Duran Kalkan, member of the KCK Executive Council, addressed the latest developments in Kurdistan, the Middle East and the world. 

Part one of this analysis can be read here

The guerrillas are the vanguard. On October 10, before such a campaign was announced, the guerrillas already announced their own campaign in Ankara by destroying the fascist genocidal headquarters. Such was the self-sacrifice act of comrades Rojhat and Erdal. Actually, the process started like that. The guerrilla process started on this basis, and we saw what happened afterward. With a comprehensive revolutionary operation every month, crushing-sweeping blows were dealt to the AKP-MHP fascist hordes without paying attention to the snow or cold. At the end of November, at the end of December…

It was actually in mid-January that the guerrilla launched the new phase. The action in Girê Amediyê… Everything is obvious. What more can we say? Everyone, friend and foe, saw what the guerrillas were capable of and how they fought. Everyone also saw the condition of the opposing force. Everything is in those images. And this is happening for the first time. We have always watched war films, but this is the first time humanity is watching a real war film. And that is on the basis of the action carried out by the Zap guerrilla. We need to see and understand this well. The guerrillas have reached this level. They fight at this level under such harsh conditions, and at the same time, without hesitation, they document the results and presents them to society, to humanity. They say, “I am doing this. Take it, evaluate it, measure it, mould it. If you like it, like it, if you don’t like it, criticise it. But if you are on my side or against me, do it right. See, know and do it with the facts. Let it not be wrong, let it not be random, and let it not be false praise. Even if you are hostile to the guerrilla, don’t mislead yourself. Because the guerrilla burns. If you make a mistake, you will burn. AKP-MHP fascist herds made mistakes, they are burning. Everything can be seen. The environment there is really instructive in every respect. There are things for everyone to take into account and learn from.

Everyone should know the Kurdish guerrillas well, and those who want to be friends should know them and be friends. Those who want to make enemies should do so but with an educated opinion. Because the Tayyip Erdoğan administration wants to make everyone an enemy against these guerrillas. He makes a lot of concessions, travels, meetings. He wants to turn everyone against the guerrilla. Everyone should know what they are opposing, not to make mistakes, not to be mistaken in the end. No one should be deceived by the Tayyip Erdoğan administration; that’s what we want. Otherwise, they will burn themselves too. We have said before, “There is a way to fight a war, but not like this. Those who do so will be burnt, they will suffer heavy blows. Our Central Headquarters Command has repeatedly stated this, and we have said it too. If they insist, they will suffer heavy defeats. And they did.

They didn’t take us seriously, they didn’t take us into consideration. They think they are too big, they think of themselves too much. In fact, there are people who were bought and trained by the MIT and the special warfare centre. The MIT put these people in the press. When something like this happens, watch the so-called Turkish press. They draw war strategies, determine tactics, manipulate and direct everyone, and neutralize society. They are all MIT agents, special warfare elements. They are members of the Central Headquarters Command, the Special Forces Command. They are civilian elements of the Turkish army. They are not journalists, commentators or thinkers. They are trying to manipulate. They were influenced by MIT. And they spoke in such high pitches! Here are the results. So there’s snow, winter, cold. It works equally against everyone! You saw the guerrilla. How calm, how harmonious, how coherent! How confident, how organised, disciplined, how cool-headed. Who can stand against such a guerrilla?

No army can fight like the HPG and YJA Star command and fighters, like the guerrilla. Neither the American army, nor the Chinese army, nor a NATO army… They cannot last even one day under those conditions. The Turkish army was supposedly the most warlike army of NATO. It is obvious what it has become. Let it be seen. In this respect, it is necessary to silence those deceptive things. In fact, the Turkish public should not follow or listen to them too much. Turkish intellectuals, leftists and democrats should expose them. Because they are brainwashing society. They are doing the most dangerous work. It is really necessary not to give them this opportunity.

Now there is a new announcement by the HPG about Mount Cûdî. They will share the details later, but they said “we have swept the hill”. In other words, the large area called Mount Cûdî has several hills; the enemy was located on one of them. Like the place we call Mount Gelhat in Mount Amediyê. They were posted there in a similar way. In the end, the entire presence of the occupying army there was set on fire, burnt and destroyed. The remaining ones will be like this step by step, this will be their end. “They will either flee or perish,” our command said. This is being implemented and will be implemented. This was not a simple promise. In this respect, there will be summer, winter, spring and autumn. No one should say that it will happen this time or that time. The guerrilla is questioning itself more, renewing, developing and enriching its forms of action. From now on, it will grow more and spread more. This must be expected. If these occupying forces try to insist on this war, their attacks and occupation, this will be their end. They will face stronger resistance from the guerrilla.

On this basis, I congratulate all the HPG and YJA Star command and fighter forces who carried out the Martyr Doğan Revolutionary operation. I salute the action. I wish our guerrilla outstanding success as always.

Today Hakan Fidan was in Germany. And strangely, Nechirvan Barzani was also there. They met everywhere. They hugged and embraced so much. Not only that, they also appeared in the German environment in front of the Germans. In other words, they went there to prevent the rally. In fact, they used all their power. The German police would have prevented the rally if it had been in accordance with their laws, and they have already banned even saying Bijî Serok Apo. They tried to create a lot of excuses. It became clear who was behind it. Neçirvan Barzani and Hakan Fidan. What can be said about them? These people are worth analysing. We know Neçirvan Barzani, but we should also get to know Hakan Fidan’s personality better. How did he turn himself into such a sworn Kurdish enemy, a butcher of the Kurds? We need to understand who he is, what he is, where and how he was trained. He has actually committed many massacres, including the 9 January 2013 Paris Massacre. He is the one who had the 24 December 2022 Paris Massacre carried out too. The person who organised massacres all over Europe, who should have been held responsible for this, who should have been questioned and put on trial, who went as far as to prevent people who were organising a legal rally in Europe. They are marketing Turkey and themselves so that nothing Kurdish can be heard, so that the Kurdish people have no rights, so that no one can even say their name and identity. They do such things. It has come to this point.

Tayyip Erdoğan’s trip to Egypt was like that. Very strange. We followed it carefully. Nothing else was said. All AKP channels wrote that Tayyip Erdoğan travelled to Cairo upon Sisi’s great request. Why did they feel the need to write this? Of course, it is a ridiculous situation. Because the reality is not like that at all. There are reactions from his base, from Turkish society, from everywhere. What were you saying about Sisi until now? How did you get so cosy with him? What made you go? I mean, he says, “I didn’t go, but he asked me and I couldn’t resist”. I mean, would Tayyip Erdoğan go to any extent even if others asked him? Does he do diplomacy with requests? Of course not. It is necessary to evaluate these trips carefully. Trips to the Middle East have this dimension in particular. The Turkish state is being excluded in the Middle East. The Middle East, which had been shaped since 1923, had been shaped according to the establishment of the Turkish state, according to that nation-state structure. Now a new Middle East is being shaped. The Turkish Republic is not in it. The capitalist system is changing itself at this level in the Middle East. The policies pursued by the Tayyip Erdoğan administration, Kurdish hostility and the war in Kurdistan have brought Turkey to this state. It has exhausted Turkey's geostrategic position and opportunities that they were so proud of and lived on. Everyone needs to see this, especially those who love Turkey. They need to understand what these policies have led to. Now he is trying to compensate for it in a way.

In reality, Turkey is trying to hold on. On the one hand, we saw this with the provocations in the Karabakh war and the Gaza war. They tried to sabotage in both instances. On the other hand, they are trying to beg their way in, trying to save themselves from this exclusion to some extent. All of this is outcasted diplomacy. This is one side.

On the other hand, we know these visits stem from Kurdish hostility. It is an attack against the PKK. Erdoğan is trying to gather strength and means for this. We have been following the issue of Sweden’s entry into NATO for a while, and Turkey used this issue very effectively and received some things from the US and NATO. We see that they have again received approval and support for a recent attack of destruction. This is how the US gave F-16s, this is how negotiations work. In other words, the AKP government did not accept Sweden’s membership without getting something in return. It bargained with the genocide war it waged against the Kurds. It received new approval from there, it received support and accepted on this basis. Now they are making preparations to attack. We understand and see this. However, the support and approval of the USA and NATO does not allow the AKP-MHP fascist dictatorship to carry out an attack beyond what has been done so far. It can only repeat what it has done. It has already failed to achieve results with these actions. It could not realise what it had planned. It was broken, and its will was defeated in the Media Defence Areas. They could not succeed in the invasion attacks. They made plans and declared that they were destroying the PKK many times. Those words came to naught dozens of times. They turned out to be liars, they were unable to achieve what they said they would. Now they realise that if Erdoğan does the same thing, he will not get a different result.

In fact, he wants to make this new attack even stronger by involving other forces. We understand and follow this too. The meeting with Iran was entirely within this framework. They persistently arranged for the Iranian President to visit Turkey. They were already constantly threatening Iraq and the PUK. In fact, they want to include Iraq and PUK in their new attack plans through Iran. We don’t know how much they reconciled with Iran, what they did. We do not think that Iran will entertain this too much. Iran has been giving support to the Turkish state a certain level so far. They are already working together. They carry out some attacks together. Iran provides intelligence, Turkey attacks. Even PJAK forces are attacked by Turkish planes. These are happening in cooperation with Iran. It could not happen otherwise. Beyond that, Iran has nothing more to offer. Because it does not have a difficult situations like Turkey. It does not have a problem at that level. In other words, Iran’s interests do not require this. But Erdoğan is trying to increase the pressure on Iraq and the PUK by saying “I also met with Iran”. This was also the reason behind the heavy propaganda for the Egypt visit.

In other words, they want to influence Iraq and the Arab world by meeting with Egypt. On the other hand, they seem to be behind the war in Gaza, together with Egypt. They are trying to market it as a war against the Kurds. They are also trying to get support from Egypt in this direction. Supposedly, they will include Iraq and the PUK in this war of aggression that it is waging together with the KDP. It is difficult, they are having some difficulty. There may be a lot of pressure on them, but neither Iraq nor the PUK has any interest in this. There is no situation that will bring them to participate. Can negotiations with forces like Egypt give anything to Turkey in this regard? We do not think they will give much. In other words, they can develop economic and commercial relations. They have needed this for a while. Egypt also needed it. We don’t think there will be anything beyond that.

Arab society and intellectuals and states must be sensitive. Egypt and others… No one should make the struggle of the Palestinian people and the Kurdish people for such a just cause of existence and freedom a bargaining point for simple economic and political interests. They will be exposed, they will be damaged. Let’s say this publicly. Let all Arab states know this well. They have nothing left to do with Turkey. If they do this, if they oppose the cause of the Palestinian and Kurdish people, the relations they have established with Israel will not save them either. Because it is the Kurdish people’s struggle for freedom and the Palestinian people’s struggle that has made them effective in the Middle East and given them power of influence. This is where we win. The Arab states should see and understand this very well. In particular Arab intellectuals, writers and politicians should see this reality better. The women and labourers of Arab society should see it better and put pressure on them. We called this the Kurdish-Arab strategic relationship and alliance. It is important. Kurds have never opposed the rights of the Arab people. They foresaw that the basis of their struggle was to change the regional order that emerged at the end of the First World War. If that order ignored the Kurds, it also fragmented and weakened the Arabs to such an extent. It would make them the weaker power of the Middle East.

The Kurds gave the greatest support to save the Arabs from this with the struggle they waged. Now, instead of recognising this reality and establishing better relations with the Kurdish Freedom and Democracy Movement, if they re-engage themselves with forces such as the Turkish Republic and the AKP-MHP fascist dictatorship in order to create a new region, a democratic region in the Middle East, they will lose more than the Kurds. Why? Because Turkey wants to take the place called Misak-ı Milli. Erdoğan promises „I will not occupy it, I will take it and give it to you,“ but it is a lie. This is not so. In fact, Erdoğan wants to occupy Kurdistan and take up a position there. Of course, he will then develop Neo-Ottomanism. They will then say that „all of Arab areas were already ours. It was ours a century ago, it was ours 70 years ago, they took it from us“, they say we can take it again. Everyone sees this. The Kurds are struggling, they are blocking the way. Therefore, it is dangerous. AKP-MHP fascism is not only anti-Kurdish, it is also anti-Arab. They also provoked HAMAS to this situation. Tayyip Erdoğan, more than anyone else, is responsible for the situation in Gaza, the AKP administration is responsible. Now they are trying to find a solution with the AKP. What will you find a solution with? He threw the Palestinian people into the fire to ensure his own interests. No one should negotiate over the blood of the people of Gaza. We expose this, we oppose those who do such things. We have this level of brotherhood and friendship with the Palestinian people. We have seen friendship from them. We will maintain this until the end. In this respect, whoever tries to make simple economic and political interest calculations on the blood of the Palestinian people, they will of course find us against them. We will expose them, we will oppose them.

Turkey wants to do something of its own, but we don’t think it can. Neither Egypt, Iraq nor Iran will go along with this. Everyone sees what the AKP-MHP army has become in Zap. Who would follow an army that is crushed in the middle of winter? Who will tie their own interests there? We don’t think they will, but the AKP-MHP obviously wants to direct everyone more towards the Kurds and the PKK because of their interest calculations.

It is the society, intellectuals, labourers, workers, youth and women of Turkey who will oppose this. There is no awareness there either. This awareness remains very weak and feeble. Such a struggle, the exposure of this situation should be much stronger. When will they come to their senses? They should come to their senses now. For more than 20 years, this AKP administration has done its job. Will they be patient with this administration any longer? Therefore, it is actually society in Turkey that should learn lessons from all this. Intellectuals, workers and labourers, trade unions. But they remain weak. We also need to work to develop this awareness persistently.

They used to say, “We will save the 9 workers like this, we will save them like that”. Now they say those people hve lost their lives. I commemorate them with respect, but they should neither be workers like this nor martyrs. So we shouldn’t be like that. We must make ourselves responsible for our own lives, we must make ourselves effective. If we depend our lives so much on others, they will force us to this level. They will crush us. We must not become like that. Now it’s murder in plain sight. Someone is making money extracting gold, and the other is losing his life. Now they say the water of the Euphrates is being poisoned. The whole of Mesopotamia will die, and no one makes a sound. It’s very strange. I mean, can it be like this? Can there be such a system of looting and plunder? No society can endure this.

In fact, it is really incomprehensible that the society in Turkey accepts this in this way. Can such a thing be accepted? But they have neutralised society through special warfare, lies, pressure and force. They produce such moneymakers. Why are they doing this? All this looting and plundering is to slaughter the Kurds. They say: “We are building a war industry, we are strengthening our defence industry, we are buying so much of this, so much of that, and we are hitting the Kurds”. Now these are being used in the Kurdish genocide. Kurdish genocide, Kurdish enmity have brought Turkey to this state. It sells all its means to the market. It went to NATO and surrendered. It begs and receives money. He begged Iran, trying to get support. He went to Egypt and did so many things. He is begging the Egyptian government for support. There is no reputation, no effectiveness left. Crisis – economic crisis, political crisis – is at its peak. On the other hand, ecological plunder is now at a much higher level. This process started with hydroelectric power plants in Artvin, in the Black Sea region. The hands of those women should be kissed for how they opposed back then? But they suppressed all the women. They were silenced. No one stood up for them. They organised protests saying “We oppose these HEPPs”. After that, the government left no forests. They burnt and looted them because they wanted to mine gold.

They destroy the forest to make money, to make certain people rich. They burnt and cut down the whole of Kurdistan. What has already been done to the beautiful Botan Bestler? It was flattened. I mean, we couldn’t oppose it. We really need to destroy everyone who does that. Because they are killers of nature. Any kind of struggle can be waged against those murderers. Whoever is doing it is a murderer. It is necessary to stand against them. But for example, this regime is not only genocidal, not only a Kurdish murderer, not only an Arab enemy, not only a misogynist; it is also an enemy of nature, an enemy of greenery. It is hostile to the values we live in.

Capitalism is already a system of maximum profit, looting and plunder. It will do anything to earn more. It also needs weapons for the Kurdish genocide and money for the weapons. Therefore, Turkey has nothing left that it has not plundered, marketed and sold. They have cut down so many forests. They destroyed the Kaz Mountains and other places, so many forests and territories. They sold many places, they sold the Black Sea in one way or another. They are selling Istanbul’s Bosphorus in some way. Some say it was sold to Israel, some say to Qatar. There is no part of Turkey that has not been sold. There is no value left unsold. They always take money and inflate their own bellies. They also gain weapons to hit the Kurds. They feed these fascist herds. They attack for Kurdish massacre and genocide.

Enmity against Kurds, enmity against women, and enmity against society go hand in hand with enmity against nature. Once you are an enemy to one, you are an enemy to all. This is a very important situation. We were really insufficient in this regard. We needed to expose more, we needed more organisation both in Kurdistan and in Turkey. We especially needed more struggle against the plunder of nature. We need to attach great importance to the ecological struggle. This business is dangerous. Your money is gone. You can replace it after two years, but you cannot restore nature. You can’t bring it back. Once you’ve lost it, you can either never get it back or it takes 10 -100 years. This is the biggest loss.

Consciousness is very important, organisation is very important, struggle is very important. Leader Apo built his democratic socialist paradigm on two pillars. One is women’s freedom, the other is nature friendship, social ecology. Women’s liberation and ecology create a two-legged existence that is so interconnected.

Therefore, without an ecological revolution, without an ecological system, there can be neither women’s freedom nor freedom of society. We need to approach it at this level and develop ecological consciousness, organisation and action at this level.