The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has created significant social values throughout its 52-year struggle. But what values emerged during this half-century, and how have these values shaped the women’s movement? From its founding to today, how has the party’s role in women’s liberation evolved, and what social transformations have arisen from women’s participation over these 52 years?
Raperin Munzur, a member of the Coordination of the Kurdistan Women’s Freedom Party (PAJK), spoke to ANF.
The PKK has marked half a century with its 52-year struggle and created immense values. To begin with, could you assess which values emerged and how these values have influenced women’s struggle?
First, I celebrate the anniversary of the founding of the PKK, which reversed the Kurdish people’s history of genocide and slavery and initiated a history of freedom. I extend these greetings to President Öcalan, to women, and to all our people.
I also call on all women, on the occasion of 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, to intensify the struggle against the contemporary representatives and mindset of the historic femicide perpetrator. Building a free life by placing women’s freedom at the center and struggling against the male-dominated mentality is the fundamental philosophy of President Öcalan. The women’s revolution will be realized through the construction of a communal female existence grounded in self-defense against the male-dominated system and all its institutional structures.
The 27th of November 2025 carries a meaning unlike any other. We are now celebrating the anniversary of a movement that has surpassed its own organizational form. This shows that the reality of the PKK is not merely an organizational structure or mechanism; it is a spirit and an identity. Our people expressed this with the slogan, “The PKK is the people, and the people are here.” This celebration is, through the essence of the PKK, also the celebration of the Kurdish people asserting their existence, gaining identity, and managing to survive despite annihilation and denial policies. It is an expression of loyalty to our history and to what has been achieved.
This celebration is the celebration of women who, through the PKK and the guerrilla struggle, have found their dignity and freedom, have become themselves, and have entered the path of the women’s revolution. Yes, the PKK has been dissolved, but it has entered the history of the Kurdish people as the name of freedom, resistance, self-sacrifice, and the creation of dignity. For this reason, the PKK was not dissolved because it was a “terrorist organization,” as the Turkish state claims, but because it fulfilled its role, completed its time, and reached a point where the values it created needed to be socialized.
The values the PKK produced, the line of freedom it revealed, reached a level far beyond the limits of an organization. They became the values of a new life. And these values now belong to our entire society, to women, and to the peoples of the world; they are great freedom values that must be embraced. They form the foundation of a new revolution and hold the power to build this revolution on the basis of freedom. They are the principles of a positive revolution.
Above all, the PKK created an identity. It brought forth the free Kurdish identity. It eliminated the denial and genocide imposed on the Kurdish people. It revealed a Kurdish reality that transcended mere physical existence. From a Kurdish person who was ashamed of themselves, who hid their identity, who lived in a state of self-denial and escape, it built a Kurdishness that stands tall, dignified, and proud of its history, identity, and existence. This Kurdishness is now taking its place in history.
Reaching a stage where Kurdish people can freely express and live their identity with pride, moving beyond the “tailed Kurd” complex, is a revolution. It is a revolution of existence and being. Because what the Kurds experienced, unlike any other people, was a form of erasure, and the problems this created were profound. The heaviest condition a human being can experience is to be ashamed of themselves, to be ashamed of their identity and culture, to be unable to express themselves in their own language and culture, to aspire to be someone else, to deny themselves and reach a point of fleeing from their own being. With the PKK, this changed.
One of the greatest achievements of the PKK’s 52-year struggle is that Kurdish people have reached a point where they can proudly embrace their own Kurdishness, their existence and identity. This is a social revolution; it is a psychological revolution; it is a human revolution. The path from the “tailed Kurd” to the free Kurd, a path woven with immense sacrifices, suffering, and resistance, was walked through the PKK.
What the most ancient people of history experienced is, in fact, a tragedy of humanity as a whole. In this sense, the revival of the Kurds is the cultural revival of humanity. President Öcalan said, “What is Kurdistani is universal.” Today, historical and archaeological data are beginning to prove this. There is a connection between the universal history of humanity and the existence and culture of the Kurdish people. The statist and power-centered system is always at war with social roots and culture; it seeks to eradicate them. Especially capitalism’s primary skill lies in stripping existence of all its values and humanity, reducing it to mere physical boundaries.
At a time when humanity has reached the brink of extinction, the resistance of the root culture on behalf of humanity has imposed itself as a kind of historical destiny. The PKK has become the voice of this.
At its core, the PKK has become a women’s party. It placed women’s freedom at the very top and prioritized the empowerment and liberation of women through the principle that “society cannot be free unless women are free.” On this basis, it ensured that women organized themselves, took active roles in decision-making and administrative mechanisms, and became the fundamental force of ideological struggle. Its essential principle has been to dismantle dominant masculinity and the culture built upon it, and to create a women-centered life. This is what distinguishes the PKK.
In this sense, the PKK’s revival of the Kurdish people and of women is, in a way, a divine act. President Öcalan’s line and dialectic have led to a realization that must be regarded with a certain sacredness.
Just as the PKK has struggled for the Kurdish people, it has also revealed a theory of freedom, struggle, and socialism for all the peoples, minorities, and communities of the region. Through President Öcalan’s paradigm, it has created a new hope for the world.
Of course, the critique and self-critique of what the PKK has not succeeded in over its 52-year struggle is something we conduct within ourselves. Guided by President Öcalan’s critiques, we are in a phase of presenting this self-critique and preparing for the new period with the experience and legacy we have gained.
Can the values and gains created through this struggle be seen as a strong claim in shaping a new century of women?
On the occasion of 25 November, I call on all women to organize on the basis of self-defense against male violence, femicide, and attacks. Kurdish women possess a great historical legacy of self-defense, strength drawn from history itself, and the achievements of a 50-year struggle. Women must learn their own history and give importance to consciousness-raising and education. We must draw strength from our history and make use of its experience. We must give value to women’s ongoing rebellion, quest, and struggle in every moment of time and life.
The struggles of classes, ethnicities, and social groups have always been narrated and have found a place in history. But women’s resistance and struggle, despite being continuous, has always been ignored and devalued. It is an important responsibility to give deep meaning, value, and political representation to this resistance that sustains and protects life.
Women must know how to defend themselves against the reality of the historic femicide perpetrator. For a woman to defend herself is essential for her survival. Any woman who is not organized cannot escape falling into the trap of this system and the predatory male. She must stay away from relationships that weaken her, relationships built on the lies of love, or on any pattern that renders her powerless and dependent.
Before the year 2025 has even ended, 245 women in Turkey have been murdered by men, and the deaths of 174 women have been recorded as suspicious. And these are only the known cases. Thousands of women face violence and rape every single day. Children are even more defenseless, targeted by every form of gendered and perverse attack. Protecting children is one of the primary responsibilities of women. Self-defense is a right and a duty stemming from existence itself.
The source of Kurdish women’s defensive strength is Star. Through the women’s guerrilla organization, women gained a Star. But Star is also the goddess-like power within every woman. It is the power of creation; the emotional and social intelligence that sustains life. Every woman must be able to organize herself with Star’s power and never leave herself to the mercy of men.
Although this era is marked by the most brutal and murderous face of dominant masculinity, it also carries the potential to be an era of women and freedom through women’s liberation and organization. This will develop through struggle. The current phase requires us to be more organized and more resistant than ever. Without ever falling into complacency, ease, or expectation, we will create success through our own autonomous organization and action.
Our answer to 25 November, and to the anniversary of our 27 November resurrection, will be given on this basis.