Karayilan: The Arab and Kurdish peoples must unite

 Yeni Ozgur Politekayê newspaper published the second part of an interview with Murat Karayilan, a member of the leadership committee of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

 Here is the text of the conversation:

 * How did you enter into a dialogue with the international powers at the time...?

 In the early days of the intervention, a delegation from the United States arrived in Şengal on board several helicopters, and landed at the place where the comrades are.  Indirectly...?” Comrade  Agid said to them: "What is indirect...? We are the PKK directly, we are the People's Defense Forces (HPG)."

  That delegation wandered there 2-3 hours under the protection of the comrades and then boarded its helicopters and came back, what we understood, that the delegation is telling its officials, that there is a force fighting ISIS and defending the mountain, but according to them, it is the Kurdistan Workers’ Party directly, it is clear that America has made a decision "we can't have relations with them", because they never came again.

 * During this period you established relations with the forces of Southern Kurdistan...?

 After our forces liberated  Şengal, and sent the people to Rojava, we asked Mr. Masoud Barzani and Mr. Masrour Barzani through an envoy, "Do you really have forces in  Şengal...?"  They said: "Yes, we do. We are now transferring the people of the area to Rojava, and again they sent their envoy and asked us to help their forces join our forces and return to  Şengal. We said yes it is possible. Of course, our goal was not to go to  Şengal alone and fight against ISIS."  In fact, when we decided to intervene, we wanted to establish direct relations with the Kurdistan Democratic Party, we had a contact, but then they said that they are doing another mission and if they leave this mission, he will understand this thing wrongly.

If that relationship was achieved then, we would have said, “Let our forces fight together against that attack, but that relationship was not achieved, but after they asked us to do so, we gave our consent, and they sent their forces, then the Kurdistan Democratic Party entered its forces in the beginning to Rojava.”  In Jaza'a for a day or two, those forces were under the command of Ashti, who sometimes made negative statements against our forces, I think it was a force that relied heavily on gathering information and intelligence, and eventually we brought that force to the Shingal Mountains.

 * When the Peshmerga returned to  Şengal, what was the situation of the people there...?

 They wanted to attack them directly, but Comrade  Agid, prevented them from doing so, as the Kurdistan Democratic Party forces were stationed in areas under the protection of our forces, but officials said at the time that the PKK is inciting the people against our forces, and even if they did not say this officially, we heard that they spread some propaganda in this regard among each other, of course the Kurdistan Democratic Party still does not understand the people’s position correctly, it believes that we are paving some ways for the people  There is no basis for the claims that we are raising the people in these conditions of war. The people of  Şengal were left alone in the face of the massacre. Our comrades tried hard to protect them.

 * In that period, ISIS mercenaries advanced rapidly in southern Kurdistan, what do you say about the events outside  Şengal...?

 Days after the attack on  Şengal, ISIS mercenaries attacked Makhmour and headed from the other side to Hewler and also to Kirkuk. At this time, there were no checkpoints for the forces of Southern Kurdistan. I mean, after the attack on Shingal, there was a security vacuum. We sent the comrades to Makhmour.  , and some to Kirkuk.

 In that period, many people from Sheikhan and Dohuk came to the villages of Gara and Matina and were temporarily stationed. The people were calling us to protect Dohuk and to intervene more in southern Kurdistan.

 We believed that ISIS mercenaries could attack Lalish to completely eliminate the Yazidi people, so we sent some fighters to Lalish with cooperation of comrade Zaki  Şengali, and they stationed around the holy Lalash, and we also sent a force to Dohuk to protect it, this force was stationed on the summit overlooking the city, At that time, if the force entered the city, it would cause concern for the people, but if ISIS mercenaries went to Sheikhan and from there to Dohuk, then they would descend directly to the front lines of the resistance. Of course, our force went to Makhmour and another force to Kirkuk.

* How many brigades have you sent there to protect the people...?

 In order to protect southern Kurdistan, we sent four brigades, and for Shingal, we sent two brigades at the beginning, after which we increased them as needed. With this, we formed barriers to the advance of ISIS from Kirkuk to Shingal, and thus raised the morale of our people in southern Kurdistan and the Peshmerga as well.  An important role in maintaining the survival of the Peshmerga forces combined, here it must be said: "Our comrades had gone to Makhmour camp, and were stationed in the trenches on the hills behind the camp, and the Peshmerga were within the city, but they retreated two or three times before the attack of ISIS mercenaries, and after they saw that we did not retreat, they came back again, no one can deny that, if they passed Makhmour camp, they would have headed to  Hewlêr, of course they would have approached  it from two sides, and in order to control the camp, they attacked Qara  Çox and wanted to control that summit  And there clashes took place, and media comrade Deniz Furat was martyred there at the time by ISIS mercenaries, because they infiltrated Qara  Çox, but we did not abandon it.  , this is what h  It happened in August, and ISIS attacks in these areas were stopped.

 * What was the response to your resistance...?

 Our resistance gave courage to the international forces, everyone was confused by the attacks of ISIS, and they were confused. but the protection of  Şengal, in addition to all the attacks through which they could not control the mountains of  Şengal and Makhmour, and the reactivation of the Peshmerga forces to defend Kirkuk with a fierce war, led to the march  on the path of resisting ISIS and preventing it from advancing, in this regard, our guerrilla forces played a catalytic role in the resistance of our people in southern Kurdistan and the resistance of the Peshmerga. Our forces did not withdraw in the face of ISIS attacks in Kirkuk, Makhmour,  Şengal, and the People’s Protection Units from Jaza’a, which had this effect.

 The People's Defense Forces (HPG) did not withdraw in front of ISIS anywhere. They resisted with all their capabilities. Our comrades were resisting a hundred ISIS mercenaries, even if it was for ten people.

 ISIS moved for revenge, because it saw that a line had been established in Southern Kurdistan, as well as an alliance led by the American states.  In their hands, they plotted and attacked Kobane.

 *Before we move on to the siege of Kobani and the stage of the war there, would you like to talk about the formation of the Rojava revolution, the formation of the People’s Protection Units and the relationship between your movement and the forces in Rojava, then we move on to the issue of the siege imposed on the city of Kobani, because the Turkish state claims  that there is a link between your movement and the revolutionary forces in Rojava and uses that against the revolutionary forces...?

 The Turkish state initially established contacts with the YPG and the PYD, and everyone knows that the PYD’s co-chair, Salih Muslim, visited Ankara several times in public, but he was also connected to the YPG, for example, a representative was transferred  the People's Protection Units, who was responsible for contacting Ankara by the Turkish state, underwent surgery, and we know that the operation was also successful. Of course, the Turkish state did not build this relationship in order to build stability in the region, but rather because it aims to keep the Kurds away from  Kurdish people, and to join the force called the Free Syrian Army, to fight against the Syrian regime.

 On the other hand, it directed the army, and launched an attack on the People’s Protection Units in 2013, where the attack lasted from 5 to 6 months, but it did not achieve any results, for this reason the Justice and Development Party government wanted to encircle the People’s Protection Units and the Democratic Union Party with special war methods  He placed them under the umbrella of the Free Syrian Army, for example. We know that he immediately told Salih Muslim: "We will give you support if you contribute to the withdrawal of Syrian forces from the city of Qamishlo."

 Turkey's main strategy was to prevent the Kurds in Syria from obtaining their right to identity, and for the people of Rojava not to take a place in the new Syria, Turkey made great efforts in this process to prevent the Kurds from taking advantage of the opportunity and joining the new Syria process, since then it has become  The state is one and from 2015 onwards this became an essential part of this strategy, but it is clear that it was striving for it, so it is well aware that its claims that the YPG and the PYD are part of the PKK are untrue.

 We do not deny that the leader Ocalan stayed in Syria, in Rojava, for about 20 years. One of the main features of the leader is that he communicates with the people wherever he goes, because he was upset if he could not talk to his surroundings, and therefore loses his patience, this is the reason why  the influence he left in Rojava is very large, so when the People's Protection Units (YPG) and the Democratic Union Party (PYD) were founded, it was certainly influenced by the approach of the leader Ocalan, but some comrades like Khabat Derik, who were in  the initial formation of the People's Protection Units, they suggested this in 2011, when they saw the events taking place in Syria, as some of our comrades informed us that there are events that could take place in Syria, and we must protect our people and our regions, and they wanted to organize their people there, and our movement responded to  their proposal to agree, and here a group of comrades headed to Rojava, and there they met with many patriots, as well as some people who had previously abandoned our movement but were remorseful, and organized and formed the People’s Protection Units.

* How did the People's Protection Units obtain weapons...?

 We know very well that when the People's Protection Units (YPG) was formed, it came to southern Kurdistan and got support, because the delegations themselves came to us and asked for support from us, and we, in turn, pledged to them that we would support them, and we gave them support according to our capabilities, but at that time the KDP did not specify  It took a clear position, and after that it did not provide any support to them, it may have provided support by keeping the border crossing open for a short period, and at that time the newly formed People's Protection Units demanded a thousand pieces of weapons, as they asked us to do, and then we provided them with weapons according to our capabilities, i.e.  Our relationship with the People's Protection Units was in this way, and now our relationship with them is in the same way, as we have relations with different organizations.

 When the Turkish state realized its inability to use the Democratic Union Party and the People's Protection Units for its own purposes, it resorted to its opponents, when it made its decision in this regard, i.e. after 2014, it mentioned the name of our movement next to the name of the People's Protection Units and the Democratic Union Party, and claimed that they are part  From our movement, previously the position of the Turkish state was not in this way, but now it wants to portray the People’s Protection Units and the Democratic Union Party as a continuation of the PKK, and this is far from the truth.

 But they are ideologically similar

 Leader Abdullah Ocalan has a contemporary philosophical and ideological line, this line does not belong to the PKK, but to the whole people of Kurdistan, to the whole Middle East and to humanity, leader Ocalan is the leader of the PKK, a leader that cannot be discussed, but the model of leader Ocalan is still broad  , According to the model of the leader Ocalan, parties can be formed in the four parts of Kurdistan, they can be formed in Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Europe as well, as far as I know, there are groups like this, we know that there are similar groups in Argentina, I do not know their fate now, but there were groups  Similar in Pakistan.

 Also in Iraq, a party composed entirely of the Arab people was formed, but because of job opportunities now not as a party but as a group, they are people from Basra and Baghdad, but they depend on the Abuji approach, the formation of the People’s Protection Units or the Democratic Union Party comes in this context as well, right  They are close to us ideologically, but they may have different sides, but in terms of an organic relationship there is no organizational unit, there may be support, our support is not only with them, but with many different organizations in Rojava, and with many left-wing democratic organizations in Turkey  , and with many Kurdish parties in southern Kurdistan, this does not mean that they belong to the PKK, and since they do not all belong to the PKK, the PYD is not counted on the PKK, but the Turkish state is using it to eliminate the gains of our people  In Rojava, to destroy gains in northeastern Syria, he put the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and the Democratic Union Party (PYD) on the “terror list.”

 * We must understand that you have nothing to do with that...?

 We do not say that we have nothing to do with them, we do everything clearly and we do it publicly, we have relations, but they are not an organic relationship, they are different from us and we are different from them, they have a different administration, and we have a different administration, we will support them also if they are in distress, this is not the same thing,  This is support among the revolutionaries. From our point of view, the revolutionary democrats in Kurdistan, Turkey and the Middle East must unite, the Arab people and the Kurdish people must unite among themselves, and there are also the Assyrian and Syriac people, who are among the people who are most exposed to the obliteration of their rights, all of these must unite  Peoples, there are Turkmen, Chechens and Armenians in the north and east of Syria, and the model of our leader embraces all those peoples.

 A democratic nation means living in a free and equal way among nations under one umbrella, according to this ideological truth. It is wrong to say that all those who gather under this umbrella belong to the Kurdistan Workers Party, and this is an abort of this fact, at the same time it is a belittling of the ideological strength of the leader Ocalan,  And to show the leader Ocalan that he is a leader of the PKK only, and that the PKK is establishing itself by relying on the relationship with these parties, this is wrong, the ways and methods of the relationship are like what we have shown.

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ANHA