RIHA - Describing Abdullah Öcalan, his childhood and youth friend, Mehmet Reşit Öcalan, said: “He was always reading, he always had a book in his hand. He said that everyone should live under equal conditions."
The international conspiracy against PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan, which is the first step of intervention in the Middle East in partnership with global powers led by the United States of America (USA), has entered its 26th year. Against the concept of destruction and denial, Abdullah Öcalan embodied the revival of the Kurds, which he ignited with a group of friends in Ankara's Çubuk Dam on Newroz in 1973, with the establishment of the PKK, with the thesis "Kurdistan is a colony". After this process, which he described as a "war to protect his existence", Abdullah Öcalan brought a political solution to the agenda starting from 1993. Abdullah Öcalan's efforts for a solution, called the "Period of Ensuring Freedom", which started in 1993 with then-President Turgut Özal and continued with Necmettin Erbakan and Bülent Ecevit, were responded to with a conspiracy.
The first step of the conspiracy was the bomb assassination attack on Abdullah Öcalan's house in Damascus on May 6, 1996. Abdullah Öcalan, who luckily survived the attack, had to leave Syria on October 9, 1998, as a result of the political and diplomatic pressure of the USA on the Damascus government. Abdullah Öcalan, who first went to Greece, was crucified in a "continuation hunt" that lasted 134 days due to intense pressure from the USA. Finally, Abdullah Öcalan, who was kidnapped from the embassy building in Nairobi on February 15, 1999, was brought to Turkey and put in Imralı Type F High Prison, which he described as a "coffin".
BOOKS OCALAN WRITTEN
Abdullah Öcalan left his mark on every period with the numerous books he wrote after the establishment of the PKK. After the coup of September 12, 1980, the "United Front of Resistance Against Fascism" brochure was published, "The Role of Force in Kurdistan", "The Problem of National Liberation and its Solution", "The Problem of Personality in Kurdistan", "Party Life and the Characteristics of the Revolutionary Militant", "On Organization" and "On Gallows and Barracks Culture" were published. He addressed the problems experienced between 1987 and 1990 as "Analysis" and included topics such as "Revolutionary Approach Towards Religion", "Women and Family Problem", "Liquidation of Liquidationism", "September 12 Fascism and PKK Resistance", "Betrayal and Collaboration in Kurdistan", "Selected Writings I-II-II-IV" were published. In the 1990s, when the search for a political solution began, Abdullah Öcalan wrote the books "The Story of Resurrection" and "Resurrection is Completed, Now is the Time for Liberation".In addition to these, “Interviews with Abdullah Öcalan (Doğu Perinçek, Kaynak Publications, October 1990)”, “Apo and PKK (Mehmet Ali Birand, Milliyet Publications, 1992)”, “Interview in the Kurdish Garden (Yalçın Küçük, Başak Publications, 1993)” , “The Kurdish issue with Öcalan and Burkay (Oral Çalışlar, Rüzgar Yayınları, 1993)”, “I'm Looking for an Interlocutor - Ceasefire Speeches - (July 1994)”, “Killing the Man (Mahir Sayın, Zelal Publishing, March 1998)” was also published. During this period, he wrote books such as "Problems of Revolution and Socialism", "Insistence on Socialism is Insistence on Being Human", "Language and Action of Truth", "History is Hidden Today and We Are Hidden in the Beginning of History", "How Should We Live I-II", "Kurd Love". books have been published. The political solution efforts from Abdullah Öcalan and Özal to Ecevit were compiled in the book "1993-95-98 Dialogue-Ceasefire Texts and Press Statements", and the speeches he made in Rome, where he was in the conspiracy process, were compiled in the book "Towards Peace".
The PKK Leader continued his search for a democratic solution on Imralı Island, where he was brought with an international conspiracy and carried out many important works. During the period of the trials, which he described as his Imralı stance, his book "Hope for Peace" was published. His defences, which formulated the democratic solution and peace line at a strategic level in 1999, were compiled into books under the names "Declaration of a Democratic Solution to the Kurdish Issue" and "The Dilemma of Solution and Non-Solution in the Kurdish Issue".
The "Free Person's Defense", which Abdullah Öcalan submitted to the Athens trial in Greece, where the "nail was hammered" of the conspiracy, was also published in 2003. He completed his book "Defending a People" in 2004 and submitted it to the ECHR, and it was published in 2005. Since then, his efforts for peace and democratic solution have been published in five volumes under the title of "Road Map" in 2011 and "Democratic Civilization Manifesto - Problems of Overcoming Capitalist Modernity and Democratic Modernity", which he submitted to the ECHR in the following years. His dialogues with the political delegation that met in İmralı were compiled into a book titled "Democratic Liberation and Building a Free Life" and published in 2016.
Mehmet Reşit Öcalan
Speaking about Abdullah Öcalan, who offered a new life option to the people of the world with the Democratic Modernity paradigm he put forward in his solitary cell on İmralı Island, 82-year-old Mehmet Reşit Öcalan, one of his relatives, said that the life of the PKK Leader was a book, based on a memory he had during his childhood and youth.
'HE WAS DEFENDING EQUAL LIFE'
Stating that he was always with Abdullah Öcalan when he was a child, Reşit Öcalan said: “He did not talk about political issues with us much, but he once said that everyone should live under equal conditions. When I asked how everyone should have the same economic situation, the President objected and argued that everyone's situation should be equal. Once we tried to hit a stone with a gun. When the Leader could not hit the stone, he put down the gun and said, 'This is not my job.' He wouldn't have much use for guns. He was always reading. The book would never fall out of his hands."
KURD INTENDED TO BE DESTROYED THROUGH CONSPIRACY
Reşit Öcalan, who stated that he wanted to meet with Abdullah Öcalan in Imralı Prison after the international conspiracy, which has entered its 26th year, said that he could not meet due to obstacles. Stating that the Kurds were intended to be destroyed through the conspiracy, Reşit Öcalan pointed out that this situation is maintained today with the isolation system. Reşit Öcalan stated that they wanted to make the PKK Leader forgotten by not being heard from, and that they wanted to silence the voice of the Kurds in the person of Abdullah Öcalan.
'WE ARE CONCERNED ABOUT THE PRESIDENT'S SITUATION'
Reşit Öcalan, reacting to the absolute isolation system and lack of news in Imralı, said: “There has been no news from the President for 3 years. He is alive or not? We don't know. He is not allowed to meet with his lawyers and family. We are very concerned about the Leader’s situation. This isolation has no place in any religion or law. It's not humane. They don't even enforce their own laws. There has been no news from the 4 prisoners on Imralı Island for 35 months. The state has no respect for its own laws. Every prisoner has the right to meet with his family and lawyers. However, this right has been suspended on İmralı Island.”
THE KURDS RAISE THEIR VOICES
Reşit Öcalan touched upon the actions of the hunger strike launched by prisoners in prisons on November 27, 2023, within the scope of the campaign launched on October 10, 2023 with the motto "Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan, solution to the Kurdish issue", and said that within this scope, it will start on February 1 and continue until February 15. He called for a march. Reşit Öcalan said: “The whole society needs to support the hunger strike started in prisons. Likewise, families of detainees started a Justice Watch against the isolation. The prisoners' hunger strike will continue until February 15. If the demands of the prisoners are not met by February 15, they will begin a death fast. This is also a big danger. Deaths may occur in prisons. Negotiations need to take place as soon as possible to prevent these deaths. Everyone who says 'I am human' should support the demands of the prisoners to be met. The Kurds should also raise their voices in the areas by supporting the protests to be held on February 15th against this.”
MA / Mahmut Altıntaş