Besê Hozat: Youth must focus on smashing fascism

In an interview with the Kurdish youth news agency Nûçe Ciwan, the co-chair of the KCK Executive Council Besê Hozat has commented on the upcoming anniversary of the abduction of Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan to Turkey. Hozat describes the “international plot”, as Kurdish society calls the act of piracy against the PKK founder in violation of international law, as an attack on the Kurdish people and attaches great importance to internationalist participation in the struggle against it. She stresses that the youth must focus on anti-fascist resistance in the streets and squares. In this way, the forces behind the plot will also be hit, she says.

“The plot is an attack on the existence and freedom of the Kurdish people”

For 23 years, Abdullah Öcalan has been resisting solitary confinement on Imrali. What do you think has been the effect of this resistance?

First of all, I would like to condemn the international forces behind the conspiracy and remember with respect and gratitude the martyrs of the campaign “You cannot darken our sun” – especially Viyan Soran – and all other martyrs of freedom and revolution.

The international conspiracy has clearly deepened the awareness about the enemy among the Kurdish people, women and youth. Thus, the genocidal, colonial reality of the enemy was brought to light in all aspects. The Kurdish people gained a new perspective on their history. Our society considered the plot against Rêber Apo (Leader Abdullah Öcalan) as an attack on its own existence and freedom and felt the magnitude of the threat of genocide. The February plot represents the extremely frightening international level that these attacks have reached.

“The great rage of the people shook the Turkish state”

Millions of people in four parts of Kurdistan and abroad rose up to protest against the plot. 63 people set their bodies on fire under the slogan “You cannot darken our sun”. Many comrades became bombs themselves and blew themselves up at the enemy. From young to old, the Kurdish people stood against the enemy, ready to make sacrifices. The great anger of the people shook the Turkish state to the core. The international powers involved in the conspiracy were forced to admit their shock at the reactions. The fact that the then US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright stated, “We did not expect such a reaction” is an admission. It showed that the forces of the conspiracy had not only been surprised but also defeated. The statement of the then Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit at the time; “I don’t understand why the US handed over Öcalan to us” reflected his fear in the face of public anger.

“The fight against the conspiracy has strengthened the Kurds”

The plot made it clear that the Kurds were not facing a classical colonial enemy. With this genocidal colonialism, they were to be subjected to political, cultural, social, economic, environmental and physical genocide. The struggle against the plot has strengthened the Kurdish people in every way. The paradigm of democratic nation developed by Rêber Apo has developed a new sense of history, society and the enemies. The idea of a women-liberating, democratic and ecological society has brought about a new revolution of consciousness and mentality in Kurdistan.

“Defence writings brought enlightenment”

Our people have been successfully fighting against the conspiracy in the line of Rêber Apo for 23 years. Rêber Apo’s defence writings, which he developed under the conditions of isolation torture in Imrali, were a great enlightenment for Kurds and especially for women and youth. The concept of the democratic nation and the project of democratic confederalism undermined the paradigm of state and rule and its system. The Rojava Revolution, which developed according to the principles of Apoism, shines like a sun for humanity today. The ideas of Rêber Apo create great hope and generate enthusiasm among all people, especially women and youth.

“The PKK is a party of the youth”

Can we also consider the plot as an attack on the youth? After all, the PKK was defined by Abdullah Öcalan as a party of the youth. How do we have to look at this?

The people who founded the Apoist group [PKK founding group] and the PKK were part of the youth. The PKK is a party of the youth. In 50 years of struggle of the PKK, the youth has always played a leading role and shown the way. The resistance fighters of 14 July were all from the youth [led by Kemal Pir, Mehmet Hayri Durmuş, Akif Yılmaz and Ali Çiçek, a death fast was staged in Diyarbakir (ku. Amed) prison on 14 July 1982, demanding the end of torture, military discipline and uniform clothing. This action is considered as the first spark of resistance after the military coup of 1980, not only denouncing the conditions in the prisons, but also sending a revolutionary signal to the people outside the prison walls to incite the masses to fight against Turkey’s oppressive regime. 55 days after the start of the death fast, PKK cadre Kemal Pir lost his life at the age of 20]. The youngest of the 14 July insurgents was Ali Çiçek, who even today is referred to by the youth movement as the “Red Star”. The guerrilla uprising on 15 August [1984 – the beginning of the PKK’s armed struggle], which rebuilt the Kurdish people, was also an offensive of the youth. The People’s Army and the Women’s Army were also created by the youth. The guerrilla is the army of the youth. The youth also led the serhildans [popular uprisings]. Binevş Agal, as a young woman, became the symbol of the Serhildan in Cizîra Botan. Bêrîtan (Gülnaz Karatas), who honourably resisted betrayal, also came from the youth. Zîlan (Zeynep Kınacı) made the biggest statement against the 6 May 1996 plot, presenting Rêber Apo’s “Manifesto of Freedom”. She also came from the youth.

Fifty years ago, the PKK’s struggle began as a youth struggle and continues as such today. The spirit of the PKK, which manifests itself in the revolutionary personality of Rêber Apo, is a youthful spirit. It is dynamic, it is productive, it is fluid, it is transformative, it moves and it carries away. The youth flock to the PKK, the PKK is thereby inoculated anew by the spirit of youth. The energy, dynamism, enthusiasm and passion of the youth keep the PKK always alive, agile, dynamic and invincible. Rêber Apo presents the spirit of youth in a perfect way. He is a trailblazer for the youth. After the fall of Mahir (Çayan), Deniz (Gezmiş) and Ibrahim (Kaypakkaya), the leaders who shaped the youth, Rêber Apo organised the revolutionary youth movement in Turkey in Ankara. He was the chairman in the foundation of the Democratic University Association (ADYÖD). Undoubtedly, Rêber Apo is the one who pulled the Kurdish youth out of the clutches of genocidal colonialism. He is the one who infected the youth with the aspiration for a free life, a free country and a free world. He is the one who gave the youth the consciousness of freedom, the will, the faith and the spirit for it. The Kurdish youth gained the consciousness and will of freedom through the teachings of Rêber Apo and became an organised fighting force. They became the young people who play a role as initiating forces in the struggle of the people and humanity for freedom and democracy, and influential, admiring and moving people.

“Conspiracy against Rêber Apo is also a conspiracy against youth”

Rêber Apo is the symbol of freedom for the youth. The plot against him is also a plot against youth, their identity and their movement. In the person of Rêber Apo, the youth’s will for freedom is meant be broken and the youth to be removed from the struggle. Colonialism aimed to create an unconscious, will-less, mindless youth in Kurdistan, alienated from their culture and society. The forces of the conspiracy thought that by neutralising Rêber Apo, the fighting spirit of the youth would be wiped out. But they did not succeed. The struggle against the conspiracy has revitalised itself again and again. This makes the Kurds the most conscious, organised and political people in history. The Kurdish people became the vanguard of the revolution in the Middle East. With their ever rejuvenating and growing struggle, the Kurds have become a people on whom the hope of all humanity rests today.

“Rêber Apo’s paradigm serves the liberation of humanity”.

How do you mean that Abdullah Öcalan has become the hope of the whole world?

Rêber Apo is not only concerned with the problems of the Kurds, but those of humanity as a whole. He analysed 5,000 years of patriarchal, state civilisation and showed a way to solve the deep social, systemic, moral and political problems that humanity is experiencing. The last four hundred years, i.e. the nation-state phase of the ruling state civilisation, was an epoch in which women, youth, children and the elderly, indeed the whole of society and nature, were subjected to a terrible level of destruction. Rêber Apo’s democratic, ecological and women’s liberation paradigm is also a paradigm for the liberation of humanity. The democratic confederated self-government of peoples is a system of free and equal life of ethnic and religious identities, oppressed classes, women and other identities and youth vis-à-vis the fascist model of the nation state.

All over the world, people who get to know Rêber Apo’s ideas are deeply impressed. They see the solution to their problems in the ideas of Rêber Apo. When thoughts and ideologies produce solutions to the problems of humanity, they are accepted and lived. Good, true and useful thoughts that nourish and strengthen humanity have never been forgotten, their influence has not been broken and they have always lived on. These have always been a source of hope and fighting spirit for resistant humanity throughout history. This and more is also the contribution of Rêber Apo to humanity.

“Not only theory, but also practice”

Rêber Apo not only produces theory and ideology, but also develops concrete plans, projects, strategies and tactics. He reveals the principles of free and democratic life, the means of organising and the intellectual, moral and political duties along the way. He describes the essence and form of democratic socialism based on the model of democratic confederalism in the most understandable and concrete way. Rêber Apo also develops a model in which the daily affairs of society are realised on the basis of democratic politics. He is a theoretician and a practitioner, he is a pioneer in life and in struggle.

Rêber Apo’s women’s freedom line has a great impact on women in the region and worldwide. No other socialist leader in history has put women’s liberation at the centre of social liberation. Never before has women’s liberation been put first before class liberation and social liberation. He is a theoretician, ideologist, worker, friend and comrade in the struggle for women’s freedom. He is a pioneer in the war against patriarchal capitalism.

“International activists are an important part of the Kurdish youth movement”

Rêber Apo’s thoughts become a source of hope and energy for the youth suffocating in capitalist modernity, who have not yet been successful in their search for answers. He shows a way out. He gives a perspective for struggle and defends free life. Young people in search of freedom discover it in the ideas of Apoism and in the construction of democratic confederalism. Young people from all over the world are joining the struggle. An important part of the Kurdish youth movement are international activists from different faiths and cultures from different regions and the world. The youth movement goes beyond the borders of Kurdistan and has an impact on the world. It is developing into a world youth movement. The long march of the revolutionary internationalists against the international conspiracy is the most concrete expression of this. I consider the long march aiming at the physical freedom of Rêber Apo very important in this sense and I welcome the revolutionary internationalist youth and their action.

“Youth must lead very intense struggle against isolation torture in Imrali”

What should be the role of the youth in the struggle against the plot?

The international conspiracy continues in the form of all-out attacks on the Kurdish people. The system of isolation torture established at Imrali is part of these attacks and its epicentre. There is a lot of repression against Rêber Apo. All forms of special psychological warfare are applied to Imrali. The Kurdish youth together with all others should lead a very intense struggle against the isolation system on Imrali. This struggle is a struggle against the international conspiracy.  The struggle against conspiracy is the struggle of women and youth, for their own democratic and free life.

“Fascism cannot be crushed within the limits of legality”

The struggle against a fascist regime cannot bring it down within the limits of legality. There can be no effective results if the struggle is not taken to the streets and squares. The streets and squares are the arenas of the youth. If the Kurdish youth transforms the streets and squares of Turkey and Kurdistan into arenas of action, it will also fight successfully against conspiracy and fascism. The Kurdish youth should not give space to fascism to breathe. All institutions of fascism should be the target of the youth. If the fascists strike once, the youth should strike back ten times.  If a Kurdish person or family is murdered in Urfa, Konya, in any city, the youth must retaliate. To fascists and agents of special war who harass or rape Kurdish women, youth and children, the youth should retaliate immediately. The youth is the self-defence force of the people. All Kurdish youth should see themselves as the self-defence forces of their people, organise themselves with this understanding and mission and become active.

“Focus on anti-fascist struggle”

At the moment, the strongest struggle against the conspiracy is the struggle against fascism and the fascists. If fascism is overthrown, the conspiracy will suffer a big blow. The youth should concentrate all their strength and energy to smash fascism. If the youth organise themselves well and fight strongly, they will make the society rise up. If the youth organise and act, then this weakened and destroyed fascist regime will fall.

The regime uses colonialism, drug trafficking, forced prostitution and recruitment as part of its policy against the youth. These weapons of special war are used to try to remove the Kurdish youth from the struggle and to collapse the Kurdish society. The struggle of the youth movement against drugs, forced prostitution and lacy recruitment is very valuable. This struggle is an expression of resistance against genocidal attacks. It is very important to intensify and diversify this work. The education, organisation and mobilisation of young people with the aim of bringing down fascism will be a measure of the success of the youth struggle.