PKK Executive Committee Member Duran Kalkan answered Ersin Çelik's questions for the Politik Alan (Political Arena) program on Kurdish TV MED NÛÇE. Kalkan evaluated the most recent Suruç massacre, operations of political genocide and Turkish airstrikes against Medya Defense Zones.

The second part of Kalkan's statements was translated by ANF English service below.

DEMOCRATIC AUTONOMOUS ADMINISTRATIONS SHOULD BE ADVANCED

Both the Kurdish people and guerrilla will respond to the attacks but it is important which ground this will be based on. Instead of asking for revenge and expecting something from someone, the society should establish self-administrations, especially in the areas where 80-90 percent votes have been received. They should found their own decision-making mechanisms, administrations and assemblies.

The Undersecretary of the MIT -intelligence service- says that PKK is preparing for an uprising. This is not true, but it is clear that PKK is insistent on freedom. Kurds do not want to be separated from this country, nor to rise up. But they definitively want freedom. In this regard, our struggle should create freedom and build a free life and a democratic system, wherever it is possible. The society should come to the forefront and avoid setting their hopes on the guerrilla fight. As a requirement of democracy, people should rule themselves in neighborhoods, villages and cities in Turkish metropolitan areas and Kurdistan to achieve democracy.

People should use this will and take this step, without asking what they should do now, or expecting others to do this for them. This will not be a separation from Turkey or a part of Turkey's Democratic Nation. Self-administration is a part of democracy, which should also be acknowledged and recognized by the parliament and government in Ankara.

There exists a need to wage a democratic revolutionary struggle which is based on establishment of democratic self-administrations. Both the uprisings and self-defense should be advanced on this basis which will reveal the power of the people and enable the guerrilla to play a role in this respect. Establishment of such a democratic revolution will also inflict a fatal blow on the AKP's mindset and policies, while also avenging the massacres committed by the AKP by enabling a living within a democratic system.

On this basis, I invite everyone, all Kurdistan and democratic circles of Turkey, to advance works for democratic autonomy. There is nothing AKP can do. The society should be ruled as it wishes.

'PEOPLE SHOULD TAKE THEIR DESTINY INTO THEIR OWN HANDS'

Times when the power of the army went beyond everything, are over. Professor Ahmet Davutoğlu should also learn this truth now. As the PKK, we are committed to the people's will to the end. People should reveal their power and take their destiny into their own hands. We shouldn't let the AKP decide how we will be ruled while it imposes a centralist and monist ruling and dictatorship. There is a need for a democratic transformation to ensure freedom in Kurdistan and democratization in Turkey.

In that case, can we say that the 'early election' plan to bring the AKP back to the power will not be at the agenda of the Kurds?

Right, a new election can produce no solutions, it would just overturn the finance of 2016. This is a matter of mindset and policies, not elections. What matters here is which policies will be pursued in Turkey, whether centralist dictatorship or local democracy, and whether the freedom of Kurdish and other peoples' identities will be recognized or all identities will be met with a dictatorship.

In this sense, there is need for a radical strategic change, which requires discussions and awakening unlike the current debates by the press and media that do not go beyond a repetition of the arguments voiced by the government. There exists no perspective for questioning and criticism. What needs to be discussed indeed is the AKP mindset and the traditional policy.

Turkey should discuss why the Turkish army suddenly sent 400 sorties on Kurds at a midnight. What happened to Turkey's friendship with the Kurds and efforts to negotiate with the PKK? Turkey cannot make the PKK members surrender through oppression, as is claimed by the media which is a part of the total warfare concept pursued against Kurds by taking sides with the military and police forces.

The Turkish army is hitting cruelly but it should also consider how it will be able to hold the numerous Kurdish youths doing their military service there. It is time to think over things again, not to speak from memory.

In this sense, this is not a matter of elections but the continuation of the AKP's delaying policy  which took 13 years of Turkey without producing any solutions to any of the problems in Turkey. Erdoğan and his circle made a progress but Turkey did not. What has kept Turkey alive within this process is the freedom pursuit of the PKK, the Kurdish people and democratic powers.

This is not a matter of a government, either. The policies pursued by AKP today is a repetition of those pursued by CHP during 1930's. In the current state of affairs, there will be no need for CHP unless it revises itself. Being a ruling-government partner with the AKP is an act of accomplice in the current situation.

The CHP should be realistic. If it wants to act as a true opposition party, and considers itself as a left-wing, it should get closer with the democratic powers and be in alliance with them.

One other main topic is the airstrikes after which Prime Minister Davutoğlu announced an agreement on some points with the Federal Kurdistan Regional President Massoud Barzani. How do you evaluate the AKP-KDP cooperation in this regard?

As the PKK and its guerrilla forces, we defended Shengal, Mosul, Kirkuk and Hewler at the cost of hundreds of martyrs whom I commemorate with respect. We did our bit with regards to Kurdish fraternity and patriotism without any hesitation or expecting something in return as we saw the South Kurdistan government in state of necessity.

The South Kurdistan government and parties are going through an exam. It is an issue of concern how they will pass it while making statements for declaration of independence. The South Kurdistan government that wants to declare their own state should make an explanation and adopt an attitude asTurkish jets are shelling Kurdistan mountains day and night.

PKK PROTECTING SOUTH KURDISTAN FOR 33 YEARS

Some from the South Kurdistan media are spreading propaganda by arguing that PKK occupied their villages. My answer to them is; these villages of theirs are burning to the ground under the bombardments of the Turkish warplanes. PKK guerrillas are protecting these mountains and villages, and their lands and honour for 33 years now. Where are those claiming to be the owner of these villages while they are being bombed? This has nothing to do with patriotism.

The South Kurdistan society does, and should, respond to this with resistance. There have been some statements and protests, which we meet with respect, but they are not enough. Turkish jets have no right to bomb these lands. Everyone should object to this.

Do you want to add something in addition?

Everyone should know that we have entered a new process of struggle against a total attack to which the Kurdish movement, people and Turkey's democratic society will resist. Guerillas, intellectuals and politicians, and the people will all do their part.

RESISTANCE SHOULD BE WAGED AGAINST ARRESTS

One other main issue is the increasingly ongoing mass arrests in addition to attacks on the guerrilla and the people. It will be tried to conduct these mass arrests in the form of the past's political genocide operations. The youth, women and workers in the first place should have their eyes open on this. Arrests shouldn't be allowed as easily and freely as was done in the past. Everyone should make an effort to not be arrested. There is a need for more awareness and measures to hinder this.

Police shouldn't be allowed to detain and arrest the people so easily. Everyone should resist and act with the consciousness and organization of self-defense.

One other thing; those who cannot work in the cities any more, and remain under the threat of being exposed and arrested should take to the mountains and ensure their security and continue their struggle within the freedom system of the guerrilla. It is possible to wage a political struggle and support the people's struggle from the ranks of the guerrillas in the mountains.

On the other hand, the state's security and military forces, as well as public servants should know that it is not a weakness but a will for a solution that makes the PKK and the Kurdish people act so mindfully. They should also adopt an attitude against the AKP. The army shouldn't allow itself to be used as a stick. If the army is protecting the borders, the PKK has nothing to say to them, but, whoever attacks the people and the guerrilla, will definitively be resisted and responded.

POLICE AND PUBLIC SERVANTS WILL BE RETALIATED FOR ARRESTS AND MURDERS

The Kurdish people and guerrilla has a right and duty to respond to every arrest. If AKP will keep the conflict going, it should know that all the public servants in Kurdistan will be a partner to the AKP's attacks, and will be retaliated for every arrest and murder. If police use guns, they will face a retaliation in kind. If the public servants arrest and judge the Kurdish people, they themselves will be responded in the same way.

Nobody should therefore act as a stooge for this policy. Everyone should manifest a total resistance and stance against the AKP's aggression.

As a last thing, I invite the Kurdish society, their friends and democratic society of Turkey to a mobilized struggle in order to realize the Democratic Autonomy Revolution. Our struggle should not remain contented with inflicting blows on the AKP and exposing it, it should be grounded on the building of democratic self-administration in order for the destruction of the AKP's centralist, fascist and dictator ruling step by step. AKP is attacking because of its weakness. It suffered a defeat in the elections, in its Syrian policy, in Kobanê, and now it is facing a deadlock and cannot do politics. It wants to mask itself and its aggression by using the army and police as a stick. Nobody should be deceived by this game.

AKP is coming to an end will be replaced by a democratic Turkey, which is the only alternative. We should build this system inch by inch from villages to neighborhoods, towns to cities. Such a struggle will turn Turkey into the most democratic country of the Middle East and the world in 2015.