeal, Ankara was shaken by the attack on the TUSAS defense factory, which has led to further strikes on Kurdish areas abroad. Many in the Turkish public see the attack as an attempt to undermine the peace efforts.

Berrak Güngör and Kayhan Ayhan contributed to this article, which originally appeared in German.


Burak Ünveren Multimedia editor with a focus on Turkish foreign policy and German-Turkish relations.

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The First Decade of Agency, an Anarchist PR Project

NEVER HEARD OF YA

Oct

21

2024

comments

From Anarchist Agency

Just over a decade ago, a small group of anarchist media activists started what they defined as an anarchist PR project—Agency was officially launched. As we develop a vision and plans for the next decade, we want to share how Agency came to be, how it has evolved, what we have accomplished, and how we hope to spread anarchist ideas and practices into the future.

The seeds of Agency were planted in 2012, when a few of us helped organize a public and widely-viewed debate between CrimethInc. and journalist-activist Chris Hedges about the tactics of the Occupy Wall Street movement, and specifically perspectives on violence and property destruction in contemporary social movements. Agency emerged from our recognition of the need to facilitate a better understanding of anarchist ideals among the general public.

We spent 2013 building the collective; the following year, Agency was officially launched when our website premiered. Agency was founded on the heels of social movements like Occupy, but the project was also inspired by anarchist practices honed during the Global Justice movement of the late 1990s and early 2000s, which included new decentralized forms of media like the global Independent Media Center network, and high profile direct action campaigns and mass mobilizations that garnered regular international media attention on anarchist organizing. 

Agency took lessons learned from these and other projects, along with our own analysis of the weaknesses and strengths of mainstream media coverage of anarchist theories and practices, to build a resource that offers a better understanding of anarchism and ties it into interconnected issues including war, racism, heterosexism, economic and social injustice, and the rise of neofascism. By inserting anarchist ideas into timely mainstream political discourse through commentaries, a newswire, and other content, Agency seeks to help fellow anarchist organizers and groups make often unheard and misrepresented anarchist perspectives better understood.

Check out our Agency Chronology for articles, interviews, press releases, and other content we’ve created in a readily available archive of 10+ years of anarchist commentary and responses to timely issues.

Black Liberation and Anti-Fascism Shape the Trajectory of Agency

Anarchist movements are often inclined toward fresh and urgent thinking. But ten years ago, the landscape of social movement organizing was lacking new public-facing anarchist projects. Agency was founded at a time of racial upheaval in the US, punctuated by the killings of Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, and Eric Garner that helped, however tragically, to propel the Black Lives Matter movement. Black liberation, along with police and prison abolition, became a left political centerpiece in the last decade, and a focus of the struggles around which countless anarchists have organized.

Meanwhile, new Indigenous sovereignty struggles were also taking shape. We saw the labor movement initiate innovative organizing tactics that won substantial victories for the working class. Expert reports warned of the next extinction event: record-breaking heat waves, wildfires, droughts, and floods compelled organizing on a massive and international scale to fight the fossil fuel industry and other contributors to the climate crisis. Entrenched neoliberalism, a seemingly ever-expanding wealth gap, and a housing market that is increasingly out of reach for many Americans also prompted widespread resistance. And the countervailing rise of a new fascism compelled anarchists to refocus on the antifascist struggle that has been part of our DNA for the better part of the last century. In 2020, the US Department of Justice invented a new term, “anarchist jurisdiction,” as a propaganda tool and a means to repress left and radical activists. All of these developments created new challenges but also opened up fresh opportunities for anarchist education and organizing.

We were also seeing dramatic changes in the media itself. An explosion of workplace organizing by journalists has coincided with the industry’s shift away from print and a corresponding dramatic loss of jobs at outlets across the country. Paradoxically, more anarchists have managed to find a voice for themselves within the corporate media or with innovative online outlets over the past decade. And while the rise of corporate social media has often been followed by its co-optation, social media has also created new opportunities for movements seeking to broadcast liberatory narratives.

Agency Amplifies Anarchists in the News and Anarchist Voices

Agency exists in part to study and expose how anarchist movements are covered by corporate news providers so that, as anarchists, we can make better informed choices as to how or whether we want to interact with them. Ever since our website launched, it has been a crucial resource for anarchist theory and practice. Anarchists in the News provides a constantly updated collection of mainstream media articles in which anarchism and anarchists appear. Critical Voices is Agency’s platform for amplifying anarchist commentary on current events originally published elsewhere. These pieces call attention to issues of direct concern to anarchists and contribute to a radical examination of power relations, the state, and capitalism. We also issue press briefs that clarify the anarchist perspective on issues and events that reporters and editors don’t typically regard as having one, such as the spread of the Ebola virus.

News never sleeps, the saying goes, and neither should the anarchist response. Agency Newswire traces both mainstream and alternative media, highlighting pivotal political struggles and social movements over the years, including: resistance to state power in places like Greece, Hong Kong, Rojava, Syria, Ukraine, Russia, and Palestine; Black Lives Matter and the 2020 uprisings across the US, sparked by the police murder of George Floyd; the rise of antifascism and militant responses to white supremacist organizing in Charlottesville, at the Trump inauguration, and in the targeting of anarchists and antifa during the Trump presidency; mobilizations to stop fossil fuel-based projects like the Dakota Access Pipeline, Keystone XL, and Line 3; the Stop Cop City movement at the intersection of radical environmentalism and police abolition; the resurgence of mutual aid networks, especially in addressing the tragic impacts of COVID-19 and the climate crisis; and the hardline responses to attacks on abortion access, like Jane’s Revenge.

Through our original commentary pieces, Agency has aimed to bring a vital anarchist perspective to the discourse around urgent issues that need an anti-state, anti-capitalist analysis but seldom get one. Some of these articles are generated by Agency members, others are solicited and written by other anarchist writers, activists, and journalists. Topics and themes we’ve covered over the years include: an anarchist response to Ebola; the anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; sexual assaults on campus; antifa and the rise of fascism; anarchist perspectives on J20, both in anticipation and in the aftermath of the Trump inauguration; Emma Goldman’s 150th birthday and her continuing influence; the tradition of May Day protests; mutual aid, from an Indigenous anarchist perspective, and dispatches from the front lines; mass surveillance; and social media censorship.

Changing the Public’s Response to Media

Agency also issues press releases on timely and relevant events in the anarchist movement itself. Some of our most recent have focused on the untimely death in 2023 of our comrade Jen Angel, an Agency co-founder, long-time anarchist, and media activist, and her enduring legacy of fighting for transformative justice.Our newsletters are another way we  keep readers and followers updated on our work. You can sign up to receive our newsletter, and view an archive here.

Agency doesn’t just follow and comment on the news, however. We work to change how the public absorbs and responds to the media. In 2019 and 2020, we conducted a series of interviews with radical and anarchist-identified journalists, highlighting their work and sharing their insights. This Agency series, which included interviews with Dan Arel, Shane Burley, Natasha Lennard, and Abby Martin, addressed what it’s like being an explicitly left journalist, issues they’ve faced working in the corporate media, the importance of non-mainstream, left publications, and why engaging with media is important to the advancement of anarchist ideas.

In 2021, we began to explore the visual medium as a way to broadcast anarchist ideas when we partnered with AK Press to produce “What is the State?” an animated video primer based on Eric Laursen’s book, “The Operating System: An Anarchist Theory of the Modern State.” The following year, we launched Finding Agency, a livestream series that kicked off with an interview with Daryle Lamont Jenkins, examining his campaign to expose the new racist neofascism.

We’re dedicated to helping make media activism and anarchist interventions with public discourse a widespread, grassroots practice. In 2023, Agency launched a media grants program for radical writers, artists, and creators in collaboration with the Institute for Anarchist Studies which, following the tragic loss of Agency co-founder Jen Angel, became the Jen Angel Anarchist Media Grant to honor her legacy. The program helps fuel the types of projects that Jen created throughout her life: projects that make anarchist ideas accessible and reflect the spirit of do-it-yourself action. The core tenets of anarchism that underscored Jen’s life and work—autonomy, mutual aid, voluntary association, direct action—are all amplified by the independent media projects we fund through our anarchist media grants.

Working with Activists and Organizers to Build Skills to Advance Anarchist Movements

Agency also works directly with left activists and anarchist organizers to help them hone their media and messaging skills. By coaching and training members of the anarchist community to develop effective press releases, talking points, and other content, and by training them in managing relationships with mainstream journalists, we hope to enable the next generation of anarchists to gain greater control of the media narrative.

Most recently, Agency has supported activists in the #StopCopCity movement in developing their media skills to oppose police militarization and preserve the Weelaunee Forest from destruction. Agency has been working to build the media skills of defendants charged with domestic terrorism and RICO (Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act), with the aim of seizing media narratives to help fight their charges.

That doesn’t mean we avoid working  with mainstream journalists. Agency is instrumental in educating reporters and writers from mainstream, corporate outlets on anarchist issues and connecting them to the best subject matter experts to interview and cover. When an anarchist voice is needed, we make ourselves available to be interviewed for stories in print and online, on podcasts, on TV/video, and through other media formats.

Who is Agency and Where are We Going?

The members of Agency bring a diverse skill set to this work from their different backgrounds and political histories. We are activists, organizers, educators, writers, public relations workers, communications strategists, graphic designers, web designers, documentary filmmakers, and video journalists. Demystifying anarchism, making it visible to a broader public, and clarifying inaccuracies consistently perpetuated in the mainstream media are the common goals that bring all of us together.

The devastating loss of our comrade Jen Angel brings a sad close to our first decade, but it has also enabled us to share her legacy and build a grant program in her name, as a way to support cutting-edge and DIY media projects similar to those that played such a big role in her life and work. The opportunity to bring Jen’s legacy into the future has inspired us to continue our commitment to making anarchism more visible and powerful. By furthering our collaborations with fellow anarchists, troublemakers, and radical journalists, we strive to find new ways to support the fight against capitalism and the state and promote alternative visions of a more just world through media work and development of resources within our community to do so.

We’ll see you in the streets and in the headlines!

From Anarchist Agency

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Check out our Agency Chronology for articles, interviews, press releases, and other content we’ve created in a readily available archive of 10+ years of anarchist commentary and responses to timely issues.

Message from Abdullah Öcalan

Kurdish People's Leader Öcalan said: "Isolation continues. If conditions are right, I have the theoretical and practical power to move this process from the ground of conflict and violence to the legal and political ground."

ANF
NEWS DESK
Thursday, 24 October 2024, 09:15

Urfa (Riha) MP Ömer Öcalan shared the message Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan asked him to convey to the public.

Ömer Öcalan wrote: "This visit was held as part of a family meeting. Mr. Öcalan commented on general political developments during the meeting and asked for the following message to be conveyed to the public: 'Isolation continues. If conditions are right, I have the theoretical and practical power to move this process from a ground of conflict and violence to a legal and political ground.' He was in good health and sent greetings to everyone."

Abdullah Öcalan met with DEM MP and nephew Ömer Öcalan in Imralı - FLASH

Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan met with his nephew, DEM Party Urfa MP Ömer Öcalan, after 43 months of total isolation.


ANF
NEWS DESK
Thursday, 24 October 2024, 07:50

Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan met with his nephew, Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM) Urfa (Riha) MP Ömer Öcalan, after 43 months of total isolation.

Ömer Öcalan said on his Twitter account: "The last face-to-face meeting with Mr. Abdullah Öcalan was on 3 March 2020. As a family, we finally met with Mr. Öcalan years later, on 23 October 2024. We want routine family visits, which are a legal right, to continue regardless of the circumstances."

Öcalan's lawyers: Stop systematic rights violations in Imrali

In a statement about the meeting with Abdullah Öcalan on 23 October, Asrın Law Office requested that systematic rights violations be stopped and that a lawyer's visit be granted.


ANF
ISTANBUL
Thursday, 24 October 2024, 14:34

After 43 months of absolute lack of communication, Asrın Law Office made a statement following the visit of Ömer Öcalan, Urfa (Riha) MP of the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), to Imralı on 23 October.

The statement said: "Our client, Mr. Abdullah Öcalan, and his nephew, Mr. Ömer Öcalan, had a meeting on Wednesday as part of a family visit. This visit, which took place 4 and a half years after the last family visit (3 March 2020), should not be single and limited like the previous ones, and its continuity should be ensured. Ensuring that Mr. Abdullah Öcalan, Mr. Hamili Yıldırım, Mr. Ömer Hayri Konar and Mr. Veysi Aktaş receive visits from lawyers and families regularly as it is a requirement of the constitution, domestic law as well as international agreements. Again, holding regular meetings with Mr. Öcalan, who has the theoretical and practical power to move the process from the ground of conflict and violence to the legal and political ground, will pave the way for the solution of political and social problems in Turkey and the region on the basis of dialogue, peace and democratic consensus. In this context, it is necessary to put an end to the systematic violations of rights in Imralı, to ensure that the right to visits with families as well as lawyers (no lawyer visits have been allowed since 7 August 2019) is implemented in accordance with the law. We reiterate the necessity of ensuring this."

‘Leader Öcalan’s freedom and Shengal's autonomy are not far away’

Shengal Autonomous Administration and TAJÊ stated that 2025 will be the year of Leader Öcalan’s freedom and vowed to enhance their struggle to achieve this goal.


ANF
SHENGAL
Tuesday, 22 October 2024, 14:39

The ‘Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan, a Political Solution to the Kurdish Question’ campaign, which was launched by friends of the Kurdish people on 10 October 2023, has reached millions of people all over the world.

The Yazidi community also joined the campaign on 21 October 2023 with the slogan ‘Freedom for Leader Öcalan, Autonomy for Shengal’.

The Yazidi and Arab community living in Shengal organised many actions and events across Iraq and Shengal under the leadership of the Shengal Autonomous Administration and the Yazidi Free Women's Movement (TAJÊ).

Shengal Autonomous Administration and TAJÊ made a joint statement at Martyr Dilgeş and Martyr Berxwedan Cemetery on the occasion of the second anniversary of their campaign. The statement was read by Suham Şengali, member of TAJÊ Foreign Relations Committee, and Xwedêda Elyas, Co-Chair of the Autonomous Administration of Shengal.

“Leader Apo (Abdullah Öcalan) has been leading the peoples' resistance in Imrali Prison for 25 years. During this period of time, countless events and actions have been organised for his freedom. However, the ‘Freedom for Öcalan, a Political Solution to the Kurdish Question’ campaign launched last year is quite different from other campaigns. This campaign will continue in line with its aim until the physical freedom of Leader Apo is achieved. All actions and activities for the freedom of the peoples and democracy are also linked to this campaign. In other words, the freedom of Leader Öcalan and the struggle for autonomy and freedom are not independent of each other,” said the statement.

Remarking that the campaign received support from all over the world, the statement continued: “With this campaign, the ideas and philosophy of Leader Abdullah Öcalan have spread more than ever in the world. With the recognition of Leader Öcalan's ideas, the hope and faith of humanity has once again flourished. Enthusiasm, morale and hope increased wherever the campaign reached. Artists, intellectuals, politicians, philosophers, writers and academics all over the world were revitalised by Öcalan's ideas. The whole world rallied around this campaign. The world could not unite in the Ukraine-Russia war or the Hamas-Israel war, but the whole world became one voice for the freedom of Leader Abullah Öcalan. This reveals that the world, divided by wars, conflicts, religious and sectarian wars that started due to the policies pursued by the governments, has found unity in the idea of the freedom of Leader Abdullah Öcalan.”

The statement pointed out that the wars in the Middle East in the last year have once again proved Leader Apo's assessments right and added: “Leader Abdullah Öcalan has been stating for decades that the problems in the Middle East cannot be resolved by war. The events of last year also confirm this. That is why the peoples of the Middle East are turning to the ideas of Leader Öcalan more than ever. Everyone says that the isolation of Öcalan deepens the war in the Middle East and that his freedom will pave the way for the solution of the problems in the region. This was one of the important results of the campaign.”

The campaign has also exposed the true face of the state and the ruling system, said the statement and continued: “It has been revealed that the European states, which present themselves as the representatives of freedom and democracy, have nothing to do with freedom and democracy. The move has revealed that the Imrali system is an international system, that those who cause the isolation to continue and deprive Leader Abdullah Öcalan of his physical freedom are the same ones who swear every day in the name of freedom and democracy. This move again showed that these states are against the freedom of peoples and democracy.”

Emphasising that hope and the claim of freedom are stronger than ever with the campaign, the statement continued: “The main goal is to ensure the physical freedom of Leader Abdullah Öcalan and to recognise the autonomy of Shengal. Although steps have been taken towards these goals, we have not yet fully achieved them. This is also a matter of self-criticism for us. For this reason, we must correct our deficiencies, strengthen our actions and accelerate our work in order to achieve victory in the second year of the campaign. We must reach out to everyone in every house in Shengal and introduce the ideas of Leader Öcalan.

In the second year of the campaign, we will bring the ideas of Leader Abdullah Öcalan to the agenda more in the Nineveh Plain and at the Iraqi level. We will try to turn the campaign into a step towards freedom and democracy, especially in Iraq. Iraq cannot get rid of the war and crisis it is in. For this reason, we say that the ideas of Leader Abdullah Öcalan are the solution for the Iraqi people and the Iraqi state as well.”

Stating that the campaign is also a response to the war policy in the region, the statement said: “We firmly believe that 2025 will be the year of freedom of Leader Abdullah Öcalan. If we raise our hope, belief and struggle, the freedom of Leader Öcalan and the autonomy of Shengal are not far away. As the Shengal Autonomous Administration, we will strengthen our work in the second year of the campaign. We call on the people of Shengal, all the peoples of the Nineveh Plain and the democratic forces of Iraq to embrace the campaign more than ever.”

How can Turkey be saved?

If Leader Apo is wanted to play a role, conditions for this must be created immediately. The opportunity for Leader Apo to meet with everyone, including the PKK leadership, must be created, and Turkey's democratic change must be initiated on this basis.


ANF
NEWS DESK
Wednesday, 23 October 2024, 13:13

The Israeli attacks, which have been intensifying for about a month, have undoubtedly dealt a heavy blow to Lebanese Hezbollah. To be honest, many people did not expect such a war, they did not think that Israel would deal such a heavy blow to Hezbollah in such a short time. Because Hezbollah also had power, making military preparation and deployment. There were also some states that it relied on, such as Iran. But the results were a bit surprising for almost everyone. It even shook and shocked many of them. Why?

There are, of course, many answers to this question. For example, if Israel had attacked from the ground and not from the air, it would not have achieved such rapid and effective results. One of the reasons for the current military result is that Israel had prepared for and relied on an air attack. Again, Israel followed a clever tactic by first detonating the devices and then cutting off contact. This is also an important reason for the current result. Moreover, the indecisive war policy pursued by Hezbollah and Iran, on which it relies, has also been a factor in this outcome. Hezbollah and Iran, while appearing to support Hamas, have also pursued an attitude of political reconciliation. It is even rumoured that Israel and Hezbollah came to the point of signing a ceasefire through the mediation of France and similar powers. It was at this point that Israel carried out the big attack and hit Hassan Nasrallah. In other words, Hezbollah and Iran have been brought into a kind of political game. It is said that the reaction of the French Administration to Israel stems from this.

So, what will happen now? Obviously, the US-Israeli bloc will try to reshape Lebanon. It will want to create a Lebanon in which Hezbollah and Iranian influence are weakened and which does not pose a threat to Israel. Not satisfied with this, it will try to neutralise Iran's power outside its borders. In other words, it will target Iran's power spread throughout the region. It had already started this process four years ago by shooting Qassem Soleimani. Now, based on the military superiority it has achieved, it will try to reach a conclusion.

In the face of this state of affairs, the current Iranian leadership is always talking about peace, trying to limit the war as much as possible and to continue the search for reconciliation. However, it is difficult to realise this unilaterally. Even though the Iranian administration approaches this way, a kind of Israeli-Iranian war has already emerged. In other words, the circles that rely on and want such a war have actually found what they were looking for. Let's see who will gain and who will lose from this war.

Undoubtedly, the AKP-MHP administration was one of the forces that most wanted and provoked a war between Israel and Hezbollah, and therefore Iran. The spokespersons and lackeys of this administration were resorting to all kinds of lies and tricks to provoke such a war a month ago. However, when the war started and the harsh Israeli attacks came to light, they became tongue-tied and started to say ‘We are against war’ with a sharp ‘U’ turn. The bombs that exploded in Beirut shook the foundations of the Palace in Beştepe. It seems that those who thought everything was as easy as slaughtering Kurds and women began to realise the seriousness of the matter with the Lebanon war. So, despite their warmongering, they thought that such a war would not happen. But when they saw the reality and realised that their turn was coming, they started to show childish behaviour.

First, the fascist chief Tayyip Erdoğan said ‘Israel will attack us too’ from the rostrum of the parliament. Having received or given the message, the fascist chief Devlet Bahçeli kissed the hands of DEM Party members in the parliament for no reason. Discussions on a ‘resolution process’ were raised again. KCK (Kurdistan Communities Union) Executive Council Co-Chair Besê Hozat, referring to Devlet Bahçeli, said, ‘İmralı is there, take Erdoğan and Özel with you, go and solve the problems with Leader Apo’. In response to this, Devlet Bahçeli addressed Leader Apo (Abdullah Öcalan) and called on him to ‘surrender and liquidate the organisation’. In other words, he once again repeated what he had been taught by heart since his youth.

A debate on these issues has been raging in the visual and print media, with the government and the opposition, the right and the left. For more than two weeks, everyone has been arguing day and night. People have been shouting at each other for hours. Countless fictions are made every day; some almost go to the point of saying that the PKK has liquidated itself, some utter threats from a high level, some call the prosecutors to duty and threaten to ‘shut down’ the DEM Party. As the saying goes, if you tell a lie forty times, the first person to tell it believes it to be true! This is how they are trying to make themselves believe their own lies. What is being done in the name of so-called debate is like whistling while passing through a cemetery.

In fact, they are trying to overcome their fear by talking and shouting so much. A great fear has fallen into them. Their anti-Kurdish, fascist-genocidal mentality and politics have completely collapsed. They are trying to deceive society and overcome their fear by deepening the special war in this way. When the effect of the bombs exploding in Lebanon is added on top of the defeat they have suffered in Kurdistan, they are beginning to see what will happen to them, albeit hardly. Why?

Because once they were defeated against the Kurdish freedom struggle, their fascist, colonialist and genocidal faces came out in the open and were thoroughly exposed. The Global Freedom Campaign [Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan, a Political Solution to the Kurdish Question], which aims for the physical freedom of Leader Apo, has spread this reality to the whole world. In the face of Kurdishness gaining freedom, it has become impossible to maintain the fascist mentality and politics in Turkey that is hostile to Kurds, women and the people. There is only one way out for Turkey, and that is democratisation based on Kurdish freedom.

Secondly, there is no longer any room for the existing Turkey within the system of capitalist modernity, of which it has been a part for a century. There was no existing Turkey in the global structuring of the capitalist modernity system. This Turkey, which has been alive for a hundred years, has existed on the basis of two things: The October Revolution in Russia and Kurdish support! Without these, there would not have been such a Turkey after the First World War. On the basis of these two forces, the Kemalist movement developed and gained strength, and on the basis of the two tasks assigned to it, it was recognised by Britain and France and became a state. One was to encircle the Soviet Union from the south, and the other was to serve as a model for the nation-state organisation in the Middle East and the birth of Israel by agreeing to the division of the Arabs!

In the last century, the Turkish Republic fulfilled both of these tasks. It stood against the Soviet Union and served the formation of the real Israel as a proto-Israel. The Soviet Union no longer exists, the present Russia is not the Soviet Union of the past, so this task of Turkey is over. After the Second World War, the real Israel was established and now, in the Third World War, the system of capitalist modernity wants to reshape the Middle East region on the basis of Israel-Arab reconciliation. It is trying to change the Middle East system, which was shaped under the leadership of Turkey and Iran after the First World War. Iran's extraterritorial forces are targets on this basis, but apart from these, Iran within its own borders exists within the global organisation of capitalist modernity. Turkey, on the other hand, which is not part of this organisation and has existed for centuries on the basis of additional tasks, is now the main power that needs to be changed. In other words, it is in contradiction with the system in which it exists. Whether it leans on NATO or begs Russia-China, it is not possible to change this fact. Turkey will change according to this system; Turkey will change according to the Kurds, women and working peoples. If it changes according to the latter, the current unity of Turkey can keep itself alive as an alternative democratic system. This is Turkey's only chance.

There is neither the Soviet Union nor Kurdish support to keep Turkey alive for the last century. Within the current system, it can only survive by serving Israel, as a servant-slave; it has no other chance. In this situation, the only real chance is to regain Kurdish support. The way to do this is democratisation on the basis of Kurdish freedom. The real situation is so serious and concrete. Therefore, there is no time to be spent on discussions based on speculation. Problems cannot be solved just by going to Imrali. Since it is desired that Leader Apo plays a role, then the conditions for this must be created immediately. The opportunity for Leader Apo to meet with everyone, including the PKK leadership, must be created, and, on this basis, Turkey's democratic change must be initiated. Those who really love Turkey must hurry. Because there may be no time left for change.

Source: Yeni Özgür Politika

Zilar Stêrk: A basis for dialogue should be established with Leader Öcalan

Zilar Stêrk, member of the General Presidential Council of the KCK, spoke about the current discussions surrounding the physical freedom of the Kurdish people's leader, Abdullah Öcalan, and the related Kurdish question.


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NEWS DESK
Friday, 25 October 2024, 07:50

Zilar Stêrk, member of the General Presidential Council of the KCK, about the current discussions surrounding the physical freedom of the Kurdish people's leader, Abdullah Öcalan, and the related Kurdish question. Stêrk discussed the struggle for this as well as the games that some actors are playing in an attempt to renew the international conspiracy.

There are currently many discussions about the Kurdish question, the role of Kurdish people’s leader Abdullah Ocalan and his total isolation, which has now lasted for 26 years. What can you tell us about the overall situation? How should the current conflicts be understood?

Firstly, I once again condemn and curse the international conspiracy with all my hatred and anger as it enters its 27th year. Also, I commemorate all martyrs of the revolution by commemorating the martyrs that gave their lives in the "You cannot darken our sun!" struggle, who stood in front of Rêber Apo to protect him with their bodies.

We slowly leave the month October behind us, which is a month in which many women of our women’s movement fell martyrs. I once again commemorate all of our martyrs of the month of October with respect and gratitude, by commemorating comrade Beritan (Gulnaz Karatash), the pioneer and leading cadre of our women’s army.

Today, a great and glorious historical resistance is going on in the mountains of Kurdistan. I respectfully commemorate all the comrades who martyred, especially in the areas of Zap, Metina, and Avashin. Comrade Asmin Seyit, whose martyrdom was announced recently, again comrade Agir, comrade Besta, and comrade Cemal. I bow with respect in front of their memory. I also commemorate with respect and gratitude Ape Nemir, who fought and struggled shoulder to shoulder with the revolutionaries against the gangs and mercenaries of ISIS in the Battle of Kobane and was wounded several times. I express my condolences to his family and the entire Kurdish people.

It has been 26 years since the launch of the international conspiracy, and throughout these 26 years, Rêber Apo, who was held hostage in solitary confinement in the Imrali torture center, has been in a very historic resistance. I take this opportunity to salute Rêber Apo and his resistance, his glorious resistance, and send my greetings and love.

The main purpose of this conspiracy was the physical destruction of Rêber Apo. In fact, the aim of the physical annihilation of Rêber Apo did not only start with the conspiracy of October 9. Already on May 6, 1996, a great conspiracy was staged in Damascus, again aiming at the physical destruction of Rêber Apo. Thanks to the measures taken by Rêber Apo and his foresight, that conspiracy did not come to fruition.

In the face of the international conspiracy of October 9, Rêber Apo left the Middle East and thereby prevented physical annihilation. Rêber Apo is aware of the cruciality of his existence and how it is connected to the fate of the Kurdish people. He knows that his physical destruction would pave the way for the genocide of the Kurdish people. Based on this, thinking with a very strategic mind, he left the Middle East and thus frustrated the conspiracy’s aim of physical annihilation. At that time, when Rêber Apo went to Europe, during the period he spent in Rome, our people flocked to Rome in droves. Hundreds of thousands, millions of people, met and united around Rêber Apo. People set themselves on fire out in protest. They carried out big sacrificial actions. They sent the conspiratorial forces a very clear message: “Rêber Apo is us.” The existence of Rêber Apo means Kurdish existence. The main guarantee of Kurdish existence is the existence and freedom of Rêber Apo. The conspiratorial forces could not carry out physical annihilation through this, so they planned the international conspiracy of February 15. Rêber Apo was abducted and handed over to the genocidal colonialist Turkish state.

For 26 years, Rêber Apo has been resisting under conditions of absolute isolation and isolation in the Imrali torture center in order to prevent this conspiracy from achieving its goals and objectives and to defeat it. He is putting up a historical and glorious resistance. And this resistance is not only physical resistance. Rêber Apo has realized a great mental revolution. Of course, he did not start this while being in Imrali. Already before, Rêber Apo was constantly concentrating on every ideological, paradigmatic, and organizational dimension of this. But the conditions of war outside, again, the problems and agendas that had to be dealt with for the organization, posed difficulties in front of the mental revolution Rêber Apo wanted to realize. As Rêber Apo put it, the situation on Imrali changed circumstances.

Rêber Apo has a great style of struggle. It is in fact a legendary struggle. This needs to be grasped very well. As I pointed out, this is not only physical resistance. This is an intellectual, spiritual, ideological, paradigmatic resistance. One can say that Rêber Apo has created a form of resistance that complements other forms of resistance and therefore is in fact far superior to them. With the tremendous mental revolution, the paradigmatic change and transformation that he realized in his own person, he frustrated all the calculations of the conspiracy. What did Rêber Apo do? One by one, Rêber Apo analyzed both the mentality and the calculations of the five thousand-year-old statist civilization, a statist, power-oriented, male-dominated civilization system. One by one, he unmasked them in front of all of us. He created an enormous paradigm with the prison writings he presented to the courts. The prison writings enlightened us all. They revealed perspectives and system analyses that enlighten the whole of humanity about the reality of the five thousand years of male-dominated capitalist civilization. And we all benefit from this today. In other words, civilization called its gods to account. Rêber Apo judged them, called them to account, and put forward an alternative to this system.

There are other thinkers who have tried to solve the crisis of civilization. But Rêber Apo’s way of analyzing civilization is not an approach that is limited to theoretical analysis. He looked at the issue from a more revolutionary point of view, as a revolutionary leader. Before Imrali, there was already an enormous Kurdish freedom movement that he had created and developed. There was organized public opinion. With the new paradigmatic change, this multiplied itself even more and brought about much greater developments. For example, the Rojava revolution developed. The Rojava revolution developed and took shape on the basis of Rêber Apo’s tremendous paradigm based on the pillars of democracy, ecology, and women’s freedom. What are the revolutionaries of Rojava saying today? They say that they have taken Rêber Apo’s idea and his paradigm as their guide and that they are trying to implement it as a new system of democratic and free life. We all see this in a more concrete form day by day. Therefore, it also attracts the world’s attention.

What has developed during the past twenty-six years that Rêber Apo is held captive in Imrali? The inhuman ISIS gangs were created in order to cause a great war of peoples in the Middle East. They attacked Kurds in Kobane, and before that, they attacked our Yazidi (Êzidî) people. They attacked the Yazidi people in Shengal (Sinjar). Today, our Yazidi people in Shengal are also in great resistance and are broadly organized with the aim of establishing a new system and a new life model based on Rêber Apo’s democratic, ecological, egalitarian, libertarian, and for the freedom of women’s standing ideas. For this reason, the genocidal, colonialist, and sovereign powers, particularly the Turkish state, are constantly carrying out extermination attacks and operations against our Yazidi people.

One can say that in this twenty-six-year period, the international conspiracy has actually been frustrated to some extent. But one cannot claim that complete results have been achieved or that the conspiracy was defeated. Because all the struggle we have waged over the past twenty-six years has been aimed at developing a democratic solution to the Kurdish question. It is directed towards ensuring the physical freedom of Rêber Apo. Because the solution to the Kurdish question means the physical freedom of Rêber Apo. And the freedom of Rêber Apo means the solution to the Kurdish question. Both are two fundamental aspects that are as close to each other as possible.

Our people are aware of the nature of the problem. They are aware that the Kurdish question cannot be solved without the liberation of Rêber Apo. As long as Rêber Apo is imprisoned, the conspiracy, the international conspiracy, cannot be defeated completely. That is why every anniversary of the conspiracy, our people, together with their international friends, protest; they condemn the conspiracy and put up a great resistance against it. This resistance continues on every anniversary; it continues to rise on the anniversary. All the struggle we have waged together with our people during these twenty-six years is for the defeat of the international conspiracy, which started on October 9 and completed its first stage on February 15, with the captivity of Rêber Apo. But the conspiracy itself continues.

Of course, during all this time, the conspiratorial forces have not been idle. They tried to renew the conspiracy again and again. Both Rêber Apo, the Kurds, and we, as the Kurdish freedom movement, have tried to wage a great resistance and struggle against this conspiracy. The new concepts they tried to develop were always tried to be frustrated. Today, the conspiracy continues in certain dimensions. On which pillars does it weave itself? The genocidal, colonialist, genocidal policy of the Turkish state on the Kurds is being carried out most concretely on Rêber Apo in the Imrali torture center. They do not allow a single word of Rêber Apo to come out, so that the movement and the people do not get inspired by Rêber Apo. They are trying to ensure that nothing comes out of there. They prevent even the most human rights and legal rights of Rêber Apo. It is commonly known that Rêber Apo’s freedom is now legally due. They are trying to prevent this.

For example, they are not implementing the retrial decision taken by international European courts. They are afraid of this. They do not allow the voice of Rêber Apo to be heard. They are really afraid that Rêber Apo will gradually become physically free. As the struggle of the people, the movement, the society and the international friends of the Kurdish people grows, they see and fear that as the resistance and a certain level of resistance and willpower emerges, the physical freedom of the Rêber Apo is becoming increasingly possible. For this reason, they are not allowing Rêber Apo to implement the retrial decision, and they are not allowing Rêber Apo to exercise his legal rights, even the legal rights of a normal prisoner. This is a pillar of the conspiracy.

In addition to this, there are great extermination operations on the Kurdish freedom movement, again on the Kurdish freedom guerrillas. There are great liquidation and annihilation operations and attacks. The genocide and extermination attacks carried out today in the Kurdish mountains in Zap, Metina, and Avashin are one of the most fundamental pillars of the international conspiracy. Without the freedom guerrillas without the resistance of the guerrillas in Kurdistan, can the Kurds sustain themselves? Can the Kurdish freedom struggle survive? What guarantees the existence of Kurds today is, of course, the existence of the Kurdish freedom struggle in the mountains of Kurdistan. It is the existence of freedom guerrillas. We can say that the existence of the Kurdish guerrillas, its will, and its resistance are the basic guarantee of Kurdish existence. That is why they want to destroy it. Therefore, the genocidal attacks and extermination attacks on the guerrillas continue uninterruptedly both in northern Kurdistan and in southern Kurdistan. It continues in the most inhuman way, through chemical attacks and with the use of tactical nuclear weapons. The Kurdish guerrillas continue to put up a glorious resistance under genocide and extermination attacks.

In addition to this, also in other fields, the international conspiracy’s effort to sustain itself, to make it permanent, is going on as well. The genocidal attacks developed by the enemy are not only carried out against the guerrillas in the Medya Defense Areas or in the provinces of northern Kurdistan. The genocidal and extermination attacks are being carried out both on the leading cadres of our movement and on the people who work together with our movement around the struggle for freedom, who participate in the struggle, who support it, who are in solidarity.

Every day, the cities, villages, streets, and neighborhoods in Rojava are being bombarded under the pretext of attacking PKK cadres. It is our patriotic people that are attacked. This is also what they are doing with the continued genocidal attacks on Shengal. And at the same time, the genocidal attacks on the Makhmur refugee camp continue. These genocidal attacks take place everywhere in southern Kurdistan as well.

This needs to be seen as the continuation of the international conspiracy. The conspiracy has developed with significant protests on the occasion of the new anniversary. The time has come to not only frustrate the conspiracy but to defeat it once and for all. Twenty-six years have passed. And in these twenty-six years, it was shown that neither the Kurdish will be broken, nor the Kurdish existence could be wiped out, nor the Kurdish guerrillas could be destroyed, nor Rêber Apo could be compromised, nor the Kurdish people could be annihilated, nor the Kurdish freedom movement could be forced to kneel.

The struggle that has been waged in Kurdistan during these twenty-six years is a struggle that centers on the freedom of Rêber Apo. It needs to be understood this way. All the actions and activities that have taken place explicitly for Rêber Apo’s freedom anyway, but also all the other efforts of the Kurdish freedom struggle of the last 26 years, served the same goal: the freedom of Rêber Apo. The solution of the Kurdish question, the realization of the Kurdish freedom revolution, and the freedom of Rêber Apo are totally intertwined. They cannot be separated from each other. On various occasions, Rêber Apo saluted the actions carried out under the name of his freedom and pointed out that his freedom depends on the solution of the Kurdish question and the realization of the freedom revolution in Kurdistan.

There is a tremendous resistance that the Kurdish people have developed from the first day of the international conspiracy. At a magnificent level, people take on their responsibility towards Rêber Apo.

When the first process of the conspiracy developed, there was a tremendous struggle, there was a tremendous cohesion, a tremendous level of sacrifice emerged. And this continues today. The Kurdish people have never distanced from Rêber Apo. There was never the slightest weakening in their bond with him. We saw this most recently at the rally in Amed (tr. Diyarbakir) on October 13th. That unbreakable bond between the Kurdish people and Rêber Apo, which has existed since day one, is growing exponentially day by day. It is both widening and deepening.

During the past twenty-six years, many campaigns have been carried out. There was, for example, the “Enough is Enough!” (Edi Bese) campaign, or also the “Abdullah Ocalan is my political will” campaign. In that campaign, signatures were collected from both Kurds and their international friends, who claimed Rêber Apo as representative of their political will. Ten million signatures were collected. The international ruling powers were confronted with this.

The genocidal colonialist Turkish state was confronted with this. These campaigns, in some way, continue today. Again in 2019, there was the big hunger strike led by the hunger strikes in prisons, first and foremost by dear Leyla Guven. At that time, there was a tremendous campaign being carried out. Through that resistance, for example, a breach was opened in the absolute isolation and genocide regime in Imrali. And through that breach, talks with Rêber Apo started. There were a few meetings, but no results were obtained. It was interrupted again. It was sabotaged again. And it was the fascist AKP-MHP government, which still rules the genocidal colonialist Turkish Republic with its insincere approach, that sabotaged it. Still, to a high extent, both the Kurdish people and their international friends take on their responsibility towards Rêber Apo. If the conspiracy has not achieved its goals and objectives in these twenty-six years, this is primarily due to the spirit of resistance put forward by our patriotic people.

One pillar is the spirit of resistance shown by our people. It is the magnificent extent to which they take responsibility towards Rêber Apo. Another pillar is the resistance and struggle of the Kurdistan freedom guerrilla in the mountains of Kurdistan. And there is the, and I would say it is the most fundamental pillar, the tremendous resistance of Rêber Apo, who is in a position of absolute isolation and hostage in Imrali.

Kurdistan Workers' Party claims deadly Ankara attack

ONE MAN'S TERRORIST IS ANOTHER WOMAN'S ARMED STRUGGLE

The PKK has claimed responsibility for this week's attack on Turkish defense firm TUSAS that killed five people in Ankara, the militant group said in a statement.

Turkish President Erdogan has condemned the 'cowardly' attack

Image: AP/picture alliance

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) on Friday claimed an attack on a state-run Turkish defense firm in Ankara that killed five people and wounded 22 others earlier this week.

Two assailants carried out Wednesday's onslaught with automatic rifles and explosives on the headquarters of Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) in the Turkish capital.

"The act of sacrifice at TAI campus in Ankara at around 15:30 local time on Wednesday was carried out by a team of the immortals battalion" of the PKK, it said on Telegram, referring to Turkish Aerospace Industries.

Previously, the Turkish government had said it had proof the PKK was responsible while President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the attack targeted "the survival of our country."

Turkey responds by striking PKK targets

A few hours after Wednesday's assault, the Turkish government launched airstrikes on PKK targets in northern Iraq and Syria. The PKK has its headquarters in the Kandil Mountains in northern Iraq.

The group has waged an on-off insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984 and is regarded as a terror group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

Turkey blames Kurdish group for attack on defense firm  01:54

In 2011 President Erdogan supported backchannel peace efforts in a bid to resolve the issue but the fragile truce collapsed in 2015 in a fresh round of violence.

This prompted Erdogan's AKP government along with its junior partner, the far-right MHP, to change tack, ramping up military pressure on the Kurdish rebels.

jsi/wd (AFP, dpa, Reuters)

Turkey: Burials before possible talks with jailed PKK leader

Turkey has said it struck numerous PKK cells in response to a Wednesday terror attack in Ankara. 

Meanwhile, a deal could be in the works to free PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan if he vows to disband the group.

Victims of Wednesday's attack in Ankara were being buried as Turkish forces pummeled PKK sites in Syria and IraqImage: Adem Altan/AFP

Turkish officials attended the burials of five people killed in a terror attack Wednesday as Ankara responded by bombing numerous targets hours later.

At the same time, there are indications that jailed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan may be willing to renounce violence against the Turkish state and disband his organization.

The Wednesday attack targeted state-owned Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), killing five and injuring 22. Officials claimed it was "very likely” that the PKK was behind the incident.

Turkey announced that its forces had hit "47 terrorist targets” in Syria and Iraq overnight and pledged more attacks would follow.

Turkey, the EU and the US all label the PKK a terrorist organization.

Speaking from the BRICS summit in Russia, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday's attack had only "strengthened Turkey's determination and resolve to eliminate terrorism."

Turkey blames Kurdish group for attack on defense firm 01:54

Ocalan ready for a change after 25 years of solitary confinement?

All of this has played out against the backdrop of possible talks between Ankara and the jailed leader of the PKK, Abdullah Ocalan.

Ocalan, who co-founded the group, has been in solitary confinement at Istanbul's Imrali island prison since 1999.

On Tuesday, Devlet Bahceli, an ally of Erdogan and the leader of the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), suggested possible parole for Ocalan if he would renounce violence and disband the PKK.

Ocalan is serving a life sentence and was granted his first visit in more than four years this week.

After the visit, Ocalan's nephew Omer, a lawyer for the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equity and Democracy Party (DEM) — the third largest party in Turkey's parliament — said his uncle was "in good health."

He also reported that Ocalan had given him a message, saying, "if conditions allow, I have the necessary theoretical and practical power to shift this process from the arena of conflict and violence to one of law and politics."

Media sources close to the government reported Ocalan as saying that he was, "ready to lay down his arms."

The DEM, whose support Erdogan needs if he is to see through his plan to change the Turkish constitution to allow himself to remain in power indefinitely, condemned Wednesday's attack, pointing out that it had come at a time when, "Turkish society was talking about a solution and the possibility of dialogue."

The most recent attempt at peace talks between the two sides failed in 2015, opening a bloody new chapter in a conflict that began in 1984.

The fight to establish an autonomous Kurdish state has claimed tens of thousands of lives since it began 40 years ago.

Turkey: Dreaming of Kurdistan  04:30

js/lo (AFP, dpa, Reuters)

Turkey buries attack victims after striking PKK

Ankara (AFP) – Turkey said it had proof that PKK militants were behind the deadly Ankara attack that claimed the lives of five people who were laid to rest Thursday after an emotional farewell.

The coffin of Murat Arslan, the taxi driver killed in Wednesday's attack, was carried by Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya, left, and parliamentary speaker Numan Kurtulmus 

© Adem ALTAN / AFP

Wednesday's shooting attack at the state-run Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) came after days in which the government appeared to be leaning towards a resumption of dialogue with Kurdish militants.

After government ministers said they were "very likely" responsible, the military pounded PKK targets in Syria and Iraq overnight in raids that Kurdish militants in Syria said left 12 civilians dead.

And on Thursday investigators confirmed that both attackers, a man and a woman, were "PKK terrorists", Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya wrote on X.

Both appeared in CCTV images posted on X in which they are seen emerging from a taxi then firing assault rifles before entering the building in an attack that killed five and wounded 22 others.

Family members mourn the death of taxi driver Murat Arslan who was killed during Wednesday's attack on the TAI defence firm © Adem ALTAN / AFP

After flying in from Russia where he had attended the BRICS summit of major emerging economy nations, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan chaired a security meeting at Istanbul's old Ataturk airport.

There he was briefed by top diplomat Hakan Fidan, spy chief Ibrahim Kalin, the defence and interior ministers, the army chief, the head of Turkey's state Defence Industry Agency and top officials from his ruling AK party, the Anadolou news agency reported.

After a day in which the victims were laid to rest following mournful ceremonies, many attended by government representatives, Turkey appeared to be planning a tough response.

Security stepped up

With 14 of the 22 wounded still in hospital, security measures were stepped up at Istanbul's two international airports.

Overnight, the military struck "47 terrorist targets" in Syria and northern Iraq, the defence ministry said, claiming to have killed "59 terrorists" including two in senior positions.

Five people were killed in the attack, with taxi driver Murat Arslan shot dead by the attackers who stole his vehicle © Adem ALTAN / AFP

Kurdish sources in northern Syria said the strikes had killed 12 civilians and wounded 25 others.

The attack struck amid growing signs of a political thaw between Ankara and Kurdish militants.

Just hours before the attack, PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan -- who has been jailed on a Turkish prison island in solitary confinement since 1999 -- received his first family visit in years.

His nephew, Omer Ocalan, a lawmaker for the main pro-Kurdish DEM party, confirmed the visit on X, saying the family had last seen him "on March 3, 2020".

The only other contact was a brief phone call in March 2021.

Earlier this month, demonstrators protested against the ongoing isolation of PKK head Abdullah Ocalan, who has been languishing in solitary confinement since 1999 © Ilyas AKENGIN / AFP/File

His uncle was "in good health" and had sent a message, saying: "If the conditions allow, I have the theoretical and practical power to shift this process from an arena of conflict and violence to one of law and politics."

Abdulkadir Selvi, a columnist for the Hurriyet daily which is close to the government, said the meeting lasted two hours and that "Ocalan said he was ready to lay down his arms."

The visit came a day after Devlet Bahceli, head of the far-right MHP, which is close to Erdogan and fiercely hostile to the PKK, sparked shockwaves by inviting Ocalan to parliament to renounce terror and dissolve his movement.

DEM -- the third largest party in parliament -- said it was "noteworthy" that the TAI attack happened "just as Turkish society was talking about a solution and the possibility of dialogue".

Arrested on February 15, 1999 in Kenya by Turkish security forces after years on the run, Ocalan was brought back and tried but escaped execution after Turkey abolished capital punishment in 2004.

He has since lived in an isolation cell on Imrali prison island in the Sea of Marmara, turning 75 in April.

For many Kurds, Abdullah Ocalan is a hero © MICHEL GANGNE / AFP/File

In 1978 he founded the PKK which went on to spearhead a brutal insurgency that has killed tens of thousands in its fight for independence.

He first called for dialogue and a ceasefire in 2012 and again in 2013, before the bloody conflict resumed in 2015.

© 2024 AFP

Turkiye buries attack victims after striking PKK in Iraq, Syria

AFP Published October 25, 2024 

ANKARA: Family members and relatives mourn next to the coffins of people who were killed in an attack on the state-run Turkish Aerospace Industries building, on Thursday. Turkish forces struck PKK militants in Iraq and Syria, whom Ankara blamed for Wednesday’s assault that killed five people and injured 22 others.—AFP

• Kurdish sources claim strikes killed 12 civilians, wounded 25 others

• Erdogan says Ankara attack ‘further strengthens resolve to eliminate terrorism’

ANKARA: The first Ankara attack victims were being buried on Thursday, just hours after Turkiye struck PKK militants in Iraq and Syria whom it blames for the assault on a defence firm that killed five.

As the dust settled after Wednesday’s deadly att­ack on the state-run Tur­kish Aerospace Industries (TAI) that also left 22 injured, Turkiye pointed the finger at Kurdish militants as “very likely” responsible.

Turkish investigators said both attackers were “PKK terrorists”, identifying them as a man called Ali Orek, codename “Rojger”, and a woman called Mine Sevjin Alcicek, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya wrote on X.



Both appeared in CCTV images posted on X in which they are seen emerging from a taxi then firing assault rifles before entering the building.

The taxi driver, whom they killed, was buried on Thursday at a funeral attended by Yerlikaya and parliamentary speaker Numan Kurtulmus.

Of the 22 people hurt in the attack, eight had been discharged, while the other 14 remained in hospital, Turkiye’s health ministry said.

Security stepped up

Istanbul’s two main airports have since stepped up security, the DHA news agency and private NTV channel reported.

Sabiha Gokcen airport, which is located on the Asian side of the city, told passengers to arrive “at least three hours” early to avoid delays due to increased security.

Overnight, the defence ministry said the military struck “47 terrorist targets” in Syria and northern Iraq and pledged the raids would continue. Kurdish sources in northern Syria said the strikes had killed 12 civilians and wounded 25 others.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is in Russia attending the BRICS summit of major emerging economy nations, said the attack had “further strengthened Turkiye’s determination and resolve to eliminate terrorism”.

The attack happened amid growing signs of a political thaw between Ankara and Kurdish militants.

Just hours beforehand, PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan — who has been jailed on a Turkish prison island in solitary confinement since 1999 — received his first family visit in years.

Ready to lay down arms?

His nephew, Omer Ocalan, who is a lawmaker for the main pro-Kurdish DEM party, confirmed the visit on X, and said the family had last seen him “on March 3, 2020”. The only other contact was a brief phone call in March 2021.

His uncle was “in good health” and had sent a message about the ongoing “political developments”, saying: “If the conditions allow, I have the necessary theoretical and practical power to shift this process from an arena of conflict and violence to one of law and politics.”

According to Abdul­kadir Selvi, a columnist for the Hurriyet daily which is close to the government, during the two-hour meeting “Ocalan said he was ready to lay down his arms”.

On Tuesday, Devlet Bahceli, head of the far-right MHP, which is fiercely hostile to the PKK and belongs to Erdogan’s ruling coalition, sparked shockwaves by inviting Ocalan to parliament to renounce terror and dissolve his movement.

After the attack, DEM — the third largest party in parliament — condemned the violence but said it was “noteworthy” it happened “just as Turkish society was talking about a solution and the possibility of dialogue”.

Arrested on February 15, 1999 in the Kenyan capital Nairobi following a Hollywood-style operation by Turkish security forces after years on the run, Ocalan was brought to Turkiye for trial and sentenced to death.

Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2024

At least a dozen civilians killed in Turkish strikes, says Kurdish-led Syria force

At least 12 civilians were killed in Turkish air strikes in northeastern Syria on Thursday, according to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. The attack comes a day after Turkey launched air strikes on Kurdish militants in Iraq and Syria, blaming them for an attack that killed five people at a defence firm near Ankara.


Issued on: 24/10/2024 - 
By: NEWS WIRES

Turkish police officers secure part of a main road in Kahramankazan, about 40 kilometres north of Ankara, on October 23, 2024. 

© Adem Altan, AFP


The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said Thursday that Turkish air strikes killed 12 civilians in northeastern Syria, following a deadly attack on a defence firm near Ankara.

"Over the past hours... a new wave of (Turkish) attacks on northern and eastern Syria" killed "12 civilians, including two children", and wounded 25 others, a statement from the US-backed force said.

"In addition to populated areas, Turkish warplanes and UAVs (drones) targeted bakeries, power stations, oil facilities and (Kurdish) Internal Security Force checkpoints," the statement added, also reporting Turkish shelling.

Turkey launched air strikes on Kurdish militants in Iraq and Syria Wednesday blaming them for an attack that killed five people at a defence firm near Ankara.

A further 22 people were wounded in the attack, which the government said was "very likely" carried out by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Hours later, "an air operation was carried out against terrorist targets in the north of Iraq and Syria," the defence ministry said in a statement.

"A total of 32 targets belonging to the terrorists were successfully destroyed."

The US-backed SDF spearheaded the campaign that dislodged Islamic State group jihadists from their last scraps of Syrian territory in 2019.

Turkey sees the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which dominate the SDF, as an offshoot of the PKK.

Turkish troops and allied rebel factions control swathes of northern Syria following successive cross-border offensives since 2016, most of them targeting the SDF.

(AFP)

DEM Party Headquarters in Ankara attacked

The DEM Party Headquarters in Ankara was attacked last night.


ANF
ANKARA
Friday, 25 October 2024, 

The Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) Headquarters building in Ankara was attacked last night.

DEM Party Spokesperson Ayşegül Doğan wrote on her social media: "Our DEM Party Headquarters in Balgat, one of the busiest neighborhoods of Ankara, where many political parties have their headquarters, was attacked at midnight on Thursday."

Doğan added: "As seen in the photos, the doors and windows were broken, and an attempt was made to take down our sign. We reiterate that this poor mentality that seeks provocations cannot intimidate or stop us. We call on the Minister of Interior Ali Yerlikaya to quickly take action to take the necessary precautions and to identify the attackers."

DEM Party calls for immediate halt to Turkish air strikes on Northern and Eastern Syria

The DEM Party called for an immediate halt to Turkish air strikes on the autonomous region of Northern and Eastern Syria: "Military operations against civilians violate international law."


ANF
ANKARA
Thursday, 24 October 2024, 13:07

The Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM) called for an immediate halt to Turkish attacks on the autonomous region of Northern and Eastern Syria.

The party executive's statement said: "The air strikes launched after the attack on the TUSAŞ compound in Ankara-Kahramankazan will only exacerbate the violence in the region. The bombing of many centers in Northern and Eastern Syria, especially in Kobanê, is endangering the lives of civilians. The devastating effects of the war could be catastrophic for all parties in the region. Military operations targeting civilians also violate international law. The continuation of war and conflict will only cause more suffering and losses. We appeal to all parties to work for dialogue and peaceful solutions. The bombing of civilian habitats must stop immediately."

Turkey targets wheat warehouse in Kobanê, injures workers

The Turkish state targeted a wheat warehouse in Kobanê. Many workers were injured.


ANF
NEWS DESK
Friday, 25 October 2024, 

The occupying Turkish state bombed a wheat warehouse in the village of Rovî in Kobanê.

It was reported that many workers were injured, one seriously, in the attack carried out by unmanned armed aerial vehicles.

KDC-F: Stop Turkish state bombing of civilians in Rojava



ANF
PARIS
Thursday, 24 October 2024, 17:42


The Kurdish Democratic Council in France (KDC-F) issued a statement in which it "strongly condemns the deadly bombings carried out by the Turkish army in northern Syria, which have caused, according to initial reports, the death of more than 12 civilians, including children, and injured more than 25 other people. These bombings, which occurred after the attack on the headquarters of Turkey's defense industries near Ankara, are not only unjustified, but also constitute flagrant war crimes."

The KDC-F added: "By targeting villages, civilian infrastructure and populated areas, Turkey is once again demonstrating its determination to break the legitimate resistance of the Kurdish people. These barbaric acts, which blindly strike children and civilians, reveal the Turkish government's war strategy of eradication."

The statement continued "We denounce this unacceptable violence, which violates international law and humanitarian conventions. The KDC-F calls on the international community, as well as France and the International Coalition, to assume their responsibilities by intervening to put an end to these massacres and protect civilian populations."

The KDC-F said that on Saturday, demonstrations will be organized throughout France, particularly in Paris, to denounce these bombings and express our solidarity with the victims and the Kurdish people.

The Kurdish organization called "on French civil society to mobilize against these repeated attacks and to stand alongside the Kurdish people in their struggle for peace, justice and dignity."