There are currently many discussions about the Kurdish question, the role of Kurdish people’s leader Abdullah Ocalan and his total isolation, which has now lasted for 26 years. What can you tell us about the overall situation? How should the current conflicts be understood?

First of all, I once again condemn and curse the international conspiracy with all my hatred and anger as it enters its 27th year. Also, I commemorate all martyrs of the revolution by commemorating the martyrs that gave their lives in the “You cannot darken our sun!” struggle, who stood in front of Rêber Apo¹ to protect him with their bodies.

We slowly leave the month October behind us, which is a month in which many women of our women’s movement fell martyrs. I once again commemorate all of our martyrs of the month October with respect and gratitude, by commemorating comrade Beritan (Gulnaz Karatash), the pioneer and leading cadre of our women’s army.

Today, a great and glorious historical resistance is going on in the mountains of Kurdistan. I respectfully commemorate all the comrades who martyred, especially in the areas of Zap, Metina, and Avashin. Comrade Asmin Seyit, whose martyrdom was announced recently, again comrade Agir, comrade Besta, and comrade Cemal. I bow with respect in front of their memory. I also commemorate with respect and gratitude Ape Nemir, who fought and struggled shoulder to shoulder with the revolutionaries against the gangs and mercenaries of ISIS in the Battle of Kobane and was wounded several times. I express my condolences to his family and the entire Kurdish people.

It has been 26 years since the launch of the international conspiracy, and throughout these 26 years, Rêber Apo, who was held hostage in solitary confinement in the Imrali torture center, has been in a very historic resistance. I take this opportunity to salute Rêber Apo and his resistance, his glorious resistance, and send my greetings and love.

The main purpose of this conspiracy was the physical destruction of Rêber Apo. In fact, the aim of the physical annihilation of Rêber Apo did not only start with the conspiracy of October 9. Already on May 6, 1996, a great conspiracy was staged in Damascus, again aiming at the physical destruction of Rêber Apo. Thanks to the measures taken by Rêber Apo and his foresight, that conspiracy did not come to fruition. In the face of the international conspiracy of October 9, Rêber Apo left the Middle East and thereby prevented physical annihilation. Rêber Apo is aware of the cruciality of his existence and how it is connected to the fate of the Kurdish people. He knows that his physical destruction would pave the way for the genocide of the Kurdish people. Based on this, thinking with a very strategic mind, he left the Middle East and thus frustrated the conspiracy’s aim of physical annihilation. At that time, when Rêber Apo went to Europe, during the period he spent in Rome, our people flocked to Rome in droves. Hundreds of thousands, millions of people, met and united around Rêber Apo. People set themselves on fire out of protest. They carried out big sacrificial actions. They sent the conspiratorial forces a very clear message: “Rêber Apo is us.” The existence of Rêber Apo means Kurdish existence. The main guarantee of Kurdish existence is the existence and freedom of Rêber Apo. The conspiratorial forces could not carry out physical annihilation through this, so they planned the international conspiracy of February 15. Rêber Apo was abducted and handed over to the genocidal colonialist Turkish state.

For 26 years, Rêber Apo has been resisting under conditions of absolute isolation and isolation in the Imrali torture center in order to prevent this conspiracy from achieving its goals and objectives and to defeat it. He is putting up a historical and glorious resistance. And this resistance is not only a physical resistance. Rêber Apo has realized a great mental revolution. Of course, he did not start this while being in Imrali. Already before, Rêber Apo was constantly concentrating on every ideological, paradigmatic, and organizational dimension of this. But the conditions of war outside, again, the problems and agendas that had to be dealt with for the organization, posed difficulties in front of the mental revolution Rêber Apo wanted to realize. As Rêber Apo put it, the situation on Imrali changed the circumstances.

Rêber Apo has a great style of struggle. It is in fact a legendary struggle. This needs to be grasped very well. As I pointed out, this is not only a physical resistance. This is an intellectual, spiritual, ideological, paradigmatic resistance. One can say that Rêber Apo has created a form of resistance that complements other forms of resistance and therefore is in fact far superior to them. With the tremendous mental revolution, the paradigmatic change and transformation that he realized in his own person, he frustrated all the calculations of the conspiracy. What did Rêber Apo do? One by one, Rêber Apo analyzed both the mentality and the calculations of the five thousand-year-old statist civilization, a statist, power-oriented, male-dominated civilization system. One by one, he unmasked them in front of all of us. He created an enormous paradigm with the prison writings he presented to the courts. The prison writings enlightened us all. They revealed perspectives and system analyses that enlighten the whole of humanity about the reality of the five thousand years of male-dominated capitalist civilization. And we all benefit from this today. In other words, civilization called its gods to account. Rêber Apo judged them, called them to account, and put forward an alternative to this system.

There are other thinkers who have tried to solve the crisis of civilization. But Rêber Apo’s way of analyzing civilization is not an approach that is limited to theoretical analysis. He looked at the issue from a more revolutionary point of view, as a revolutionary leader. Before Imrali, there already was an enormous Kurdish freedom movement that he had created and developed. There was an organized public opinion. With the new paradigmatic change, this multiplied itself even more and brought about much greater developments. For example, the Rojava revolution developed. The Rojava revolution developed and took shape on the basis of Rêber Apo’s tremendous paradigm based on the pillars of democracy, ecology, and women’s freedom. What are the revolutionaries of Rojava saying today? They say that they have taken Rêber Apo’s idea and his paradigm as their guide and that they are trying to implement it as a new system of democratic and free life. We all see this in a more concrete form day by day. Therefore, it also attracts the world’s attention.

What has developed during the past twenty-six years that Rêber Apo is held captive in Imrali? The inhuman ISIS gangs were created in order to cause a great war of peoples in the Middle East. They attacked Kurds in Kobane, and before that, they attacked our Êzidî (Yazidi) people. They attacked the Êzidî people in Shengal (Sinjar). Today, our Êzidî people in Shengal are also in a great resistance and are broadly organized with the aim of establishing a new system and a new life model based on Rêber Apo’s democratic, ecological, egalitarian, libertarian, and for the freedom of women’s standing ideas. For this reason, the genocidal, colonialist, and sovereign powers, particularly the Turkish state, are constantly carrying out extermination attacks and operations against our Êzidî people.

One can say that in this twenty-six-year period, the international conspiracy has actually been frustrated to some extent. But one cannot claim that complete results have been achieved or that the conspiracy was defeated. Because all of the struggle we have waged over the past twenty-six years has been aimed at developing a democratic solution to the Kurdish question. It is directed towards ensuring the physical freedom of Rêber Apo. Because the solution to the Kurdish question means the physical freedom of Rêber Apo. And the freedom of Rêber Apo means the solution to the Kurdish question. Both are two fundamental aspects that are as close to each other as possible.

Our people are aware of the nature of the problem. They are aware that the Kurdish question cannot be solved without the liberation of Rêber Apo. As long as Rêber Apo is imprisoned, the conspiracy, the international conspiracy, cannot be defeated completely. That is why every anniversary of the conspiracy, our people, together with their international friends, protest; they condemn the conspiracy and put up a great resistance against it. This resistance continues on every anniversary; it continues to rise on the anniversary. All of the struggle we have waged together with our people during these twenty-six years is for the defeat of the international conspiracy, which started on October 9 and completed its first stage on February 15, with the captivity of Rêber Apo. But the conspiracy itself continues.

Of course, during all this time, the conspiratorial forces have not been idle. They tried to renew the conspiracy again and again. Both Rêber Apo, the Kurds, and we, as the Kurdish freedom movement, have tried to wage a great resistance and struggle against this conspiracy. The new concepts they tried to develop were always tried to be frustrated. Today, the conspiracy continues in certain dimensions. On which pillars does it weave itself? The genocidal, colonialist, genocidal policy of the Turkish state on the Kurds is being carried out most concretely on Rêber Apo in the Imrali torture center. They do not allow a single word of Rêber Apo to come out, so that the movement and the people do not get inspired by Rêber Apo. They are trying to ensure that nothing comes out of there. They prevent even the most human rights and legal rights of Rêber Apo. It is commonly known that Rêber Apo’s freedom is now legally due. They are trying to prevent this.

For example, they are not implementing the retrial decision taken by international European courts. They are afraid of this. They do not allow the voice of Rêber Apo to be heard. They are really afraid that Rêber Apo will gradually become physically free. As the struggle of the people, the movement, the society and the international friends of the Kurdish people grows, they see and fear that as the resistance and a certain level of resistance and willpower emerges, the physical freedom of the Rêber Apo is becoming increasingly possible. For this reason, they are not allowing Rêber Apo to implement the retrial decision and they are not allowing Rêber Apo to exercise his legal rights, even the legal rights of a normal prisoner. This is a pillar of the conspiracy.

In addition to this, there are great extermination operations on the Kurdish freedom movement, again on the Kurdish freedom guerrilla. There are great liquidation and annihilation operations and attacks. The genocide and extermination attacks carried out today in the Kurdish mountains in Zap, Metina, and Avashin are one of the most fundamental pillars of the international conspiracy. Without the freedom guerrilla, without the resistance of the guerrilla in Kurdistan, can the Kurds sustain themselves? Can the Kurdish freedom struggle survive? What guarantees the existence of Kurds today is, of course, the existence of the Kurdish freedom struggle in the mountains of Kurdistan. It is the existence of the freedom guerrilla. We can say that the existence of the Kurdish guerrilla, its will, and its resistance is the basic guarantee of Kurdish existence. That is why they want to destroy it. Therefore, the genocidal attacks and extermination attacks on the guerrilla continue uninterruptedly both in northern Kurdistan and in southern Kurdistan. It continues in the most inhuman way, through chemical attacks and with the use of tactical nuclear weapons. The Kurdish guerrilla continues to put up a glorious resistance under genocide and extermination attacks.

In addition to this, also in other fields, the international conspiracy’s effort to sustain itself, to make it permanent, is going on as well. The genocidal attacks developed by the enemy are not only carried out against the guerrilla in the Medya Defense Zones² or in the provinces of northern Kurdistan. The genocidal and extermination attacks are being carried out both on the leading cadres of our movement and on the people who work together with our movement around the struggle for freedom, who participate in the struggle, who support it, who are in solidarity.

Every day, the cities, villages, streets, and neighborhoods in Rojava are being bombarded under the pretext of attacking PKK cadres. It is our patriotic people that are attacked. This is also what they are doing with the continued genocidal attacks on Shengal. And at the same time, the genocidal attacks on the Makhmur refugee camp continue. These genocidal attacks take place everywhere in southern Kurdistan as well.

This needs to be seen as the continuation of the international conspiracy. The conspiracy has developed with significant protests on the occasion of the new anniversary. The time has come to not only frustrate the conspiracy but to defeat it once and for all. Twenty-six years have passed. And in these twenty-six years it was shown that neither the Kurdish will be broken, nor the Kurdish existence could be wiped out, nor the Kurdish guerrilla could be destroyed, nor Rêber Apo could be compromised, nor the Kurdish people could be annihilated, nor the Kurdish freedom movement could be forced to kneel.

The struggle that has been waged in Kurdistan during these twenty-six years is a struggle that centers on the freedom of Rêber Apo. It needs to be understood this way. All the actions and activities that have taken place explicitly for Rêber Apo’s freedom anyway, but also all the other efforts of the Kurdish freedom struggle of the last 26 years, served the same goal: the freedom of Rêber Apo. The solution of the Kurdish question, the realization of the Kurdish freedom revolution, and the freedom of Rêber Apo are totally intertwined. They cannot be separated from each other. On various occasions, Rêber Apo saluted the actions carried out under the name of his freedom and pointed out that his freedom depends on the solution of the Kurdish question and the realization of the freedom revolution in Kurdistan.

There is a tremendous resistance that the Kurdish people have developed from the first day of the international conspiracy. At a magnificent level, people take on their responsibility towards Rêber Apo.

When the first process of the conspiracy developed, there was a tremendous struggle, there was a tremendous cohesion, a tremendous level of sacrifice emerged. And this continues today. The Kurdish people have never distanced from Rêber Apo. There was never the slightest weakening in their bond with him. We saw this most recently at the rally in Amed (tr. Diyarbakir) on October 13th. That unbreakable bond between the Kurdish people and Rêber Apo, which has existed since day one, is growing exponentially day by day. It is both widening and deepening.

During the past twenty-six years, many campaigns have been carried out. There was, for example, the “Enough is Enough!” (Edi Bese) campaign, or also the “Abdullah Ocalan is my political will” campaign. In that campaign, signatures were collected from both Kurds and their international friends, who claimed Rêber Apo as representative of their political will. Ten million signatures were collected. The international ruling powers were confronted with this. The genocidal colonialist Turkish state was confronted with this. These campaigns, in some way, continue today. Again in 2019, there was the big hunger strike led by the hunger strikes in prisons, first and foremost by dear Leyla Guven. At that time, there was a tremendous campaign being carried out. Through that resistance, for example, a breach was opened in the absolute isolation and genocide regime in Imrali. And through that breach, talks with Rêber Apo started. There were a few meetings, but no results were obtained. It was interrupted again. It was sabotaged again. And it was the fascist AKP-MHP government, which still rules the genocidal colonialist Turkish Republic with its insincere approach, that sabotaged it. Still, to a high extent, both the Kurdish people and their international friends take on their responsibility towards Rêber Apo. If the conspiracy has not achieved its goals and objectives in these twenty-six years, this is primarily due to the spirit of resistance put forward by our patriotic people.

One pillar is the spirit of resistance shown by our people. It is the magnificent extent to which they take responsibility towards Rêber Apo. Another pillar is the resistance and struggle of the Kurdistan freedom guerrilla in the mountains of Kurdistan. And there is the, and I would say it is the most fundamental pillar, the tremendous resistance of Rêber Apo, who is in a position of absolute isolation and hostage in Imrali.

As part of this resistance, there is a global campaign that was launched last year under the name ‘Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan, a Political Solution to the Kurdish Question’. What can you tell us about it? How do you rate the progress of the campaign?

The global freedom campaign was launched in Europe on October 10th of last year under the leadership of our international friends. The campaign since then has grown exponentially. Generally speaking, in the past twenty-six years since the beginning of the conspiracy, the international friends of Rêber Apo and of the Kurdish people have multiplied. Gradually, these friends began to appear on all continents of the world. What is the reason for this? The main reason for this is that the thoughts of Rêber Apo are gradually reflecting on the world of humanity. Why wasn’t this happening before? Because nobody knew much about Kurds. No one knew much about Rêber Apo. All that was known about Rêber Apo and the Kurds was from the enemy perspective. In other words, they knew Rêber Apo through the “Baby-Killer-Propaganda,” the terror propaganda. There was great anti-propaganda carried out. During all these years of this conspiracy, Rêber Apo put the vast world his mentality was into books. Rêber Apo turned his thoughts into written material. The prison writings he presented to the European Court of Human Rights and the analyses Rêber Apo had made while he was still outside were translated into different languages, languages spoken by different peoples, and spread. The peoples began to get acquainted with these ideas, these revolutionary thoughts of Rêber Apo. They began to get acquainted with this comprehensive world of his and began to take an enormous interest in it. Why? Because Rêber Apo actually developed a brand new world out of these conditions of captivity. He developed a whole new world of thought. He developed a world of meaning. He developed a new world of democratic libertarian thought. As people became acquainted with this world, they began to realize that the old propaganda about Rêber Apo was not true at all. Therefore, they started to approach more sincerely. They started to see the truth. Based on this reality, they started to embrace Rêber Apo and his ideas. They started to cluster around him. If you meet a new world of thought, you position yourself within that new world of thought. You adopt an attitude. Today these international friends also want and demand the physical freedom of Rêber Apo. Why? Because the freedom of the Rêber Apo is also the freedom of these democratic libertarian thoughts. It is the liberation, release, and emancipation of the new world of thought from isolation. They put Rêber Apo under isolation and locked him up. They don’t allow a single word to come out of Imrali.

This global campaign, which has developed under the leadership of our international friends, is gradually getting more concrete in the form of daily actions and activities. These actions and activities are becoming more diverse and colorful; conferences are being held; there are theoretical intellectual discussions; Rêber Apo’s prison writings are being read collectively; reading days are organized; and discussions are being developed. Rêber Apo’s thoughts are both read and discussed. Inspiration is taken from this. As the spirit, inspiration, and morale are taken from him, people carry out different mass actions and activities. They organize marches, various demonstrations in front of different international organizations, vigils, and so much more. For example, there is the vigil that has been developing for more than ten years. The vigil for the freedom of Rêber Apo in Strasbourg. In this sense, there is a tremendous determination and level of assumption of responsibility.

The global campaign has left one year behind. During this one-year period, it has created great pressure on the conspiratorial forces, but also on the genocidal colonialist Turkish state and the fascist AKP MHP regime. It has put them in great anxiety. Because gradually Rêber Apo’s thoughts are becoming internationalized and socialized. It is gradually beginning to find a broad international social ground. This is a new wave of revolution. This is a very historical development. This new wave of revolution, which is developing under the leadership of Rêber Apo’s ideas, carries within itself a revolutionary energy equal to the French revolution in history. It carries revolutionary energy equal to the revolutionary energy of the October revolution. And this is spreading and growing.

Still, the Kurds are under great difficulties. What does overcoming these difficulties depend on? It depends on the increasing comprehensiveness of the struggle. This is also within the scope of the campaign led by our friends. It is the ‘Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan, a Political Solution to the Kurdish Question’ campaign. Our international friends also see that the solution to the Kurdish question and the freedom of Rêber Apo are intertwined.

In this one-year period, the struggle has led to a tremendous development in the mentioned aspects. The circles that support this campaign are very diverse. From women to men, from thinkers to intellectuals, from academics to politicians, from lawyers to ecologists, from anarchists to socialists, from feminists to women’s liberationists, from Nobel Prize winners to activists, from artists to writers – in other words, people from many different sections and layers of society are supporting this campaign. The groups and individuals that participate in the campaign are the guiding groups and individuals of society. They are the ones who lead the conscious of society. Their support and participation are really valuable. In this sense, I salute both this global campaign initiated by our international friends and everyone who participates in and supports this movement and works for the freedom of the leader. I wish them success in their struggle. And I also believe that in the second year of the movement, they will continue it by deepening and expanding it with new ways and methods.

The recent demonstration in Amed, which could only take place under the most difficult conditions, also took place within this framework. What can you tell us about the message that the people sent through this rally?

In this context, of course, on October 13th there was the mentioned action of our people in northern Kurdistan, in Amed. I would like to salute that demonstration too. It was magnificent. They tried to ban the rally, but after the democratic political party gave a statement on this, it was clear that the rally could not be prevented. In the name of discussing their so-called solution to the Kurdish problem, they put forward some discussions under the name of a new solution process. They put forward some speculative news. And everyone where this made up discussion came from. On top of that, the Amed rally was on the agenda. Everyone said something was going on. It was as if there were some talks going on behind closed doors. But there is nothing like that. They probably thought that nobody would take part in the rally and that the streets would remain empty. So they kept quiet at first. But then they realized that the calls made by DBP started to be responded to every day through the press. They really worked, traveled, and visited house after house, street after street. A great social and mass support started to develop. People from Istanbul, Izmir, and the metropolises of Turkey will come to Amed in droves. All of Amed will stand up; all of Kurdistan will flow to Amed. They saw and understood this. What did the colonial governor do? He got up and said, “I am banning the rally.” He panicked. Because everyone had turned towards Amed.

Despite the ban they imposed, our people from all over northern Kurdistan turned towards Amed in droves. Maybe the rally they wanted to hold was not in Station Square, but they broke the enemy barrier, the police barrier. The people flowed like a river, united, and reached its goal. They managed to make their voices heard.

What creates this level of determination and assertiveness in the people? It is precisely the stance against the international conspiracy. It is demanding the freedom of Rêber Apo. Our people no longer tolerate the captivity of Rêber Apo. Our people can no longer tolerate living with this captivity. The gates of Imrali must be opened now, and Rêber Apo must be among our people. Our people gave this message from the Amed rally square. It has demonstrated its will and determination. Everyone, friend and foe, needs to hear and see this. Most fundamentally, the genocidal, colonialist, fascist AKP MHP regime of the Turkish state needs to read this message from Amed.

In this context, how should the latest statements by Devlet Behceli, one of the crucial representatives of the conspiracy, who is now trying to pretend that he is trying to resolve the situation, be understood?

The fascist Devlet Bahceli called on Imrali in his speech from the rostrum of the parliament. They have closed the door to Imrali. They do not allow a single word to come out of Imrali. How can he make a call to Imrali without there being any meeting with Imrali? He called on Imrali to take action. He told Rêber Apo to liquidate his organization. Bahceli, don’t your people ask you what’s going on with the Kurds you declared dead? What’s going on with the movement you said was dead? The Kurds gave their message very clearly in Amed. “The Youth are the Fedayis³ of Rêber Apo” and “No Life Without Rêber Apo” were the slogans that were heard in Amed. You need to take the real message from here. If you are going to make a sincere call to Imrali, then first you need to open the door to Imrali. You need to appoint a meeting and a dialog in Imrali.

There is some speculative news being spread in this context. They are having a lot of discussions. We don’t mind them discussing. There is nothing wrong with this. The solution to the Kurdish question is in a process of insolvency because it is not being discussed. It should be discussed. But these discussions should not overshadow the truth. They should not obscure the reality. What is the reality? The reality is that an absolute isolation system, a system of genocide, is currently being carried out in Imrali. What is the reality? At the moment, a fierce war and resistance are being waged in the Medya Defense Zones. Blood is flowing on both sides. This blood must first be stopped. If you are going to make a call, first stop the bloodshed. Do not ban the rallies that the people want to hold.

The Kurdish people and their friends should listen to what our movement has to say. It would be best for them to follow the process, to look where the truths that are wanted to be hidden and concealed under these discussions that are wanted to be veiled are reflected. And I believe that our people and friends are in this consciousness and awareness.

Finally, I would like to ask you about the role and responsibility of the women’s freedom struggle in this context.

Rêber Apo’s approach to women has always been on an emancipatory basis. From the first day he started the struggle, he opened the ground for women to express themselves within the grounds of struggle and to carry out their own struggle for equality and freedom. He opened a tremendous space of freedom for Kurdish women. In this sense, we can say that this is the most fundamental aspect that distinguishes Rêber Apo from all other leaders, from other socialist leaders. In fact, this is the main aspect that distinguishes Rêber Apo’s theory of democratic socialism from real socialist theory and from Marx’s socialism. Because he deciphered and decoded the codes of the five thousand years of male-dominated capitalist civilization. He revealed that it was a system built on the slavery of women. Therefore, he tried to develop the Kurdish freedom struggle he started on this basis. Another ideological determination that corresponds to the determination that Kurdistan is a colony is the determination that society cannot be liberated without the liberation of women. If society cannot be liberated without the liberation of women, then if you are a leader of a struggle, then you start from here. Therefore, Rêber Apo placed women’s liberation at the center of the Kurdish freedom movement. He tried to enlighten, develop, educate, analyze, and perspective our society and people on this basis. He made every effort to educate, analyze, develop, and make us women truly strong-willed. He organized education circuits for years and started an enormous enlightenment process in Kurdistan that centered around women’s freedom. In this sense, as the Kurdish women’s freedom movement continues its development process, I would like to state that we owe this development and our honorable and strong-willed stance today to Rêber Apo.

The freedom of Rêber Apo is the freedom of us women. Just as the freedom of Rêber Apo is the freedom of Kurds, the freedom of Rêber Apo is the freedom of women. And the bond between women and Rêber Apo is both an emotional bond, a bond full of feelings, a bond of love. But it is also a bond woven with consciousness and enlightened by consciousness. It is ideological, philosophical, historical, psychological, and sociological. Therefore, it is a very deep bond. In the person of the Kurdish woman, he has actually opened a brand new area of freedom for the women of the region and the world and opened the door to freedom. In the last two centuries, there is a tremendous history of women’s struggle in the world, both in the west and the east. The women’s struggle for freedom initiated by Rêber Apo has also given momentum to this. It has given it spirit. In fact, he made many ideological determinations that would contribute to it.

The ideology of women’s liberation Rêber Apo developed is a cornerstone of our women’s liberation struggle. The ‘theory of rupture’ he developed is a very serious turning point. The ‘theory of rupture’ is a great liberating breakthrough for the female personality to achieve freedom, to create, organize, and will its own world of freedom. At the same time, Rêber Apo put the project of transforming men in front of us women. It put forward the theory of ‘killing men’ in Kurdistan in order to question, analyze, and overcome the dominant stance of men, and the level of development that emerged from this led to a revolutionary development that one could call a tremendous mental revolution. This led to a serious revolution within Kurdish society. This revolutionary process is still developing.

Of course, we have carried out these developments concretely under the leadership of our martyrs, our pioneers and leaders who were martyred. For example, within the month of October, one has to mention comrade Beritan. Our women’s army, which developed under the leadership of comrade Beritan, has developed and left behind thirty years. For more than thirty years, women’s freedom guerrillas in the mountains of Kurdistan have practiced an organized struggle and an organized will with the perspective of army formation.

Why armed resistance? Would we have reached today if we hadn’t taken upon arms? This would not have been possible. If we have reached today, if we have a women’s freedom party in Kurdistan, if we have entered the stage of knitting the social confederal system of women such as the KJK, all of this is thanks to the women’s armed struggle that developed under the leadership of comrade Beritan thirty years ago. And today this women’s mobilization has evolved to a higher stage. Kurdish women today are not only living an armed struggle in the mountains. In the cities, for example, Kurdish women are also struggling to develop their own self-defense forces. They are going through such a process. For example, in Rojava, a tremendous level of development and organization has emerged under the leadership of Kurdish women as the YPJ. We say that the Rojava revolution is a women’s revolution. It developed under the leadership of YPJ. The YPJ also took its inspiration from Rêber Apo as well as the women’s army that developed under the leadership of comrade Beritan and developed in the Medya Defense Zones. The YPJ sees that as its legacy. Again, there is the YJŞ organization developed by Êzidî women in Shengal. They all take their inspiration from the pioneers like comrade Beritan, comrade Meryem, comrade Zeynep, comrade Delal, and Arin Mirkan. Again in eastern Kurdistan, Kurdish women are trying to develop their organization as HPJ.

This is an ongoing process. Because the women’s revolution will take many years. It is a revolutionary development that may take fifty years, maybe a hundred years. Rêber Apo made the determination that the twenty-first century will be the century of women. He made this determination based on his own labor and efforts because he knew that the twenty-first century would evolve into the century of women, knowing the developments and achievements he had created around women’s freedom before entering the twenty-first century. Today, this women’s liberation struggle, which is being carried out under the leadership of YJA Star guerrillas in the four parts of Kurdistan and in the Medya Defense Zones, is growing day by day, growing deeper and exponentially. The women’s revolution may go beyond the twenty-first century. It would not be very accurate to set a limit to this. Because there is no time when it will end. It is endless. Women’s liberation is such a process. Because it is an ideological process. It is an ideological revolution. It is a philosophical revolution. This enlightenment started in Kurdistan under the leadership of the pioneers like comrade Beritan, under the leadership of the women’s liberation armies started by the comrade Beritan. It is an inspiration to the whole world. And this will spread over many years.

And of course, part of this is armed struggle. Part of it is ideological struggle. Part of it is a theoretical philosophical struggle. And part of it is a social struggle. The women’s revolution is also a social revolution. Women’s freedom is also linked to the freedom of society. Women will be liberated so that society will be liberated. In this sense, of course, this developing women’s liberation struggle also frightens its enemies. It frightens the enemy of the Kurds. It frightens the enemies of women. And it also causes misogynist politics to make itself more visible.

Our women’s liberation struggle has also put the genocidal colonialist Turkish regime, especially in northern Kurdistan and Turkey, into a process of great narrowness and difficulty due to the fear it created against it. A new politics of feminicide is being produced by the special war centers developed by them. Currently, feminicidal policies are being put forward. A very serious special war policy is in effect for this. Particularly in Kurdistan, but it is not limited to Kurdistan. In the metropolises of Turkey as well, the policies of feminicide have been put into effect to the fullest. In Kurdistan, women and young girls are massacred on a daily basis. Incidents of harassment and rape in the streets are observed every day. There is a great deprivation of morality, a great deprivation of values. The society in Turkey and Kurdistan is being dragged into a great degeneration and moral collapse. These should not be called examples that arise unconsciously and spontaneously in the natural flow of life in society. It should not be evaluated in this way. If this is evaluated in this way, it would be a mistake. This is a systematic strategy carried out by certain centers established by the AKP MHP special war regime. And these are the policies and actions developed against our struggle in order to sabotage it, which is marching with the claim of realizing the growing women’s liberation revolution in Kurdistan and Turkey and in the region.

There is a great attack on women. The people, the society, both the people of Kurdistan and the society of Turkey need to unite against this, to rise up, to burn these places down. Because neither social morality nor women’s liberationist morality, nor feminist movements, nor women’s liberation struggle, nor general social liberation struggles accept this. This is not a situation to stand by and watch. A two-year-old baby is being raped. In order to nullify this concept of attack against women, directed by the special war centers, all women in Kurdistan and Turkey must join hands, put their heads together, and develop joint organized struggles against this.

Women who support the government and vote for the fascist AKP MHP are also victims of this. They are also women. I say that women from AKP, women from CHP, women from other large and small parties should join hands and organize a level of struggle full of common synergy together to frustrate this immoral concept of attack on women and to organize a common synergetic struggle against it.

Footnotes: