In the second part of this in-depth interview, Duran Kalkan, member of the KCK Executive Council, spoke about the current war in the Middle East, and the solution proposed by the Kurdish people's leader, Abdullah Öcalan, for the region.

The war in the Middle East, which could possibly be described as World War Three, is growing in intensity. How do you assess the current developments in this regard?

The war in the Middle East has intensified since October last year. That started with the attack by Hamas from Gaza, which Israel has seized as an opportunity. But Israel is not on its own; the whole NATO is behind it. Israel wants to utilize the advantages it has gained militarily. It is accurate to consider this as the Third World War.

Rêber Apo [Abdullah Öcalan] analyzed and evaluated the Third World War in all its dimensions. He defined it as a conflict caused by the contradiction between the supranational monopoly capital system and the nation-state status quo. It is linked to globalizing capital, its ability to make more profit, to exploit more, to move faster and unhindered. For this, the attacking force is the monopolistic supranational capitalist power.

The defenders are the nation-state structures, the nation-state status quo forces. All the states in the Middle East were like this. Iraq, Syria, and others have always been targets. Now Iran is being targeted. Iran, of course, is also a nation-state status quo force in a way. The most rigid nation-state power clinging to the status quo is the Turkish state. Therefore, as I have already stated in the past, is the center of the war in Turkey. No matter what the current rulers, AKP, MHP, others, go to NATO, try to join the European Union, do whatever in the US, go to Russia, China, or join BRICS, they cannot save themselves.

The First World War was a redistribution over energy resources and routes. It was a redistribution of the world. It was the formation of a global hegemonic structure for the capitalist system. The Middle East and the Ottoman Empire were the targets. They took out the nation-state structure and dismembered the Empire. Turkey became the model, and a hundred years passed like this. Now the Third World War wants to overcome these hundred years of nation-state status quo. That status quo limits the circulation of capital. It prevents maximum profit. It weakens exploitation. And capital does not want to recognize obstacles. It wants to make more profit. There is an insatiability there. This is how this attack continues. Again, there are new energy routes; there is the issue of energy resources.

There is also the aim of global monopoly capital to become more influential and dominant. What the human mind created thousands of years ago, five thousand years ago in the Middle East, is now bringing everything to humanity in the Middle East. Middle Easterners created all this war and all these tools. The first of everything happened in the Middle East. Everything developed in the Middle East. And now it is becoming a victim of its own creations. But not everyone is, of course. Some try to dominate, some become victims. There is a very brutal, unrestrained war going on.

Nationalism, religionism, sexism, and materialism are ravaging the Middle East and the whole world. This war is its product. One side says that the Ummah must unite. Another side says it wants the capital to dominate everything. Some talk about problems with security and freedom. For example, Israel is attacking right now. It says that the Jews have a security and freedom problem, and it would solve it for them. It is for Israel’s security. Rêber Apo underlined this. Will the Jews be able to ensure their own security by destroying their environment? Or will they be safe by fraternizing with the environment? Will the Jews be free by enslaving others? Or will they be free by sharing with everyone? This war will not bring security; it will not bring freedom; it will not bring democracy. There is opposition to these things. Like this, there will be no security and freedom for the Jew, no security and freedom for the Muslim, no security and freedom for the Christian, no security and freedom for the Turk, no security and freedom for the Persian, no security and freedom for the Kurd, no security and freedom for the Arab, none of them.

What is necessary? Rêber Apo proposed the democratic nation as a solution for the Middle East. He proposed democratic confederalism. The solution is here; the solution is coexistence. Instead of destroying all the others and taking over everything, he envisages coexistence. There is no other solution. Otherwise, there will be an endless bloodbath, there will be a disaster, and maybe some people will become very wealthy for a while, but there is no end to it. This is why this war must be opposed. This war of interests, this war of redistribution, the Third World War, the imperialist war, and the war of exploitation must be opposed. Everyone must turn it into their own war for freedom and democracy. They must turn it into a war of brotherhood with other peoples. It is necessary to turn it into a war for democratic nation, democratic confederalism and develop its revolution. That can only be the solution.

Is there anything else you would like to add at the end?

October 29 marked the 101st anniversary of the proclamation of the Republic in Turkey. It would be useful to say a few words on the occasion of this anniversary. Because it is also connected to other discussions. Again, Rêber Apo has put forward these issues in a very holistic manner with all the details. One, Kurds are active founding members of this republic. This needs to be reminded once again to those who have seized this republic and use it as their private club. Two, Kurds did not betray this republic.

The Republic itself did not manage to become a true republic. Because it could not democratize. It could not become a democratic republic. The Republic itself betrayed its founding principles and did not maintain them. During its founding process, it granted the Kurds autonomy. It fought for Turkish-Kurdish unity and brotherhood and tried to establish this republic. But it was the republic itself that ignored the Kurds and wanted to destroy them. The Republic turned to this to destroy the Kurds. And when the Kurds resisted, they were declared guilty because they were resisting. Three, this was the Republic of Turkey, not the Turkish Republic. It was the State of the Republic of Turkey, not the Turkish State.

Those who ignored the Kurdish people, betrayed the founding principles of the republic, and caused the republic to become what it has become are the ones who made the Republic of Turkey a Turkish Republic. Turkish and Turkey are not the same. When the Republic was founded, Turkey was defined as a common homeland where Turks and Kurds lived. Turkey refers to a homeland. Turk refers to a race, a nation. Turkey and the Turk cannot be equated or equated. In the beginning there were no Turks, there was Turkey. Turks were something, an element in it, like the Kurds. There were also other communities. But they ignored them all. They also wrote at the beginning of the constitution, in many justifications. The Turkish State, the Turkish Republic, is not like that. This is being distorted. They are not being faithful to the truth. Therefore, we call everyone to the truth.

I mentioned before that 100 years have passed like this. The First World War was a war to divide the Middle East into nation states. This happened in Turkey. Now the Third World War is trying to overcome the status quo. The Turkish Republic was established with the Treaty of Lausanne. Through the Turkish Republic, Arabia was shaped into twenty or so states. Now there is the Jewish-Arab alliance, the Israeli-Arab alliance, the Abraham Accords Declaration. The capitalist system wants to reshape the new Middle East according to this agreement. What will Turkey do in the current situation? It can no longer continue with the same approaches as in the last century. Everyone must come to their senses. They must see the changes. They try to take the capitalist order as a basis, but they try not to act according to the logic of capital. That won’t work then. They don’t know where they will end up like this.

Finally, let me point out one last aspect. This republic was founded thanks to the October revolution, with the support of the Soviet Union and the support of the Kurds. If it had not been for the October revolution, if the Soviet Union had not emerged, if the Kurds had not supported it, such a state would not have been established a century ago. There is no Soviet Union now. Those who think they can find new support by going to China or Russia and trying to join BRICS are fooling themselves. If you try to destroy the Kurds, then what will you survive on? The system is cutting its own legs, cutting its own arms.

Now there are Turks who define the Kurd as a wolf among them. They insult them in all kinds of ways and develop all kinds of assimilation, massacres, and genocide. Now Bahceli says that Kurds are their brothers; Kurds cannot exist without Turks, and Turks cannot exist without Kurds. Kurds have been saying this for a hundred years. They have done everything they could on this issue; they have not given any support. Why were they never taken into consideration? Have you only just come to your senses? But they are still not consistent on this issue. They are trying to deceive the Kurds. They say Kurds cannot be without Turks; Turks cannot be without Kurds. But still, they want the Kurds to become Turks. This is not the way. Kurds will be given their rights. Kurds will be free. Turkey will become a democracy based on Kurdish freedom and on women’s freedom. Only then can it sustain itself. Only then, as an alternative system, can it resist the attacks of this capitalist system, the monopoly capital system, and survive. Otherwise, it has no chance of survival.

Those people who claim different, understand nothing. They are only after their own rents, they are dragging Turkey towards disaster. The intellectuals, writers, artists, and politicians of Turkey should be wise against them. They should appreciate the Kurdish reality, the support of the Kurds, the support of a thousand years, and make good use of it. Then they should be able to establish a democratic republic in the homeland of Kurds and Turks according to the founding, that is, based on their freedom. Otherwise, there is no chance of survival.

Finally, we are entering November, the month of the establishment of our party. I call on everyone to use the month in which this party was born correctly, to evaluate it correctly, to develop the struggle for the physical freedom of Rêber Apo more effectively by deepening the understanding of the party’s approach to revolution and patriotism in the line of Rêber Apo and the martyrs.

By commemorating the comrades Kerim, Delal and Reşit with respect, love and gratitude, I commemorate all of our November martyrs. I call on everyone to increase the struggle for the freedom of Rêber Apo everywhere in the legacy of the November martyrs, and I wish everyone success.