Basque internationalist organization Askapena released a statement celebrating Newroz, the resistance and liberation day of the Kurds. This year three Basque places will celebrate this resistence day organized by the different Basque solidarity platforms.

Full text of the statement by the Basque organization reads as follows:

“The Kurdish liberation movement says that history has two rivers: on the one hand, the river of the official history written by the powerful, and on the other, peoples’ river. During centuries, in the Mesopotamia valley and the Middle East, the local authorities of each time and the oppressive powers of the world have plundered everything in order to accumulate wealth.

Sykes-Picot, Lausanne, EU-Turkey’s agreement for the control of the refugees… many events and names that support and foster the plunder of the region’s wealth. The fact that the Middle East is a rich area, and its strategic location are of vital importance to imperialism.

Heteropatriarchal capitalism needs the people oppressed so that the system can survive. It needs to seize peoples’ sovereignty in order to prosper. Therefore, it leaves the peoples in a difficult situation: either they accept in silence their death brought by oppression, or fight to live.

This struggle is the river which constitutes the history of the peoples. In the 70’s, in Kurdistan and in Turkey in general, the oppressive regime established by the Kemalism brought a great deal of resistance and, in the meantime, a stream driven by a group of young men and women leaded by the Kurdish consciousness was born.

The 1978 was a really important year in this history: the Kurdish liberation movement was founded, and it was the beginning of the liberation struggle as a people. The movement started working with both Kurdish and class consciousness, and they still continue fighting from that starting point. Through the years, they have also a made very significant work on women’s oppression and on the struggle of women. The consequences are remarkable: the number of revolutionary women has increased tremendously over the years, both against capitalism and patriarchy. And a new strategy based on Jineoloji has been fixed. Amed prison resistance, first armed acts, Democratic Confederalism, Jineoloji, Kobane, autonomy claims in Bakur, Sur resistance, Afrin, Shengal, Gare…Plenty of examples of admirable resistance.

The people of Kurdistan are writing its history and fighting at the same time against the hetero-patriarchal capitalism that oppresses all of us. Hence, we would like to express to this struggling people our internationalist solidarity, because only by attacking the system from different contexts and parts of the world and by solidarity will we succeed in defeating it.

Our country is occupied by the French and Spanish army which has a close cooperation with the Turkish army; the Basque enterprises that have signed economic agreements with the Turkish state are also thriving at our own expense (Iberdrola, BBVA…); the universities of the Basque Country have signed agreements with companies that have arm agreements with the Turkish state… and so on.

As Askapena, since forever we had it clear: as internationalists, we need to make the first step of the internationalist struggle in the Basque Country, due to the fact that, as mentioned before, by liberating our country we will help in the liberation of the other peoples. That is what unites us.

And we shall learn from all those peoples that we are comrades. In this case, it is undeniable the Democratic Confederalism’s and Jineoloji’s contribution to the Basque Country, since it contributes to our own liberation struggle too. This paradigm change in the Kurdish liberation struggle has been of the utmost importance to Kurdistan and it has had an impact in the rest of the world too.

Anyway, at this moment, the leader and thinker of this important contribution, Abdullah Öcalan, is isolated in the Imrali prison, without even knowing his living and health conditions.  We also want to use this writing to demand the end of Öcalan’s isolation and ask for his freedom.

This year, Newroz will be celebrated in many places of the Basque Country: Bilbo, Baigorri-Garazi, Donostia… Resistance and solidarity fires will be lighted, and by lighting those fires, we will claim that we are alive as peoples. We will claim that we decided to be free, and for that and because of that we are determined to fight. By lighting those fires, next to you, we will also claim that life is resistance.

Newroz piroz be!
Biji berxwedana Kurdistan!

Gora Euskal Herria askatuta!
Gora Euskal Herria internazionalista!”