The Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK’s) Executive Committee member Duran Kalkan was interviewed in a special programme broadcast on Medya Haber TV. Kalkan expressed his views about Turkey’s Gare offensive.
Regarding the purpose of Turkey’s operation on Mount Gare, Kalkan stated that Turkey especially aimed at the annihilation of the headquarters of the People’s Defence Forces (HPG) and the Free Women’s Units (YJA-STAR), noting that the operation’s real target was never to save the detained Turkish police and soldiers.
‘This was the victory of all Kurds’
“The result is obvious. On the morning of 14 February, just after four days, they had to run away without a backward glance. The Turkish army, the fascist dictatorship of the AKP-MHP (Turkey’s coalition government formed by the Justice and Development Party and the Nationalist Movement Party) was severely defeated. We can say that it was a complete checkmate defeat for them”, he said.
The operation called Claw-Eagle by Turkey, he observed, “could not even be a chicken foot”. Defining the outcome of Turkey’s Gare operation as a historical victory for the Kurdish freedom guerrillas, Kalkan said: “This was a victory of all Kurds without a doubt. This was the victory of all the peoples, the women, the youth of Turkey. This has become the victory of all democratic forces”.
Kalkan: The HPG protected those detainess for years, the Turkish army killed them
Kalkan also shared his views regarding the detained Turkish officers who were held by the PKK and who were reported to have been killed at the end of the operation. “Most of those detainees were there for five to six years, being protected and all by the HPG and YJA-STAR guerrillas”, he said and asked: “If they meant to shoot them, why would they keep them alive for five years?”
Kalkan pointed out: “Such a bombardement … Did they throw roses? Why did they launch the air strikes? In order to realize this massacre. I can say, the HPG has looked after and protected their people for years. When the HPG placed them in that protected shelter, they were safe and sound. However, it was the Turkish army who killed them in the end. It was themselves who went in, took those people back as killed, who were safe and sound for years”.
‘The real target was to neutralize the headquarters of the guerrilla’
Kalkan stressed that the real goal of the operation was not saving the detainees, as the Turkish authorities claim. “They wanted to annihilate the central headquarters. They wanted to annihilate everybody there. They say the target was the detained soldiers and police. This is a lie, a special war manipulation. This was never their target”, he said.
“The real target was to neutralize the headquarters of the guerrilla. They wanted to make the Kurds live another ’15 February’ on the 22nd anniversary of the global plot of the ’15 February’. This was the target. Tayyip Edoğan was saying that he was going to share a gospel. He wanted to celebrate a festival day, but the whole thing turned out to be a dark day for himself”.
‘It was their plan to announce a new victory’
“It was their plan to announce a new victory and show their teeth to the Kurds on the annivesary of the global plot of 15 February. Their plan didn’t work. When they failed, they claimed they (the PKK detainees) were killed”, said Kalkan. “You shot them. You killed them. You also killed the fighters, the commanders who were trying to protect them”.
The PKK Executive also announced that the operational balance sheet will be announced soon by their forces. “When the balance is announced, people will see that the fighters who were there to protect them were also killed trying to save them”, he said.
‘Gare has been a victory for the Kurds’
Kalkan also shared his views about the importance of the results of Turkey’s Gare operation in addressing the power of the Kurdish freedom struggle, saying: “Gare has been a victory for the Kurds and it shows one more time that Kurds have the power to defend and to govern themselves. The collective consciousness and their level of organisation is what that enables that”.
Kalkan appealed to international democratic and revolutionary public opinion to provide support to the freedom struggle of the Kurdish people. “Everybody should respect and see this fact and try to contribute to ensure such freedom and democratization of the Middle East will be achieved. This is what we expect from the revolutionary-democratic forces around the world. The international political powers should stand by such a political line, which is the correct line”, he said.
