Besê Hozat, the co-chair of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) Executive Council, examined the current political situation in Turkey in an interview, drawing attention to the continued policy of isolation of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan, who has been held in Turkey’s İmralı prison since 1999. Speaking with Medya Haber TV, Hozat highlighted that the only way out of the ongoing crisis is a democratisation process.
Commenting on the condition of Öcalan, Hozat said: “The global freedom campaign aiming for the physical freedom of Rêber Apo [Öcalan] has reached a very important impact”, referring to the 23 October family visit granted to Öcalan, who had previously been in complete incommunicado detention for 44 months. Now, “the Turkish state is with great effort trying to create a perception that the isolation has been broken. But the isolation on Öcalan continues,” Hozat highlighted.
Connecting the continued isolation of Öcalan with the current crisis in Turkey, Hozat said, “By trying to deceive the Kurdish people, Turkey hopes to get itself out of this difficult phase with little damage.” Out of “great fear and anxiety of losing its power,” the Turkish state is conducting a “special warfare strategy” on the public to deceive them and to create the perception that the possibility for peace and dialogue in Turkey is open, she added.
“Whatever the calculations of the Turkish state, these will come back to the Turkish state in a very bad way,” Hozat warned, calling on everyone to be aware that “this Turkish government is after a game. It is after deception and deceit. It is trying to break and neutralize the resistance and will of the people.”
Hozat remarked that Turkey has to take concrete steps toward democratisation and the peaceful co-existence of Turkish and Kurdish peoples. In this framework, she affirmed that “Öcalan is the right interlocutor as he represents the will of the Kurdish people”. In order to mobilise for Öcalan’s freedom, Hozat called for mass participation in a big march happening in Cologne on 16 November.
The KCK member also evaluated the political developments in Turkey and Middle East. She said that Turkey’s policy is stuck on the annihilation of the Kurdish people, and this immobilisation is the source of Turkey’s crisis. “What exists are the ongoing genocide policies,” she mentioned, referring to the continuous attacks and violation of the rights of the Kurdish people.
Hozat underscored that Israel is driving an imperialist war in the Middle East, with the support of NATO, the US, Britain and the West. This war aims to redesign the Middle East, and create a new trade route through the region. Israel’s war is strongly pressuring Turkey, which is struggling to compete with Israel and is also waging an imperialist, neo-Ottoman war.
“Israel and the Turkish state are conducting a similar policy in the region and therefore are in very serious competition,” explained Hozat, adding that that Turkey has been excluded from all economic and commercial projects in the Middle East. For this reason, Hozat argues, Turkey is really scared of losing its position and power.
Hozat made it clear that Turkey unmasked its stance against the Kurdish people in its reaction to the attack on the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAŞ) on 23 October. “Turkey immediately claimed that those who carried out the action had come from northern Syria and used it directly as a pretext,” she argued, “on the same night of the TUSAŞ attack, they bombarded the entire infrastructure and all the service centers of the people in North and East Syria.”
She also commented on the appointments of trustees in Turkish opposition-led cities on 31 October and 4 November. “Trustee appointments will reach everywhere. Wherever dissent is heard, trustees will be appointed. Those who criticise will be locked up,” she explained. She called on the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) to take a strong stance against this practice, warning that “If there is injustice and lawlessness and you don’t speak out against it, it will some day come back on you.”
Hozat positively evaluated the words of CHP leader Özgür Özel, admitting the existence of the Kurdish question, but, she said, “the CHP has to put forward a program for the solution of the Kurdish question”. In particular, the CHP should work to mobilise the society – since it holds government in 70% of Turkish municipalities – and take a concrete stance against the isolation of Öcalan, she said.
She also addressed the need for political unity in Turkey against the politics of the Justice and Development Party (AKP)-Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) ruling coalition. “AKP-MHP wants to close the political space of Kurds in Turkey, prevent democratic politics from spreading in Turkey, and prevent the unification of the Kurdish and Turkish peoples.”
Finally, Hozat argued that “an organised, conscious Kurdish people” are ready to defend their identity and rights, both domestically and internationally. For this reason, “the insistence of AKP-MHP coalition on the negation of Kurdish identity, let alone the Kurdish problem, will lead to no other result than the collapse of Turkey. The democratisation of Turkey could make it the strongest democratic power of the region,” she articulated.
“Turkey is misreading the developments in the Middle East,“ warned Hozat. “If it were to consider the interests of the peoples of Turkey, it would shift to a policy based on a brotherly coexistence with the Kurds.” Instead, Hozat pointed out that Turkey is preparing for new attacks on northeast Syria, to be carried out as soon as the focus of the Israel-Hezbollah war shifts to Syria.
Finally, Hozat drew attention to social decay in Turkey, connecting it to the war against the Kurds. “The genocidal war against the Kurds has created a serious decay. It has dissolved morality, conscience, and all moral values of society. Violence has become part of the social reality,” she explained. As a consequence, violence on woman has also enormously increased, she added. “To develop an organized, self-defensive, strong, common, united women’s struggle” is the most appropriate answer to violence and societal decay, Hozat concluded.
