The Reality of the Kurdish State*
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The "nightmare" of the representatives of the oppressing nation revealed in Turkish colonialism is the "dream" of the representatives of the oppressed nation manifested in the formation of a Kurdish state. They had established and fortified their present colonialist nation-state by violating the right of the Kurdish nation to establish their own state and by suppressing it; they had drawn the borders of their country by occupying and annexing the borders of another country. Now the formation of a Kurdish nation-state destroys the Turkish official ideology and puts the borders of the Turkish nation-state in discussion. 

01 December 2008 / Red Dawn / Issue 13

 

At the beginning of 1990s when the national liberation struggle reached its peak, the official ideology entered a process of disintegration. As much as the freedom fire of Kaveh[1] brightened the countryside and cities of Kurdistan, it began petrifying the ruling classes. This took such an extent that after some time many state authorities from the prime minister to the president had to announce that they recognise the "Kurdish reality".[2] Even though they continued the policy of annihilation, the chain of denial was de facto broken.[3]
Entering the 21th century, the ‘phenomenon term' was this time the "Ocalan reality". Acceptance of the national existence of the Kurds would only affirm in recognising their captured national leader and in accepting him as the representative of the Kurdish nation. However, the ruling classes and colonialist fascism have never considered and accepted Abdullah Ocalan as the national leader of the Kurdish people. In this new situation, the denial took the form of the policy implemented on Ocalan, but this time, they were not able to implement the policy of annihilation and had to abolish the death sentence.
At the end of the present decade, the specific situation the Kurdish national struggle created in the region shows that the new phenomenon is the "formation of a Kurdish state". This can be called "the reality of the Kurdish state". Just as it had implemented an aggressive policy in face of the Kurdish reality and Ocalan reality before, the colonialist fascist Turkish state still follows the same policy of denial and annihilation; moreover, it is even more intolerant and follows a more aggressive policy. Notably, first of all the army, and then all administrative centres and complementary institutions of colonialist fascism insult the Kurdish people using Mesut Barzani and Celal Talabani. The dirty war barons, who once called Ocalan a "murderer of babies", vomit their chauvinism by naming Barzani a ‘clan leader' or a ‘tribal chief'. The colonialist fascist dictatorship far from accepting the formation of a Kurdish state announced that they expand the war front from the North to the South without forgetting to talk profusely about their intentions to fight against the whole world, if necessary. They go as far as talking about expanding the boarders to Duhok.
For them Barzani is as much a target as Apo[4] has been and Kirkuk is as much a place of threat as Mount Quandil.[5] They strengthen their politics on the following basis: hindering the formation and development of the Kurdistan Regional Government, grabbing a part in the regional redistribution that has begun to materialize with the Greater Middle East Project of the US imperialism and not remaining inactive in the "war on borders" centralized in the Middle East, which will become even sharper in the upcoming period.
The Turkish state has realized that some developments will take place in the Middle East, the details are not clear at the moment but they are closely linked to it. It is aware that a new stage of the period is coming up; it has sensed all this, and for this reason, it has mobilised in Turkey and Kurdistan all apparatus corresponding to this, such as the MIT (National Intelligence Organization), JIT (Gen-darmerie Intelligence Organisation) and TIT (Turkish Revenge Brigade). No matter how the name begins, all have an "IT" as ending[6]. The state practices military diplomacy. On October 29[7], the army joins the ceremonies with "swords". It organises these celebrations of the foundation of the Republic on the basis of psychological war and carries them "beyond the borders" so that celebrations take place in the embassies in Washington and Moscow, too. While welcoming the Iraqi state's delegation at the airport, the state applies a protocol on the level of the General Directorate of the Police and not of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or Prime Minister. It organises the transport through the replacement vehicle of the National Chief of the Police and hosts the delegation at the hostel belonging to the police organisation. With these most banal details of the military diplomacy, the Turkish state displays a show of power and assertiveness. Look at these brazenfaced representatives of colonialism that calls the KKTC (Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus) its "foster-son", which is not recognized by any state in the world; look how they treat the representatives and the allies of the Kurdish nation.
Nevertheless, the conditions have changed a lot when compared with the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s. The process of the formation of a Kurdish state has started and still continues. Kucukanit[8], (a fly is small, too, but makes you feel nauseous, too), the chief of the general staff of those who could not accept this fact and call Barzani "a tribal chief" had admitted the existence of "the reality" during the first days of his employment. He had admitted that a Kurdish political power, had started to come into being despite of them on the piece of land that used to be a blank defined as the "36th parallel"[9] in the past. Now the Turkish state does everything to oppress the PKK on the one hand and tries to make US imperialism as well as Barzani and Talabani to respect its own scene and especially to advance its power of bargaining with US imperialism on the other hand by using the PKK as pretext. The Turkish state knows that the big picture will soon become the BOP ("Greater Middle East Project") and that although this picture has not been completed yet, it advances towards a period where it will be completed. There is no doubt that this is a process; or rather it is a new stage within the process that started with the occupation of Iraq. It cannot be seen as a short period, there will be breaking points, too. But this new stage of the process is very important for the Turkish state and in the same way for the Kurdish people. Any opportunity and any initiative missed at this stage may have a dramatic outcome for the sides. For this reason, each political actor tries to handle the situation gingerly.
US imperialism has started to draw the Iraqi part of the scene, in parallel to this some colours of Kurdistan have come out, too; however, there is still uncertainty about some parts of Kurdistan and Palestine. The relations between the USA and Iran and with Syria still have elements of uncertainty, and currently they draw attention and are being observed and followed with interest by other actors, such as Russia. The fascist colonialism is calculating that US imperialism and Israeli Zionism will need its support in this sense. As all actors, the Turkish state wants to join the Greater Middle East Project scene with its own colours. This scene is being drawn with blue for petrol, red for blood and green for $, the main colour, of course, being red which stands for blood. The Turkish state wants to get as much right to speak and share as possible.
And it is also clear that US imperialism needs the support of Barzani and Talabani forces as much as it needs Turkey, and while maintaining and continuing its relations with the Turkish state, it cannot risk destroying the balance in Southern Kurdistan. US imperialism cannot destroy at the moment the new equation it had created with the occupation of Iraq because besides not being appropriate to the strategy for the Middle East, it will also be very difficult for it to stay in the region and make big steps under conditions where it attracts the cumulative reaction of the Arabs and Kurds. Having been stuck between the formation of a Kurdish nation-state and the interests of the Turkish colonialist forces, US imperialism keeps a foot in both camps and creates tension and disagreement, especially for Turkish colonialism. It is inevitable that the equation in the Middle East will be shaped by including new elements. Will the equation be simplified or will it get more complicated? This will be determined by course of today's heavy traffic which is manifested in the negotiations among the states and in the regional meetings, as well as by the will of the anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist people's movements, those of the Kurdish, Palestinian, Persian and Iraqi peoples first of all.
The dynamics of this new stage of the period is the fact that the political power of the Kurdish nation has been advancing towards the formation of a state that has started to burgeon in Southern Kurdistan. The Turkish state suffers the pain of this on the one hand and this political drama grows its eagerness on the other hand. It tries to present itself as the victim of the process with the allegations of "PKK terror" and it plays all the possible cards from social mobilisation to military mobilisation, from diplomatic attack to economic embargo. However, it also tries to create a base to participate in the plunder of the Middle East and is willing to grab a piece of the pie by playing a role of a victim.
The first obstacle in front of it is Barzani. He is the one for whom the state targets. Coming from an experience of national liberation and organisation, becoming stronger as the national representative of the Southern Kurdistan people, having strengthened his position on the basis of collaboration with a determining political actor, such as the US imperialism, Barzani speaks very clearly with the Turkish state: "When you make a peaceful political proposal to the PKK and it refuses it, then the PKK will be considered as a terrorist organisation by us". This means, the PKK is not a terrorist organisation; it is a political force to meet with! This attitude makes Turkish colonialism crazy. They loose their temper because they do not hear in this voice the sound of a singing partridge as in the case of Talabani, even though Talabani said that "he will not turn over even a cat to the Turkish state" and this seemed to be a challenge. But there arouse suspicions that these words could be an expression of some dirty tricks behind the scenes. As they are not able to see in the attitude of Barzani the agility of ‘Mam Cemal'[10] who has become famous for his opportunism, they speak from the mouth of the mafia. The fact that the conditions are not convenient any more to provoke different political actors of the Kurdish nation against each other makes them loose their temper.
They force the situation despite all: they hope that the US collaborator Barzani and collaborator and opportunist Talabani would support the Turkish state against the PKK as they have in the past. And while pushing for this, they see a Kurdistan which acts in national unity in front of them. The picture really reminds of a static warfare. The more Turkish colonialism extends the front of dirty war from the North towards the South, the more it faces a Kurdish national front whose parts[11] are almost united. The people of the South announce that they will resist the occupation and fight against it. They move the three fourth of their military force to the border. In the big cities, they organise demonstrations with the participation of hundreds of thousands of people. They announce that they will not turn over the PKK fighters to Turkish colonialism. The posture of the Southern Kurds was not like this during the previous cross-border attacks, because they did not have a state at that time!
The path of the Kurdish nation with a state policy in front of the Turkish state and the tendency of the Southern Kurdistan to embrace the sons and daughters of Northern Kurdistan and to identify its own destiny with that of Northern Kurdistan are from now on inevitable.
The differences among the PKK and the YNK and PDK[12] do not change this truth. It is a reality that the people of the North and the South have identified with each other and this is what we call national destiny. The fact that the Northern and the Southern parts of the Kurdish land that has been divided into four have come closer to each other and they have achieved the unity of feelings and spirit against the colonialist aggression is a new situation which is at the same time a natural result of the reality of the Kurdish state.
The reality of the Kurdish state must be registered as a new phenomenon also in historical sense. The situation is remarkable because a new nation-state has been constructing itself under the conditions where it is claimed that the process of nation-states has been eroded and surpassed in the 21st century. It would be wrong both in terms of politics and in terms of historical dialectics to say, departing from the fact that Barzani and Talabani collaborate with the US imperialism, that this process of becoming a nation-state is not legitimate. The right of nations to self-determination is universal and the Kurdish nation uses this right in practice in this way in the South. Undoubtedly, this has been a late process of becoming a state when compared with classical examples of becoming a state; it is distinctive and the reason for this is the fact that imperialism and colonialism has suppressed, hindered and repressed with terror the Kurdish nation's right of organisation like other nations around the struggle for establishing its state and around its national identity. Consequently, especially Turkish colonialism still wants to overwhelm and to hinder the process of the Kurdish nation becoming a state. This is understandable, because the process of construction of the Turkish state has been realised at the cost of the denial and annihilation of other nations and nationalities.
Turkish militarism has been shaped within the tradition of oppressing other national movements and identities starting from the Committee of Union and Progress (Ittihat ve Terakki[13]) which it has been based on and since the Balkan wars. The Balkan wars were a clash between the forces that had waged a war of national independence against the Ottoman Empire and the forces that would later form the nucleus of Turkish militarism and colonialism. It is known which policies the political power of the ruling classes has implemented massively and systematically on Kurds, Armenians, Greeks, Yazidi and other nationalities and national minorities before, during and after the establishment of the Republic. So the "static warfare" between Turkish colonialism and the Kurdish national forces today can be also defined as the clash of a new nation-state that is being established and another nation-state that was established in the beginning of the century and now faces the fear of dissolution. The "nightmare" of the representatives of the oppressing nation revealed in Turkish colonialism is the "dream" of the representatives of the oppressed nation manifested in the formation of a Kurdish state. It is so because they had established and fortified their present colonialist nation-state by violating the right of the Kurdish nation to establish their own state and by suppressing it; they had drawn the borders of their country by occupying and annexing the borders of another country. It is so because they know that what they call Misak-i Milli[14] is a historical injustice. It is so because this policy has kicked the ruling forces back; now the formation of a Kurdish nation-state destroys the Turkish official ideology and puts the borders of the Turkish nation-state in discussion. It is so because the reality of Kurdish nation-state is, yes, a dream for the Kurds and a nightmare for Turkish colonialism. And this is becoming a reality now. A burgeoning plant that was smashed under the boots of soldiers for a century is now growing up; getting taller than the boots and grows towards the trunk of colonialism; hurts its eyes.
The task and the responsibility of any revolutionary who fights against chauvinism and militarism, stands away from social chauvinism and believes in the importance of the right of nations to self-determination to the concrete situation under every given real condition is to call upon and force the colonialist fascist dictatorship to recognise the Kurdistan Regional Government and accept its national political representatives. The pressure put on the Turkish state and forcing it in this context is a necessity for exposing the chauvinist and unabashed approach of the colonialist fascist front and to put it in vain in relation with the strength and amount of the political pressure. Moreover, it is especially meaningful and necessary for enlightening the Turkish people about the fact that they are the real force to deal with the ‘Kurdish question', for informing the Turkish labourers correctly and for keeping them away from the poisoning rage of chauvinism.

............................................................

*This article has been taken from the revolutionary socialist weekly newspaper Atilim dated November 3, 2007. It evaluates the developments in South Kurdistan from the revolutionary point of view, makes some new definitions and stresses the tasks of the revolutionary forces concerning the new situation.

...........................................................

1- Kaveh the blacksmith is a Kurdish national mythical figure. It is believed that he has defeated the brutal ruler Zahhak.
2- The first time that the Turkish ruling forces admitted this reality was in 1991, when the Kurdish national struggle led by the PKK had reached the level of a national revolution, with the guerrilla war in the mountains and the huge uprisings in the cities. Suleyman Demirel, the Prime Minister of that period had said: "We accept the Kurdish reality". Until that time, even the existence of the Kurds was completely denied.
3- "Denial and annihilation policy" is the traditional policy of Turkish colonialism that absolutely denies the existence of the Kurdish nation and claims that the Kurds are in fact Turkish people living in the mountains. That is to say, they deny the existence of the Kurds and annihilate every idea of Kurds being a nation.
4- The short name of Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the PKK.
5- The commandership of the PKK is located on the Mount Quandil.
6- Here the writer plays on words because "IT" means dog in Turkish and is used for swearing. Especially the fascists are called "it".
7- October 29, 1923 is the date of foundation of the Turkish Republic, following the Liberation War 1919-1923. It is celebrated as a national feast.
8- Here again, the writer play on words, changing the surname of Yasar Buyukanit, chief of the general staff in that period. "Buyukanit" begins with "buyuk" which means "big" in Turkish. The writer changes it into "kucuk" which means "small" to humiliate him.
9- In 1991, with the demand of the USA, a "security zone" was formed in the north of Iraq (which is actually Southern Kurdistan) as a measure taken against Saddam Hussein. The 36th parallel was the border of this zone. The Turkish state opened its bases and all facilities to the US military forces located in that zone. Within the same context, it established relations with Barzani and Talabani according to the demands of the USA USA and also with the aim of collaborating with these two Kurdish leaders against the PKK.
10- Mam Cemal ("Uncle Jamal" in Kurdish) is Jamal Talabani.
11- The land of Kurdistan is divided into four parts. Northern Kurdistan is under the colonialist yoke of Turkey. Southern part is in Iraq. The other parts are under the colonialist yoke of Iran and Syria.
12- YNK and PDK are the organisations led by Talabani and Barzani,
13- Ittihat ve Terakki (Committee of Union and Progress) is a political organisation of the newborn bourgeoisie during the dissolution period of the Ottoman Empire.
14- Misak-i Milli (National Oath) is the set of six important decisions made during the last period of the Ottoman Empire. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, leader of the bourgeoisie in the foundation process of the Turkish Republic and the first president, adopted as a program the decisions of Misak-i Milli, which also includes the present borders of the Turkish Republic, with Northern Kurdistan colonised by this state.

 

 

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The Reality of the Kurdish State*
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The "nightmare" of the representatives of the oppressing nation revealed in Turkish colonialism is the "dream" of the representatives of the oppressed nation manifested in the formation of a Kurdish state. They had established and fortified their present colonialist nation-state by violating the right of the Kurdish nation to establish their own state and by suppressing it; they had drawn the borders of their country by occupying and annexing the borders of another country. Now the formation of a Kurdish nation-state destroys the Turkish official ideology and puts the borders of the Turkish nation-state in discussion. 

01 December 2008 / Red Dawn / Issue 13

 

At the beginning of 1990s when the national liberation struggle reached its peak, the official ideology entered a process of disintegration. As much as the freedom fire of Kaveh[1] brightened the countryside and cities of Kurdistan, it began petrifying the ruling classes. This took such an extent that after some time many state authorities from the prime minister to the president had to announce that they recognise the "Kurdish reality".[2] Even though they continued the policy of annihilation, the chain of denial was de facto broken.[3]
Entering the 21th century, the ‘phenomenon term' was this time the "Ocalan reality". Acceptance of the national existence of the Kurds would only affirm in recognising their captured national leader and in accepting him as the representative of the Kurdish nation. However, the ruling classes and colonialist fascism have never considered and accepted Abdullah Ocalan as the national leader of the Kurdish people. In this new situation, the denial took the form of the policy implemented on Ocalan, but this time, they were not able to implement the policy of annihilation and had to abolish the death sentence.
At the end of the present decade, the specific situation the Kurdish national struggle created in the region shows that the new phenomenon is the "formation of a Kurdish state". This can be called "the reality of the Kurdish state". Just as it had implemented an aggressive policy in face of the Kurdish reality and Ocalan reality before, the colonialist fascist Turkish state still follows the same policy of denial and annihilation; moreover, it is even more intolerant and follows a more aggressive policy. Notably, first of all the army, and then all administrative centres and complementary institutions of colonialist fascism insult the Kurdish people using Mesut Barzani and Celal Talabani. The dirty war barons, who once called Ocalan a "murderer of babies", vomit their chauvinism by naming Barzani a ‘clan leader' or a ‘tribal chief'. The colonialist fascist dictatorship far from accepting the formation of a Kurdish state announced that they expand the war front from the North to the South without forgetting to talk profusely about their intentions to fight against the whole world, if necessary. They go as far as talking about expanding the boarders to Duhok.
For them Barzani is as much a target as Apo[4] has been and Kirkuk is as much a place of threat as Mount Quandil.[5] They strengthen their politics on the following basis: hindering the formation and development of the Kurdistan Regional Government, grabbing a part in the regional redistribution that has begun to materialize with the Greater Middle East Project of the US imperialism and not remaining inactive in the "war on borders" centralized in the Middle East, which will become even sharper in the upcoming period.
The Turkish state has realized that some developments will take place in the Middle East, the details are not clear at the moment but they are closely linked to it. It is aware that a new stage of the period is coming up; it has sensed all this, and for this reason, it has mobilised in Turkey and Kurdistan all apparatus corresponding to this, such as the MIT (National Intelligence Organization), JIT (Gen-darmerie Intelligence Organisation) and TIT (Turkish Revenge Brigade). No matter how the name begins, all have an "IT" as ending[6]. The state practices military diplomacy. On October 29[7], the army joins the ceremonies with "swords". It organises these celebrations of the foundation of the Republic on the basis of psychological war and carries them "beyond the borders" so that celebrations take place in the embassies in Washington and Moscow, too. While welcoming the Iraqi state's delegation at the airport, the state applies a protocol on the level of the General Directorate of the Police and not of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or Prime Minister. It organises the transport through the replacement vehicle of the National Chief of the Police and hosts the delegation at the hostel belonging to the police organisation. With these most banal details of the military diplomacy, the Turkish state displays a show of power and assertiveness. Look at these brazenfaced representatives of colonialism that calls the KKTC (Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus) its "foster-son", which is not recognized by any state in the world; look how they treat the representatives and the allies of the Kurdish nation.
Nevertheless, the conditions have changed a lot when compared with the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s. The process of the formation of a Kurdish state has started and still continues. Kucukanit[8], (a fly is small, too, but makes you feel nauseous, too), the chief of the general staff of those who could not accept this fact and call Barzani "a tribal chief" had admitted the existence of "the reality" during the first days of his employment. He had admitted that a Kurdish political power, had started to come into being despite of them on the piece of land that used to be a blank defined as the "36th parallel"[9] in the past. Now the Turkish state does everything to oppress the PKK on the one hand and tries to make US imperialism as well as Barzani and Talabani to respect its own scene and especially to advance its power of bargaining with US imperialism on the other hand by using the PKK as pretext. The Turkish state knows that the big picture will soon become the BOP ("Greater Middle East Project") and that although this picture has not been completed yet, it advances towards a period where it will be completed. There is no doubt that this is a process; or rather it is a new stage within the process that started with the occupation of Iraq. It cannot be seen as a short period, there will be breaking points, too. But this new stage of the process is very important for the Turkish state and in the same way for the Kurdish people. Any opportunity and any initiative missed at this stage may have a dramatic outcome for the sides. For this reason, each political actor tries to handle the situation gingerly.
US imperialism has started to draw the Iraqi part of the scene, in parallel to this some colours of Kurdistan have come out, too; however, there is still uncertainty about some parts of Kurdistan and Palestine. The relations between the USA and Iran and with Syria still have elements of uncertainty, and currently they draw attention and are being observed and followed with interest by other actors, such as Russia. The fascist colonialism is calculating that US imperialism and Israeli Zionism will need its support in this sense. As all actors, the Turkish state wants to join the Greater Middle East Project scene with its own colours. This scene is being drawn with blue for petrol, red for blood and green for $, the main colour, of course, being red which stands for blood. The Turkish state wants to get as much right to speak and share as possible.
And it is also clear that US imperialism needs the support of Barzani and Talabani forces as much as it needs Turkey, and while maintaining and continuing its relations with the Turkish state, it cannot risk destroying the balance in Southern Kurdistan. US imperialism cannot destroy at the moment the new equation it had created with the occupation of Iraq because besides not being appropriate to the strategy for the Middle East, it will also be very difficult for it to stay in the region and make big steps under conditions where it attracts the cumulative reaction of the Arabs and Kurds. Having been stuck between the formation of a Kurdish nation-state and the interests of the Turkish colonialist forces, US imperialism keeps a foot in both camps and creates tension and disagreement, especially for Turkish colonialism. It is inevitable that the equation in the Middle East will be shaped by including new elements. Will the equation be simplified or will it get more complicated? This will be determined by course of today's heavy traffic which is manifested in the negotiations among the states and in the regional meetings, as well as by the will of the anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist people's movements, those of the Kurdish, Palestinian, Persian and Iraqi peoples first of all.
The dynamics of this new stage of the period is the fact that the political power of the Kurdish nation has been advancing towards the formation of a state that has started to burgeon in Southern Kurdistan. The Turkish state suffers the pain of this on the one hand and this political drama grows its eagerness on the other hand. It tries to present itself as the victim of the process with the allegations of "PKK terror" and it plays all the possible cards from social mobilisation to military mobilisation, from diplomatic attack to economic embargo. However, it also tries to create a base to participate in the plunder of the Middle East and is willing to grab a piece of the pie by playing a role of a victim.
The first obstacle in front of it is Barzani. He is the one for whom the state targets. Coming from an experience of national liberation and organisation, becoming stronger as the national representative of the Southern Kurdistan people, having strengthened his position on the basis of collaboration with a determining political actor, such as the US imperialism, Barzani speaks very clearly with the Turkish state: "When you make a peaceful political proposal to the PKK and it refuses it, then the PKK will be considered as a terrorist organisation by us". This means, the PKK is not a terrorist organisation; it is a political force to meet with! This attitude makes Turkish colonialism crazy. They loose their temper because they do not hear in this voice the sound of a singing partridge as in the case of Talabani, even though Talabani said that "he will not turn over even a cat to the Turkish state" and this seemed to be a challenge. But there arouse suspicions that these words could be an expression of some dirty tricks behind the scenes. As they are not able to see in the attitude of Barzani the agility of ‘Mam Cemal'[10] who has become famous for his opportunism, they speak from the mouth of the mafia. The fact that the conditions are not convenient any more to provoke different political actors of the Kurdish nation against each other makes them loose their temper.
They force the situation despite all: they hope that the US collaborator Barzani and collaborator and opportunist Talabani would support the Turkish state against the PKK as they have in the past. And while pushing for this, they see a Kurdistan which acts in national unity in front of them. The picture really reminds of a static warfare. The more Turkish colonialism extends the front of dirty war from the North towards the South, the more it faces a Kurdish national front whose parts[11] are almost united. The people of the South announce that they will resist the occupation and fight against it. They move the three fourth of their military force to the border. In the big cities, they organise demonstrations with the participation of hundreds of thousands of people. They announce that they will not turn over the PKK fighters to Turkish colonialism. The posture of the Southern Kurds was not like this during the previous cross-border attacks, because they did not have a state at that time!
The path of the Kurdish nation with a state policy in front of the Turkish state and the tendency of the Southern Kurdistan to embrace the sons and daughters of Northern Kurdistan and to identify its own destiny with that of Northern Kurdistan are from now on inevitable.
The differences among the PKK and the YNK and PDK[12] do not change this truth. It is a reality that the people of the North and the South have identified with each other and this is what we call national destiny. The fact that the Northern and the Southern parts of the Kurdish land that has been divided into four have come closer to each other and they have achieved the unity of feelings and spirit against the colonialist aggression is a new situation which is at the same time a natural result of the reality of the Kurdish state.
The reality of the Kurdish state must be registered as a new phenomenon also in historical sense. The situation is remarkable because a new nation-state has been constructing itself under the conditions where it is claimed that the process of nation-states has been eroded and surpassed in the 21st century. It would be wrong both in terms of politics and in terms of historical dialectics to say, departing from the fact that Barzani and Talabani collaborate with the US imperialism, that this process of becoming a nation-state is not legitimate. The right of nations to self-determination is universal and the Kurdish nation uses this right in practice in this way in the South. Undoubtedly, this has been a late process of becoming a state when compared with classical examples of becoming a state; it is distinctive and the reason for this is the fact that imperialism and colonialism has suppressed, hindered and repressed with terror the Kurdish nation's right of organisation like other nations around the struggle for establishing its state and around its national identity. Consequently, especially Turkish colonialism still wants to overwhelm and to hinder the process of the Kurdish nation becoming a state. This is understandable, because the process of construction of the Turkish state has been realised at the cost of the denial and annihilation of other nations and nationalities.
Turkish militarism has been shaped within the tradition of oppressing other national movements and identities starting from the Committee of Union and Progress (Ittihat ve Terakki[13]) which it has been based on and since the Balkan wars. The Balkan wars were a clash between the forces that had waged a war of national independence against the Ottoman Empire and the forces that would later form the nucleus of Turkish militarism and colonialism. It is known which policies the political power of the ruling classes has implemented massively and systematically on Kurds, Armenians, Greeks, Yazidi and other nationalities and national minorities before, during and after the establishment of the Republic. So the "static warfare" between Turkish colonialism and the Kurdish national forces today can be also defined as the clash of a new nation-state that is being established and another nation-state that was established in the beginning of the century and now faces the fear of dissolution. The "nightmare" of the representatives of the oppressing nation revealed in Turkish colonialism is the "dream" of the representatives of the oppressed nation manifested in the formation of a Kurdish state. It is so because they had established and fortified their present colonialist nation-state by violating the right of the Kurdish nation to establish their own state and by suppressing it; they had drawn the borders of their country by occupying and annexing the borders of another country. It is so because they know that what they call Misak-i Milli[14] is a historical injustice. It is so because this policy has kicked the ruling forces back; now the formation of a Kurdish nation-state destroys the Turkish official ideology and puts the borders of the Turkish nation-state in discussion. It is so because the reality of Kurdish nation-state is, yes, a dream for the Kurds and a nightmare for Turkish colonialism. And this is becoming a reality now. A burgeoning plant that was smashed under the boots of soldiers for a century is now growing up; getting taller than the boots and grows towards the trunk of colonialism; hurts its eyes.
The task and the responsibility of any revolutionary who fights against chauvinism and militarism, stands away from social chauvinism and believes in the importance of the right of nations to self-determination to the concrete situation under every given real condition is to call upon and force the colonialist fascist dictatorship to recognise the Kurdistan Regional Government and accept its national political representatives. The pressure put on the Turkish state and forcing it in this context is a necessity for exposing the chauvinist and unabashed approach of the colonialist fascist front and to put it in vain in relation with the strength and amount of the political pressure. Moreover, it is especially meaningful and necessary for enlightening the Turkish people about the fact that they are the real force to deal with the ‘Kurdish question', for informing the Turkish labourers correctly and for keeping them away from the poisoning rage of chauvinism.

............................................................

*This article has been taken from the revolutionary socialist weekly newspaper Atilim dated November 3, 2007. It evaluates the developments in South Kurdistan from the revolutionary point of view, makes some new definitions and stresses the tasks of the revolutionary forces concerning the new situation.

...........................................................

1- Kaveh the blacksmith is a Kurdish national mythical figure. It is believed that he has defeated the brutal ruler Zahhak.
2- The first time that the Turkish ruling forces admitted this reality was in 1991, when the Kurdish national struggle led by the PKK had reached the level of a national revolution, with the guerrilla war in the mountains and the huge uprisings in the cities. Suleyman Demirel, the Prime Minister of that period had said: "We accept the Kurdish reality". Until that time, even the existence of the Kurds was completely denied.
3- "Denial and annihilation policy" is the traditional policy of Turkish colonialism that absolutely denies the existence of the Kurdish nation and claims that the Kurds are in fact Turkish people living in the mountains. That is to say, they deny the existence of the Kurds and annihilate every idea of Kurds being a nation.
4- The short name of Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the PKK.
5- The commandership of the PKK is located on the Mount Quandil.
6- Here the writer plays on words because "IT" means dog in Turkish and is used for swearing. Especially the fascists are called "it".
7- October 29, 1923 is the date of foundation of the Turkish Republic, following the Liberation War 1919-1923. It is celebrated as a national feast.
8- Here again, the writer play on words, changing the surname of Yasar Buyukanit, chief of the general staff in that period. "Buyukanit" begins with "buyuk" which means "big" in Turkish. The writer changes it into "kucuk" which means "small" to humiliate him.
9- In 1991, with the demand of the USA, a "security zone" was formed in the north of Iraq (which is actually Southern Kurdistan) as a measure taken against Saddam Hussein. The 36th parallel was the border of this zone. The Turkish state opened its bases and all facilities to the US military forces located in that zone. Within the same context, it established relations with Barzani and Talabani according to the demands of the USA USA and also with the aim of collaborating with these two Kurdish leaders against the PKK.
10- Mam Cemal ("Uncle Jamal" in Kurdish) is Jamal Talabani.
11- The land of Kurdistan is divided into four parts. Northern Kurdistan is under the colonialist yoke of Turkey. Southern part is in Iraq. The other parts are under the colonialist yoke of Iran and Syria.
12- YNK and PDK are the organisations led by Talabani and Barzani,
13- Ittihat ve Terakki (Committee of Union and Progress) is a political organisation of the newborn bourgeoisie during the dissolution period of the Ottoman Empire.
14- Misak-i Milli (National Oath) is the set of six important decisions made during the last period of the Ottoman Empire. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, leader of the bourgeoisie in the foundation process of the Turkish Republic and the first president, adopted as a program the decisions of Misak-i Milli, which also includes the present borders of the Turkish Republic, with Northern Kurdistan colonised by this state.