The General Presidency Council of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) released a statement on the 21st anniversary of the international conspiracy that led to the capture and handover of Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan from Kenya to Turkey on 15 February 1999.

KCK strongly condemned "the international conspiracy that was developed against the Kurdish people and their freedom struggle in the person of Öcalan” and saluted the Kurdish leader for his “unprecedented resistance against the dirty plot and the captivity conditions it has brought about for 21 years". KCK remembered and commended all the martyrs who made their bodies a circle of fire under the motto “You cannot darken our Sun” to oppose and frustrate the conspiracy, promising to prevail against the conspiracy in its twenty second year. KCK also commended the struggle of the patriotic Kurdish people, their honorable friends and all those who have reclaimed Öcalan and stood against the conspiracy for 21 years in spite of all the torture and atrocities perpetrated by the colonial fascist Turkish regime.

“ECtHR, CoE and CPT BECAME AN ACCOMPLICE WITH THEIR SILENCE”

KCK stressed that the conspiracy has been frustrated by the intellectual and physical resistance of Öcalan and the struggle of the patriotic Kurdish people, the Kurdish freedom movement and guerrilla forces.

Pointing out the AKP government’s repeated attempts to renew the conspiracy and keep it alive for its own political interests during a rule of genocidal war with dirty schemes, KCK said that the conspiracy is currently implemented as a policy of absolute isolation while the AKP-MHP government has also imposed a renewal and permanence of the conspiracy on international powers.

According to KCK, international hegemonic powers are in an absolute silence on the isolation of Öcalan because they don’t find the achievements that he has revealed in favor of peoples and democratic society appropriate for their capitalist interests. KCK also remarked that international powers are becoming an accomplice to this genocidal fascism by remaining silent on the AKP-MHP government’s anti-Kurdish genocidal policies in Kurdistan and the fascism the society of Turkey is subject to.

“Maintaining the very same silence on the absolute isolation on Imralı and the fascist policies against the Kurdish people, international human rights organisations like the European Court of Human Rights, Council of Europe and Committee for the Prevention of Torture are also becoming a party to this as they treat the issue basing on the interstate political and balance-oriented interests. We call upon these international human rights organisations to be sensitive and play their role against the absolute isolation executed on Imralı and the AKP-MHP government’s fascist practices against the Kurds,” said the statement.

CONSPIRACY CONTINUES IN THE FORM OF ABSOLUTE ISOLATION

Remarking that the international conspiracy continues today as a policy and practice of absolute isolation, KCK pointed out the persistent resistance of the Kurdish people and freedom movement against the isolation that was aggravated further on the pretext of State of Emergency that followed the failed coup attempt of 15 July 2016.

KCK noted that the absolute isolation was weakened at times thanks to the resistance of the Kurdish people and movement but was put into practice again after the ending of the phases of resistance. In this scope, KCK cited the 2016 resistance led by Kurdish politicians and the mass indefinite hunger strike protest started in prisons under the lead of DTK Co-chair and HDP MP Leyla Güven in November 2018, which reached its peak with the actions of self-sacrifice carried out by eight people.

KCK noted that the AKP-MHP government had to allow lawyers’ access to Öcalan in the face of the will revealed by the resistance which was enhanced with the participation of the Kurdish people and their friends outside prisons.

“However, the AKP-MHP fascist government’s approach to this process was based on their politics of special war. After five meetings between Öcalan and lawyers, the isolation on Imralı was again turned into absolute isolation. Since the mentioned meetings of August 2019, there been no news of leader Öcalan or communication with him by any means,” said the statement.

“THE CONSPIRACY AIMS TO LEAVE THE KURDS WITHOUT IDENTITY AND STATUS”

KCK stressed that the goal of the international conspiracy is to leave the Kurds without a leader, identity and status, and to make them lose another century as a nation without a state.

KCK said; “The achievements revealed in favor of Kurds, democracy and freedom in Kurdistan and Turkey have developed thanks to Leader Öcalan’s enlightening ideas and thought, his great vision and valuable efforts. For this very reason, the absolute isolation imposed on him is resumed as an updated practice of the international conspiracy.”

According to KCK, the absolute isolation of Öcalan is aggravated in parallel with the growing achievements of the Kurdish people that grow into a willpower and come into existence as a system of communal living.

“IT IS LEGITIMATE TO REJECT AND DEFEAT THE ISOLATION”

Highlighting the importance attached by the Kurdish people to Öcalan whose captivity or freedom they consider as their own, KCK recalled the Kurdish people’s resistance and demand for the freedom of their leader which is confronted by the Turkish state with the imposition of a further aggravated isolation and methods of special war. In this sense, it is a legitimate right for the Kurdish people to reject, oppose and defeat the politics of isolation, said the KCK and stressed that the Kurds will be in daily resistance and struggle to defeat the conspiracy and tear down the politics of absolute isolation in its 22nd year.

“ISOLATION IS ANOTHER NAME OF FASCISM”

The statement stressed that: “The absolute isolation imposed on Leader Öcalan on Imralı is gradually turning into a politics of isolation against the society of Kurdistan and Turkey as it was first tested on Imralı and then expanded to entire Kurdistan and Turkey. The policy of isolation has become the AKP-MHP fascist government’s policy of ruling the country. In this respect, the isolation policy is another name of fascism and keeps fascism on its feet. From this point of view, fighting against the isolation policy is now an issue for not only the Kurdish people but also everyone who lives in Kurdistan and Turkey.”

“THE CALL FOR NATIONAL UNITY SHOULD BE ANSWERED CONCRETELY”

KCK emphasized that achievement of Kurdish Democratic National Unity is one of the essential conditions of defeating the international conspiracy in its 22nd year and frustrating the centenarian plans of international conspiratorial powers. KCK said this will help the Kurds determine their own destiny and counter a fate without identity, status and freedom that has been designated for them.

KCK noted that another objective of absolute isolation is to prevent Kurdish national unity and highlighted the need for a concrete answer to be given to Öcalan’s call for national unity as a fundamental national duty. KCK warned that, in the contrary case, the dangers and threats against the achievements made by the Kurds at the cost of great prices will deepen even more in all parts of Kurdistan as national unity is the only way to protect the gains and achievements made so far.

“STATUS QUOIST REGIMES WILL FALL ONE BY ONE”

KCK pointed out that the isolation politics is also used against the peoples of Kurdistan and the Middle East, targeting not only the Kurds but also the Arab, Syriac, Assyrian, Armenian, Chaldean peoples and the Yazidi and Alevi communities.

KCK said that the development of confederal structures based on democracy, women’s freedom and the fraternity and co-existence of peoples, cultures and faiths in the Middle East is among the greatest developments in the 21st century.

“It is because of this very development which Leader Öcalan has given rise to in favor of democratic humanity that international powers remain silent and thus support the absolute isolation imposed by the colonial fascist AKP-MHP government on Imralı. This happens because of the fact that the Democratic Confederal communal system and the Democratic Nation project have developed as a new communal model. The occupation and annexation operations against Rojava, the annihilation operations against Bashur (South Kurdistan), the increasingly ongoing attacks against Maxmur and Shengal, are the manifestation of the colonial, occupant fascism’s fear, panic and helplessness in the face of this development. As this development is succesfully defended, protected and extended, the Turkish-led status quoist regimes of the Middle East will collapse one by one and a new democratic confederal unity in the Middle East will be within the bounds of possibility.”

The statement by KCK ended with; “As we enter the 22nd year of the conspiracy, the greatest leading role and mission fall on Kurdish youth and women. On this basis, we call upon the Kurdish youth and women, our patriotic people in all parts of Kurdistan and abroad, and their friends to increase the struggle to crush the absolute isolation and defeat the conspiracy, to strengthen their organization and to make their resistance and actions permanent.”