No to secret diplomacy, the denial of the Kurdish problem, the rejection of its solution, the patronage of imperialism, and the imposition of the reactionary and expansionist project of the “Second Republic”!
The solution lies in a Middle East cleansed of imperialism and Zionism; it lies in the Socialist Federation of West Asia and North Africa!
The process concerning the Kurdish question initiated by the fascist Devlet Bahceli and led together with Erdogan has taken a step forward with the call by Ocalan for the PKK to convene a congress to give up arms and dissolve itself. First of all, the process is moving in absolute secrecy, and the results are communicated in the style of Aesop's tales that can be interpreted in entirely different ways. The war is an issue of primary importance for the Turkish and Kurdish toilers, one that costs countless numbers of youth their life and swallows a tremendous amount of resources while millions of workers, toilers, and peasants are suffering from the most acute cost of living crisis. The secrecy around these negotiations must be stopped immediately. Contrary to what the sides have claimed in various instances, “secret diplomacy” is neither necessary nor unavoidable to solve such important issues. During one of the biggest wars in history, the Great War (First World War), the refusal of the Bolsheviks at the helm of the worker's state to engage in secret diplomacy, the publication of the secret deals of Tsarist Russia and the Bolsheviks’ rejection of annexing provinces (including those in Turkey) promised through such deals left a significant revolutionary mark in the annals of history. If it was possible to reject secret diplomacy in a world war, it certainly can be rejected in any war. Such is the attitude, principle, and politics of the working class and the oppressed. Secret diplomacy is the method of the bourgeoisie, colonialists, and imperialists; we reject it!
Neither the Kurdish question has been resolved, nor has the struggle of Kurdish workers and poor peasants become pointless!
The governing coalition defines this process as “a Turkey without terrorism” while Ocalan’s declaration is titled “a call for peace and a democratic society.” But none of these reflect the true essence of the ongoing process. The claim by the governing coalition that the Kurdish question does not exist and has been solved has been further reinforced by the declarations from Imrali (where Ocalan is imprisoned) along the lines of “the dissolution of the denial of Kurdish identity, and the progress regarding freedom of speech”. Ocalan started his declaration by saying that these developments led to an erosion of the reason for being of the PKK, necessitating its liquidation.
While the Kurdish problem cannot be reduced to a denial of an identity or lack of freedom of speech, neither has the denial of the Kurdish national identity been overcome, nor has there been progress in freedom of speech. Trustees appointed by the government in opposition-controlled municipalities, massive juridical and police repression against people who are conducting legal political activities, and the arrest of Kurdish mayors even from the mainstream opposition party CHP (Republican People’s Party) for alleged support of terrorism; all of these and more are concrete expressions of systematic repression of the political will of the Kurdish people. The Kurdish people, inhabitants of a rich geography since time immemorial, continue to suffer from conditions of deep poverty and misery. Whatever the message from Imrali says, the reason behind the political, cultural, and ideological struggle of Kurdish workers, toilers, and poor peasants against injustices and inequalities and for the solution to the Kurdish problem is far from being meaningless. Our reference point is the reactions of thousands of people in Van and Diyarbakir listening to Ocalan’s declaration, the meaningful reflection of their feelings on their faces upon hearing the call for liquidation with nothing being offered in return.
The new version of the reactionary Second Republic project of the colonialist bourgeoisie
The statements or insinuations implying that the Kurdish question has been solved do not correspond to the true purpose of this ongoing process, neither does the purported goal of “a Turkey without terror”. The real goal behind this process is to put in place a new version of the project that has gone down in history as the “Second Republic” by the colonialist bourgeoisie according to its expansionist interests that will establish control over energy basins in Iraq and Syria under the patronage of Western imperialism.
As the 7th Congress resolutions of the Revolutionary Workers Party clearly state, the newly announced agenda of a “New Constitution” is also part of the reactionary expansionary policy of the colonialist bourgeoisie. On the one hand, the cynical nationalist messages regarding the “immutability of the first four articles” of the constitution, and on the other hand, messages to Kurds about the re-definition of citizenship and strengthening local governance to appease them, do not contradict each other at all and they are the opposite sides of the same coin. Political maneuvers are underway to get the major political parties, AKP, MHP, CHP, and DEM Party, in line to pass the new constitution within the existing parliamentary equilibrium. Let us repeat: not one of the problems facing the toiling people and the oppressed, including the Kurdish question, can be solved via the new constitution. Even within the confines of the existing constitution, constitutionally protected rights such as the freedom of expression and thought, unionization, strikes, marches and demonstrations, and electoral rights are being denied by the arbitrary and oppressive despotic regime of the AKP when workers, toilers, and the Kurdish people are fighting for justice, exercising their constitutional rights. Therefore, it is an open manipulation to attribute the solution to any problem to a putative new constitution. It is naive to think that the discussions on a new constitution will result in a real democratization, normalization, or more flexibility from the side of government practices. The governing coalition is forcing upon us its reactionary and expansionist project of the Second Republic. Here, the new constitution is the carrot, while the detentions, arrests, and trustees are the stick!
Reject Turkish-Kurdish alliance against other peoples, forward for the alliance of all peoples of the Middle East against imperialism and Zionism!
The project of the Second Republic, originally launched by the then president Turgut Ozal when he sought to take advantage of the US invasion of Iraq during the Gulf War of 1991 and remembered by his words “we will wager one and sweep away three” (the “one” implying the part of Kurdistan inside Turkey and the “three” those in Iraq and Syria in addition to the former), is now being rehashed in today’s context when West Asia (the Middle East) is being torn apart by Western imperialism led by the US and Israeli Zionism. The concept of “Turkish-Kurdish alliance”, re-stated on various occasions with slight variations, would be antithetical to the struggle for the fraternity and equality of nations if it is used to imply collaboration on this reactionary project. The concept of an alliance begs the question: “Against whom?”! There is nothing progressive about turning the Kurdish and Turkish youth into soldiers under the patronage of imperialists and in the interests of the colonialist bourgeoisie in adventurous interventions against other peoples, and particularly against Arab and Iranian peoples in West Asia.
White House National Security Council spokesperson and deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, Brian Hughes, announced the satisfaction of American imperialism when he said: “It's a significant development” and “We hope that it will help assuage our Turkish allies about the U.S.’s counter-ISIS partners in northeast Syria.” When Ocalan tells PKK to “unite with the Turkish state,” he points towards the biggest NATO power in the region. This development is hailed by the spokesman of American imperialism connecting it to the goal of the unification of PYD with the US. We are in favor of a Turkish-Kurdish alliance in West Asia. But we advocate that this alliance must also encompass all peoples of the region regardless of race, religion, or creed, first and foremost Arab and Iranian people, and should work against US imperialism, the scourge of the region, and against all European imperialists, including Britain, France, and Germany, and finally their outpost in the region, terrorist and genocidaire Zionist Israel.
Slandering socialism in any manner or shape only serves to whitewash imperialist capitalism and colonialism
We cannot ignore the part of Ocalan's statement where, notwithstanding his claim to “take responsibility,” he lays the responsibility at the foot of socialism with an ahistorical approach by pointing out “the collapse of real socialism.” This attitude is an extension of Ocalan's struggle against Marxism for a quarter of a century with post-modernist, left-liberal, liberal-anarchist arguments that contain no originality. The collapse of so-called “real socialism”, which we correctly term as “bureaucratically degenerated workers' states”, did not lead to the rejection of Marxism. If anything, it has proved it right by showing that the revolutionary struggle can only ensure its victory if it is waged on the world scale. We have repeatedly proved this reality with scientific arguments, and we are always ready to engage in this discussion. Without going deep into a theoretical discussion, we will say in the simplest and clearest terms: in 35 years without the so-called “real socialist” states, what the non-sense of the “new world order”, “the end of history”, “globalization” brought us to is world capitalism wallowing in a great depression and imperialist barbarism pushing the world to the brink of a Third World War. In the face of this reality, it is imperialist capitalism that deserves to sit in the dock! We will never accept turning our backs on this obvious fact and blaming socialism in whichever way.
The call that transcends centuries: Workers of all countries and oppressed peoples unite!
Once you go into the slippery slope of blaming socialism and opening the doors to the reactionary bourgeois ideology asserting that the capitalist society of exploitation is eternal, you can conclude that the relations of national oppression are likewise eternal. Ocalan’s statement that “Nation-state, federation, administrative autonomy and culturalist solutions cannot answer the historical sociology of society” is revealing in that he does not mention what the answer should be and is consistent with his approach that implies that the Kurdish question has been solved. In an environment where the problem is denied and the solution is rejected, politics abhors a vacuum. The vacuum left will be filled by the neo-Ottomanist, sectarian so-called solutions of the colonial bourgeoisie under the auspices of US imperialism. These so-called solutions are in line with the strategic policies of genocidal Israel. These policies, which are two sides of the same coin, beget genocide in Gaza, on one side, at the hands of the Israeli terrorist army and ethnic and sectarian cleansing and massacre in Syria and elsewhere where takfiri sectarian rule has been established, on the other.
As revolutionary Marxists, we stick to the method of scientific socialism and follow Lenin's principle of the right of nations to self-determination. We evaluate the current process from this perspective. Instead of the so-called solution only partially leaked through from secret diplomatic talks, we see the real solution in cleansing West Asia of imperialist bases and troops and of the pirate state of Israel, in the Socialist Federation of West Asia and North Africa, where all peoples can live equally and freely in the lands they live on, free from colonial yoke. Contrary to all the sermons of the post-modernist hegemony, the great cause of humanity will never end. That cause is the fight for a world where servitude ends, class exploitation is no more, and full equality of nations and languages reigns supreme. The slogan of the Communist International, which marked the 20th century, also shows the way to liberation in the 21st century: Workers of all countries and oppressed peoples unite!
Central Committee of the Revolutionary Workers Party (DIP)
March 3rd, 2025