Press Release of the KCK 22.08.2011
Presidency of Executive Committee of People’s Union of Kurdistan (KCK)
The Kurdish question which has been on the agenda in one way or another in the past thirty years has become a question that demands its immediate solution. Our movement and leader have made endless efforts in the past 18 years to resolve this question through peaceful and democratic methods. Most recently the Kurdish people's leader Abdullah Ocalan had prepared protocols under three different headings, taking into consideration the points of concern to both sides, and presented them to both the state and our movement.
We, as the KCK, informed both our leader and the state that we accepted these protocols, which were reasonable dimensions for a solution. However the AKP government has delayed its reply spreading it over time and thus leaving the protocols unanswered. AKP, which obtained 50% of the votes in the latest elections, did not draw near the resolution of the question despite the positive approach of the Kurdish side and the available opportunity and its strength to resolve the question through peaceful methods. Instead of accepting the Kurds as a party to the conflict and resolving the question in this manner they have insisted on their policy to resolve the matter with some of the collaborationist Kurds who are dependent on them and have persisted on the elimination of the question through violent means. AKP, which has continued to stick to the colonialist denial and annihilation albeit with different manner and methods, has finally made up its mind on the use of violence as its method of resolving the question.
Our leader had in his latest call on the Prime Minister had laid down a clear and concrete manner of resolving the question: “If the Prime Minister ensures me that the question will be resolved through political means and paves the way before me then we can gather the guerrillas in a secure location in one week and resolve the question”. The Prime Minister, instead of heeding this important and meaningful call of our leader and replying to it, has on the contrary said “We shall clamp down on them through the use of different strategies and implementations and crush them”. This is a declaration of war. In addition, in the last four weeks there has been a prohibition on our leader to have lawyer-client consultations and family visits.
Despite the cease-fire position of the guerillas, operations have continued in the meanwhile as a result of AKP's violence based policies. A great number of guerrillas have been martyred due to the clashes since the spring of 2011. In the latest clashes in Silvan 20 soldiers have lost their lives. Erdogan has made this the pretext to begin implementing its pre-decided policy of violence. Thus, he claims “those in the past were incompetent, they were not able to succeed but I shall” and therefore has put policies of violence and annihilation that outstretch the 1990's on his agenda.
We, the Kurdish people and the Kurdistan Freedom Movement, acted in total sincerity in order to resolve the question through peaceful and democratic methods. However the AKP did not act so sincerely and did not abandon the desire to eliminate the Freedom Movement. It was not willing to recognise the will-power of the Kurdish people and thus decided upon violence. Therefore the unilateral cease-fire that we had announced on 13 August 2010 was rendered meaningless by the AKP government and a new period of war has been enforced on us. We are not the ones wishing to resolve the question through violent means but it is the AKP state that wishes to do this. All its supporting media organs have put on the “new period of war” on the agenda and working like a psychological warfare agency have began to prepare the society to new massacres by continuously giving the massacre in Sri Lanka as an example.
The AKP government has thus tried to compel us to a retreat through the pressure and threats applied to us by on the one hand aggravating the isolation and Imrali torture system under which our leader is imprisoned and on the other hand through its assassination attempts against the administration of the movement since April 2011. Although they have already taken three thousand people as hostage in prisons under the pretext of KCK Court Case they continue to openly threaten the Kurdish politicians thus trying to obtain results through blackmailing and intimidation. By targeting the Media Defence Areas they wish to eliminate the Kurdish Freedom Movement and have the surrender of the Kurdish politics and people through massacres.
AKP wishes to reach its target through blood and violence alone. Every day they allege that they shall use a more professional, comprehensive and annihilating violence and thus threaten our people and movement. Whilst doing all this they continue to talk about, with no shame, advanced democracy and human rights. AKP's hypocritical praxis has shown its true face; its chauvinistic, racist and murderous face by far the best during this period.
For the past 6 days there has been continuous air raids against the Media Defence Areas and it has exceeded any given dimensions of a normal warfare. It has begun its declaration of warfare against our people as a warfare of annihilation. The air raids have thus damaged the property and possessions of the villages in vast area in South Kurdistan, halted the seasonal work of the villagers and resulted in their flee. To date, we have had three martyrs due to the air raids in the region of Behdinan. However these air raids have had devastating effects on the environment of Kurdistan and the property of our people. Many villages have been the direct targets of these air raids leaving many houses completely destroyed. As a result of the air raids the poor Kurdish villagers in Haftanin, Metina, Zap, Avaşin, Gare, Xakurke, Xinere and Kandil have had not only great losses but the continuous air raids have aimed to exert pressure on them so that they would flee.
There has not been much more loss of lives due to the measures taken by our people themselves however yesterday at about noon a vehicle was targeted by war planes, that was travelling from Kandil to Ranya on a main road, martyring in total 7 people of which 4 were children and one was a pregnant woman. We would above all else offer our condolences to their families, all our patriotic and heroic people in Kandil as well as all the people of Kurdistan. The AKP government shall not escape from the responsibility and giving an account of savagely killing our families and children. All the international powers, above all the USA, and the Iraqi government who have given the Turkish state's war planes the permission to attack the inner parts of South Kurdistan are also responsible of these massacres. The flutter and savagery of the Turkish state implementing an unrestricted state terror against the legitimate struggle of our people shall be in total vain.
The AKP state shall never be able to resolve the Kurdish question through violent methods. This is not possible in any way. The example of Tamil genocide shall never be possible in Kurdistan on the contrary this present warfare initiated by AKP shall turn Kurdistan into the graveyard of colonialism. Our movement and people not only have the power and resources to defend themselves but also have reached the necessary level of experience, depth and power to obtain important results through its Revolutionary People's Warfare. The Kurdistan freedom guerillas, courageous Kurdish youth and libertarian Kurdish women shall render violence-based policies of the AKP state through its resistance both in the rural and urban areas of struggle and shall implement their desired solution of Democratic Autonomy and freedom of their leader.
The patriotic Kurdish people, whether living in any one of its parts or overseas, should reinforce its national unity by displaying yet again its honourable stance and resistance against the all-out war initiated by the AKP state. This attack taken up on behalf of colonialism is not just any attack but one aimed at erasing all the gains of the Kurdish peoples when thought in conjunction with the attacks of the Iran against Kandil. This is an attack aimed at breaking the will-power of the Kurdish people and to condemn them to a system of slavery. The union and stance of all the Kurdistani forces shall render this assault of colonialism unsuccessful and shall mean the gain of strategic positions for our people. The perception which has replied through violence to all our peaceful calls and efforts is nothing but the colonialist and annihilationist perception itself. It is the duty of each and every honest and honourable person from Kurdistan to unite and struggle against this perception.
In the North of Kurdistan our people should heighten the uprisings and show their reaction. They should also show their will to resolve the question by continuing to implement the system of Democratic Autonomy. The courageous youth of Kurdistan should take their place in the guerilla ranks which is the peak of the struggle at such an important period of history in order to do their part for the success of the final move and to be able to give the required reply to all the colonialists. We call on all the patriotic and democratic institutions of Kurdistan to mobilize themselves for the resolution of the Kurdish question on the basis of the latest call made by our leader, to protect our leader and to raise the struggle for gaining our freedom which is near.
We also call on all the circles who are for the unity of and peace in Turkey to not be silent against the AKP's double standard policy of violence, to raise their protests against the AKP government's state terror in Kurdistan and to defend the policy of peace and democratic solution.
In particular our people should be aware that a new and political struggle and leap forward has commenced and thus should strengthen its organization and target success on the basis of a high level participation.
TO THE PRESS, OUR PEOPLE AND DEMOCRATIC PUBLIC OPINION
The liberation issue of Kurdish people is the liberation and democracy issue of the region. The system that is imposed on our people is based on annihilation – denial and slavery. As a people, it is impossible for us to accept...