29 July 2010, 11:03 am
Abdullah (Apo) Öcalan is the founder and leader of the Partiya Karkaren Kurdistan (PKK) or Kurdistan Workers Party, an organization the U.S. government deems to be terrorist. Born around 1948 in southeastern Turkey, Öcalan was a sometime student in political science at Ankara University in 1966-78, where he began to form his ideas on Kurdish nationalism. Öcalan created the PKK in November 1978, moved to Syria in May 1979, and began the current war against Turkey in August 1984. By the spring of 1998, the PKK's activities had led to more than 3,000 villages partially or totally destroyed, 27,000 deaths, and up to 3 million people displaced. Michael M. Gunter, professor of political science at Tennessee Technological University and author of three books on Kurdish issues, interviewed him in Damascus on March 13-14, 1998. MEQ: What foreign support do you get? Öcalan: Of course, we would like the world to support us. If the United States were objective, it must have a moral code, a sense of honor, and support us. But if we wait for some government to help us, we will be finished. The PKK is self-reliant. It is financed through voluntary donations from Kurds, not through extortion or drug trafficking, as the Turks' propaganda claims. Turkey receives a great deal of foreign help from many different sources to use against the Kurds. Turkey is like the woman married to seven different men, satisfying them all at the same time. MEQ: In the time of Mulla Mustafa Barzani, Israel gave covert support to the Kurds. Now, however, Turkey has close relations with Israel. Your thoughts? Öcalan: The Turks made an agreement with Israel to kill Kurds. This time the Turks are getting the green light from Israel; earlier it was from the United States. MEQ: Your thoughts on the United States? Öcalan: The United States is a great power. It is a very objective country, but it does not have positive knowledge about us. Turks look upon the United States as a child beside their own thousand-year-old history of running their own empire. Before you kill somebody, you should ask him. We don't want too much. I don't think the United States and NATO will accept massacres against the Kurds. Why does the United States become so concerned as soon as a few people are killed in Kosovo, while it ignores that Kurdistan has become an extreme killing ground? The recent visits of [assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor John] Shattuck to Turkey's prisoners including Leyla Zana is a positive development, but just stressing human rights is not enough. The United States helped Çiller without any conditions. The Americans believed that Çiller was one of them because she had a U.S. passport and had been educated in the United States. The Turks killed many Kurds under the cover of Çiller. When Çiller was killing those people, she was sitting on America's shoulders. Now the Turks are saying Çiller was responsible for Susurluk, that Çiller is a spy for the Americans. It's a big game. [laughs] This is also very dangerous politics. MEQ: What do you say to the U.S. charge that the PKK is a terrorist organization? Öcalan: The Americans have a blind spot on the PKK; they act as Turkey's mouthpiece. I am the real victim of terrorism. The United States is hanging me without judging me. This is an ignorant, blind policy without rational terms. It is extrajudicial killing. Let them bring me the proof. Once Arafat and Mandela were called terrorists, but look at them now. When I offer to negotiate, I am called weak, and when I show my strength I am called a terrorist. This is enormously illogical. The PKK has made mistakes. This is true. But compared to what Turkey has done to the Kurds over the years, it should be obvious who is the real terrorist. Susurluk has the facts. Everything is said in the Susurluk report. MEQ: What one message would you direct to Americans? Öcalan: [hesitates] The Kurds want the conditions the United States wants for itself—democracy, equality. We don't want anything else. Have respect for life. MEQ: Should the United States or the European Union be diplomatically more aggressive on the Kurdish issue, perhaps as the United States has been in the former Yugoslavia and Cyprus? For example, should they take a more active role to bring about a cease-fire, then push for Government of Turkey-PKK negotiations? Öcalan: Of course, they should—it's the only solution, but only if America doesn't play games. Recent German willingness finally to talk to the PKK is a good model. But Germany does not see itself as having an international role; the United States is the main protagonist. A dialogue between the United States and the Kurds is most important, and it should begin sooner rather than later. It would open the way to a most important change in U.S. policy. This dialogue, by the way, would be a risk not just for the United... Read More »
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