From: "Magnus Bernhardsen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Peoples War] PKK holds its 6th conference http://www.kurdishobserver.com/2001/08/29/hab01.html PKK holds its 6th conference The Sixth PKK National Conference has been held in South [Iraqi] Kurdistan. Discussions were held in the light of the defense to be presented by PKK President Abdullah Ocalan in the European Court of Human Rights, while the decision to intensify political serhildans (popular uprisings) was underscored. MURAT SARAC / S. KURDISTAN The PKK's 6th National Conference was held from August 5-22 in South Kurdistan with the participation of 138 delegates and a great number of guerrillas and audience participants. Serious discussions were held at the conference, leading to a series of decisions on the language and practice of the period, while there was a unanimous vote on the decision to engage in political serhildans. Duran Kalkan gave the opening speech of the conference, which was also attended by PKK Council of Leaders members Osman Ocalan, Nizamettin Tas, Murat Karayilan, Nuriye Kespir, and Gulizar Tural. Kalkan concentrated primarily on administrative style in his speech, saying that the problems they had encountered had arisen from administrative mistakes. "Our holding a meeting during this period in which practical activities are intense is in order for us to play our role of leadership well," Kalkan said, stressing also the importance of creating the proper cadres for the new period. More than one hundred decisions The conference met with 17 issues on its agenda, and took up culture, art, press and media, international relations, and national unity, along with works for the people's movement. Delegates debated the issues in the light of the defense presented by PKK President Abdullah Ocalan for his case in the European Court of Human Rights and reached consensus on reorganizing in the framework of a joint life culture between peoples. The conference reached decisions on a series of activities to be conducted in the period ahead in the spirit of political serhildan, but they at the same time expressed their sensitivity on the issue of legitimate defense. Following debate of the issues, 12 commissions were established to draw up decisions. The commissions then met for a week, taking advantage of the decisions and plans already reached at the Press-Broadcasting Conference, to draw up new draft decisions to present to the conference delegates. Decisions were reached after these drafts were once again debated. Over one hundred separate topics were debated and voted on. 'The guerrillas' role is strategic' The conference ended on August 22 with a talk by PKK Council of Leaders member Osman Ocalan. He said that preparations for the conference had lasted three months, which he called a great organizational initiative. Ocalan said that conference works had been discussed by over a thousand staff at conferences and meetings at various venues, and continued to say the following: "The aspects which have remained weak in responding to the process were uncovered with these works, problems of ours that had not been seen before were seen and strong answers were given to these problems. The PKK 6th National Conference was the foundation for all the works in the sense of carrying out the struggle against insufficient or incorrect approaches." Osman Ocalan also called attention to the final defense of PKK President Abdullah Ocalan, saying, "Our leadership's new defense has let us reach a new ideological summit. It put forth our defense, tactics, and strategy in both a deep and a broad fashion." Touching on the relation between political serhildan and the guerrillas, Ocalan said, "The basic special characteristic of our serhildans is the need felt to protect the guerrilla. The new period will develop with the guarantee and support of the guerrillas. On this basis, the guerrillas' role is strategic." Serhildan for victory The Parliamentary Assembly of the PKK released a final declaration following the completion of the 6th National Conference, stressing that "peace, democracy, and a free [voluntary] union solution will be realized with political serhildans." The statement continued to say: "Our party's 6th Conference set out a line of organization and action that will result in an encompassing democratic development of change and transformation, and took measures for political serhildans to continue in the broadest way. How to bring serhildan activity, which has been carried out in bits from time to time, to a sufficient level and the problems of carrying this out in a line of peace were taken up and solutions reached. It therefore became the summit of strongly bringing to life the power for democratic struggle of our people and the slogan of 'Either serhildan or freedom, now!'." The declaration said that the conference had also made a comprehensive appraisal of the current period and situation, determining that the political situation had made democratic change and transformation mandatory and that, for this, political serhildans including the greatest possible masses of the people were necessary. The PKK PA statement said that the conference had particularly underscored the vital importance of replacing the oligarchic republic in Turkey with the creation of a democratic republic. The statement said that the Kurdish people needed to be a vanguard for democratic development in Turkey and other countries of the region in the current period, adding that the entire efforts of the party were to bring the people to this level and to bring the assaults of the international conspiracy to naught. The statement also referred to the defense of PKK President Abdullah Ocalan, saying it was of the quality of a "Middle East renaissance" and that they had completed preparations with the strength they took from the defense to turn the line of serhildans for victory into practice. The statement said that the campaigns under the mottoes of "Second Peace Drive," "Freedom for President APO" and "I want my national and political identity to be recognized" must be strengthened and spread to include Turkey, North Kurdistan, and other fields. The statement concluded by making a call to political serhildans, stressing the following: "Our people must finally say what needs to be said. On this basis, we are calling our brave people to unite with the line of our party's national conference to write a new history and to carry out, continue, and lift up political serhildans. We are calling for brother peoples of the region, especially the Turkish people, to take action to develop democratic peace initiatives in line with a solution of peace, democracy, and free union; for the Republic of Turkey and other states of the region to act appropriately in order for problems to be resolved in a democratic fashion; and for international forces to support democratic development." _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
