KCK Executive Council co-chair Besê Hozat said: "History will be placed on its feet, and we will be its pioneers," and stated that the Kurdish People’s Leader (referring to Abdullah Öcalan) has pushed the Freedom Movement toward transformation, growth, and strengthening.

Following the "Call for Peace and a Democratic Society" issued by Öcalan on 27 February, the PKK held its 12th Extraordinary Congress simultaneously in two different regions of the Medya Defense Areas between May 5–7. During the congress, Hozat first greeted Öcalan with respect and longing. She also paid tribute to PKK co-founders Ali Haydar Kaytan and Rıza Altun, whose martyrdoms had been announced at the Congress.

A new beginning

Emphasizing the importance of the congress, and the emotional weight of holding such a congress after 52 years, Hozat said: "Why are we holding this congress? Why have we come to this point? When we deeply reflect on these questions, we realize, as the Leadership [Abdullah Öcalan] has said, that this is not an ending. We clearly understand that it is a brand-new beginning, a process of change, transformation, and restructuring. When we look deeply at history, at our own struggle, and at the Leadership's perspectives, especially those developed for this period, we can easily reach this conclusion. This allows us to step outside the emotional atmosphere. I have personally experienced this as well."

The political report prepared by the Leadership

Hozat continued: "The Leadership’s perspectives are truly striking. For every congress, the Leadership has presented a political report. In many congresses we’ve attended, those reports were read, and discussions and outcomes were shaped around them. This congress has been made possible by the Leadership’s intervention, breaking through the torture and isolation conditions of Imralı. We had the great fortune to read the political report prepared by the Leadership. Of course, creating the conditions for this, enabling this moment, was the result of great struggle. Opening this congress with the Leadership’s report and basing discussions on it is the fruit of that struggle. The center of that struggle has undoubtedly been Imralı.

Our struggle would not have lasted this long without the leadership

Hozat added: "There has been an heavy struggle and war ongoing at Imralı for 26 years. As a movement, guided by the Leadership’s line, even in the period before 1999, but particularly since the conspiracy, we have tried to follow that line, to resist. All our strength and belief come from there. I wonder whether, without those five books of the Leadership’s defense writings, without his consistent and determined interventions in every period since the 7th Congress, could we have sustained such a monumental struggle for 26 years? Could we have survived? I believe not. Without the Leadership, our lifespan would not have been this long. The more the Leadership transcended himself, the more he enabled the Movement to open up. As he reinvented himself, he reinvented and regenerated the Movement, renewing and reshaping it, he pushed it to transform, grow, and strengthen.

As a member of the leadership myself, I say this: the brain center of this organization is the Leadership. If the executive power, meaning the brain of the organization, does not transcend, reinvent, or liberate itself, how will it create transformation in the Movement? In the cadres, the people, the sympathizers, and the masses, how will growth happen? How will change and transformation occur? It won’t."

Hozat said: "In this regard, the Leadership’s style is striking. He says, ‘I have summarized the last 10 years. In those 10 years, I recreated myself almost 10,000 times. With that self-creation, I enact this transformation. I dare to do it.’ The current political report is shaped through that transformation. When he says, ‘I am ending the era of armed struggle,’ he bases it on that transformation. This is crucial, as we are now discussing a new period of change and transformation.

In all the Leadership’s political reports, and especially in this latest one, which is 21 pages long, nearly half is gender-centered historical analysis, focusing on the contradiction and conflict between men and women. He bases the transformation of mindset, culture, and the dominant patriarchal order, and the overall societal transformation, on that. He completely grounds the democratic, communal, and socialist vision on it. This, of course, requires deeper discussion and reflection."

We are writing history

Hozat concluded her intervention by saying: "We are writing a new history. History will be placed on its feet, and we will be its pioneers. The freedom history of peoples will be written. The Leadership is revealing all the truths and putting everything on solid ground by reaching the truth of the peoples’ quest for freedom. The PKK has undoubtedly played its role. Above all, it has left a profound mark on history. It has created immense values and meanings, not only for the Kurdish people and women, but for all of humanity, and has become part of history. In that sense, it leaves behind a legacy. Now, we will build a new process on that great legacy. Drawing strength, self-confidence, faith, and resolve from it, we will develop this process. We will all be its pioneers and militants. We will be militants of this new process. That is a great honor and pride. It truly excites one deeply. That’s what I wanted to express. I greet all comrades once again."