The Coordination Member of the Kurdistan Women’s Freedom Party (Partiya Azadiya Jinên Kurdistanê – PAJK), Evîndar Ararat, spoke to ANF on the occasion of the forty-seventh anniversary of the founding of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Ararat said that the PKK is distinct from all other Kurdish movements and that this difference stems from its approach to the question of women’s freedom. She stated that the struggle led by President Öcalan, grounded in the people, transformed the party into a deeply social and popular movement. Ararat added that the cadres of the PKK have become an undefeatable force thanks to their iron will, woven with truth.
Ararat emphasized that the Kurdish people’s freedom struggle will continue in this new period through democratic politics.
Evîndar Ararat’s remarks were as follows:
“I congratulate the founding of our party, the PKK, first and foremost for President Öcalan, for the comrades resisting under harsh conditions in the mountains and in the prisons, and for our patriotic people.
As President Öcalan has said, ‘The PKK is an unfinished novel,’ and as this novel is being written, every day becomes the writing of a new epic, continuing with a historical understanding in which each moment is a chapter of resistance. The PKK is a path of truth whose essence cannot be grasped by those who lack a search for meaning; it is a legend, a novel continuously rewritten and inscribed into history. The PKK is the only movement that has succeeded, in an epic way, in writing the unwritten and denied history, identity, culture, language and freedom struggle of the Kurdish people, something no one had ever dared to do before.
Yes, upon the call of President Öcalan, our party PKK fulfilled its historical mission and dissolved itself. But the PKK established the Kurdish existence and identity in the eyes of the world. It compelled all the states that exploited Kurdistan and denied its reality to acknowledge the Kurdish truth. Through the PKK, the construction of a democratic society became possible. And within the PKK itself, with President Öcalan’s philosophy, a free women’s identity was created. With this free women’s stance, a women’s revolution emerged, and this became a social reality embraced across the world.
The PKK is a party that has grounded itself in women’s leadership
The difference between the PKK and all other Kurdish movements or uprisings has been its approach to women. Since the PKK believes that the path to revolution in Kurdistan passes through women’s freedom, it has, from the very beginning, based itself on women’s participation and leadership.
Unfortunately, today many places around the world, especially the Middle East, have been turned into a circle of fire. With each passing day, women and children become greater victims of this inferno. In such a global reality, a party like the PKK is carrying out social transformation and construction under the leadership of women.
Naturally, this draws the attention of the world and even becomes a source of inspiration for women across the globe. President Öcalan demonstrates his difference in every respect through his philosophy and practice.
President Öcalan draws his strength from the people
President Öcalan has always had a quest for a free life, and this led him to the search for a free country. His pursuit of a true and meaningful life directed him toward building strong bonds of comradeship and developing a principled and free relationship between women and men. As a result of these pursuits, he created a model of life that has become an example not only for the Kurdish people but for all humanity. This is what distinguishes President Öcalan from other Kurdish and global leaders. Think about it: he has no material or moral resources in his hands, only a spark ignited by the truths he believes in.
President Öcalan has always opened the path of revolution with great faith, trust, determination and the power of critique. He has carried his struggle to this point by grounding it in the strength of the people. He shaped the cadres of the PKK according to this reality.
President Öcalan always says: ‘Human will is even stronger than a nuclear weapon.’ This truth became the fundamental perspective in forming the undefeatable, steel-like will of the PKK cadres. With this truth at their core, our cadres, our tens of thousands of martyrs, from Haki to Sara, from Asya to Rojger, made the PKK an undefeatable force.
The PKK is a movement shaped by leadership
Nowhere else in the world has such a long and uninterrupted struggle been waged. Of course, there is also no other organization that has been subjected to such heavy attacks. Despite the intense international-level assault, our movement has both displayed an unprecedented resistance and succeeded in bringing its struggle to millions, turning it into a social movement. What we are talking about is the reality of a PKK that has become a people’s movement. That is why the people have been shouting this truth for years with the slogan, ‘The PKK is the people, the people are here.’
The PKK is not merely a narrow militant cadre structure. The PKK is now a people’s reality and cannot be confined to the Kurdish people alone; it carries a universal philosophy of life. The culture of resistance it has created, its relationship with the people, its approach to women, its level of social organization, the diplomatic relations it conduct and its political style exist nowhere else in the world. This is a reality revealed only by the PKK.
It must also be underlined that the PKK is a movement shaped by leadership. The philosophy, ideology, style of struggle and culture of life embodied by President Öcalan found expression in the identity and cadre of the PKK. It also found expression among the people, who see the PKK as their own party. This is why popular uprisings develop so powerfully, and despite the enemy’s intense attacks, the will of the people is not broken; on the contrary, an ever-growing social struggle is emerging.
The PKK is the most beautiful legacy of humanity’s values
Yes, even though we have officially dissolved the PKK, it must be clearly understood that the PKK is a philosophy of life, a spirit. The PKK is the line of freedom of peoples; it is the unity of peoples; it is a historical memory; it is the identity of the free Kurd. The PKK is the path of freedom for enslaved women. It is the movement that transforms oppressed, silenced and marginalized women into a will of their own and makes them the vanguard of the revolution.
The PKK is a movement of humanity with the will to bury the inhuman ISIS executioners back into the darkness from which they emerged, executioners no one else dared to stand against. The PKK is the name of the communal life and comradeship embodied by the young women and men who resist in the war tunnels with steel-like determination against every form of attack by fascist and militaristic structures seeking to destroy the free Kurd.
For this reason, even though the PKK has officially been dissolved, it will always have a place in the historical memory of societies, of women, of youth, and of all those in search of a free and democratic life; and it will continue to live through its style of struggle, the culture of life it created and its philosophy. Because the PKK is a totality of truths that has become part of history. It has earned a place in the hearts and minds of people that will never be erased. The PKK is the most beautiful legacy of humanity’s values.
Our struggle will continue through democratic politics
Of course, we will continue our struggle by transforming our form on the basis of the valuable legacy created by the PKK. Our philosophy is clear, our principles are clear; the style and method of struggle may change, the organizational system and form may change. But just as the spirit of President Öcalan will not change, it will always remain alive.
For this reason, the PKK is entering a new period with a new strategy, a new form and a new style and method of struggle. Naturally, this process contains very serious risks within it. But President Öcalan, believing that the PKK and its cadres possess this strength, and knowing the impact that half a century of struggle has created among the people, has taken the initiative that no one else dared to take and has started this process.
As in the past, today as well, the Kurdish people’s freedom struggle will continue in this new period through democratic politics, on the basis of building a democratic and free nation.”