On 11 and 12 April 2025, in Rome, the international conference "Freedom
for Ocalan. A political solution for the Kurdish question" took place.
---- The conference was attended by more than 360 delegates from
numerous countries and from political, trade union, academic, cultural
and civil society organizations. On the afternoon of 11 April, the
conference was opened by Yilmaz Orkan from the Kurdistan Information
Office in Italy (UIKI Onlus). The discussion focused on the current
historical moment full of great challenges and transformations, on
Abdullah Öcalan's appeal for peace on 27 February and on an in-depth
analysis of the situation in Kurdistan and in the broader context of the
Middle East. The conference was an important step towards achieving
lasting peace and a truly democratic society, based on justice, freedom
and coexistence among peoples. Good discussion, excellent atmosphere,
many formal commitments. Guests from Italian organizations included
Salvatore Marra of CGIL, who hosted the conference, Massimiliano
Smeriglio representing the Municipality of Rome, Emily Clancy deputy
mayor of Bologna, Nicola Fratoianni of Sinistra Italiana, Maurizio
Acerbo of Rifondazione Comunista, Piero Bernocchi of the COBAS
Confederation. There were speeches by speakers from various countries
(Philippines, Germany, England, Iceland, Mexico, Norway, Basque Country,
Scotland, Syria, Spain, Turkey). Among the guests was also Ömer Öcalan,
Deputy of the DEM Party, nephew of Apo and member of the delegation that
met President Öcalan in the special prison on the island of Imrali in
the Sea of Marmara.
The various interventions highlighted the fundamental contribution of
Öcalan and Democratic Confederalism for those who fight for socialism,
for democratic municipalism, for environmentalism, gender equality, the
central role of women in the management of society, the eradication of
patriarchy and structural machismo, social ecology. Democratic
Confederalism appears as the most advanced social, anti-capitalist and
anti-imperialist development to appear on the international political
scene since the end of the Second World War.
With Democratic Confederalism, Öcalan breaks with the Marxist-Leninist
tradition by proposing "non-state political administration and a
democracy without a state", highlighting how an anti-imperialism updated
to the 21st century cannot ignore that capitalism has a thousand faces
that must all be opposed and overturned if one seriously wants to
envisage overcoming it.
"The conference participants expressed serious concern over the Turkish
government's failure to respond to Öcalan's appeal and the PKK's
unilateral ceasefire.
The current wave of arrests of mayors, journalists, lawyers and peace
activists in Turkey clearly highlights the Turkish government's
authoritarian drift. This development fuels deep distrust of political
statements that speak of the beginning of a period of peace.
Furthermore, the Turkish military continues to attack the positions of
the PKK guerrilla forces, and allegations of the use of chemical weapons
have resurfaced."
Very interesting is the report by Idris Baluken, Member of the Imrali
Negotiation Team (2013-2015), who underlined how the appeal of the
Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan on February 27 for "peace and a
democratic society" represents the ninth attempt at a unilateral
ceasefire by the Kurds, that in this way the PKK has put a further sign
of the Kurdish commitment to peace. Idris Baluken underlined that in
2015 the peace negotiations seemed to have reached a significant point
and that the release of Öcalan seemed to be imminent. What happened
after the elections of June 2015, when the HDP party obtained 13.12% and
won 80 seats in the Parliament of Ankara, is there for all to see: a
violent and bloody wave of war unleashed by the Erdogan regime against
the Kurdish populations in Türkiye, Syria and northern Iraq. Entire
villages destroyed, historic districts of Kurdish cities razed to the
ground, thousands of arrests among Kurds suspected of being members of
the PKK and among HDP party militants, including the national secretary
Demirtas, a ferocious campaign against Rojava with the attack on Afrin
and all of Northern and Eastern Syria, indiscriminate bombings of
villages in Iraq controlled by the PKK.
Although talks with the Ankara regime continue, the laying down of arms
has as an essential condition the possibility of calling the
extraordinary Congress of the PKK with the physical presence of its
historical leader Abdullah Öcalan, the release of all political
prisoners, including the president of the HDP Selahattin Demirtas, the
bilateral and simultaneous ceasefire.
The speech by Fouza Alyoussef, representative of DAANES (Democratic
Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria) was important and
exhaustive, who spoke about the democratic transition of Syria through
the successes of Rojava. Fouza Alyoussef wondered how it was possible
that in just 8 days the Assad regime could have melted away, if not with
a joint intrigue of the intelligence of the territorial and global
powers that have interests in the Middle East. In lapidary defining the
new government of Damascus led by Ahmed al-Sharah, the former al-Qaeda
member also known as Abu Mohammad al-Jolan, as the heir of the
cutthroats of al-Nusra and Daesh (al-Dawla al-Islamiyya fi l-?Iraq wa
l-Sham), he highlighted that negotiations with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham
(HTS; Union for the Liberation of the Levant), the party in power in
Syria, are difficult. But in Syria the rulers of Damascus are not the
worst among the reactionary forces, they are overtaken by the militias
of the so-called Syrian National Army (SNA), supported and directed by
Turkey, which for months have been attacking the autonomous territories
of Northern and Eastern Syria. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), led
by the People's Protection Units (YPG), have stopped the SNA offensive
along the banks of the Euphrates aimed at conquering the martyr city of
Kobane. The Teshrin Dam on the Euphrates has become the symbol of
resistance. To defend the revolutionary conquests of Democratic
Confederalism, the population of Northern and Eastern Syria has risen
up, giving full support to the revolutionary popular militias. Thousands
of people have come to defend the Teshrin Dam, entire families who have
offered their bodies to repel the reactionary horde of the SNA. Many
have died under the bombings, but the advance of the pro-Turkish
Jihadist militias has been stopped.
The alliance between the various components of Syrian society (Kurds,
Arabs, Armenians, Assyrians, Turkmen and Circassians, Sunnis, Shiites,
Alawites, Christians, Druze, Yazidis and other Syrians) created in
northern and eastern Syria is consolidating. The initial sympathy of
some Arab fighters of the SDF in Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor (localities with
an Arab majority) towards the HTS government quickly ran out after the
Jihadist declarations of Ahmed al-Sharah in view of the rewriting of the
constitutional charter and after the massacres against the Alawite
populations in western Syria.
Shortly after overthrowing the Assad regime, the al-Sharaa government
had published an edict to guarantee freedom of worship to the country's
religious minorities - including Alawites - but despite this apparently
pacifist declaration, clashes between the Damascus security forces and
the Alawites have led to indiscriminate massacres of civilians. 1,400
civilians were killed, including hundreds executed by the Syrian
security forces, concentrated mainly in the provinces of Latakia and
Tartus, in western Syria.
Exploiting the weaknesses of the current regime in Damascus, contacts
were made with the Druze community, the Alawite community and various
Arab communities throughout Syria. It was decided to establish academies
outside of northern and eastern Syria to spread the principles of
Democratic Confederalism and to build a new Democratic, Confederal Syria
that respects all the ethnic groups present. At the request of women in
various areas of the country, it was decided to establish YPJ (Women's
Protection Units) bodies to defend women, especially after the Islamist
and authoritarian setting of the new HTS-led Syria.
While Öcalan's appeal for peace on February 27 is welcomed, it is
emphasized that until there are valid guarantees for the respect of the
achievements of Democratic Confederalism in Syria, the weapons of the
popular militias will not be laid down, and that the YPJ will not disarm
under any circumstances.
Among the interventions that followed the guests' reports, it is worth
mentioning that of Palermo Solidale con il popolo Kurdo and that of the
Federazione Anarchica Italiana, which emphasized the real danger of a
global war, the Italian and European rearmament, the strategic objective
of converting the Italian war industry (starting with Leonardo spa) into
an industry of peace, an industry committed to supplying with
instruments of death and devastation the armies engaged in many war
fronts and in particular the Turkish, Israeli, Ukrainian and Sahel armies.
Renato Franzitta
https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
for Ocalan. A political solution for the Kurdish question" took place.
---- The conference was attended by more than 360 delegates from
numerous countries and from political, trade union, academic, cultural
and civil society organizations. On the afternoon of 11 April, the
conference was opened by Yilmaz Orkan from the Kurdistan Information
Office in Italy (UIKI Onlus). The discussion focused on the current
historical moment full of great challenges and transformations, on
Abdullah Öcalan's appeal for peace on 27 February and on an in-depth
analysis of the situation in Kurdistan and in the broader context of the
Middle East. The conference was an important step towards achieving
lasting peace and a truly democratic society, based on justice, freedom
and coexistence among peoples. Good discussion, excellent atmosphere,
many formal commitments. Guests from Italian organizations included
Salvatore Marra of CGIL, who hosted the conference, Massimiliano
Smeriglio representing the Municipality of Rome, Emily Clancy deputy
mayor of Bologna, Nicola Fratoianni of Sinistra Italiana, Maurizio
Acerbo of Rifondazione Comunista, Piero Bernocchi of the COBAS
Confederation. There were speeches by speakers from various countries
(Philippines, Germany, England, Iceland, Mexico, Norway, Basque Country,
Scotland, Syria, Spain, Turkey). Among the guests was also Ömer Öcalan,
Deputy of the DEM Party, nephew of Apo and member of the delegation that
met President Öcalan in the special prison on the island of Imrali in
the Sea of Marmara.
The various interventions highlighted the fundamental contribution of
Öcalan and Democratic Confederalism for those who fight for socialism,
for democratic municipalism, for environmentalism, gender equality, the
central role of women in the management of society, the eradication of
patriarchy and structural machismo, social ecology. Democratic
Confederalism appears as the most advanced social, anti-capitalist and
anti-imperialist development to appear on the international political
scene since the end of the Second World War.
With Democratic Confederalism, Öcalan breaks with the Marxist-Leninist
tradition by proposing "non-state political administration and a
democracy without a state", highlighting how an anti-imperialism updated
to the 21st century cannot ignore that capitalism has a thousand faces
that must all be opposed and overturned if one seriously wants to
envisage overcoming it.
"The conference participants expressed serious concern over the Turkish
government's failure to respond to Öcalan's appeal and the PKK's
unilateral ceasefire.
The current wave of arrests of mayors, journalists, lawyers and peace
activists in Turkey clearly highlights the Turkish government's
authoritarian drift. This development fuels deep distrust of political
statements that speak of the beginning of a period of peace.
Furthermore, the Turkish military continues to attack the positions of
the PKK guerrilla forces, and allegations of the use of chemical weapons
have resurfaced."
Very interesting is the report by Idris Baluken, Member of the Imrali
Negotiation Team (2013-2015), who underlined how the appeal of the
Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan on February 27 for "peace and a
democratic society" represents the ninth attempt at a unilateral
ceasefire by the Kurds, that in this way the PKK has put a further sign
of the Kurdish commitment to peace. Idris Baluken underlined that in
2015 the peace negotiations seemed to have reached a significant point
and that the release of Öcalan seemed to be imminent. What happened
after the elections of June 2015, when the HDP party obtained 13.12% and
won 80 seats in the Parliament of Ankara, is there for all to see: a
violent and bloody wave of war unleashed by the Erdogan regime against
the Kurdish populations in Türkiye, Syria and northern Iraq. Entire
villages destroyed, historic districts of Kurdish cities razed to the
ground, thousands of arrests among Kurds suspected of being members of
the PKK and among HDP party militants, including the national secretary
Demirtas, a ferocious campaign against Rojava with the attack on Afrin
and all of Northern and Eastern Syria, indiscriminate bombings of
villages in Iraq controlled by the PKK.
Although talks with the Ankara regime continue, the laying down of arms
has as an essential condition the possibility of calling the
extraordinary Congress of the PKK with the physical presence of its
historical leader Abdullah Öcalan, the release of all political
prisoners, including the president of the HDP Selahattin Demirtas, the
bilateral and simultaneous ceasefire.
The speech by Fouza Alyoussef, representative of DAANES (Democratic
Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria) was important and
exhaustive, who spoke about the democratic transition of Syria through
the successes of Rojava. Fouza Alyoussef wondered how it was possible
that in just 8 days the Assad regime could have melted away, if not with
a joint intrigue of the intelligence of the territorial and global
powers that have interests in the Middle East. In lapidary defining the
new government of Damascus led by Ahmed al-Sharah, the former al-Qaeda
member also known as Abu Mohammad al-Jolan, as the heir of the
cutthroats of al-Nusra and Daesh (al-Dawla al-Islamiyya fi l-?Iraq wa
l-Sham), he highlighted that negotiations with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham
(HTS; Union for the Liberation of the Levant), the party in power in
Syria, are difficult. But in Syria the rulers of Damascus are not the
worst among the reactionary forces, they are overtaken by the militias
of the so-called Syrian National Army (SNA), supported and directed by
Turkey, which for months have been attacking the autonomous territories
of Northern and Eastern Syria. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), led
by the People's Protection Units (YPG), have stopped the SNA offensive
along the banks of the Euphrates aimed at conquering the martyr city of
Kobane. The Teshrin Dam on the Euphrates has become the symbol of
resistance. To defend the revolutionary conquests of Democratic
Confederalism, the population of Northern and Eastern Syria has risen
up, giving full support to the revolutionary popular militias. Thousands
of people have come to defend the Teshrin Dam, entire families who have
offered their bodies to repel the reactionary horde of the SNA. Many
have died under the bombings, but the advance of the pro-Turkish
Jihadist militias has been stopped.
The alliance between the various components of Syrian society (Kurds,
Arabs, Armenians, Assyrians, Turkmen and Circassians, Sunnis, Shiites,
Alawites, Christians, Druze, Yazidis and other Syrians) created in
northern and eastern Syria is consolidating. The initial sympathy of
some Arab fighters of the SDF in Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor (localities with
an Arab majority) towards the HTS government quickly ran out after the
Jihadist declarations of Ahmed al-Sharah in view of the rewriting of the
constitutional charter and after the massacres against the Alawite
populations in western Syria.
Shortly after overthrowing the Assad regime, the al-Sharaa government
had published an edict to guarantee freedom of worship to the country's
religious minorities - including Alawites - but despite this apparently
pacifist declaration, clashes between the Damascus security forces and
the Alawites have led to indiscriminate massacres of civilians. 1,400
civilians were killed, including hundreds executed by the Syrian
security forces, concentrated mainly in the provinces of Latakia and
Tartus, in western Syria.
Exploiting the weaknesses of the current regime in Damascus, contacts
were made with the Druze community, the Alawite community and various
Arab communities throughout Syria. It was decided to establish academies
outside of northern and eastern Syria to spread the principles of
Democratic Confederalism and to build a new Democratic, Confederal Syria
that respects all the ethnic groups present. At the request of women in
various areas of the country, it was decided to establish YPJ (Women's
Protection Units) bodies to defend women, especially after the Islamist
and authoritarian setting of the new HTS-led Syria.
While Öcalan's appeal for peace on February 27 is welcomed, it is
emphasized that until there are valid guarantees for the respect of the
achievements of Democratic Confederalism in Syria, the weapons of the
popular militias will not be laid down, and that the YPJ will not disarm
under any circumstances.
Among the interventions that followed the guests' reports, it is worth
mentioning that of Palermo Solidale con il popolo Kurdo and that of the
Federazione Anarchica Italiana, which emphasized the real danger of a
global war, the Italian and European rearmament, the strategic objective
of converting the Italian war industry (starting with Leonardo spa) into
an industry of peace, an industry committed to supplying with
instruments of death and devastation the armies engaged in many war
fronts and in particular the Turkish, Israeli, Ukrainian and Sahel armies.
Renato Franzitta
https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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