For 30 years, Turkey has been fighting against Marxist-Leninist terror. During that struggle, in which some 40,000 people have lost their lives, the USA and European countries have declared the PKK to be a terrorist organization and claimed to be on Turkey’s side. However, numerous incidents experienced over those 30 years show that this does not always reflect the facts. The PKK has survived through its powerful organization in Europe and the varying degrees of support provided by both European and American intelligence agencies. This psychological and material support is one important element feeding the PKK’s dream of an independent Communist Kurdistan.
A significant part of Europe’s socialist parties and groups have supported - and are still supporting - the PKK for ideological reasons. Some groups in the USA that support the PKK need to see that this support will be exceedingly dangerous, not for Turkey and the Middle East alone, but also for the USA in the middle and long term. The support given the PKK means support for the fragmentation of Turkey and the building of a communist state in the Middle East. Building a new North Korea in the Middle East will prepare the ground for a scourge that threatens not just the region, but the peace of the entire world. The U.S. administration that says it seeks to bring order and justice to the world must beware of this ruse that certain strategists are trying to involve it in and refuse to be part of such a mad plan – which would end up in catastrophic blowback.
The Fact that the PKK Is a Communist Organization Must Not Be Ignored
The PKK is a Marxist/Leninist and Stalinist organization; the leader of the organization, Abdullah Öcalan regards himself as the Lenin of the 21st Century. Today’s statements by the PKK and its plans of action clearly reveal that it has not renounced its communist ideology. The fact that the organization has removed the hammer and sickle from its so-called flag does not alter that fact. Every young person who takes to the mountains is given months of Marxist/Leninist ideological training before learning to use a weapon. The signs of that training can be readily seen in the language the members use and the world ideal they describe.
Öcalan describes the PKK as “A Kurdish proletarian, revolutionary movement.” He says that the PKK will never renounce its Marxist-Leninist ideology:
“The PKK has experienced a development in line with the Marxist-Leninist tradition. It is clear that from then on it will take shape on the basis of that legacy, which is inseparable in the way that flesh is joined to bone.” (Kurdistan’da Halk Kahramanligi [Popular Heroism in Kurdistan], p. 78)
“Lenin represented it in the 1900s, and I represent 21st-Century socialism,” says Öcalan, who describes the ultimate aim of the PKK as “the foundation of a communist society:”
“The criteria of socialism and communism apply in our community. Everyone is given according to his labors under socialism. That also applies within the party [PKK]. That will apply until the establishment of a communist society.” (Tasfiyeciliğin Tasfiyesi [Liquidation of Liquidationism], p.153)
The claim that the PKK has changed its ideology in recent years needs to be evaluated in the light of Öcalan’s own words and Lenin’s strategy of “one step forward, two steps back.” Statements by organization leaders and affiliated groups show that the communist ideology and their dream of a communist Kurdistan have not been abandoned.
Autonomy or Federation Also Mean the Division of Turkey
Everyone knows that ever since the PKK was first founded its ultimate aim has been to build an independent, communist Kurdistan. The organization has claimed in recent years to have abandoned independence and be seeking autonomy instead. We all know what this, expressed as “democratic autonomy” by BDP leaders in the run-up to the local elections in Turkey in March 2014, really means: Turkey will be divided into 22 separate administrative units, the internal structures being independent of the central authority. To put it another way, what the PKK and BDP are saying is, “We want an administration under our own initiative in the Southeast, but you can pay the costs.” It is obvious what an administration under the initiative of the PKK will mean; an autocratic, communist regime based on force and intimidation in the region. The PKK's aim in wanting an autonomous state is not for the Kurds in the region to attain freedom, to be able to express their ethnic identity freely or to live more comfortably in material and psychological terms: The organization is simply using the nationalist sentiment of the Kurds living in the region. The PKK's sole aim is to be able to bring about a communist regime in to the region and impose its materialist, Darwinist, Stalinist and Leninist worldview.
In the event that an autonomous communist structure is established in the Southeast, it will want its own police force and military, and to have a professional army. Indeed, the organization’s existing armed elements have already declared themselves to be a “self-defense force.” They block roads and set up checkpoints in the region, kidnap people, try them in kangaroo courts and execute them on the basis of rulings from those so-called courts. It is not at all difficult to foresee how such a despotic way of thinking will affect Syria with its civil war and Iraq, where violence is increasing by the day. If such a communist structure is allowed to flourish in the Southeast of Turkey, there will be a tsunami of disaster that first washes over Syria and Iraq and then spreads to Iran. The emergence of a communist state in the Middle East will naturally pose a threat to Israel’s security and compromise the order that the USA wishes to see in the region. A new and much more dangerous fight will await the USA, which has already suffered serious losses in the fight against terror.
New Borders Mean New Problems
The idea of the need to draw new borders in the Middle East has recently been discussed by American think-tanks; there is talk of the borders established under Sykes-Picot having lost their validity. Borders drawn up after the First World War, which ignored human values, common cultures and the inter-related nature of those relationships, caused enormous suffering in the region. It is problems caused by these artificial frontiers that lie at the heart of many conflicts today. However, it is exceedingly important what those who wish to do away with these artificial borders think should replace them.
The Middle East is not a region that can be understood by looking at maps on a table from a distance of thousands of kilometers away. It is of primary importance to understand the spirit of the people of the region and know what they want and expect. The region must not be shaped along the lines of “There are lots of Sunnis here, so let us give this place to them, and there are some Kurds here, so this area can go to them, and let's move the Arabs over here.” In particular, any map drawn up on the basis of calculations of oil and natural gas reserves - with a mechanical analysis that considers only self-interest and ignores human values - will end up as a complete dead-end. If people act along the lines of, “Let there be a tiny and ineffective state around every oil well. These micro-states can fight among themselves if necessary, so long as we get the oil in some way,” then nobody will get his hands on that oil. Strengthening a communist terror organization or encouraging racial and sectarian zealotry is an exceedingly dangerous path to go down.
Kurds and Turks Cannot Split away from One Another
When it comes to Turkey, it is technically impossible to draw a line that will divide Kurds and Turks. Turkey is not a country that consists of Turks and Kurds alone. It is a country where people of very different origins, such as Arabs, Circassians, Laz people, Georgians, Albanians and Turkmens all live together in peace. There are some 70 different peoples, representing 70 different forms of goodness, but representing a single whole. In the same way that it is impossible to divide the Laz people, Circassians, Albanians and Turkmens from inside Turkey, so it is also impossible to divide the Kurds.
Kurds in Turkey do not only live in the East and Southeast; more than half of them are known to live in Western provinces. There has been a veritable sea change in Kurdish migration and settlement patterns over the last 30 years, and the Kurdish population in large provinces such as Mersin, Adana, Istanbul and Izmir has risen. Kurds have acquired real estate in the cities they have moved to. Kurds and Turks, who have lived together for some 1,000 years, are bound together like one flesh and blood. In addition to common cultural and religious ties, commercial partnerships and bonds of marriage, family, friendship and neighborhood have also sprung up.
Some three to four million Turks and Kurds are estimated to be married to one another. Most of the families in Turkey consist of members that are Arab, Kurdish and Turkish in origin on different sides. There are Arab, Turkmen, Azeri, Armenian and Assyrian populations in all the eastern provinces.
What is needed now is to strengthen union through a new spirit, rather than drawing new borders between them. What people in the Middle East need is love, friendship, brotherhood and union. Instead of preparing the foundations for new borders and new conflicts, we must wipe the slate clean when it comes to existing conflicts and build a new civilization. The foundations of a civilization where human rights are respected, one that is democratic and secular, that provides freedom for all beliefs, in which everyone is treated as a first-class citizen, no matter what his opinions, can be laid through proper education.
Education is the Most Effective Path against All Forms of Terror and Radicalism
Another mistaken strategy that has recently been raised is to use the PKK and its affiliates against the radical, so-called Islamist organizations that have begun growing stronger in Syria and Iraq. On the one hand we have bigoted, ignorant and aggressive groups with nothing to do with Islam, and on the other, a Marxist/Leninist/Stalinist terror organization well versed in killing. If the people of the region are abandoned between these two scourges, if one is strengthened in order to destroy the other, the emerging picture will be nothing short of nightmarish. We must learn the lessons of Afghanistan and be careful over what is strengthened to minimize the influence of the other.
If America does not want its interests in the Middle East to be harmed, then it must try a method that it has never tried before and mobilize for education. It can wage a counter-offensive of education against radicalism and terror by creating an alliance with reasonable and rational people who abide by the true moral values of the Qur’an.
Interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan have inflicted major economic and psychological losses on America. The rapidly rising suicide rate in the American military is enough to show the horrifying nature of the position. Armed struggle is of no benefit to the country engaging in it or to those on the receiving end. People have tried to resolve all their problems with violence for the last two centuries, but violence has always led to further violence and resulted in an impasse. The time has now come to unblock that impasse.
In order to arrive at a solution, 1) there needs to be counter-education against Darwinist, materialist ideologies that represent the basis of lovelessness, selfishness and violence, and 2) honest, peace-loving and rational people of good conscience must forge an alliance, no matter what their language, faith or race.
If the USA wishes to be part of this solution it must help neutralize the PKK, rather than strengthening it; it must support the maintenance of Turkish stability and integrity, rather than its being broken up into parts. A strong Turkey will be a guarantee of a more democratic, freer, more enlightened and more secure region and, most importantly, of world peace.