Everything began fifty-two years ago with a declaration made by a young person who set out from a village in Urfa (Riha) to Ankara to pursue his studies, stating that “Kurdistan is a colony.” Since that moment, after decades marked by countless attacks, betrayals, and martyrs, the movement has come to embody hope not only for Kurds but also for oppressed peoples more broadly. Today, it continues its struggle not only against a single state, but against the representatives of capitalist modernity as a whole.
Few could have anticipated that a resistance launched by Abdullah Öcalan in the chaotic atmosphere of the 1970s would one day become a source of hope for the liberation of all Kurds and oppressed peoples. Those who dismissed the movement as “three or four rabble-rousers,” as well as those who sneered, “Are you going to put Kurds in charge of us?” never believed it would grow into a force aspiring to leadership within the global revolutionary movement. Those who did believe, however, have continued their struggle for decades in every field around Abdullah Öcalan.
One of those believers, described by the poet as “the last hope of the world”, is Nasrullah Kuran, who, despite spending much of his life in captivity, has not renounced Apoism, nor the socialist personality and struggle forged by Abdullah Öcalan. Having encountered Apoists from childhood, Kuran spoke to ANF about his life, how he joined the struggle, and how this struggle transformed him. The first part of the interview is published here.
A movement built with patience, will, and labor
There is a period stretching from the words, “We carried out the patriotism of a people whose very name was not spoken,” to the declaration, “The Kurdish reality has been recognized.” What do these two statements mean to you?
Above all, they describe historical and social development, an ongoing act of making history. This process of making history, whose first steps were taken at the Çubuk Dam in Ankara and which extends to the present day, has, if one looks closely, not only touched and shaped us as cadres, but through its contact with nearly every segment of society, has become a shared and collective narrative of our lives, an effort of becoming. Today, all of us are part of this living history, forming the veins that constitute its bonds and context.
This level was certainly not reached spontaneously, nor through ordinary means and possibilities of ordinary conditions. In the Middle East, which has been the ground of trials each more difficult than the last, every stage was met, in Abdullah Öcalan’s words, “as if digging a well with a needle,” with great patience, will, and labor, and it was in this way that ground was gained.
Instilling a people whose identity and personality had been shattered, encircled by colonialism and the theory of non-existence and extraordinary laws of nation-state fascism, with the consciousness of selfhood (xwebûn) through the theory of “original existence,” and transforming this consciousness into a lived reality, has been a process paid for with the lives of thousands of martyrs. In this respect, the meaning produced by both statements is a dynamic one that gives color and harmony to all stages of the process.
At a moment when the concept of hope was reduced from an action expressing a state of being to a mere expectation, the determination that we ourselves are hope, and that whatever is to be thought and done must be thought and done by ourselves, became an important momentum and produced a profound impact. For us, therefore, this process signifies our social and individual existence, giving Kurdish existence a definitive form in a democratic-socialist content.
As much historical as it is sociological, as political as it is philosophical, and as ethical and aesthetic as it is moral and political, this has been a process of formation and realization. With its changes and transformations, its hardships and ease, its pains and joys, it is a journey that has made room for all of us; a journey that defines us, yet is not confined to Kurds alone, but also encompasses Turks, Laz, Circassians, Arabs, and Persians.
A lesson for socialism in theory and practice
At its core, this process concerns all of humanity, because it contains a return to essence and a move toward liberation in the very space where humanity first practiced its earliest experiences within the relationship between search and meaning. On the one hand, it constitutes a challenge to capitalist aggression through the perspectives of democratic modernity and the solution of the democratic nation; on the other hand, it offers a timely theoretical and practical lesson to those within socialism who have betrayed its essence. It is worth recalling that at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth, a socialist revolution was expected to take place in Germany, as Germany was the country where industrialization, and therefore proletarianization, was most advanced, and classical Marxist theory pointed in that direction. Yet the socialist revolution occurred in feudal Russia, a place wholly unexpected and, according to classical Marxist theory, lacking favorable conditions. Antonio Gramsci described this in his works as a revolution that developed contrary to Marxism and offered important assessments.
In short, we must approach the process with a sense of responsibility grounded in the awareness of all these realities. In a sense, we stand on the threshold of a new beginning. With this awareness, we need to act with greater focus than ever before, with morale and motivation, and with an effort aimed at social enlightenment, an effort that resembles the force and continuity of a river’s flow.
Shaping my way of thinking and analysis
When did you first hear the name of the Freedom Movement in your personal history, and when did you first come into contact with the Freedom Movement?
Hearing about and meeting the Freedom Movement coincided with the same period in my life, my childhood years. During the time when I was in the final year of primary school and the first year of middle school, in the 1978–79 and 1979–80 academic years, Ceylanpınar was an area under the influence of the Freedom Movement. There were several people in the surrounding area who were affiliated with the Freedom Movement. In particular, the relationships that developed through my mother, as well as family ties with some of them, were marked by neighborly and friendly bonds. In addition, teachers from different ideological backgrounds, especially those on the right, generally resigned and left or sought transfers to Turkey when they saw the influence of the Freedom Movement. As a result, our classes were taught mostly by leftist teachers and teachers close to the Freedom Movement.
It was also at that time that I first heard of Kurdistan and socialism, as well as the names Marx, Lenin, Stalin, and Mao, and the struggle of the people of Vietnam. I also developed a habit of reading during those years. My readings of comic books such as Texas, Tommiks, and Mister No gradually evolved into reading classical novels. I learned my method of reading from that period as well: first I would summarize the book and question what it sought to convey. Then I would analyze the personality and class position of each of the novel’s characters and define them accordingly. In this way, I would ultimately determine what the author aimed to express.
The Freedom Movement made significant contributions to the development of my way of thinking and analysis in this sense. The educational methods were also striking: the class was divided into groups according to numbers, and each group was asked to designate its own chair, spokesperson, and recorder. The chair coordinated the group and noted the assigned tasks. This method was beneficial in terms of developing collectivization, taking responsibility, and group discipline.
Martyr Bişar Akbaş was one of our teachers during that period. The clash between the Kurdistan National Liberation Movement (KUK) and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), as well as the martyrdom of A. Kadir Taptı and his funeral, were also among the events of that time that left a deep impression on me. As can be expected, the presence of this environment, which I encountered and interacted with at an early age, became a primary source both for the formation of my memory and for my later searches. Looking back from the horizon of a child’s constantly alert mind and desire to learn, I can say that the excitement and curiosity of those years, and the learning that came with them, played a decisive role in shaping me.
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