(en) France, Organisation Communiste Libertarie - Courant Alternatif CA #230 - Kurds: "the greatest people in the world without a state" Part 2 (fr)

If we stand or participate in some national liberation struggles not by particular taste 
of nationalism, however, but because they are involved in the fight to reclaim power in a 
space where people live. .. The dynamics of national liberation struggles can put people 
in a ratio of opening to the outside, waiting for other exchanges, debates, opening 
internationalist outlook, revolutionary as?*. ---- * Extract positions OCL ---- We did not 
know how to begin to tell what is happening in Kurdistan. A book itself would suffice to 
identify some problems. And because the news and history of struggle and class conflict in 
Kurdistan is very rich because they are geographically located at the intersection of four 
civilizations (see Part 1). ---- Kurdistan is a path, a road node communication and gas 
(with the strategic direction south Asia) that opens or closes between these four areas.

Memory or forgetfulness of these struggles is not restricted only to this space (1). Women 
in these struggles as in all conflicts in the world, whether or not a gun is on the front 
line (2). Also via Syria, the Arab Spring could go back to Turkey. We had to make choices.
Choosing northern Kurdistan and Turkey is motivated by the fact that it wants to join the 
EU. We believe that the coup the Kurdish issue is planned in the heart of the policy of 
our old continent and popped our memories sad way for a triple murder in Paris. Also, we 
realized that on the subject in our own community, clocks stopped thirty years ago. Since 
this is forgotten, with his photographs of a time modeled on a living reality that is 
changing very quickly. . Reality yet to be understood and seizure warrants constantly 
renewed look "Turkey today is constantly in the heart of a series of contradictions 
repeated again: activists who oppose France in Europe defend the capitalist integration of 
Turkey into Europe itself. In general, these capitalists are also favorable, too, this 
integration. When the subject leaves the news, immediately abandon the militants. This is 
not exactly a great sign of class independence. All this actually comes from ignorance of 
what will be the future of the international class struggle. Which shore will do you first 
of revolutionary struggles, that is to say having a genuinely internationalist content, 
political, social and challenging the private ownership of the means of production, 
finance and trade " (A Kurdish activist)?

A call for democratic forces in Turkey and Europe

As we've written before, in the 90s, all the cease-fire of the guerrilla unilateral again 
to give a chance to peace will never turn into bilateral truce with the Turkish state as 
proposed in the roadmap of 2 August 2003 (3). Between 1999 and 2004, the PKK with the 
movement for the democratization of Turkish society has unilaterally declared a cease-fire 
ended but before this new failure of the outstretched hand while aiming the establishment 
of a system of democratic confederal organization of society through autonomy, rejecting 
the concept of an independent Kurdish nation state.
During 2005, the guerrilla resume arms for a while. These cease-fire early 2000s until 
today offered by the components of the Kurdish society, the PKK / KADEK / congress-GEL / 
KCK (4) and Kurdish elites always remain a dead letter. It is not a coincidence that this 
roadmap is for democratic forces in Turkey including all sections of Turkish society as 
political organizations with or without electorates using or not the ballot box.
Kurds have no illusions on the ruling parties that follow as we shall see. Nor the 
slightest confidence in the state, even those who collaborate with. In the 90s, the PKK 
(3) started to define this new system that revealed every day until 2004, when things were 
finally materialized and whence came texts to lead to the declaration of 12 May 2005 KCK.

To exit Kemalism

In the early 2000s, as now, at the top, it is always the same dominant opposing forces 
within the Turkish state. On the one hand the AKP (5) power is pro-European. With the 
election results (6), the most important trends are still in power in spite of less than 
50% voting scores at the expense of political parties representing different opinions, 
including Kurds. AKP seeks a peaceful political solution to the Kurdish issue by providing 
Islamic conservative, ultra-nationalist, military, social democrats, secular or not. 
Comprehensive program! It is not a foregone conclusion, but the AKP he really wants or he 
can only?

Dwell on the winner of the polls is necessary to understand what is happening in Turkey. 
The AKP is a party as we know it to us with its own history and cultural background. It 
represents the interests of the bourgeoisie. In predominantly Kurdish areas, management is 
exclusively patronage. But for much of the electorate, it is an opportunity to get out of 
the Kemalist influence and its military-terrorist state apparatus practices. A little in 
his own measure, it is also before the time of the Arab Spring, a response to the 
expectations of the Turks against the army. In fact during the "global crisis" in the 
referendum to change the constitution (7) which takes place 30 years to the day after the 
coup of 12 September 1980, he won a victory.
AKP pushed through Much of the public, promises a project for the "Democratic Opening." 
For example, the civil initiative "not 70 million against a coup d'etat", has set up a 
court of conscience to judge the 1971 coup generals and their political accomplices. They 
were never worried. It should be noted that the coup generals are still protected by the 
ambiguous attitude of the AKP government and the victims' request to bring them before the 
courts is always denied.
This civil initiative also draws attention to the fact that the army made ??ten years two 
other direct interventions in politics. 28 February 1997 and 27 April 2007.

Moreover, as it is found in the reading of the indictment of Ergenekon trial (8), which 
aims to overthrow the government after the Islamist movement, in power since 2002, eighty- 
six of its suspected members are in prison and brought to justice, including officers, 
journalists, politicians and members of the underworld. Also, these three officers have 
prepared contingency plans between 2003 and 2004. For the AKP remains a bone of this size, 
it would purge the military hierarchy and its Kemalist la?carde component. In this 
context, the Ergenekon case is seen as a response to Erdogan's party (AKP Prime Minister) 
to the efforts of MGK (9) to ban the AKP in 2008 by the courts for anti-secular 
activities. Despite demilitarization of the MGK, the military continues to dictate their 
choices.
Even today, the undemocratic constitution of superiority and the monopoly of the race and 
the Turkish language (Articles 3, 42 and 66), imposed in 1982 by the military junta is 
still in force. Article 4 states that Article 3 can never be changed, even the 
modification of this article can be proposed. The state does not tolerate any competitor. 
In this case, for the Social Democrats still control a nationalist but clean Kemalist army 
of its component is a tool to suppress any circumstance revolts and intimidate its 
neighbors. Also in 1999, military judges are removed from the Courts of the State Security 
(DGM) with the arrival of the ruling AKP. In 2004, these courts are deleted.

If attempts to negotiate through some bites, speeches and various bogus initiatives AKP 
government for a political solution to the Kurdish issue is emerging in the media, this is 
definitely not for empathy with the Kurdish people but to stem a class struggle that is 
becoming increasingly widespread in Turkey, on the ground but also in attitudes and that 
goes beyond the simplistic idea that there would be an internal enemy in the Turkish apple .
This class struggle in northern Kurdistan, but not only, is also expressed in the movement 
of the KCK, which advocates a democratic organization of society (15). It could also be 
oil stain on present and future struggles throughout Turkey today and tomorrow. And why 
not beyond? In many struggles in the 2000s, Turks and Kurds gathered together to defend 
claims, as social rights. There would be 20% (10 officially) of the Turkish labor force 
unemployed. In some areas of predominantly Kurdish cities, the rate may reach 70%. Since 
the global crisis, although growth is still positive after a free fall (today it seems to 
have stabilized), the consequences of the crisis are being felt more and more everyday.

The war party

On the other hand, we have the Kemalist forces ambush which the resistance within the 
state apparatus and threaten all that is different from them. It is the party of war. This 
trend has created a very chauvinistic and nationalistic society. This is a bourgeoisie 
comprador , rentier (see also OYAK) that sends its called to the slaughterhouse. A very 
tasty pan-Turkish bourgeoisie money and also for his work as soldiers in northern 
Kurdistan (For conscripts, they need to state 18 months, including Kurds).
They are diehards who cling to budget allocated to them. Ie a third of government 
revenues. They are not as influential as in the past but are threatening because they 
control much of the army. But gradually, government institutions are losing their soldiers 
where their place was predominant. Thus, the MGK has become since 2003, mainly advisory, 
secretary once a soldier, now a civilian. However, the High Military Council (YAS), 
responsible for managing the internal operations of the Army, continues to strike some 
officers considered anti-secular despite government opposition. Military influence on the 
Turkish economy through financial holding OYAK Sui Generis (10) and a series of war 
industries. Links with NATO and the holding is updated. In parliament, the Social 
Democrats European pro represented by CHP (11), founded by Ataturk, a member of the 
Socialist International. Main opposition, the parliamentary elections of 2011, it is 25.98%.

MHP (12) anti-EU, an offshoot of the Grey Wolves Colonel Alpaslan T?rkep in fact 13.01% 
(2011). It also participates in the war party.
Secular centrists now at the bottom in the polls were a time allied with the MHP. The 
force of the bourgeoisie has the same concern as the AKP, take advantage of the focus away 
from the Turkish and Kurdish working class and peasantry, to the extent that the army 
controls the defense industry, but also several chains distribution, real estate agencies, 
canning, cement, food and automotive industries (eg Renault), banks and insurance 
companies (10).
Moreover in recent years, hard strikes where Turks and Kurds are found to fight all 
together have affected all these boxes. It must be said that the Kurdish migrants, 
assimilated or not, having left their native Kurdistan are now in the big cities of Turkey 
and "territorial mixture is pushed between those who consider themselves as Kurds and are 
willing to support a Kurdish revolt, and those who consider themselves as Turks " (JP 
Derriennic, Presses de Sciences Po, 2001). Turkey is the largest prison in the world for 
trade unionists and other activists she emptied of its common law to fill the actors of 
the social movement in time (13).

The KCK is not an organization but an organizational

Today, for the PKK / KADEK / KONGRA-GEL / KCK (3), the idea of a Kurdish nation-state in 
Turkey is abandoned, like most of the Kurdish population, in favor of an autonomist and 
cross-border relationship confederation order and associative.
For PKK autonomism is no longer a concern for bureaucratic. Yet while having in mind that 
whatever institutions - education, justice, police, etc.. - They always come from above in 
a representative system such as Turkey. So we can say that limited autonomy to culture and 
education, for example always preserves the verticality of power monopolized by the elites 
co-opted. Elsewhere in Kurdistan, the ancient Islamic community structures (14) promote 
the local lords and their vassals to the Ottoman centralism Turkey, Persian and Arabic 
also guards, and does not promote democratization of power (15).

In a limited autonomy, the issue of equality in the distribution of wealth and power can 
not walk. These issues fall by the wayside as a power fixed in advance, locked by these 
same elites and leaders, their institutional model and their guards.
In response to questions by whom and which also depends on the structure of power 
relations in the presence and movements. If you want equality, we can not only satisfy 
patronage distribution of wealth through the welfare state. And modification of structures 
of power and democratic sharing must take place if you want a qualitative leap.
Autonomy confined to education and culture is a cache sex to deny any conflict in a 
society Class pacified the top, to lull the most exploited, the most oppressed. As 
nationalism and fascism exploited by the bourgeoisie considering addressing the problem of 
conflict due to inequalities by interclassist ideological themes. In this context the 
announcement of 12 May 2005, the Kurdish movement is appropriate reporting system of the 
Union of Kurdistan Communities (KCK): "The system of KCK (16) is the result of a search 
organization of society drawn from the source of a daily struggle for the defense of 
freedom, subjected to fierce repression in general indifference ... "

The Turkish state follows closely this early form of organization in the years 2005 to 
2009, he did not intervene because he did not find it subversive and corresponded to the 
ideas put forward in the negotiations to integrate European Union ... Wherever the 
situation permitted, were created Councils Free Citizens in municipalities and 
neighborhoods. "The purpose of these guidelines is to give birth to a company capable of 
organizing against the omnipotence of the state. That is to say, against almost all 
institutions, including municipalities. Indeed, this composition is born from the moment 
the Kurds movements have renounced independence. For Kurds participating in this 
experiment, a structure without a state is also a guarantee of democracy. It is also proof 
of the willingness of the Kurds to live together with the current state of Turkey (but 
especially with the Turks in general). This is the democratic part of the concept of 
democratic autonomy that matters most. The party autonomy is a bureaucratic issue ... " We 
must add that there is not only Kurds who participate in these meetings.


In a Kurdish newspaper, a person wrote that it was the only system that could save the 
world and Kurdistan ecological slaughter (17). With such a vision, we can begin to say, "I 
need to put in place a system that would be the sum of all the dreams of feminists, 
communists, Marxists, dreams of Che, anarchists" (a Kurdish activist ).
Kurds in the 90s began to define this new system that unfolds every day until 2004 when 
things are finally materialized and went out texts to arrive at the statement of KCK.
PKK n has more weight within these popular assemblies any more than any one individual. In 
cases where there a PKK member who participates, for example. Suddenly, the declaration 
system is even more credit with respect to all elements of society in Kurdistan and beyond.
For assemblies located in areas of armed conflict, the forces armed self-defense and HPG 
YJA-Star (female branch of HPG) which ensure development for northern Kurdistan. In each 
country where areas under Kurdish influence, these regions have their own political 
organizations as well as their own self-defense force (3).

The KCK, self-empowerment in practice

In each village or city, there are meetings. For each district and city have their own 
workshop meeting. Delegates are appointed by each assembly-es to go to the meeting of 
cities. Because we can not meet everyone. Meetings of cities make decisions but 
neighborhood assemblies may, if they wish, do not apply. These decisions of the assemblies 
of cities are not directly applicable. There are a range of meetings.

In many small towns of Kurdistan, people already go to the police or the justice of the 
Turkish state. They prefer to invest these meetings where he finds, they also function to 
resolve disputes. Some participants felt that the state north and Syrian Kurdistan has no 
raison d'?tre. In fact this is already the case. Nobody is excluded in these meetings, you 
can also create as many boards as you want. No debate is taboo. Anyone can develop a 
collective project and intervene. If it is less than 40% of women in a meeting, it can not 
start. The age limit is 16 years, but in a city, there is a board with children between 12 
and 16 years.

For each meeting, two chairs, a woman and a man is chosen, it is mandatory. At the 
beginning this was not the case but it has created a great deal of controversy, this 
result points to a strong commitment to debate and diversity. The president is called 
e-representative, he / she has no right to make decisions, it is the voice of the meeting, 
he is responsible to clarify the timetable for the debate to publicize decisions. Then a 
secretary is appointed. It is not on the agenda, it is a body appointed by the Assembly at 
the time that should do it. This body is responsible for enforcing the operation that's 
all. Where there is a meeting, everyone involved except the bourgeoisie probably prefer 
more sanitized salons. In Iraq, where the protest in the streets and among students 
growls, there are more and more popular assemblies in universities but newspapers do not talk.

There are also meetings in Europe, it works more or less depending on the city probably 
due to the origin of Kurdish migrants and ordered according to their degree by the Turkish 
state in their homeland assimilation. Example for a meeting of a major European city, the 
cultural association manages a bunch of local aspects that place. When an assembly is in 
place, the structure of the association is no longer become a committee within the 
assembly that handles bureaucratic, technical problems. This does not happen without 
debate and resistance as the president of the association wanted to keep its prerogatives. 
And suddenly the power is distributed in the meeting.

In the past, as in many rural societies, when a Kurdish community needed to organize some 
work, she met in assembly. All members of the tribe village decided by themselves and 
equally. Also to deal with a break from the dominant, when in March 1991 urban south of 
Iraqi Kurdistan to meet immediate needs to a chaotic situation caused by the invasion of 
the Western coalition to "liberate" Kuwait . From Sulaymaniyah, puts up a movement shoras 
(18). It spread to other Kurdish cities of Iraq.

As we have already said, in the 90s, the Kurdish movement really changed in attitudes, 
speech, even if the goals are the same, the practices have changed the fact that the 
freedom of a people can not come from a nation-state or of any organization but the 
awareness of exploitation, oppression by the entire population movement. In this case, the 
state for the Kurds is rather a source of evil and freedom does not depend on elections or 
polls only. In the system of KCK, nobody can know yet what it will be. It's the thought 
that counts. For now, we do not have enough returns to make an assessment, these 
assemblies are the sum of the dreams of all people of good will or not involved.
What we can say is that if they turn back the sum of all bids, farms, oppression suffered 
by Kurds for centuries.
Currently, the Turkish government accused the movement of KCK to be the political wing of 
the armed movement PKK want replace formal institutions in the southeastern Anatolia and 
promote insurgency in these areas. For this a big crackdown on all elements of society in 
Kurdistan and the Kurds in Europe that are appropriate these emancipatory practices. All 
those who participate in the movement are considered terrorists.

Finally, "workers can not overcome the capitalist contradiction, the fact that their legal 
freedom derive their exploitation and slavery, when they have dominated this what 
democracy bourgeois political contradiction. In the class struggle today, this ideology is 
the biggest obstacle on the path of liberation " (19). To do this, we must divest 
ourselves of political polls, passivity and defend it creates the idea that the release 
does not go through "the installation of a national bourgeoisie but a reorganization of 
social life, the creation of other political power structures than those currently 
imposed, reorganization of production geared towards meeting the needs expressed by the 
exploited classes and not according to the "imperatives" of the market and profit. We must 
fight the tactical integration in institutions and preserve the autonomy of the structures 
of power-cons are taking place, or other popular assemblies. At the same time as combating 
forms of claims and struggles that tend to increase the weight of a current or future 
bourgeoisie, or significant " (OCL text extract).
The current struggle of the Kurds has revolutionary aspects insofar it has an 
internationalist content, political, and social challenges the private ownership of the 
means of production.

K.

The sources are the same as in Part 1 + those mentioned in the notes.

___


Notes of the second part.

(1) Despite the disapproval of Ankara last month, with the covenant of the ASL (Syrian 
Liberation Army) and PYD (Kurdish political wing for PKK in Syria), the conflict with the 
Baath regime in power takes another turn.

(2) On the women read http://oclibertaire.free.fr/spip.php?article673 see also Alternating 
Current No. 229, "feminism and anti-militarism"

(3) See Article Alternating Current April

(4) PKK, KADEK Congress for Democracy and Freedom created on 4/4/2002, congress-GEL 
People's Congress of Kurdistan created on 15/11/2003 and KCK reporting system of the Union 
of Community Kurdistan 12/05/2005. For Iran is the PJAK, Syria, the PYD.

(5) The AKP (Justice and Development) is at the helm since 2002 and is 37 to 49% of votes 
from 2002 to today.

(6) The candidates on the list of a political party are elected only if their training has 
obtained at least 10% of the votes at the national level, if it has nominated two 
candidates for each seat in parliament in at least half provinces, and if it is well 
established in half of the provinces and third provincial districts.

(7) Today, the army is no longer the majority in the Constitutional Court.

(8) Ergenekon is a clandestine organization to create chaos and undermine stability in 
Turkey to trigger a coup.

(9) MGK (National Security Council), created in 1961 after a coup, it has turned into a 
supervisory authority under the Constitution of 1982.

(10) OYAK eg Oyak-Renault is a Turkish manufacturer of automotive group Renault and is 
part of the holding company since 1969. For branching, visit www.oyak.com.tr

(11) CHP (Republican People's Party), founded by Ataturk, a member of the Socialist 
International.

(12) MHP (Nationalist Action Party).

(13) http://kurde-moyen-orient.20minutes-blogs.fr/lutte-des-classes-syndicats/

(14) The Agha was - and still is - a tribal leader that the government supports the 
economic and technological level. (Seehttp://oclibertaire.free.fr/spip.php?article673 )

(15) Hence the commitment of many Kurds in the Kemalist project of independence in the 
1920s who saw a way out of this "backwardness" there.

(16) KCK http://www.amitieskurdesdebretagne.eu/spip.php?article461&lang=fr

(17) In Turkey, there are conflicts against dams which threaten the people, culture and 
peace in the region (blackmail Syria and Iraq).

(18) "shora" means "council". Historically, we hear for the first time shoras during the 
1979 Iranian Revolution which led to the overthrow of the Shah (the popular uprising of 
March 1991); http://www.infokiosques.net/lire.php?id_article = 621

(19) Pannekoek in Democracy, fascism, national socialism , Acratie.