The echoes of Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan's "Call for Peace and Democratic Society" made on 27 February continue. Following the call, the PKK convened its 12th Congress and decided to end its activities. This decision was on the agenda of the world and started to be discussed in many circles.

 

Anthropologist Felix Padel, who studied at Oxford and Delhi Universities and is well known for his work on the lives and environmental struggles of indigenous peoples in India, especially Adivasi communities, has been involved in campaigns for the Kurdish Movement for many years.

 

Padel made evaluations to Mezopotamya Agency (MA) on Abdullah Öcalan's call and paradigm.

 

'THE CALL IS AN INCREDIBLE BREAKTHROUGH'

 

Saying that Abdullah Öcalan's call was an "incredible" breakthrough, Padel emphasised that the call must be reciprocated in Turkey. "Erdogan has, in a way, gained quite a lot of credibility worldwide by his stance on the Palestine issue. And, of course, some of us may see that as quite hypocritical when he's practicing also what can be seen as a genocide on the Kurdish people. He will gain a lot more credibility if he really makes a proper response now on the Kurdish issue, really responding to the gesture of the PKK."

 

'THE RELEASE OF ÖCALAN...'

 

Stating that Abdullah Öcalan has made very clear and effective statements on democratic structures, Padel said that these structures should be strengthened in all countries including the UK and India. Stating that Abdullah Öcalan's freedom is not only a matter of an individual demand for rights, Padel said that in many parts of the world people are imprisoned on controversial charges. Padel reminded that in India as well as in Turkey, many names leading the struggle of the indigenous people Adivasis are imprisoned on "false charges" and expressed the need for a more collective consciousness. "So if that gesture could be made of freeing Ocalan, it would free up so much more than one man's freedom," Padel said.

 

DECISION OF PKK

 

Commenting on the PKK's congress decisions, Padel said: "Like other people, I've been calling for years for the PKK to be taken off the terrorist. Of all the armed struggles in the world, this is one of the very few one where I do support the use they often made of armed struggle, knowing also the how many times they have called for peace or made gestures towards peace. So I think it's a very courageous act. And again, it needs a response from the Turkish state. It's not just in Turkey, but also in in northern Iraq and Kurdistan. This militarisation needs to stop. It may seem counterintuitive, this call for the PKK to disarm and to cease to be. But I think it needs to be seen as a gesture of strength and a gesture that's incredibly positive in the present circumstances. And I say that as somebody who has supported the PKK, because they've been fighting for fundamental rights against impunity of the military and and so on for years. And they've made many peace gestures."

 

Recalling the peace agreement signed in Colombia in 2016 between the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and the state after more than 50 years of armed conflict, Padel said: "The disarmament and it has been very, very problematic. Hundreds of FARC members have been assassinated since so it will need tremendous consciousness of these dangers that when you get rid of the weapons, then if the police and military is behaving with impunity, then the likelihood is they will go on behaving with impunity. So it needs tremendous care." 

 

Noting that international law and human rights were trampled on with the attacks on Gaza, and re-election of Trump, Padel said: "Human rights needs to be put at the centre of anything that is called development."

 

'DEMOCRATIC CONFEDERALISM MODEL'

 

Stating that Abdullah Öcalan's idea of Democratic Confederalism is a very important key for the protection of human rights and the development of democracy, Padel said: "We have a model of democracy that is actually even in Britain, certainly in India, which is called the world's largest democracy. It's not very democratic, because so many decisions are behind closed doors, because lobbying groups, which is often the arms companies, the Zionist lobby or other things, they exert such influence over the politicians."

 

Padel added: "When one government falls and the opposition comes to power, there's no continuity of policies. It's not very democratic. The model of democratic confederalism, which to some extent has been put in place in Rojava, it's something the world absolutely needs to learn from, if humanity is to progress to the next stage of beginning of a democratic civilisation." 

 

ECOLOGY

 

Commenting on social ecology, which has an important place in Abdullah Öcalan's paradigm, Padel said: "The world's resources are not being managed sustainably, to put it mildly. People are looking at oil and much, much more than that. It needs how you manage water, how you manage land, how you manage forests, and how you manage the minerals? And are they for the people's benefit? Because most of the money is in war, are they just to all the countries that are called developed countries, if you look at them, they all have the arms industry absolutely at the heart of their economy, including Britain. And this has to change. This is going to be very difficult to change. But those vested interests in war and conflict have to change. Because the Earth's ecosystems are just being destroyed. I can name straight off a hundred ecosystems in India that are under dire threat. And to be frank, they're not being threatened by carbon emissions. They're being threatened by extractive processes of mining of water with dams and water mining, and unsustainable use of land. Short term interests, ecosystems are just being absolutely devastated. So it is the best how Öcalan has learned from Murray Bookchin, and other people and really integrated that into what started out as a traditional Marxist Leninist viewpoint. It's again, something much of huge relevance to the whole world."

 

JINEOLOGY

 

Padel stated that women's freedom has a very important place in Öcalan's paradigm and drew attention to the point that Jineology has reached. Padel stated that Öcalan's understanding that women are the primary oppressed class in the world had a great impact on her and that the women she spoke to agreed with her: "I've never heard better speakers often than Kurdish women. I feel that is because the struggle in Turkey has been both against internal patriarchy of Kurdish or Turkish society, as well as against the external enemy. It's such a fundamental idea, this. Any freedom struggle need to be against patriarchal sexist ideas, as well as against external enemies. And if that is not being worked on within a movement, it will not be democratic. So, to me Jineology is one of the most important ideas."

 

'EVERYONE SHOULD TAKE RESPONSIBILITY'

 

Criticising the attitude of the mainstream media and academia towards the Kurdish Freedom Struggle, Padel said that the reason for the silence is career and status concerns. Emphasising the need for people to stand together and raise their voices, Padel said: "We see a kind of unity over the world, from the peoples of the world, which actually includes Erdogan in Turkey. If people can wake up like this, they also need to wake up to the Kurdish genocidal issue, which has been going on for a long time. Because the media has not reported properly, people are less aware, often, but it's something tremendously important. I see the Kurdish people as one of the people who have been there since the dawn of history. In Öcalan's writing, I get that consciousness. And I'm a student of ancient history, so I really understand the force of it. You could say Kurdish people resisted assimilation into the Sumerian Empire 5000 years ago. And they're at the forefront of refusing assimilation into the oppressive nation state. And I also think of how Öcalan has written about how when he was a schoolboy in Turkey, forced to be in school and say, ‘I am a Turk and to speak Turkish.’ That is the kind of assimilation that people are resisting more and more in Ecuador, in India, in other places. So there needs to be just much more taking responsibility of everybody to stand together in these vital issues that are facing the world in this time where war has been made the biggest business."

 

MA / Hîvda Çelebî