In a time where the world system is attempting to find a solution that may well outline the parameters of the new world system, the intrinsically internal preoccupation of the Kurdish people is unacceptable.
The Abdullah Ocalan Social Sciences Academy
The conflict in Syria is protecting its status as the most important global issue. While in most parts of Syria the increasingly violent clashes are on-going, regional and global powers are negotiating on the division of powers and interests post regime change. While no noticeable effort of democratization by the current regime can be perceived, the opposition seems to be insisting on preserving its fragmented state. The USA’s attempt at an intervention to this current state has led it to pass a law that promises the opposition forces more aid. Alongside this, meetings organized in Istanbul, Geneva and Jordan under the ironic name of “Friends of Syria” are diplomatic platforms of interference.
The Kurdish people of Western Kurdistan are increasing their efforts in structuring their own democratic alternative to the developments in Syria. However, during this increasingly volatile atmosphere, the decision of the KDP to once again close off the border between the Kurdistan Regional Government and Western Kurdistan risks demolishing the so far short lived positive atmosphere among the Kurdish people. The KDP and its representative extension in Western Kurdistan, PAK, rather than supporting the people’s on-going effort of democratization, are instead impeding the rate of development by choosing to side with the interfering external global powers. What is actually being played out is the conflict between the democratic solution project of the people, against the elitist statist solution of the KDP. Those who feel a degree of responsibility towards the developments in the region must take a stance against the strategy of the KDP and criticize its deployed measures. In a time where the world system is attempting to find a solution – to what is clearly a global systemic crisis being expressed in the locality of Western Kurdistan – that may well outline the parameters of the new world system, the intrinsically internal preoccupation of the Kurdish people is unacceptable. Circles that are hindering the development of the Kurdish people’s democratic institutionalization through the application of divisive policies must abandon this betrayal immediately.
The new process initiated by our leader Abdullah Ocalan is continuing to dominate the agenda in Turkey. This process was initiated more than two months ago. While the withdrawal of the guerrilla forces is on-going, the democratic requirements of the process are hardly being put on the agenda. The expressed and expected points of discussion that were prophesized as part of the on-going process are being misinterpreted and/or mistreated. For example, the series of conferences that was proposed by our leader Ocalan in consideration of the healthy progression of the process is not being sufficiently discussed and consequently materialized. These conferences should be seen as a move by the forces of democratic modernity against the plans and projects of capitalist modernity; this is why it is essential for the will and the thoughts of all factions of democratic society to be reflected in these conferences through the parameters of direct democracy. Preparative conferences must be conducted in villages, towns and neighbourhoods across the country; the results of which must form the agenda of the general conference.
During the withdrawal of the guerrilla forces, the real agenda should be the fundamental construction of democracy and the return of villagers that were previously forced out of their villages. The obstacles in front of people that want to return to their villages should be removed. The disbandment of the village guards and the preparation of previously inhabitable militarized areas to be suitable for habitation are still impeding the return of the people to their land. However, a contrastingly noticeable rise in the construction of military bases and dams is furthering the inhabitability of the region.
News from Turkish prisons regarding the mistreatment of political prisoners is definitely an attack against the on-going process. These are unwelcome events during the withdrawal of the guerrilla forces and can only be analysed as attempts at sabotaging the process. This only confirms the fact that the diagnostic characteristic of the process is not the withdrawal of the guerrilla forces; rather, the process hinges on a fundamental democratic reconstruction of Turkey.