The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) was compelled to engage in armed struggle due to the absence of space for democratic politics. Taking into account both the transformations taking place in Kurdistan and the genocidal policies being imposed on the Kurdish people, the party prioritized positioning itself organizationally in response. Within this framework, the PKK underwent a significant transformation in the 2000s, managing to defend itself and thwart the plans of genocide. With the collapse of real socialism and the development of the international conspiracy, Abdullah Öcalan deeply felt the necessity of initiate a profound transformation within the PKK.

In his work The Kurdish Question and the Democratic Nation Solution, Abdullah Öcalan emphasized that the collapse of real socialism and the Gladio conspiracy of 1998 forced the PKK into a profound transformation. He noted that the ambiguities during the group’s early phase, the unresolved question of the state, and the internal and external conspiracies that emerged during the experience of the people’s revolutionary war had dragged the PKK into a prolonged deadlock—one marked by repetition and stagnation. The fact that the guerrilla forces within the PKK did not grow and the people’s revolutionary war could not be expanded made such a deep transformation inevitable. As a result, the declaration of the Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress (KADEK) and the formation of the Kurdistan People’s Congress (KONGRA GEL) were meant to disrupt the plans of liquidation laid out by the Turkish state and international powers. As a continuation of the conspiracy, the European Union was preparing to place the PKK on its list of ‘terrorist organizations.’ The United States and the United Kingdom were in close cooperation with Turkey, and this cooperation was fundamentally based on labeling the PKK as a ‘terrorist organization.’ KADEK and KONGRA GEL went down in history as early moves made in resistance to these plans of elimination.

Key concept: Democratic solution

In order to preserve the legacy of the PKK and to navigate the crisis it was facing with minimal damage, the Kurdish Freedom Movement decided to continue its activities under a new name. In his defense writings, Mr.  Öcalan stated that there was a need for new terminology that took into account both the external circumstances of the time and the internal dynamics that had led to a state of crisis. He emphasized that this shift did not signify a denial of the PKK. In the continuation of his defense, Mr.  Öcalan wrote the following: "Until the separation process was complete, it seemed tactically more appropriate to temporarily set aside the name ‘PKK’. We wanted to prevent the name PKK from being used as a weapon in the hands of those seeking to dismantle it. Organizations such as KADEK and KONGRA GEL could respond to this need. More importantly, we were undergoing a serious transformation. This was a radical innovation, and therefore the movement might be more successful under a new name. Many real socialist countries had similar experiences. What we were trying to do was not an act of imitation. On the contrary, it was a meaningful and distinct form of creativity. In the early versions of my defense writings and in the texts I sent to the PKK, I tried to express the outlines of this transformation. The key concept of this transformation was the 'democratic solution'.”

An alternative to state-led governance of society

Mr. Öcalan later focused intensively on the concepts of politics and political thought. He viewed politics as the opposite of state administration, asserting that a democratic and political philosophy must be understood as an alternative to society being governed by the state. He continued with the following reflections: "The failure to build socialism through the state led me to search for a proper understanding of how socialism should be constructed. The philosophy of democratic politics could be a major step forward in this direction. In practice, our people have demonstrated a great deal of resistance against the state. But because of the non creative cadres or functionaries of the PKK, this resistance was in danger of being wasted. As I searched for a way to prevent this, I became convinced that the method of democratic politics—and the philosophy behind it—offered the most appropriate approach. To insist on the classical communist party model of real socialism, which had long since become blocked and collapsed internally, would mean clinging to conservatism and deadlock. In fact, the role of these parties in the stagnation of scientific socialism has become evident. To maintain the PKK on this basis would be to continue enabling conservatism and liquidationism. Yet at the same time, a drift into liberal democracy—which rejects and disparages the legacy of real socialism in its entirety—was equally unacceptable. liberal democracy was a form of fake democracy. What was called the liberal left and its conception of socialism amounted entirely to liquidationism—in other words, embracing the capitalism embedded in real socialism and transforming it into a form of private capitalism. It was of great importance to protect the PKK and the people’s values of resistance from both of these dangerous perspectives and practices."

Two transitional instruments

In the continuation of his analysis, Mr. Öcalan stated that KADEK and KONGRA GEL were envisioned as two transitional instruments that could uphold the historical legacy of the PKK and the people’s revolutionary war. He emphasized that for these formations to fulfill their roles successfully, it would depend on their ability to grasp the essence of the process, correctly identify the tasks of the period, and take ownership of them. Continuing his historical evaluation, Mr. Öcalan said: “The Kurdish question could have been resolved within models of democratic self-governance, without ever becoming entangled with statism, without turning towards nation-state-based solutions, and without being forced into the frameworks of those models. This was the essence of the transformation within the PKK. Both KADEK and KONGRA GEL, in their terminology, expressed this very truth.”

To maintain a state of war

Abdullah Öcalan pointed to the role of certain powers that, since 1925, have sought to keep Turkey entrenched in an anti-Kurdish quagmire in order to control it. He argued that just as the opportunities for peace and political resolution in 1993 and 1998 were obstructed, the same forces prevented any meaningful evaluation of the possibilities that emerged in the early 2000s. Mr. Öcalan stated the following: “The Kurdish question is far more a tool of manipulation for the hegemonic system than it may appear. Leaving it unresolved is the most desirable outcome for the hegemonic system. For the White Turk fascists, it serves as an instrument for managing domestic politics through a war psychosis. The longer the Kurdish question remains unresolved, the more the country is governed through a logic of internal war. The discourse of ‘internal and external threats’ and ‘the indivisible unity of the country’ is constantly kept in play to maintain a state of war. In this way, monopolistic state capitalism gains the opportunity to exploit the country as it pleases under an exceptionally despotic nation-state model. In other words, Kurds are not only dehumanized and stripped of their identity as a people—they are also positioned as the most useful instrument for the law of maximum profit in capitalism. Without the internal war policy imposed on the Kurds, the nationalism and capitalism of the Turkish nation-state cannot function. The same traditional hegemonic policies that stood in the way of Kurdish peace and a democratic solution in the early 2000s are still at play. Though these policies may be justified in the name of nationalism and patriotism, in essence they are imperialist, colonialist, and genocidal.”

The rise of liquidationism

Internal purges that contradicted the essence of the defense writings developed by Öcalan resurfaced once again in 2002 and 2004. The renewed and comprehensive rise of liquidationist tendencies brought with it a wave of destruction. During such developments, the lawyers’ failure to provide Öcalan with timely and sufficient information led to the loss—both material and moral—of many of the party’s and the people’s achievements and values. The intervention of liquidationism at such a critical stage of radical transformation meant that the revolutionary people's war suffered one of the most devastating purges in its history— caught between two extremes.

To be continued...