In the country where you are born and raised, you see prisoners, exiles, and those who have taken to the mountains to fight for their people. You witness these three inevitable experiences from the moment you are born and grow up. You know that in order to live in harmony with nature, you must first know it, touch it, and listen to it. Because nature has its own laws. This is also true for a person, a people, and society. If one wants to reconcile with a people or a society, or establish peace with them, then that people must be known, touched, and listened to. Understanding creates change; something that is not understood cannot be transformed. The struggle against it also remains weak.
To do this, you must put fluidity before habit. Habit means continuing the old ways, deeply experiencing dogmatism, preventing the development of mentality, denying realities, being closed to innovation, and struggling in the depths of negativity. Fluidity, on the other hand, means making progress, being open to innovation, activating the potential for solutions and thinking comprehensively, going to the root of the problem, and analyzing the issue historically and socially.
For this reason, states have always acquired a certain habit. Behind their failure to respect the will of a people lies the same method: the habit of seeking solutions within a spiral of violence and conflict. Therefore, their method is not oriented toward solutions and remains far from fluidity.
The existence, language, and culture of the Kurds have historically been denied, subjected to assimilation, exposed to massacres, thrown into prisons, sent into exile, and subjected to many other forms of oppression. In the geography of Kurdistan, everyone has different memories and stories. They have the places where they were born and raised, their friendships and families. Later there are the years in which they struggled and paid a price for their mother tongue, culture, and the values they believe in. Some had their villages burned, were threatened with death, saw their existence disregarded, endured great pressure, carried their pain in their satchels, and ultimately left the lands where they were born and raised. Some joined the Kurdish Freedom Struggle and went to the mountains to fight for truth and freedom against the dark days. Others fought for rights within the country’s borders and were arrested, taken hostage, and paid the price by being imprisoned. For Kurds, going to prison, going to the mountains, going to Europe, or being forcibly displaced to Makhmour are different manifestations of the same problem.
The mountains
For Kurds, the mountains are sacred places, almost like temples to which they always turn their faces and where they seek refuge whenever they are in distress. In the four parts of Kurdistan there is a famous saying: “If you have oppression, we have our mountains.”
For centuries, Kurds have continued their struggle by going to the mountains. People fleeing the oppression of empires and later states took refuge in the vast mountains of Kurdistan and survived. The mountains are both homeland and refuge for the Kurds. For this reason, they are considered sacred. The phrase from Dersim in 1938, “I lost the key to the mountains,” became the subject of laments. In almost all laments and marches, the mountains and resistance are intertwined. Heroes are always associated with the mountains. In tales, the mountains appear as saviors. Dreams and memories are always connected to them.
During Koçgiri, Sheikh Said, Zilan, Ağrı, and Dersim in 1938, Kurds went to the mountains in order to survive. Kurds in Iran and Iraq followed the same path. When the regimes of the countries under whose rule they lived did not grant them the right to live, they took collective refuge in the mountains.
The arming of Kurdish young people and their going to the mountains is not without reason. In a 2013 interview with journalist Hasan Cemal, Murat Karayılan, commander of the People’s Defense Center Headquarters, said: “We did not go to the mountains for a picnic.” The reasons that lead Kurdish youth to the mountains still exist.
There is only one answer to this question. Kurds go to the mountains because their language, culture, and basic rights are denied, and they are being killed. Moreover, they have not just recently gone to the mountains, and the Turkish state knows very well why they did so. Now a process has begun in which the PKK has been dissolved, weapons have been burned, guerrilla forces have withdrawn beyond the borders, and the time has come for democratic politics. However, legal and constitutional changes are expected in order to open the ground for democratic political activity. The steps taken by the movement’s leadership must find a response on the part of the state; this will make the process functional and prevent the danger of a deadlock.
Exile
We all have different stories. Kurds are very experienced in political exile. On average, two million or more Kurds live in Europe. Some leave their country for economic reasons, seeking salvation in Europe, while others are forced to migrate for political reasons. Underlying both situations are special war policies. Kurds who went to Europe because of forced displacement and economic difficulties created by the dirty special war must understand that this method has been implemented as a subtle yet functional policy since 1923. It is also clear that this method is one of the easiest paths to assimilation.
Thousands of patriotic Kurds in Europe live with the constant desire to return. They are waiting for the completion of the process, for concrete legal and constitutional steps to be taken, and for special regulations to be introduced. They are waiting for the problems that forced them into this situation to be eliminated.
A period is being experienced in which roots must be preserved against a policy of distancing implemented as part of a special war concept. Although it is possible to live in the ancient lands of Kurdistan, the cradle of humanity and civilization—where the first production, the first meals, and the first cultural developments emerged—you are forced to go to a country that you do not belong to and do not embrace. These lands, which contain thousands of years of history and hold a multifaceted culture for the construction of future life, require resistance against those who deliberately distance people from them.
They will not return to their country through arbitrary processes. This is a mass forced into migration for political reasons. For this reason, they are waiting for an environment in which political views are not treated as crimes and do not lead to persecution. For many, the “crime” is sympathy for the PKK. There are families who see their homeland on television and cannot hold back their tears when they watch. They carry the hope that one day they will return.
Prisons
There are thousands of political prisoners held in prisons because of their patriotism, their political views, and their sympathy for the PKK. Many are sick prisoners who cannot even meet their own basic needs. All of them are watching closely how this process will end. Prison conditions are extremely harsh, and no one thinks otherwise. Even their architecture is designed to make a person feel like a speck of dust before the system. Concrete, barbed wire, high walls, watchtowers, and harsh attitudes make people want to escape from this environment.
The necessity and importance of the current Peace and Democratic Society process can be understood through these three headings. Such processes are often described as historical, and indeed such conditions appear in this country perhaps once in a century. On the one hand, there are those who have worked hard for the development of this process; on the other hand, there are forces that do not want the process to advance and that benefit from war.
Since 1993, Abdullah Öcalan has defended the thesis of the Democratic Republic, and today he has updated it with the Peace and Democratic Society project, focusing on whether the extended hand will turn into a historical peace agreement through legal and constitutional steps. The burning of weapons, the withdrawal of the guerrilla forces beyond the borders, and the end of armed struggle are on the agenda as a result, but the determining factor for this outcome will be the sincerity of the state and how much the doors of Imralı are opened to peace. The process is currently being handled by the state within a security-oriented framework.
After more than forty years of conflict, denial, and rebellion in the Kurdish question, the stage that has been reached is a dilemma: either an honorable peace or an even greater chaos. The Turkish state must evaluate more sincerely that it is obliged to secure internal peace due to the pressures of regional developments. Ankara’s strategy of focusing on developments in Iran in order to delay and gain time deepens distrust. There is curiosity about whether promises that legal arrangements—especially concerning the status issue—will be made after the holiday will actually be fulfilled. As also expressed by Devlet Bahçeli, it remains important whether a solution will be found for Öcalan’s status.
The recognition of this status would mean the release of politicians and political prisoners in prisons, the creation of a ground where guerrillas can engage in democratic politics, and the return of thousands of Kurds living in exile to their homeland. Therefore, the entire knot is concentrated in the legalization of Leader Apo’s status. During Newroz celebrations attended by massive crowds in Turkey and Kurdistan, Kurds voiced the demand: “We want our leadership.” Newroz demonstrated a strong political and social will. The strength of this year’s Newroz reflects the resistance in Sheikh Maqsoud, Kobanê, and throughout Rojava, as well as the struggle carried out across the four parts of Kurdistan and in the diaspora.
For the process that has been ongoing for about 16 months not to be interrupted, the political power must move away from security-oriented approaches and abandon the attempt to confine the process solely to the framework of terrorism and disarmament. It is seen that the government is taking an approach that delays the progress of the process. A critical threshold is being crossed. There is high expectation that the statements promising legal arrangements after the holiday will be fulfilled. Expressions used by the state such as “it may happen,” “it will happen,” or “it is expected to happen” create uncertainty and do not inspire confidence.
For this reason, without wasting time, these promises must be turned into concrete steps. Regardless of developments in the Middle East, the recognition of status and the enactment of freedom laws are both necessary and a demand of society.
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