The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) is disbanding, ending four decades of armed struggle against the Turkish state.
In February its leader Abdullah Ocalan, imprisoned by Turkey for over 25 years, called for the PKK to lay down its arms, claiming a new era of peace and democracy is possible between the Kurds and the Turkish state.
A statement from the PKK said, “When founded, the PKK was necessary to resist Kurdish repression.” But it added that since 2014 President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s regime “has taken democratic steps towards the recognition of Kurds, and so armed struggle no longer holds any meaning”.
Its supporters will instead focus on winning Kurdish rights through the country’s existing political structures.
But the history of the Kurdish struggle for national liberation shows why Erdogan and the Turkish state cannot be trusted to deliver democracy and Kurdish rights.
For over 100 years the Kurds have faced systematic oppression at the hands of Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq, and have cut compromising deals with imperialist powers like the US who have later abandoned the Kurds.
Speaking Kurdish in Turkey was illegal until 1991. Reforms have allowed Kurdish to be taught in schools on the request of parents and a Kurdish language news channel was set up in 2008 although many condemned it as a source of government propaganda.
This year, dozens were arrested for singing Kurdish songs at a wedding. Government officials claimed the songs were a sign of support for the PKK, which remains a listed terrorist organisation, and that speaking Kurdish threatens “national unity”.
The PKK was formed in 1975, demanding an independent Kurdish state. When the Turkish military took power in 1980 it launched a vicious war on Kurdish areas. From the 1990s through to the 2000s, 40,000 people died in the fighting and the Turkish military destroyed 4000 Kurdish villages.
The PKK stood up to the Turkish army with great bravery. But the focus on armed struggle was always a mistake as it required backing from other states and imperialist powers instead of trying to win support from within Turkey’s working class, who have also faced repression.
Ocalan and the PKK hope to negotiate with Erdogan using support from the pro-Kurdish DEM (People’s Equality and Democracy Party). The party has 56 seats in parliament and Erdogan wants its support to call an early election so he is legally entitled to stand again.
But his increasingly authoritarian government has recently arrested over 200 Kurds, many of them DEM members, and removed six Kurdish mayors from office.
Erdogan is also cracking down on other political opponents, arresting Istanbul mayor and rival Republican People’s Party (CHP) presidential candidate Ekrem Imamoglu in March. This triggered massive demonstrations, posing a serious challenge to Erdogan.
The Kurdish movement needs to make common cause with the class anger at Erdogan over his neoliberalism and authoritarianism and not rely on cutting deals with Erdogan and parliamentary manoeuvres.
Kurdish national liberation
The Kurdish struggle for national liberation has an impact across the Middle East with at least 30 million Kurds across Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. There are more than 17 million Kurds in Turkey, about one fifth of the population.
The struggle for national liberation has fragmented across state borders, with different Kurdish groups adopting separate demands and cutting disastrous deals with US imperialism.
Kurds in northern Iraq set up a semi-autonomous government after the 1991 Gulf War with US support. In 2014, Kurdish forces seized control of disputed areas and announced plans to secede. But the Iraqi state, backed by the US, pushed them out, snuffing out hopes for real independence. A vote backing independence in 2017 was ignored. Doing deals with US imperialism has not led to liberation.
During the civil war in Syria after 2011, the Kurdish Peoples Defence Units (YPG) established control in the region of Rojava in northeastern Syria following the retreat of former dictator Bashar Al-Assad’s regime.
Under the new regime of Ahmed al-Sharaa, Kurdish military forces have agreed to integrate into the Syrian army. Al-Sharaa wants to establish control of the whole country and to strike a deal with the Kurds over eastern oil fields. But his commitment to respecting the rights of ethnic minorities is far from clear.
Ocalan’s calls for disarmament show how the PKK’s radical demands for a Kurdish state have been scaled down to demanding limited Kurdish rights within Turkey. But it will be a challenge to win even these demands.
The Kurdish movement needs to look to the power of the working class within Turkey and across the region to secure the right to real national self-determination.
By Luke Ottavi
