A Nova Democracia: PKK announces dissolution following Ocalan’s capitulationist call

We hereby publish an unofficial translation that we found published here of an article published by A Nova Democracia.

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has announced the dissolution of its organizational structure and the end of its participation in the armed struggle for the national liberation of the Kurdish people, according to the Firat news agency (ANF). The decision was taken at the 12th Congress of the PKK, held in northern Iraq between May 5 and 7, and follows the capitulation of the group’s leadership and the liquidationist call made on February 27 by Abdullah Ocalan, a party leader imprisoned since 1999, to lay down arms and dissolve the party.

In a statement issued at the aforementioned Congress, the group declared that it had “fulfilled its historic mission” and that “the PKK’s struggle has dismantled the policies of denial and annihilation” imposed on the Kurdish people by the Turkish state and “brought the Kurdish question to a point where it can be resolved through democratic politics.”

Duran Kalkan, a member of the PKK Executive Committee, stated generically that the dissolution “is not an end, but a new beginning” whose aim is to “create space for new initiatives and opportunities.”

However, the objective situation shows that the Kurdish issue is far from a “peaceful solution”. On the contrary, its defenders will continue to be the target of criminalization and state terrorism imposed by the fascist Turkish president Erdogan, who intends to continue repressing the Kurdish cause.

Late last year, the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) launched intense attacks on Kurds in Syria. Erdogan’s government, which considers the Kurdish armed groups in Syria to be extensions of the PKK, supported the massacre. Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler said the People’s Defense Units (YPG) would soon be eliminated. “We and the new government in Syria [formed by the pro-Turkey and US jihadist group HTS] want this.”

Guler also described the dismantling of Kurdish forces as the “main issue in Syria.” In other words, for the Turkish government, the existence of Kurdish armed groups fighting for self-determination is worse than other phenomena in Syria, such as the Israeli occupation of the country, which has grown in scope since the beginning of HTS’s rule.

At the same time, the PKK’s decision – which expresses the limitations of the bourgeois character of the leadership of the Kurdish national movement – ​​goes against the explosive moment of defense of the armed struggle imposed by progressive, anti-imperialist and revolutionary forces in the Middle East and the world, such as Ansarallah and Hezbollah movements and the Palestinian National Resistance groups.

Reactionaries welcome liquidation

Fascist Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) were the first to fervently welcome the PKK’s decision to sell the Kurdish struggle for a bowl of lentils, calling it a step toward “peace and brotherhood” in a country “free from terrorism.” The capitulation is likely to serve as powerful political capital for Erdogan, especially in Turkey’s Kurdish southeast.

The leader of the Nationalist Action Party (MHP), a chauvinist group representing the national-comprador faction of the Turkish bourgeoisie, Devlet Bahceli, also welcomed the decision and thanked Öcalan for his February appeal, calling the PKK’s previous struggle a “bloody page written with treachery over 47 years.”

Maxim Rubin, Consul General of Russian imperialism in Erbil (capital of Iraqi Kurdistan) stated that Russia welcomes all “peaceful efforts” between the PKK and the Turkish state “to sign a peace agreement”. Asaad al-Shabani, Foreign Minister of the reactionary HTS/Al Qaeda government in Syria, also congratulated Turkey on the agreement with the PKK.

Germany called the decision an “important step towards breaking the decades-long spiral of terror and violence in the region,” but said it would still keep the PKK on its list of “terrorist organizations.”

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke by phone with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan to reaffirm US support for NATO ally Turkey, calling the PKK’s decision a “turning point” and cynically stating that “there is no future for terrorism in the civilized world.”

Revolutionaries vow to continue fighting for the Kurdish cause

The PKK was for decades the main organizer of the Kurdish resistance guerrilla movement . Since 1978, it has operated under very difficult conditions in the fight against the fascist Turkish state and in the fight for the independence of Kurdistan.

Historically, its alliance with the Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist (TKP/ML), which is leading an armed revolution in the country, expressed an important degree of unity between the Kurdish national struggle and the revolutionary class struggle of the Turkish proletariat and people, contributing to the advancement of the Turkish Revolution under the leadership of the communists.

The Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the TKP/ML, in a recent statement celebrating the 53rd anniversary of the founding of the Party of the Turkish proletariat, stated that “we will reject, for our part, the false peace, the empty brotherhood and the new form of slavery imposed, while denial, massacres, assimilation and endless state oppression fall upon all parts of Kurdistan!”

The TKP/ML also condemned Ocalan’s capitulation. In a statement published in March (A Utopia: The Democratization of the Fascist Dictatorship), the communists rejected the capitulation of Ocalan and the PKK leadership and their call for “peace and a democratic society,” arguing that the search for “peaceful solutions” with the fascist Turkish state has only served to weaken the Kurdish organization and intensify state repression. “We will continue our struggle for advancement of Kurdish national rights, but we condemn as a UTOPIA the Turkish state’s approach to democratization,” they said.

The statement highlights that since 1993, all attempts at ceasefires and negotiations have resulted in repressive actions by the Turkish state, including the destruction of villages, mass arrests and assassinations of Kurdish leaders. The TKP/ML also considers the idea that the Turkish state can be democratized as illusory, as it maintains a fascist and repressive stance, especially against the Kurdish people.

Furthermore, the TKP/ML emphasizes that the true solution to the Kurdish question lies in the recognition of the right to self-determination and the struggle for full equality of rights, which can only be achieved through revolutionary armed struggle, highlighting that “the communists, whether in times of peace or war, will defend and propagate the right of the Kurdish Nation to self-determination”, and that failure to do so is to contribute to the strengthening of Turkish chauvinism.

Finally, the Turkish communists reaffirm their commitment to the continuation of the revolutionary struggle and their solidarity with the Kurdish people: “We maintain that the right of the Kurdish nation to self-determination can only be realized through the program and struggle of the People’s Democratic Revolution. The communists embrace the struggle for improvement, but consider it essential to link it to the revolutionary strategy.” “Ultimately, freedom for the Kurdish nation will come through the People’s War for the People’s Democratic Revolution under the leadership of our Party,” the statement concludes.