On 15 August 1984, the PKK began their armed struggle against the Turkish state. Noone wants to have to fight for their freedom; however, as with other colonialised peoples, the Kurds were denied the possibility of a political non-violent option. Kurdistan may not be officially designated as a colony, but it is a colony in all but name. For a hundred years, Turkey has ruled over Bakur, or North Kurdistan, like an imperial power, suppressing every aspect of Kurdish culture, and oppressing every Kurd who has insisted on maintaining their Kurdish identity.
International law – as well as ethics – recognises the right of oppressed people to resist and, when necessary, to resist violently. The right of resistance to tyranny is a well-developed concept, going back beyond the era of the modern nation state to the time when people sought to contest the divine right of Kings. International law accepts the legitimacy of war between non-state actors in situations such as the fight against fascism and the fight against colonialism.
When Mahsum Korkmaz, known as Agit, led that first attack on a gendarmerie station in Eruh, Siirt, the PKK could never have envisaged that forty years later the struggle would still be going on, but the Turkish state would have been even more surprised if they had known that their army – the second biggest in NATO – would fail to defeat the guerrillas over four decades.
One of Turkeys biggest successes in this war was not achieved through arms but by political arm twisting. They used their strategic position to persuade the United States and Europe to classify the PKK as terrorists and criminalise their every action. When this designation was put to the test in a Belgian court, the top judges ruled against it. But the terrorism claim continues to be made because those countries do not want to antagonise Turkey, and they have no qualms about sacrificing anti-capitalist revolutionaries. The terrorism label makes it harder for the PKK to find support, but it can’t change the moral and legal correctness of their struggle.
On this fortieth anniversary, we publish an extract from an interview with Besê Hozat, co-president of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK – the umbrella group that includes the PKK) in which she talks about the significance of 15 August .
The August 15 breakthrough has great meaning and significance for the Kurdish people, for the peoples of the Middle East, and particularly for women. To consider the 15th of August breakthrough, the guerrilla struggle, and the armed struggle only as a narrow military struggle of a people, the Kurdish people, as a war of legitimate defence would be an insufficient way of understanding and defining it. From our point of view, the August 15th breakthrough is a move toward enlightenment in Kurdistan and the Middle East. With the August 15th breakthrough, a great revolution of mentality took place in Kurdistan, a great people’s revolution took place, and a women’s revolution took place. The disbelief, frustration, pessimism, and hopelessness created by the enemy in Kurdistan society were destroyed. Kurdish society woke up again and became aware of itself. This affected Middle Eastern society, and today, it is leading the democratic revolution.
In other words, the August 15th breakthrough created a very strong ground for change, renaissance, and enlightenment in the Middle East in every aspect and in every dimension. It revealed the revolutionary reality and the militant reality of the movement. This developed within the people’s army. Later on, it was comrade Beritan[i] who formed the identity of the women’s army. Just as comrade Agit formed the identity and personality of the people’s army, comrades Beritan and Zilan[ii] formed the identity and line of resistance of the women’s guerrilla, the women’s army. This is not a classical army. The guerrilla army in Kurdistan, with its men and women, the people’s army and the women’s army, is a highly ideological, philosophical, organized, strong-willed, and conscious structure with a revolutionary, libertarian identity. Their struggle has become the vanguard struggle of the people. Within this struggle, true democratic politics was born. It formed the basis for the achievements in Rojava, the values created in northern Kurdistan, and a strong consciousness in southern and eastern Kurdistan. It created the reality of an organized people. All these gains emerged through this struggle. The society that has become conscious, strong-willed, organized, and liberated has created a very strong legacy of freedom. Undoubtedly, the military dimension of this, the legitimate self-defence dimension, is of key importance. Through this, an intertwined level of development has emerged. And today, our people, the peoples of the Middle East, and humanity are in dire need of this. In a place like the Middle East, at a time when the 3rd World War is taking place, when the blood of peoples is flowing everywhere, when terrible suffering is being experienced, and when society needs great defence, organized power, and self-defence, the guerrilla struggle is even more vital. In terms of Turkey in particular, in terms of geography, in a country where so many genocidal attacks are being carried out on the Kurds, legitimate defence and self-defence are indispensable. This is an essential need.
In this sense, following the footsteps of comrade Mahsum Korkmaz and comrade Beritan, our people’s army and women’s army restructured themselves, and according to the character and reality of this age, according to the understanding of democratic modernity, it has revealed a very important level of struggle and legitimate self-defence. Both in tactics and technique, the guerrilla, the people’s army, and the women’s army are giving the second-largest army of NATO, one of the most numerous armies in the world, a real challenge today. For five years without interruption, the Turkish army has been conducting an all-out attack with all kinds of techniques. It uses all kinds of power and all kinds of dirty methods. From chemical weapons to all kinds of other banned weapons, but still they cannot get results. It is in shambles. Now the guerrilla has modernized itself according to the reality of this age and continues to even further develop. The effects of this will be seen more and more strongly in northern Kurdistan in the coming months and years. I believe that with the restructured understanding of democratic modernity and the restructured guerrilla warfare, understanding, and tactics, this legitimate struggle will be continued in the strongest way.
[i] Gülnaz Karataş (nom de guerre: Beritan) was a pioneer in the Kurdish freedom movement. She laid the foundation for the development of the autonomous Kurdish women’s guerrilla. In a battle against the KDP in 1992, she was surrounded by the enemy and instead of surrendering, she decided to throw herself off a cliff.
[ii] Zeyneb Kinaci (nom de guerre: Zîlan) is one of the most known militants of the Kurdish women’s movement. At a time when the Kurdish women’s movement was under massive attack, the then 23-year-old took the initiative and carried out an action in Dersim (tr. Tunceli). She detonated a bomb in a military parade, killing and injuring several soldiers. Zeyneb Kinaci also lost her life on this June 30, 1996.