Duran Kalkan, member of the KCK Executive Council, talked about the importance of 1 September, the ecocide carried out by Turkey, and the festival in Frankfurt,

On 1 September, Peace World Day, millions of people around the world took to the streets to demand an end to the war. Most people are talking about the genocidal war in Gaza or the war in Ukraine, but the war here in Kurdistan is also in the spotlight. What would you like to say to the people who are campaigning for peace on the streets?

1 September was actually a day of war. They called it ‘International Day of Peace’, but on 1 September 1939, Hitler’s fascism crossed the border and attacked Poland. That’s how the so-called World War II started. That is to say, the catastrophic war that lasted 6 years and killed more than 50 million people started with Hitler’s attack on 1 September 1939. In order to reverse this, socialist, progressive, democratic circles declared a day of peace.

Again today, there are calls for peace, but as you mentioned, there is a war. And it has been going on for years, decades. There is no end to it in sight. How can we talk about peace in such a war environment? Only if you fight a big war for peace can it have a meaning. Otherwise, no one will give up the war by saying, “I want peace; peace is good; everyone should give up the war.” War will not end like this. However, those who oppose the war, those who want peace, must wage a struggle for freedom and democracy against this war so that there can be peace. Peace can only come with democracy and freedom.

Can there be peace where there is no freedom and democracy? Of course not. So it is necessary to win freedom and democracy and to fight for them. This is the biggest war for peace. In today’s situation, we should not talk about peace but about the war for peace. It is obvious that the greatest pioneer, leader, representative, and solution force of the war for freedom and democracy is Rêber Apo. Those who want to do so must see this leadership. They must unite with his struggle. Especially in Turkey, this should be the case. Turkey is in dire need of peace. The anti-Kurdish mentality and system, most recently the AKP-MHP fascism, has turned Turkey into the most unrestrained, unethical, and unlawful country in the Kurdish war. In order to put a stop to this, it is, of course, necessary to impose peace in Turkey. And how can this be done? We need to impose freedom and democracy. There can be no peace without Kurdish freedom, without the democratization of Turkey. These are intertwined like fingernails and toenails. In order to win peace, we need to mobilize for the war for freedom and democracy, for the antifascist war.

All peace lovers should be involved in such a great antifascist resistance and struggle; they should develop an antifascist resistance front or unity and alliance and develop a great struggle for freedom and democracy that aims to overthrow AKP-MHP fascism. In particular, Turkey needs this more than bread and water. The power to realize this is the Kurds. They struggle with everything they have for freedom and democracy. They do not only want freedom for Kurds; they want democracy for Turkey, the Middle East, and the world. This means the struggle for peace. The pioneer of this is Rêber Apo. Turkey’s freedom and democracy forces, women, and youth movements must unite more strongly in this struggle. Everyone who says they are anti-fascist should recognize this reality, unite with these forces, grow and develop the anti-fascist movement, and try to save Turkey from this AKP-MHP disaster.

It is interesting that some people still keep saying, “There will be war.” For example, Tayyip Erdoğan said, “World War III may happen in the future; we need to prepare for it.” But the Third World War is already a reality. War has been happening for decades. How can people not see this? How did the First World War end? It ended with the October Revolution. The Second World War developed in an environment that was different. But it was the October Revolution and the Soviet Union that brought the capitalist modernity system out of its internal contradictions, conflicts, and wars in order to redivide the world and exploit it more. Then the Soviet Union collapsed, and the war started again. We call it the Third World War. This is how Rêber Apo evaluated it. In 1990, there was the Gulf Crisis and the war, which has been going on ever since.

If people are not involved in war, if they do not experience it, they do not understand it. When there is a different situation sometimes, they fall into the situation of evaluating it according to themselves. We need to get rid of this. Some say “preparations are still being made.” Some say it started with Ukraine. It is not like that. There has been World War III for 35 years, since the beginning of 1990. It has been going on all over the Middle East. Those who are curious should open the books of the history of war; wherever World War I took place, they will see that World War III is now also going on there. From Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya, Iraq, and Syria to all the Ottoman lands, all of them are at war again. What is called World War III is actually a search to bring World War I, which ended differently with the October Revolution, to a new conclusion, taking into account the 100 years of development after the collapse of the system created by the October Revolution.

At that time, the searches of those who started the war did not come to a conclusion because of the October Revolution. Neither the aims of the German-Ottoman front nor those of the Anglo-French front and their alliances came to any conclusion. Because an alternative was born in Russia. They were afraid of it and had to make different compromises among themselves to prevent it. Also, the Turkish Republic was born in this environment, and this is how the Treaty of Lausanne was formed. They think that they fought very well, celebrated, and won victories. There is no such thing. They made good use of the conjunction. They evaluated the politics well. The Kemalist movement also showed some resistance. It achieved this result under those conditions. But the conditions of 1923 will never happen again. Tayyip Erdoğan is focused on this time period. He is reading Abdulhamid and is trying to see if something like that will happen again. He wants to become a second Abdulhamid or a second Mustafa Kemal, but in vain.

The war in other areas, the war in Ukraine, is the spread of war to the Black Sea.  World War I had already spread. Pacific tensions and conflicts are linked to these. There are those who analyze this war who say that World War II ended with the use of the atomic bomb. They say that the next World War will only happen if the atomic bomb is used. But nuclear bombs are already being used everywhere at the tactical level. They just need to look at what is going on in Zap.

This is how this war is going. This is what happens in Gaza. They are sacrificing the Palestinian people here. Now they say this war will spread to Lebanon and Syria. Every place that was a center of war in World War I is today again a center of war in the Middle East. And this is gradually moving towards Turkey. It is eventually going to focus on Turkey. Some people in Turkey saw this; they understand it. They are aware of this. To prevent this, they are trying to provoke an Israeli-Iranian war. They already started an Israeli war with Hamas, and now they are trying to provoke a Hezbollah-Israel war. They are trying with all their might to prevent the war from approaching Turkey, but in vain. They will not be able to do so. Let’s make this clear. This war will come; Turkey is going to be a center of war. The only thing that will save Turkey from this situation is democratization on the basis of Kurdish freedom and creating democratic unity with the peoples of the region, organizing a democracy front, a peace front against this war by forming the democratic Middle East confederalism. This is the only way for Turkey to survive. No one can get out of this war in any other way. Like Tayyip Erdoğan, by expanding into Syria and Iraq, one can plunge into war. Those waging this war are actually using Tayyip Erdoğan as an agent. Eventually, it will be Turkey’s turn.

As I mentioned earlier, it was Rêber Apo who foresaw this. He evaluated how much damage this would cause for the peoples. He tried to prevent it, developed alternative ideas, developed political projects, and put forward the will for a solution. But he was prevented and is being prevented. The international conspiracy attack is an attack to prevent exactly this. The fact that no news has been received from Rêber Apo for 42 months is actually to make this politics work. That is why they are preventing even a word of Rêber Apo from coming out in order to prevent the development that will prevent this catastrophe. Everyone should be aware of this. You cannot just say we want peace. This is serious. Everyone should come to their senses. Let’s understand capitalism correctly. Let’s understand the internal relations of the capitalist modernity system correctly. Let’s open, read, and analyze the first World War. 100 years of developments… I mean, what is Turkey’s place to stand up to Israel and launch a new energy route project against Israel? The most extreme point of capital is Israel. The US, the UK, they are all behind it.

In this respect, the current situation requires a more accurate understanding. In the reality of this World War, we should not be confused like this. Everyone should stop saying, “There will be preparations; it will come later, this and that.” The danger is great. We are fighting to prevent the danger from having more serious consequences and, if possible, to achieve peace and democracy. Everyone should understand this. Those who really want this should give strength and support to this. This is our promise, our call, our invitation.

While the genocidal war is being waged by the fascist Turkish state, nature continues to be targeted and exploited. It is something that is often overlooked or perceived as a separate problem, even though there is resistance in some places. What can you tell us about this?

The exploitation of man and the exploitation of nature are forms of oppression that go hand in hand. Fascist terror, the oppression and exploitation of the male-dominated mentality and system on women, means attacks and exploitation against nature. On the other hand, this means that ensuring the free coexistence of society, democratic self-administration, and the freedom of women is the basis for living peacefully in harmony with nature. Destroying nature is the origin of every form of oppression and exploitation: fascist dictatorship, the male-dominated system, and aggression to the maximum. This is how it should be handled. So, just as we want women’s freedom, we want the freedom of society, we want democracy – and this can only be realized through a correct approach to nature. Accordingly, we need to mobilize against the attacks that destroy, plunder, burn, and destroy our atmosphere and nature. They are building hydroelectric power plants; they are mining; they have made the country uninhabitable; society has become unable to produce; it is being poisoned. How can we live without air, without opportunities for economic production, without soil, environment, and greenery? These are being destroyed for the maximum profit of some people. This must not be allowed to happen. Everyone must resist this. We need to become more conscious. Social ecology movements, consciousness, organization, and action must develop more.

We attach great importance to every stance and struggle on this basis. All our people, all the peasants, all the villagers, all the kocers, wherever they are, must protect their own lands, their own assets as they protect their own lands. It is absolutely necessary not to allow this fascist, colonialist, genocidal system to plunder nature.

We salute all the struggles carried out on this basis. Everyone who calls themselves free and democratic should support and participate. This struggle still remains weak. In most places the struggle takes place quite isolated, but particularly the villagers are carrying out a very valuable and meaningful resistance. They need more solidarity and support. Everyone who considers themselves libertarian, democratic socialist, and democratic should protect these places more than anything else. Priority should be here.

Social freedom on the basis of women’s freedom and protecting nature are intertwined. In this respect, it is necessary to overcome the current weak approaches, to make the ecological struggle more organized and effective in every field, and to wage the war against fascism much more effectively from this front.

Our call is directed towards all women, all our people, all the peoples of Turkey. Because AKP-MHP fascism is not only anti-human, anti-people, anti-women, and anti-Kurdish, but it is also an enemy of nature, an enemy of forests, and an enemy of land. This animosity must be stopped.

Finally, I would like to talk about the Kurdish Cultural Festival in Frankfurt, which is also coming up in the near future. What do you have to say about it?

We can define the importance of the 32nd Kurdish Culture Festival in Frankfurt in terms of timing. We are approaching the end of the first year of our global campaign for the physical freedom of Rêber Apo. It is an action that takes place at a time when the anniversary is approaching, which gives it more meaning.

The cultural festival has become an important tradition within the last decades. Through the festival, the Kurds always asserted their existence, presented themselves to the peoples of Europe, and spread their culture. They expressed their democratic demands. But this year’s festival is also an action that marks the first anniversary of our global freedom campaign. It is necessary to organize accordingly. We have to work harder; we have to attach more importance to it. Our people and our friends in Europe should definitely define it in this way, and they should embrace and mobilize accordingly.

They must make our global freedom campaign reach a new peak. The biggest duty and responsibility in this falls on the youth. Of course. The youth are already in constant action for the physical freedom of Rêber Apo. They are starting a long march before the festival, and they are preparing the festival as well as the environment for it. They are leading the way.

This is important and, of course, meaningful. All young people, Kurdish youth and international youth, all our young friends, and young comrades should see the meaning and importance of this and accordingly make their marches the most spectacular, with the widest participation, with the most concrete demands, and not only that, that is, they should participate most actively in the preparatory work for the festival at the leading level.

I am calling for participation in the festival, and I celebrate it. I especially call on the Kurdish youth and the international youth to mobilize for such a festival to be the most spectacular.