From: John Clancy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 15:45:38 -0800 Assault Against The Guerrillas Is An Assault Against Democracy PKK Council of Leaders member Nizamettin Tas participated by telephone on Medya TV's "Cozum" (Solution) program which discussed recent developments in South Kurdistan [Iraqi Kurdistan] and the Middle East the other evening. Tas gave extensive evaluations on a number of topics of interest. Tas said that a war against the guerrillas would essentially be an assault against the struggle for democracy in Turkey. He noted that a potential war would not remain restricted to the South, and continued: "If they insist on annihilation, a 10-thousand-strong sacrificial group will finish Turkey as well." Tas said that the PKK was the sole force which could bring democratic change and transformation to Turkey at this point in time, and added that the fundamental strength of the PKK was its guerrillas. Tas also noted that the occupation of the South had been realized by oligarchic powers which were aiming at blocking the aforementioned process and which aimed at restructuring on a fascist foundation. Tas said that the Islamic opposition, which was one of the forces which could be a basic dynamic for democracy in Turkey, had been impeded ever since the February 28 process, while the latest prison operations had been basically aimed at dividing the left and leaving it ineffective, at which they had been successful to an important extent, and stressed that now the turn had come to the most dynamic and organized force, the Kurds. Tas continued as follows: "What remains to build democracy is the Kurdish people. Now, they are trying to make the PKK, which is the vanguard of the Kurdish people, become ineffective. The fundamental strength of the PKK is its guerrillas. They are trying in this way to liquidate the basic force of transformation and prevent a Kurdish-Turkish alliance. The Turkish army's war against the guerrillas in the South is basically an assault against the democratic struggle being carried out in Turkey. This is a democracy war. In this fashion, it is aimed to secure complete control by the oligarchic forces in Turkey, and afterwards, a controlled democratic opening. Turkey's strategy at this moment is this. This is the basic reason for the hurried entrance into the South." The Occupation Of The South Has Been Completed Tas said that North and South Kurdistan [Turkish and Iraqi Kurdistan] had been de facto united by the latest situation and that the military and administrative occupation by the Turkish state, leaving Iran and Iraq out of the equation, had been completed. Tas said that this was a new situation, and continued: "Thousands of Turkey's soldiers have been positioned in the Behdinan region for years. This time, they have taken hold of the Soran region. Iraq has no influence or supervision in any case. One could have spoken of Iran's influence from the political angle in the past. With this last attack, Turkey has left Iran out of the picture to an important extent. Thusly, the South has united with the North in the practical sense. In other words, the only force which has occupied both sides and which has established control and is giving direction at this moment is Turkey. The situation in the South has changed on this basis and a new status has been developed." The PUK's Will Has Been Broken Tas stressed that no clashes whatsoever have been experienced with the Turkish military thus far, and continued as follows: "Basically, Turkey had brought in its force and planned on assaulting together with the PUK. The PUK had moved to assault us with a 17,000-person force long ago also, but was in utter confusion within a period as short as a week and their will for war was broken. But the Turkish state is putting its force into action and trying to rapidly pull the PUK together by contributing its trainers, intelligence people, techniques, and fifteen million dollars as well. That is why there was not an assault immediately. If they can pull the PUK together a little, war could also begin under winter conditions. But if instead the preparations drag on a little, an extensive conflict could be on the agenda in the spring months." War Will Not Remain Limited To The South Tas pointed out that by entering the South, Turkey was poisoning its own self, like a scorpion, saying that should war begin, it would not remain limited to the Soran region in the South but would spread in every respect to every field. Tas continued: "It is clear that Turkey is at this time living through a period of least esteem and honor. Thus there is such a trap and the PKK is basically the antidote to this. It is also seen that by entering the South, they have moved war onto the main plan. We are taking this danger into consideration and preparing with all our power. This is preparation for war, but we absolutely have not given up on a democratic solution. If you are insisting on war and annihilation, we also will never accept this; we endured this for 15 years and we can endure for another 15 years. We began this war with 300 people; now they are saying 5,000, and all of them are self-sacrificing. If they insist on destruction, a 10,000 sacrificial force will finish Turkey as well. This is not a threat, but a concrete reality." Iraq And Iran Were Mistaken Tas continued: "As far as we know, when Turkey brought in its forces, Iran and Iraq evaluated the situation as 'This is not against the South, but [against] the PKK.' But their current evaluations are not like that. Why? Because Iraq understood that, along with the change in administration in the U.S., the alliance of the U.S., Israel, and Turkey directed against the person of Saddam would gradually become more concrete. And Turkey, assuming that the U.S.'s policy of toppling Saddam depending on the Kurds goes into practice, sees that a Kurdish entity could arise within this against [Turkey's] will. Therefore, Turkey is hindering a Kurdish entity in the South. In this manner, if such a de facto situation is created, then an initiative against Iraq will depend on Turkey, not on the Kurds. If Iraq is divided, Turkey will be able to bring about a project to take Mosul into its national borders, just as it has had the intention since long in the past." The Statements Are Not Correct PKK Council of Leaders member Nizamettin Tas said that statements by the Turkish General Staff concerning developments in the South were not correct, and said that military and technical build-up was continuing. Tas said the following: "The statements by General Staff are not correct. At this moment, Turkey has a force of about 4 to 5 thousand positioned at the Qoysancak, Carkurca, and Suleymaniya center. The matter is not one of numbers. Turkey can bring tens of thousands of soldiers within a week if it wants. They brought not only soldiers, but, together with them, heavy weapons and helicopters, which remain. In addition to these, there are dozens of intelligence officers, and most importantly, there are many training officers to prepare training of the PUK force as an army." (Source: Kurdish Observer - January 10, 2001) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Arm The Spirit is an autonomist/anti-imperialist information collective based in Toronto, Canada. Our focus includes a wide variety of material, including political prisoners, national liberation struggles, armed communist resistance, anti-fascism, the fight against patriarchy, and more. We regularly publish our writings, research, and translation materials on our listserv called ATS-L. For more information, contact: Arm The Spirit P.O. Box 6326, Stn. A Toronto, Ontario M5W 1P7 Canada E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] WWW: http://burn.ucsd.edu/~ats/ ATS-L Archives: http://burn.ucsd.edu/archives/ats-l -------------------------------- *********** from: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subject: pttp: Kurds- We will Fight for Democracy Delivered-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] X-Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: "Per Rasmussen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Sat, 20 Jan 2001 Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [pttp] "We Will Fight For Democracy" -----Oprindelig meddelelse----- Fra: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]På; vegne af Arm The Spirit Sendt: 20. januar 2001 09:42 Til: Multiple recipients of list Emne: PKK: "We Will Fight For Democracy" Karayilan: "We Will Fight For Democracy" "It must first be made clear that the new strategy is not a strategy of surrender or of repentance and never touching weapons again. The PKK aims for an honorable, democratic, and egalitarian peace. This is the new strategy. But it will resist where honor is trampled on and imbalance is developed." PKK Council of Leaders member Murat Karayilan made observations for 'Ozgur Politika' concerning topics of interest such as the assaults developed against the PKK in the South [Iraqi Kurdistan] with the cooperation of the PUK, the future of the new strategy, the situation of the guerrillas since the withdrawal, and the tactics and manner of war in the new period. ----- Question: The PKK was subjected to attack despite sending two peace groups to Turkey and officially accepting the new strategy at the 7th Congress. What was the reason for this assault? In order to answer this, one needs to look at the reality of the people in whose name the PKK acts and the essence of the country over which it walks. Kurdistan and the Kurdish people are the only country and people in the world without a legal status. The dominant powers found it more suitable to their interests when drawing the fate of the Middle East to ignore the Kurdish people. This tendency that began with the Lausanne Treaty was developed primarily by the imperialist-capitalist system. In those times, the new socialist understanding which was shaping the Soviet Union - which grew to become a system - also remained silent and later gave its approval. The PKK is an ideological and philosophical line of struggle based on changing this reality, on rejecting this denial. In other words, it is a rejection, a rebellion against the annihilation of a people. It was born on this basis, became a movement, became a party, and militarized by being accepted by the masses. The primary reason is this. The second is that the PKK, basing itself on this foundation, developed a new revolutionary alternative system based on justice and freedom against the dominant system which disregarded itself and its country. The PKK is fighting a struggle for identity in Kurdistan. It is not remaining limited to Kurdistan but has made the identity struggle of Middle Eastern people against the imperialist dominant system its goal. The PKK is a movement with an understanding characterized by the ideas of independence, freedom, and democracy, which desires the brotherhood of the people, unity, and federalization, and which carries out its struggle on this basis. This is why the PKK has been rejected by the imperialist-capitalist world. There were clashes despite this and an even bigger war is ready to explode. What they are targeting is not the manner of armed struggle. What they are targeting is the PKK's line and the understanding it represents. That is why they are coming at us with the most savage methods and want to destroy us despite the fact that we stopped the war. Question: How will the current environment of conflict and a possible war affect you and the new process? It must first be made clear that the new strategy is not a strategy of surrender or of repentance and never touching weapons again. The PKK aims for an honorable, democratic, and egalitarian peace. This is the new strategy. But it will resist where honor is trampled on and imbalance is developed. Question: What kind of a resistance? If they proceed with political and psychological propaganda, our resistance will be with this. But if it is done with tanks and cannons and the most developed technology, then the PKK will defend itself with the weapons in its hands to preserve itself and make a defense. What could be more natural than this? We will develop our own defense. We will continue our struggle that takes an honorable, democratic solution as its basis and aims for brotherhood of the people. From this standpoint, our new strategy is not a strategy of repenting from the use of weapons but of an honorable solution. This stance does not mean that our strategy of peace and a political struggle has changed, because this strategy was foreseen by the leadership and became official with the party's highest decision- making organ, the congress. This strategy is correct, it is modern, it is the most realistic strategy. We do not want war. But they are insistently coming after us. Therefore, we are being pulled into war. It is not a question of our strategy changing, but it will continue as long as they pressure us and until the foundation for the methods of political struggle can be developed. A large number of people misunderstood this situation. It was thought that there would never be war anymore. We did not completely reject war. War was never an aim for us, but a means. We also removed it from being a means. We said our means is organization of the people, the democratic struggle of the masses. We said that we see it, in this sense, as a political struggle with the basic form of struggle the uprising of the people and the actions of the people. We are saying the same thing now. Question: Can you compare your style of struggle before and after the guerrillas withdrew? What is the style of fighting of the guerrillas now? Before the withdrawal, we were fighting from the Black Sea to Semdinli. We were conducting guerrilla activities with small units over a very expansive area. The tactics and techniques of the enemy against us were different. In reality, there were many differences between Erzurum and Botan. Guerrillas were a little more concentrated in Botan and more spread out in Erzurum. In general, dispersed guerrillas were in question before the withdrawal. At this moment, we are forced to fight in the South. And until now, the power fighting against us in the South was not the Turkish army. We are fighting a force which, even if it surpasses us numerically in this fashion or another, does not much surpass us from the aspect of its other qualities. Therefore, the character of the war changed. But this is not related to the withdrawal. This takes it character from the form of the power we are fighting against. The power against us right now is not a power that can stand up against us. We do not want to fight in South Kurdistan. If we had wanted to deepen the war, we could have overthrown the power against us by now. There were more than enough opportunities for this. We did not think of eradicating the PUK [Patriotic Union of Kurdistan] and did not think it necessary. In this sense, the war we are carrying out against the PUK is a limited war. We only repelled assaults and pushed it back so it wouldn't be dangerous and stopped. We stopped, because it was a war we entered unwillingly. That's one. The second is we do not want to finish off the monstrosity fighting against us. >From that aspect, we had no aim to push forward until the end. For example, most of the time they waited for us to take the cities. They lived with that fear. They pulled their weight into Ranya and Kaladize. We didn't enter, didn't take the cities because we didn't have such an aim. They are numerically more than us, but we are tactically and qualitatively the stronger side. Question: What kind of attitude did the guerrillas, who have passed the past year without fighting, exhibit? Did you experience difficulties on the subject of taking action as a force which had not fought for a rather long period? Circles outside of us were expecting that the PKK would not emerge sound from this process of change and transformation. In fact, most were expecting it to disperse. Such a thing did not happen, but leaping the trench was not painless. The party line remained supreme in the end. But there were a couple of shake-ups in the process following the congress. Currents to liquidate the armed forces arose. We exposed these. It was reflected to the public also. Liquidation arose in the shape of four separate currents: the treasonous/corroborator tendency (the band which escaped); the schematic, dogmatic liquidation tendency that took shape in the former PJA [Free Women's Party] administrative cadres; the tendency taking itself seriously based on statism; and then the trouble-maker approaches developed by those persons who had mixed up with philosophies of living for the moment, of Omer Hayyam, etc. There were waves made by all these liquidation forces within the party. In other words, a type of understanding developed as if we had no enemy left, there was no need left for arms, and basically no need for an army either. This was a rather liberal-right understanding. There were attempts to make this atmosphere dominant. This opened the path to confusion and turmoil in the warrior and command structure. A sound internal struggle was important. This struggle was carried out successfully. As a matter of fact, the decision of the PUK gang to fight against us was in all probability made taking this internal situation into consideration. Particularly the information given to the PUK by the liquidation-treason segment that escaped and took refuge with the PUK was influential in the PUK's decision to attack. The impression was created that: "No one wants to fight. There is demoralization and scattering; there is no standing by arms. In other words, if they are gone after, they will disperse." The thing that protected our party strength against these waves and liquidation currents is the Apo spirit, which is found in every PKK member to one extent or another. We were defending the new strategy. Some had their bags packed and were ready to go. When this did not happen, they took reactions out on the party and entered into trouble-making initiatives. For us, a peaceful solution is an aim. It is still not a matter which is being realized. Some of them understood it as a thing that was being realized and this was wrong. There was an attempt within this type of incorrect comprehension to turn it into a liquidation understanding, to develop in the later stages a liberal-right approach. But in that process, our party developed both an intensive internal struggle and line struggle and it continued its educational, ideological, political, and military activities. In the end, the party line was victorious in this internal struggle, the sides were made clear. There was the PJA Congress, the Middle East Conference, and the Expanded Party Assembly meeting. Then began a deep-rooted pulling together, completely in the organizational and political sense, for the guerrilla forces to come to their selves once again, and a renewed concentration on war. We had guessed that our enemy would not stay still, that it would come after us in an absolute manner. For example, Talabani met with Ecevit even in the summer months. We said at that time: "This one is going to fight against us." Because Ecevit is a person who is made uncomfortable even by the existence of the Kurds. We said: "If there has been an acceptance at the top level, something will happen here." And we hurriedly began preparing our forces for a defensive war. A process of virtually remaking the military and party-forming began. >From that aspect, we did not experience much trouble in putting our forces to war against the enemy assaults. The solidarity structure also understood exactly how right the party line was upon seeing that the enemy was actually attacking. Therefore, our structure got right down to war. It could take on the necessary attitude and position for war by making a rapid transformation. Question: The Turkish military has come as far as deep inside the South. The PKK is insistently speaking of peace and democratization. Conditions are heading towards a war... We exerted much effort to develop a political struggle and not give premiums to the desire for war of the oligarchic-profiteering segments that are dominant over the Turkish state. But we cannot say that we were entirely successful at this. The tendency which sees its profiteering, political, and economic interests in war is rather influential and organized inside the Turkish regime. It developed a process based on violence within itself and the prisons, associations, and nongovernmental organizations were targeted. We stopped the war for things to straighten out in Turkey, for the democratic process to develop. An environment of softening was born. And because of this, the moldiness of the system came out. Gangs were uncovered one after another: the "perpetrator unknown" murder gangs, the mafia, [and other] gangs came out into the open. Before, these were hidden in the shadow of the war. Our stopping the war brought about the conditions to create possibilities for developing a democratic opening and transparency from a number of respects. Turkey, not being able to find a solution to these troubles which came out and to fill in all of these deficiencies, once again brought to the fore the tendency to solve problems on the basis of violence. As one of the latest of these, we find ourselves up against a war. We made the necessary sacrifice on the basis of the new strategy. But it is understood that the Turkish state has planned that the year 2001 be the year of annihilation of the PKK. Because the focal point that organizes the state is after putting everyone in line. An approach is being followed based on crushing those who do not fall into line, setting up a controlled democracy, and, on that basis, integrate with Europe and solve problems. Those who take this attitude made the left ineffective to a significant extent, made the potential of labor ineffective, and pushed back political Islam to a significant degree. The FP [Virtue Party] is in a state of falling apart right now. What is left is the guerrillas. And they are going to get everything completely under their own control by annihilating the guerrillas within the year 2001. In this way, their own oligarchic system will have been formed. On this point, the defensive war we are carrying out right now is basically a democratic struggle against these oligarchic profiteering gangs and in essence is a democracy war. If the guerrillas are left out of the picture, the profiteering circles in Turkey will form their own system. A regime will be put in place that keeps everything under its own control with an incomplete democracy. In this sense, the current resistance of the guerrillas is a part of the democratic struggle in Turkey. In fact, it is its most important force and vanguard. It is necessary to understand the existing defense war this way. The matter in question now is the new concept being established concerning us. There is a situation in which the treacherous PUK has been made a tool, with the approval in one fashion or another of the surrounding states, aiming at the value judgments of all the Kurdish people through the person of the PKK. Starting from this, it is being approached in the framework of a plan directed at the people of the region. The current defense war being carried out by the guerrillas and resistance in this sense carries a great importance, foremost for the national democratic interests of the Kurdish people. Then there is the matter of its importance from the aspect of the interests of the regional peoples. And most importantly, it has a great place in broadening the democratic struggle of the Turkish people. If this concept succeeds, the the profiteering-oligarchic system will be rendered ineffective within the regime. Either it will fall from power or it will be rendered ineffective. The path to democratization in Turkey will thus be opened. It is understood that the profiteering-oligarchic segments must be distanced from the administrative ranks in order for a true democracy to develop in Turkey. These are unceasingly rising, unceasingly bringing violence to the fore. In the case that the guerrillas cause them to fail, democratic forces will gain strength and democratic powers will be victorious. In this sense, the struggle that the guerrillas are carrying out and will carry out is a struggle for democracy. It is a struggle to open the way to freedom, peace, and a democratic solution. This must be understood in this way. In this context, we will foresee spreading over the field. This war is concentrated in the South right now, but it could spread. (Source: The Kurdish Observer - January 18, 2001) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Arm The Spirit is an autonomist/anti-imperialist information collective based in Toronto, Canada. Our focus includes a wide variety of material, including political prisoners, national liberation struggles, armed communist resistance, anti-fascism, the fight against patriarchy, and more. We regularly publish our writings, research, and translation materials on our listserv called ATS-L. For more information, contact: Arm The Spirit P.O. Box 6326, Stn. A Toronto, Ontario M5W 1P7 Canada E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] WWW: http://burn.ucsd.edu/~ats/ ATS-L Archives: http://burn.ucsd.edu/archives/ats-l " JC
