TOTAL INDEPENDENCE

The oligarchy work in a professional manner. This was proven in a most concrete manner by two important developments which occurred recently.
The MGK (National Security Council) is talking “for the first time” – just like TUSIAD [Turkey’s Association of Employers and Entrepreneurs] – about the need for economic and social measures in relation to the Kurdish question, separate from military measures. In the days immediately following that, a report by the MGK was published, saying that “for the first time” there is no longer a threat to the Kurds. All the attention was being directed towards “fundamentalism”, and the “left-democratic” sections of the population were mobilising themselves in this direction.
Yet in these very same days, tens of thousands of soldiers were being sent towards the border with northern Iraq in conditions of great secrecy. Munitions, security for the operation and the materiel necessary for it were being prepared and deployed during this time.
These political and military operations, which actually are fundamentally different and apparently are contradictory approaches to the situation, were carried out at the same time and set in motion by the very same personnel. From the oligarchy’s point of view, these operations have now been completed. The plan was a detailed one. On the very day before the attack on northern Iraq, there were countless arrests and detentions and the ‘Demokrasi’ newspaper was closed down.
The great theoreticians of the left who heard the MGK say that “now is the time for political and economic methods”, were very quick to declare that “a new policy” was in the offing, but at exactly the same time they had to come to terms with the biggest ever cross-border operation by the Turkish military. Their declarations about a new policy were left hanging in the air.
And again, in the very same days, the leaders of HADEP [People’s Democracy Party, a legal pro-Kurdish party] who were in jail as a result of the “flag trial” [following an incident when a Turkish flag was allegedly burned at the HADEP congress] were set free.
This caused obvious confusion in the heads of many.
The great theoreticians on the left claimed the authorities were softening their position, after the release of the HADEP leaders became public. And immediately thereafter, note that HADEP was punished. Further confusion ensued in peoples’ heads.
Where do these political and ideological meanderings come from and how do they arise? Or how do the personal interests and perspectives of various bourgeois and petty bourgeois get inside progressive and patriotic structures and become the dominant politics there?
The essential point is that in the sense of organisation and ideology, one should be completely independent, and in politics one should defend total independence.
The way to counter tendencies towards wavering and confusion every time the oligarchy tries to manoeuvre is precisely by adopting such a line.
Truly professional work, then, is solely possible when it is based on such a clear line. As we have said, the oligarchy are themselves professional in how they act.
For, under the cover of various manoeuvres, the oligarchy and imperialism have a clear aim in this regard. In every respect this involves working to halt and destroy the Kurdish national movement’s struggle for independence. To do everything to further the annexation of Kurdistan. To do everything to exploit the Kurdish people further. This is the only goal of the oligarchy when they talk of peace, when they talk of war, when they talk of military solutions and when they talk of peaceful solutions.
Those sections of the oligarchy with rather more self-confidence, the civil-military portions of it, can see that the various Kurdish national circles are watching them and are framing new policies and tactics every time the oligarchy make a move.
And just at the point when the oligarchy appear to be growing “soft”, they suddenly launch an attack from another direction. They cause confusion in peoples’ heads and endeavour to pacify responses to their attacks.
At the same time as the invasion of northern Iraq was taking place, the monopoly bourgeoisie organised a “poverty summit” in Diyarbakir with precisely this aim of pacification in mind. The fact that the invasion and the summit happened on the same day shows the multi-layered nature of the oligarchy’s policies.
In a way, the monopoly bourgeoisie said the following during the poverty summit: “They are doing their work there, let us deal with our work here.”
The revolutionaries and patriots will deal with their own work. This consists of organising the Kurdish people in the struggle against the oligarchy’s terror and to warn the people and make them vigilant against the demagogy of the oligarchy and their games with democracy.
The task can only be fulfilled by refusing to make any compromises or to seek permission. Defending complete independence gives the people hope. It means having trust in one’s own ideology. It means having the iron will to continue the war. If this does not happen, if it is not defended, it is inevitable to want to come to an agreement with the system and to look for solutions acceptable to the system at precisely the point when the greatest sacrifices for independence are being demanded.
In relation to the Kurdish question, the reason for the constant confusion in peoples’ heads and the frequent upheaval in intellectual and Kurdish national circles is precisely this. And because of this, HADEP is in the situation it is in today. Even Kurdish national circles are now criticising HADEP and the party’s current circumstances. But the problem is not a matter of this or that party leader in HADEP. The problem in every area in which the struggle is waged is that there is no clarity of political line. HADEP no longer has the line of leading the struggle for national independence through legal means, but instead it has become a symbol for seeking a solution within the system. Recently Sedat Yurttas said, according to a report, that “complete independence is unfashionable”. This logic naturally makes it impossible to wage a militant struggle under legal conditions. This logic naturally gives rise to thoughts such as these: “Oh, the authorities are loosening up a little, let’s not spoil it.” Of course, this mentality makes it impossible to respond in an appropriate manner to the war of annihilation currently being waged in northern Iraq.

For the Kurdish people, for all the peoples who live on this soil, we want total independence for our homeland. We must be clear on this point. If we are, then there will be no confusion in our heads. For in our view, every policy, every strategy, legal or illegal, all organisations, whatever their form, are aimed at serving our people and serving the complete independence of our country.