Why is the KDP besieging Garê?

Democratic mentality and politics are essential for Kurdish politics to solve problems through dialogue, to eliminate internal conflict and to ensure national unity.

In the spring, when the KDP deployed military forces ü in Zînî Wertê across Qandil the Kurdish community, who were conducting a very intense debate on national unity and had a lot of hope for such a union, was genuinely shocked. As a matter of fact, there was a great deal of reaction from different segments of the society, especially intellectuals and artists, against this situation. Now, the Kurdish community is experiencing a second and more severe shock in the face of the intense military deployment by the KDP in order to encircle the PKK guerrilla, to the foothills of Mount Garê and to the Deştê Nehlê regions where Zêbarîs and Assyrians live. For now, there is not much of a counter stance, except for the weak reactions of some sections. However, the KDP and PKK forces are about to pull the trigger mutually, and this concerns the historical future of all Kurds.

IT ALL BEGAN WITH THE ZINÎ WERTÊ INCIDENT

It is well known that all this military activity of the KDP is in line with the US administration's decision to reintroduce the international conspiracy against the PKK on November 6, 2018, and the AKP-MHP fascism's plan to destroy the PKK. Indeed, on this basis, it is now accepted by everyone that there is a US-TR-KDP alliance against the PKK and that a planned joint attack has been carried out against the PKK as of spring 2020. This alliance is trying to make use of forces such as Iraq, PUK and Iran, directly or indirectly, in its attacks against the PKK. With the current planned attack, the Turkish State aims to completely destroy the PKK, while the US Administration aims to weaken and to bring to heel the remaining forces by causing ideological differentiation on this basis. For this, it tries to weaken its organizational and military power by exerting pressure on the PKK. The KDP Administration, on the other hand, hopes and calculates that Kurdistan will be left to itself as a result of all these.

If we leave aside the background, we can state that the planned joint attack for 2020 started in the spring with the Zînî Wertê incident. The said joint attack continued with the invasion of Heftanin by Turkey in mid-June, spread to the entire Bradost region, namely Xinêre, Goşine and Helgurt in August, and became concrete as an invasion attack on Shengal starting from October 9. It is now known by everybody that the main target of the Shengal plan, which was embodied in the form of the agreement between the Iraqi and Southern Kurdistan Governments, is the PKK. Just like the September 17, 1998 Washington Agreement, the aim is to make the PKK withdraw from Southern Kurdistan and Iraq. In other words, the current KDP Administration can make an annihilation and elimination agreement with foreign powers, colonialist and genocidal states such as AKP-MHP fascism against the PKK. This is the main source of the risk of internal conflict in Kurdistan and the main obstacle to national unity.

KDP’S DUTY TO CLOSE THE ROADS

Undoubtedly, one of the main issues that should be evaluated here is why the KDP Administration has turned the direction of the military movement to the area of ​​Garê while the "Shengal agreement" is on the agenda and discussed, and while a military attack against Shengal is expected. Did the influential public opinion on Shengal prevent the KDP and its partners from implementing the Shengal plan? Or is the KDP Administration, with its military deployment in the Garê area, trying to block the guerrilla's support for the Shengal people in the face of a possible attack on Shengal? Or will the Shengal operation and the Garê attack be carried out together and in parallel?

Perhaps all of these possibilities are valid altogether. It is now clear that the KDP has been given the task of closing the roads between the Medya Defense Zones, Shengal and Rojava and cutting the connections. It is now clear that this is the purpose of the military deployment carried out by the KDP on the Rojava border for a while.

The most important change in the KDP's military mobility towards the Garê area is the following: Until now, the Turkish state was mainly using military force and the KDP seemed to help it. The KDP was justifying the AKP-MHP fascism’s invasion attacks based on the PKK's presence in the field. For example, the KDP was saying that, "The PKK is on the ground, so the Turkish military is attacking them”. The KDP further argued that; "We enter the guerrilla areas to prevent the Turkish army from expanding too much”. However, Zînî Wertê and many other incidents disproved KDP’s discourse. However, it was still trying to explain the situation with such excuses for its own public. Now, the military attack on the Garê area made a radical change in this situation. It has now become clear that the main force conducting the military attack is the KDP. It is very likely that the KDP has called for the Turkish invasion of Medya Defense Zones

KDP AND PKK ARE ABOUT TO FIGHT

So where will this situation go, what will be the next developments? It is very clear that the KDP and PKK are about to fight and it is only a matter of time before a new internal conflict begins. It is clear that this will not be limited to one area, and will rapidly spread throughout Kurdistan. Therefore, this situation affects and concerns not only the KDP and PKK, but also everyone. In fact, the problems that lead to this situation do not only concern two parties. On the contrary, these are the problems that concern all Kurdish parties and people. Because it is about how the Kurdish national unity and Kurdish democracy will be shaped.

In fact, if there has been no conflict between the KDP and PKK until now, it is clear that this is due to the prudent approach of the PKK Administration. The PKK Administration has shown a very mature and patient approach to such problems. However, as the Guerrilla Commander has stated, patience has its limits, and the PKK is running out of patience. If a strong public intervention does not emerge, it is clear what course the events will take.

It is very clear that the Kurdish public wants the problems to be resolved in a peaceful environment through the method of dialogue and national unity. But how will this happen? Dialogue, peaceful relations and democracy are necessary for national unity. It is clear that without dialogue and peace, national unity cannot be achieved. However, it is clear that there will be no dialogue and peace without democratic mentality and politics. So, everything depends on democratic mentality and politics. Therefore, the current problems and the situation of conflict are a result of the fact that the KDP is far from democratic mentality and politics, has a narrow family, tribal, feudal-despotic mentality and politics. The KDP sees a family as a party, and a party as a country, nation and state.

ENKS IMPOSES SHARING OF POWER

For this reason, the relations between parties are not developed by the KDP in the direction of the development of a democratic system based on freedoms, but on the contrary, in the direction of sharing the existing power and opportunities. As a matter of fact, such a system has been established in Southern Kurdistan and naturally it does not work. In Rojava Kurdistan too, such a power sharing was imposed on the ENKS-PYD negotiations and no result came out, and the negotiations had to be interrupted. Democratic principles such as self-government and election of the government are not applied when the power is shared between parties.

Therefore, a democratic mentality and politics are essential for Kurdish politics to solve problems through dialogue, to eliminate internal conflict and to ensure national unity. It is necessary to change the mindset and politics of the KDP that are monistic, based only on itself, telling other Kurdish parties to "get out", and put itself in the place of country, nation and government. It is necessary for the KDP to become sensitive to democracy by changing its current mentality and politics, to adhere to the principles of minimum democracy and to reach a mindset and politics that respect and accept the democratic nation reality. To the extent that it respects democracy, its statist mentality and politics will also be respected.

Source: Yeni Özgür Politika

RELATED NEWS: