Mechthild Exo: plot to protect destructive status quo in region

Exo noted that the most urgent step needed to be taken today is to initiate a new peace, as people, community and all organized women and are all ready for peace as leader Ocalan has always been keen on that.

This among others were discussed with Dr. Mechthild Exo in the following interview conducted by ANHA.

Dr. Exo a very warm welcome to you at ANHA.

First of all, what would you like to say about the anniversary of the international conspiracy against all Middle Eastern peoples in the person of Leader Abdullah Öcalan:

I wished it never had happened. Until today the powerful states who cooperated in the abduction and imprisonment of Abdullah Öcalan try to present it in the image of a terrorist case and therefore a measure of law enforcement. But his capture was a completely illegal measure. The motivation behind it is the prevention of a liberation struggle and, moreover, of very much needed social transformations on a wholistic level. The isolation and criminalization of the leader of the strong and influential Kurdish Liberation Movement functions to protect a destructive, violent, inhuman, injust, misogynist status quo. I don’t talk only of the Turkish state. Sure, Erdogan is the worst warmonger and perpetrator of feminicide in the region. But I talk about the whole region and furthermore about the global order of capitalist patriarchy. At so many places globally and in the Middle East the people rise up from the grassroots for a radical democratization, for self-determination and for women’s liberation. The political concepts and the strengths of the Kurdish Movement are an inspiration and encouragement for so many freedom-loving people. As an attempt to break these ongoing processes towards social transformations they attack the leader and political thinker of the Kurdish Liberation Movement with the complete isolation at the prison-island Imrali. By now, we even have court decisions that declare that PKK is not a terrorist organization, but a party in an armed conflict. As such was Abdullah Öcalan the representative in the peace talks with the Turkish government until 2015. And this is what is urgently needed: A start of serious peace talks which include the representatives of the people, particularly of the organized women. And these talks must accept Öcalan as a core figure to negotiate transformations towards democratization. And to do this he must be in contact and in a process of communication with all the social and political organizations. All this clearly means that he cannot furthermore be kept in isolation-imprisonment, not be treated as a criminal or terrorist, but as an important political representative plus political philosopher of liberation. He must be released.

What is the effect of the conspiracy on women?

As I have mentioned before, it is the current capitalist-patriarchal system that is protected from fundamental changes with this attack to break the power of the Kurdish Movement and the much-needed transformations towards a real democratic model. From feminist peace research we know that inequality of gender relations in a society correlates with violence inside of a society and to the outside, e.g. against other countries. Particularly in Turkey we observe how inequality is reinforced, women rights are increasingly removed, women rights activists are detained in high numbers, the space for women’s public life and organizing is rapidly shrunk, feminicides are exempted from punishment, Turkey even intends to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention to overcome violence against women and girls. This war against women goes along with the overall war policies and the violation of international law when attacking and occupying Northern Syria and bombing in Northern Iraq. Abdullah Öcalan has always promoted the autonomous women’s organizing. He made clear that the dominant masculinity has to disappear and that the women’s liberation must be the fundament for all processes of liberation. So, it was also a goal of his kidnapping and delivery to Turkish authority to reverse his influence on the organizational processes of the Kurdish Movement and to diminish Öcalans political philosophy particularly in this regard.

 You have mentioned Jineology in your article in the book Building a Free Life Dialogues. How do you evaluate the connection between Jineology and Leader Abdullah Öcalan?

It was him who suggested to develop this new science with the name Jineolojî as the fundament of a sociology of freedom. Grounded in the four decades of experiences with liberation struggle and of women’s organizing, with all its accompanying reflections and theorizations, it was important to consider this important step to pursue from the existing theoretical work and ideology of women’s liberation to a new, wholistic science. He suggested to build academies as educational institutions of a very different form. There, research and education with new methods are facilitated to answer questions of how to build a women’s revolution and a democratic civilization. This is suggested not only for the Kurdish regions, but as a global confederalism of academies for democratic modernity. 

Öcalans is very clear in his writings that the existing dominant system of sciences, with all its various disciplines and methodologies, was essential for leading us into the current, destructive world situation, the crisis of everything. This academic system is based on a wrong paradigm. We cannot expect any good solutions to arise from it. Entwined with all the other fields that require revolutionary transformations, the system of sciences must be revolutionized. Jineolojî  is based on relations instead of separations. It is not an elite system of superior experts, but interconnect with the political-ethical society which takes responsibility for itself. It doesn’t work to control and exploit nature, but to live interconnected with nature and the whole cosmos.

You used the sentence "What is urgently needed to establish peace in the Middle East is not only political thoughts, ideas and concrete suggestions, but also Öcalan himself as a person". He said every time he was ready to solve the problems in Leader Abdullah Öcalan. But in recent processes, especially in North East Syria, occupation, destruction, genocide and demographic change have been made. How do you evaluate the approaches of the Turkish state and international states despite Leader Abdullah Öcalan's calls?

Abdullah Öcalan has presented a roadmap to peace which is published in many languages as a book. It is a valuable expression of an unusual concept of thinking peace negotiations. This is due to a non-statist way of thinking. Usually peace talks are state-centric and consider - without debate – state order with a bordered territory and a monopoly of force the prerequisite for security. In the contrary, Öcalan sees the democratic solution of social problems in the center of peace talks. He emphasizes that state and democracy are not one and the same, but two areas with which we have to deal each by itself. The state is (still) a condition in which the solution has to be found, but the solution must be addressed towards the society. Actually, the solutions must derive from the society and its grassroots social organizations, he explains. The women’s organizations are particularly essential for finding a good democratic solution for peace. In the last years we are aware how the people especially in self-administrated Northern and Eastern Syria continue to work towards a democratic peace solution in this sense. Despite all military attacks, other aggressions and continued threats by the Turkish state the society continues to strengthen and extend the social organizing, continues to build up communal democratic self-determination, opens new Jineolojî centers, cooperatives or ecological projects. Similar in Turkey itself: The women continue to have meetings and demonstrations even though so many of them are violently attacked or sent to jail.  This expresses a thinking in a democratic-solution-paradigm instead of a power-centered paradigm as enforced by states and a state-centric thinking. Even though peace talks are currently not in sight, there is only this democratic way towards a peace with dignity. Erdogan with his crimes against humanity increasingly exposes himself as misogynist and democracy-hating criminal. The women’s rights activists and social movements everywhere, the civil societies and all upright democratic organizations have to create pressure on all other states to give space for a democratic solution in the Middle East. From my perspective, the societies there are well prepared for their participation is peace talks. And in any way and not to forget, Abdullah Öcalan himself is prepared and awaiting it.

L.A.

ANHA