Jörg Detjen
Let me introduce myself first: My name is Jörg Detjen. I have been supporting the Kurdish movement for 40 years. Since 1999 I have been a member of Die Linke (The Left) in the Cologne City Council. In the last six years I have repeatedly campaigned for the release of Cologne residents arbitrarily detained in Turkey: Sharo Garip, Adil Demirci, Hozan Cane, Dilan Örs and Hamide Akbayir.
I would also like to call for the release of Abdullah Öcalan. He has been in prison for 25 years. His relatives and lawyers have had no contact with him for 36 months.
In Germany and many other European countries, political prisoners are usually released after 15 years.
Abdullah Öcalan’s release is years overdue.
I urge the German government to finally end its cosy relationship with Turkey, support his release and rein in Erdoğan. Erdoğan repeatedly manipulates Germany, the EU and NATO and collaborates with the warmonger Putin.
Abdullah Öcalan’s booklet “Democratic Confederalism“, first published in German in 2012, is a central contribution to peaceful solutions, especially in the Middle East, Turkey, Syria and Iraq.
With this document, Öcalan refocused the Kurdish question in a new and different way. It was only because of this that the Kurdish-led People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Syria, together with the US forces, were able to defeat ISIS and establish a form of communal self-administation in Rojava. These are the first practical results.
But the document goes further, criticising any form of “nation-state” and in particular a Kurdish nation-state:
“The nation-state needed the bourgeoisie and the power of capital to replace the feudal order based on tribal structure and inheritance law with a new national ideology… For this reason, the establishment of a Kurdish nation-state is not an option for me. (Öcalan, n.d.)r
The solution to the Kurdish question must be found in an approach that weakens or rolls back capitalist modernity…
Moreover, the entire Middle East suffers from a democratic deficit. Thanks to the geo-strategic location of the Kurdish settlement area, successful Kurdish democratic projects promise to accelerate the democratisation of the Middle East in general. We want to call this democratic project ‘democratic confederalism’.”
Peace and democracy should be at the centre, not the establishment of a nation state, but quoting Öcalan:
“Communalism would be an alternative to capitalism. Among democratic nations that do not fight for monopolies of power, it can bring peace to a region that has only been the field of bloody wars and genocides.”
Selahattin Demirtaş, jailed Kurdish politician and former co-chair of the HDP, had said in an interview with the Bild newspaper on 30 December 2018:
“And a model of local administration should be established so that citizens can actively participate in the management. While all this is being implemented, efforts should be made for negotiations to include the PKK and Mr Öcalan in the process and to solve the problem of violence once and for all. To realise all this, enormous political will and effective public support are needed.”
This is an important appreciation of this document on democratic confederalism by Abdullah Öcalan.
All these statements of Abdullah Öcalan against nationalism and racism for the development of a free and peaceful society are highly relevant.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine is nationalist imperialism, and the war between Hamas and Israel can only be resolved by fighting nationalist ideologies and following a peaceful path.
Hannah Arendt, who was Jewish, repeatedly described the council system in a positive way in her writings, as an activating, resistant means of democracy. I believe that Abdullah Öcalan has further developed this idea.
Abdullah Öcalan must be released!
President Erdoğan, open the prison gates!
Source: Abdullah Öcalan, Democratic Confederalism, Mesopotamia-Verlag, Neuss.
