Historical warnings from Abdullah Öcalan, the incarcerated leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), have gained renewed attention amid the current political climate in Turkey. These warnings, dating back to the mid-2000s, comment on the strategy of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) of forging an Islamist mobilisation in Kurdish regions.
On 13 September 2007, Öcalan remarked on the organisation of Hizbullah (unrelated to Lebanese Hezbollah) in Kurdish regions of Turkey, assessing it as “AKP’s policy of creating a Kurdish Hamas”. He emphasised the need for vigilance, and in response to the rise of the Hüda-Par (Free Cause Party) he said, “Our people must be aware and develop significant organisational capabilities against this.” Hüda-Par is reported to be an offshoot of Hizbullah, which was known for its involvement in Kurdish massacres in the 1990s, although the partry denies any connection.
On 19 September 2007, delving into the history of state-sanctioned violence, Öcalan recalled: “In Diyarbakır, people were approached from behind and killed with axes or a single bullet to the neck; weren’t thousands of poor Kurdish patriots murdered?” He highlighted the state’s complicity in these acts and the eventual acknowledgment by the courts of wrongdoing.
Then on 27 December 2007, Öcalan underlined the broader intentions of the organisation going on in the Kurdish regions: “The AKP is trying to create a Kurdish Hamas, [in a strategy] similar to that of the displacement of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) by Hamas in Palestine.” For PLO, read PKK.
On 9 September 2009, Öcalan warned about the resurgence of Hizbullah itself: “They might start committing murders in the region again. They devastated Silvan (a district in the Kurdish-majority Diyarbakır province) in the 90s. They are fascists, killers. Our people must be vigilant against these dangers.”
On 1 November 2010, Öcalan cautioned about the insidious nature of the strategy: “This is serious; they are forming an unarmed Hizbullah. This gradual use of Islam for their purposes can assume a dangerous character.”
Finally, in a profound observation on 2 February 2011, he noted, “The AKP’s real aim is elimination. They are developing new methods as they haven’t been able to eliminate Kurds through classic methods.” He viewed these tactics as part of a greater genocidal policy.
Öcalan also emphasised the necessity for all Kurdish forces in Diyarbakir to mobilise and counteract these developments. The PKK leader stated that the current strategy is not just a threat to the Kurdish movement but also lacks true Islamic values, serving instead as a political tool for power.
