Kurdish Student’s Association – YXK goes to congress and celebrates its 30th anniversary

Yekîtiya Xwendekarên Kurdistan, Kurdish student’s association has issued a statement to invite everyone to its 30th congress in Darmstadt this Saturday.

The statement said: “We are celebrating 30 years of Yekîtiya Xwendekarên Kurdistan, or YXK for short! That is 30 years of the struggle of the (student) Kurdish youth in Europe against assimilation, neoliberalism, capitalism, colonialism and patriarchy.”

The statement continued: “Much has happened in these 30 years. This intense war, the ‘white’ massacre in Kurdistan, has an influence on us here in Europe. To combat this reality, youth organization plays a major role. Since the 1980s, the nation-states have been pulling youth out of their roots in the name of integration. This politics of capitalist modernity will be a topic in our congress. Above all, the special warfare of capitalist modernity on youth and students must be deciphered. The attempt to let the current generation surrender must be prevented.”

The student association sees a fundamental strategy of the capitalist modernity in its attack to societal ethical values ​​through the social media. Abdullah Öcalan, on the other hand, has redefined the identity of Kurdish and global youth, the YXK declaration states, adding: “The student and youth’s movement of the 68s was able to end the Vietnam War. Today the resistance in Kurdistan and the students worldwide have to be activated. We are responsible for this and that will be an important topic at our congress.”

With thirty years of experience, the new generation has been left with a great legacy – and with it a significant responsibility, writes the YXK in its congress announcement. A small group around Abdullah Öcalan said in Ankara in the 70s that Kurdistan was a colony. Today, there is an idea that is being offered today in Kurdistan and the entire Middle East as an alternative to capitalist modernity.

“With this legacy in focus, we would like to hold our 24th Congress. We would like to discuss our responsibilities and determine our tasks, which are so great today because of the attacks against Kurdish people’s leader Abdullah Öcalan, on women, our communities and cultures, on our youth and freedom, on our lives. We are fighting an enemy who does not limit himself to the use of bombs, drones and chemical weapons against the guerrillas, the population and nature.

No, what the enemy is after is our memory and empathy as human beings. They try to destroy our ability to write history and to live solidarity. The natural cohesion between people, communities and movements is to be separated using various methods: the division of Kurdistan into four states, the economic exploitation and military subjugation of Kurdish society, the total isolation of the representative of Öcalan. As Kurdish youth in Europe we have to fight against the subtlest and sophisticated methods of the system: consumerism, careerism and individualism, which are more pronounced here than anywhere else. The pandemic is the continuation of this policy against free and resistant societies worldwide. Our tasks are great and may even seem impossible. At this point, however, we put our BUT … But we are here and we are here now.”

The 24th YXK congress will take place under the slogan “No more isolation, occupation and colonialism: Werin Cenga Azadiyê!” on Saturday, 4 September, in Darmstadt.