MIM Notes 192 August 15 1999

The Fascist Turkish State Cannot Put The Kurdish People On Trial 
Through The Trial Of A. Ocalan !

by the TKP/ML, International Relations Bureau, June 10, 1999

[Note: The TKP/ML is the vanguard party of Turkey. It is also the 
most advanced organization within German borders, where there is a 
substantial Turkish Òminority.Ó Ocalan is the head of the PKK, an 
ex-Maoist organization --International Minister, MIM.]

As it is known, PKK and the Kurdish national struggle have for a 
long time occupied a serious place on the international publicÕs 
agenda. Every class and organisation makes certain comments and 
statements, and demonstrates certain positions and attitudes on 
this issue in accordance with their class interests and 
ideological-political-organisational lines.

Our party, TKP/MLÕs (Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist Leninist) 
approach to the national question and the problem of minorities is 
in line with the immortal leaders of the international 
proletariat, Lenin and Stalin, and our founding leader Ibrahim 
KAYPAKKAYA who was the first to bring about Marxist-Leninist-
Maoist analyses to such issues as the nature of the Turkish state, 
the Kurdish national question, Kemalism, etc. KAYPAKKAYA became 
the first in our country to elucidate on the issues of nation, the 
national question and national oppression and, it was on these 
grounds that he denounced genocide and massacres.

We have many articles and publications that treat and elaborate in 
detail our partyÕs position on the Kurdish national question in 
general and on the PKK in particular, the methodology and the 
basis of our partyÕs approach to these issues and how we evaluate 
these phenomena. Our party will publish the translations of some 
of its assessments on this question in various languages in order 
to inform the international communist-revolutionary public.

Additionally, we will, in our forthcoming articles, analyse in 
detail and demonstrate with all their dimensions, including their 
ideological-political-organisational origins, the OCALAN trial, 
OCALANÕs position in this trial and the phase that the PKK has 
entered with the ÒRome processÓ. We shall limit the subject of 
this short article to an account on some developments that have 
been experienced during PKK chairman Abdullah OCALANÕs trial. We 
will publish our whole position on the trial following the end of 
the trial.

Since the delivery of A. Ocalan to Turkish authorities through a 
conspiracy led by U.S. imperialists, the fascist Turkish state has 
prepared for Òa trialÓ of the Kurdish nation through the trial of 
OcalanÕs person. Since the beginning of OcalanÕs trial in Imrali, 
the Turkish state has attempted to legitimise its fascist 
character and to put the Kurdish nation on ÒtrialÓ. The Turkish 
ruling classes are calculating on accomplishing many achievements 
through this ÒtrialÓ. What, then, are these calculations and 
achievements? Below are some of them:

Firstly, they attempt to present the Turkish state as Òa 
democratic stateÓ to the world public by concealing its fascist, 
genocidal and murderous face behind the facade of what they call a 
Òjust trialÓ. 

Secondly and most importantly, they are calculating to seize the 
Kurdish national struggle and make this their reserve force.

Thirdly, they try hard to prove that Kurds are not subjected to 
oppression, that genocide does not take place and a Kurdish 
problem does not exist in the country. 

Fourthly, they hope to prove that the Kurdish nationÕs national 
revolutionary struggle for their national democratic rights is 
ÒterrorismÓ.

Fifthly, they hope to suppress more violently the people of Turkey 
including Kurds, Turks and other national minorities by projecting 
the idea to the masses that Òthe state is strongÓ. And that 
therefore, the national and the class struggles carried out on a 
revolutionary basis against the fascist Turkish state and their 
imperialist masters cannot succeed.

Sixthly, they aim to distract the attention of the oppressed and 
exploited masses away from their economic-social-political 
problems through further popularising Turkish chauvinism.

Seventhly, they hope to ÒproveÓ that the Kurdish national struggle 
was not born and developed in the country, on the contrary, that 
there is no Kurdish problem in the country and therefore, that 
this is a foreign conspiracy, etc., etc. 

The OCALAN trial is a totally 

anti-democratic and fascist trial!

The delivery of Ocalan by U.S. imperialists and its servants to 
Turkey, the fact that he has been kept incommunicado in Imrali and 
also that the fascist bourgeois media coverage has been actively 
biased against Ocalan throughout the trial, are even in the 
bourgeois sense, in breach of the norms of the international law.

While the fascist criminal laws of the Turkish state ban Òwritten 
or verbal commentary on the trial before the sentencingÓ, the most 
official statements have already declared that the verdict has 
long been predetermined. On the other hand, the fascist media have 
launched an intensive exposure and character assassination 
campaign.

Another aspect of the ÒtrialÓ is that it is carried out by the 
State Security Courts (DGM). DGMs are in breach of international 
lawÕs requirements, principles of European Court of Human Rights 
(ECHR) and other legal bindings that Turkey is a signatory of and 
consequently obliged to comply with. The Turkish state is now 
trying to rapidly modify the DGMs, thus preparing a ÒdemocraticÓ 
shake-up of these fascist courts. Most probably the military 
judges will be excluded from the DGMs and in this way these 
essential institutions of the fascist persecution will be 
ornamented with a ÒdemocraticÓ and ÒcivilianÓ look.

Because if the Ocalan trial is concluded with a board of judges 
which includes a military judge, this case will be denounced by 
the ECHR and the EU countries will probably ÒreactÓ against it in 
accordance with their interests. The presence or the absence of 
the military judge in the DGMs does not change the essence of the 
problem at all. No matter how well they may present the fascist 
judiciary as an Òindependent judiciaryÓ, it is a fact that all the 
sentences passed on communists, revolutionaries, democrats and 
Kurdish patriots are determined by the National Security Council 
(MGK) and by those institutions controlled by the MGK.

The dismissal of the military judge from the DGMs would never mean 
that the trial will be ÒdemocraticÓ. As in other countries, courts 
in Turkey are by no means independent but in every sense are under 
the control of the dominant exploiting classes and the political 
forces in power.

Consequently, the verdict on Ocalan has long been reached. The 
court is only performing a legal formality. The aim is to use the 
court for the above mentioned ÒgoalsÓ of the fascist state and to 
turn the trial into a Òlegitimisation operationÓ of the fascist 
Turkish state. 

Not the Kurdish nation but the fascist Turkish state and 
imperialism should be put on trial in Imrali!

The Turkish state is trying hard to turn the ÒImrali courtÓ into 
an arena of the trial of the Kurdish nation. The fascist state 
through all the printed and visual means of the press declares 
that the PKK is ÒterroristÓ; PKK chairman A. Ocalan is Òthe head 
of terroristsÓ and the Turkish state is a Òdemocratic just stateÓ, 
thus carrying its propaganda to the world.

The fascist state attempts above all to terrorise the Kurdish 
nationÕs just national democratic struggle. Because of this it 
tries hard to conceal the massacres and genocide carried out 
against Kurdish people and to illegitimatise the rightful and just 
struggle of the Kurdish nation. On the other hand, it is the very 
fascist Turkish state that denies the existence of the Kurdish 
nation, that robs them of all forms of national rights, and that 
never flinches from committing genocide against the Kurdish nation 
and other minorities. 

Ever since its formation, the fascist Turkish state has always 
brutally suppressed the Kurdish national movements. In Kogiri, in 
the Sheikh Sait rebellion, and in the Dersim uprising of 1938, 
tens of thousands of Kurds have been murdered, and under the 
banner of the ÒLaw of Compulsory ResidenceÓ hundreds of thousands 
of them were forcibly exiled from their land. 

In the recent 15 years, over 20 thousand Kurdish patriots and 
intellectuals who fought against the denial of the Kurdish nation 
have been murdered and almost 5 million Kurdish people have been 
forced to evacuate their home at gun point. In Imrali, the Turkish 
state seeks to hide its massacres from history. As it had tried in 
the past to cover up the massacre of one and a half million 
Armenians in 1915; as it had tried to cover the 1925 Kurdish 
genocide and massacres with ashes by the Independence Courts; as 
it had tried to cover up the massacre of over 60 thousand Kurds in 
the 1938 Dersim uprising, today in Imrali it is trying to bury the 
unprecedented massacre and persecution of the Kurdish people that 
it has committed for the last 15 years.

When the history of the Kurdish nation and other national 
minorities in Turkey is studied, the oppression, massacre and 
genocide that the Turkish state conducted come under the light. 
The fascist state, despite its efforts to misinform and deceive 
the masses through the bourgeois press, cannot erase its 
massacres, oppression, torture, exiles and burning down villages 
from the pages of history and the collective memory.

The Turkish state, the most fascistic and paramilitary force of 
imperialism in the region should first of all account for its 
denial of the Kurdish nation! It should account for its denial of 
the Kurdish nationÕs national democratic rights, that is, the 
Kurdish nationÕs right to self determination! It should account 
for tens of thousands of Kurds massacred in Kogiri, in the Sheikh 
Sait rebellion, and in the Dersim uprising! 

It should account for the brutal tortures that it carried out 
against Kurdish patriots--Kemal Pir, Mazlum Dogan, Haki Karer and 
hundreds of Kurdish patriots--in Diyarbakir dungeons during the 12 
September fascist military junta period! It should account for the 
murder of Musa Anter, M. Sancar, V. Aydin, Metin Can and for tens 
of Kurdish intellectuals and journalists that it has murdered!

And finally, it should account for thousands of Kurdish people, 
Kurdish intellectuals, Kurdish workers, peasants and labourers 
that it murdered in the last 15 years! It should account for the 
tens of thousands of Kurdish households that have been destroyed, 
thousands of Kurdish villages that have been burnt down, hundreds 
of thousands of Kurds that have been tortured, Kurdish babies and 
pregnant women that have been murdered! The fascist Turkish state 
will not escape paying this huge cost to the people!

The fascist Turkish state has no right to put the oppressed 
Kurdish nation on trial. It is primarily a criminal and murderous 
state in the eyes of worker-labourers and peasants of Turkish and 
Kurdish origin. It is a criminal state to its smallest cells 
before the Kurdish nation. If there are those who should be tried 
and be held responsible, they should be the Turkish dominant 
classes, their fascist state and their imperialist overlords!

The oppressive and exploitative classes cannot try the oppressed 
and persecuted classes! Those who committed all forms of 
oppression, massacre and genocide cannot try the victims of such 
oppressions, massacres and genocides. Exploiting classes have no 
right to try the oppressed peoples and nations. Human history is 
the witness to the fact that those who have to be put on trial and 
who have to offer accounts before history and humanity are the 
exploiting dominant classes. 

The ÒImrali trialÓ cannot be the place for legitimising, 
justifying and finding apologies for the fascist state !

The fascist Turkish state, whatever appearance it may acquire, is 
fascist in essence and is the most loyal servant of imperialism in 
the region; it is the brutal enemy of all workers-labourers, poor 
peasants, communists, revolutionaries, intellectuals, democrats, 
patriots, the Kurdish nation and other minorities that live in 
Turkey. This fascist state exists to serve the capitalist world 
system and its major imperialist representatives and to oppress 
and persecute the working class, oppressed peoples, Kurdish nation 
and minorities.

While this fascist state constantly intensifies its exploitation, 
persecution and massacre of the popular masses, the Kurdish nation 
and other minorities, no individual or organisation can justify 
fascism by masking its real face in the name of Ònew processÓ and 
ÒrevolutionismÓ. Before the suffering of the tens of thousands of 
Kurdish workers, labourers and peasants has withered away, and 
while on the contrary this pain and suffering intensities day by 
day, no one has the right to present the bloody handed fascist 
Turkish state as ÒinnocentÓ and to acquit it!

Such an attempt will primarily be opposed by the Kurdish people 
who have been for many years subjected to brutality, murder and 
torture of the fascist Turkish state! Communists, revolutionaries, 
democrats and anti-imperialist intellectuals of Turkish, Kurdish 
and other minority origins, will oppose such an attempt! Kurdish 
patriots, who have risked their lives for many years in the fight 
for their national democratic rights and have paid dearly for it, 
who live in dignity, will oppose this!

Kurdish people who were brought up with the legends of resistance 
as articulated by poet Ahmet Arif, who wrote; ÒStrike me bastards, 
strike me I do not die easy I have my ashes in the oven and my 
word in my hearthÓ, will not allow the staging of this scenario.

Grandsons and granddaughters of Seyit Riza, the leader of 1938 
Dersim uprising, who walked with his head up to the gallows 
saying: ÒI could not cope with your deceptions and lies, this has 
been the thing I cannot come to terms with, but I did not kneel 
down in front of you, this shall be the thing you cannot come to 
terms withÓ, will never bend on their knees in front of the 
Turkish state; they will never sympathise with a ÒconsensusÓ which 
will mean surrender in disguise of ÒpeaceÓ!

The bourgeois press, by blowing the horn of fascism, is trying to 
use the tears of the families of fallen soldiers who by calling 
them Òhero mehmetsÓ, they drove to the front line in the service 
of the Turkish dominant classes to suppress the Kurdish nationÕs 
just struggle for its most natural democratic rights in order to 
protect the plunderous-fascist interests.

Sons of the poor labourers who had to serve the state as soldiers 
and are called ÒmehmetsÓ are exploited for the interests of 
Turkish dominant classes who conduct this unjust and reactionary 
war. They die after being driven to the front line for the 
interests of a handful of exploiting rulers. As all exploiting 
dominant classes of the world, Turkish dominant classes would 
never enter the war zone. Those who are driven to the front line 
with the chants of Òhero mehmetsÓ and chauvinistic speeches on 
Òthe land, the nation and the flagÓ have always been the sons of 
workers, peasants and poor labourers.

The murderers of the young poor labourers, who die as soldiers in 
the unjust and reactionary war carried out against the Kurdish 
nation, are not the freedom fighters but the ruling classes who 
form the Turkish state which use these youths for their fascist, 
racist, exploitative interests. Consequently, those who have to 
apologise to the families of the dead soldiers are not those who 
fight against oppression, genocide and massacres but the fascist 
Turkish state!

It is a good thing to share the pain of people, however, if this 
is done in the form of proposing surrender as Òthe solutionÓ by 
the demagogy of a mysterious Òdemocratic republicÓ which glosses 
over certain features of the fascist Turkish state and hence 
attempts to cover up the fact that this fascist state is a prison 
for all oppressed nations and minorities, it becomes unacceptable.

Such an approach represents, above all, not sharing the pain of 
people. On the contrary, it is an attempt using the deceiving 
phrase of Òdemocratic republicÓ in order to justify imperialism, 
which is the source of all the popular suffering, and its servant 
the fascist Turkish state; moreover, it represents an attempt to 
justify the surrender of oneself.

While the mothers and the families of the ÒmartyredÓ soldiers, 
including those officers and conscripts who died in clashes with 
the PKK participate in the ÒImrali courtÓ which they call Òa just 
courtÓ, mothers of over 20 thousand Kurdish patriots and 
guerrillas, who have been murdered by the fascist Turkish state, 
are not allowed in the courtroom. Their tears, hopes, pains and 
cries would never find any reflection in the televisions and 
newspapers. 

Besides, the tears, yearnings and pains of the Kurdish families 
whose loved ones have been murdered under torture, the 
ÒdisappearedÓ in custody and summarily executed in the middle of 
the streets or by the river banks are not reflected in the press 
or at the trial. Because the tears of Kurdish mothers are so full 
of sorrow, pain and anger that they are enough to drown the 
fascist Turkish state in Imrali. 

Kurdish mothers and Kurdish people whose loved ones have been 
killed by the fascist Turkish state do not expect an apology from 
the Turkish state. Because, for them, every ÒapologyÓ of fascism 
heralds larger pains, oppressions, brutality and massacres. 
Kurdish people want their legitimate rights for which they have 
paid dearly and have fought to death. What they want is the 
lifting of all forms of oppression, torture, massacre and 
brutality that the Turkish dominant classes impose over the 
Kurdish nation.

Imrali should not be the place for calling to ÒpeaceÓ but the 
place to try the fascist Turkish state!

Ocalan is trying to present to the people his proposals under the 
name of ÒThe Manifesto of the 21st CenturyÓ which he formulated as 
Òa democratic republicÓ as was developed by the ÒSecond 
RepublicanistsÓ. This proposal which bares the claim to being Òthe 
most democratic peace planÓ does not scare the ÒSublime Turkish 
StateÓ, but legitimises it! This is nothing but the packaged 
Òsolution to the Kurdish questionÓ proposed by the U.S. and 
Western imperialists.

The attitude of all the leading circles of the PKK, who after 
rapidly forgetting all their statements of yesterday have suddenly 
steered the wheel towards a ÒpeaceÓ based on surrender, who 
prepared themselves for this process by theorising the situation 
and who are engaged in efforts to justify OcalanÕs position in the 
court, etc., demonstrates the theorisation of the demands of the 
bourgeoisie of the oppressed nation for a ÒreconciliationÓ at all 
costs and their efforts to spread this theory to their base of 
support.

The PKK and their leading circles seem to have ÒforgottenÓ too 
quickly the suppressive and oppressive policies against the Kurds 
conducted by the Turkish state which have taken place since its 
very formation. They have forgotten the events in Kogiri, of 
Sheikh Sait Uprising, Dersim and most recently in Turkey and Iraqi 
Kurdistan. While Ocalan was talking about the Òdemocratic 
republicÓ in the court, Demirel (president of Turkey) replied to 
him around the same time with the words, ÒOne land, one flag and 
one nationÓ.

Even when taken at a very general level, OcalanÕs defence is not a 
defence which charges imperialism and the Turkish state, but on 
the contrary a ÒmanifestoÓ of how the PKK should reconcile with 
the state at this stage, how a transition from the national 
revolutionary line to a national reformist line should be 
initiated and more clearly, how should the Kurdish people give up 
their struggle for their most natural rights of a national 
democratic nature.

Unless a qualitative transformation takes place in this line, 
given the level that the struggle had reached this trial will find 
its place in Kurdish history as the most negative example. While 
the Turkish state attempts to charge and interrogate the Kurdish 
nation, the Kurdish national struggle and their just and 
progressive war through the person of Ocalan, it is not acceptable 
that Ocalan does not mention any of these and he does not try to 
demonstrate the real face of the fascist Turkish state and 
imperialism. 

This is opening the doors unilaterally to the worst ÒconsensusÓ in 
the name of ÒpeaceÓ and ÒreconciliationÓ! This is an affirmation 
of the Turkish stateÕs trial of Ocalan as an ordinary ÒterroristÕs 
trialÓ! But in the name of what is all this being done? In the 
name of a ÒbrotherhoodÓ that is based on homage and surrender to 
the Turkish state! In the name of a very bad ÒconsensusÓ that 
would lead as far as to surrender and betrayal! In the name of 
saving the ÒSublime Turkish StateÓ by legitimising it! 

If there is to be peace, it has to be a dignified one. An 
honourable ÒpeaceÓ for the Kurdish people can only be based on an 
unconditional recognition of the self-determination and the 
national rights of the Kurdish nation by the Turkish state. The 
aim of the Turkish state is to subdue the Kurdish national 
struggle, lead it to betrayal and to suppress the conditions of a 
renewed national resistance. 

Given the fascist character of the Turkish state a possible 
agreement that does not take place before the masses or deals for 
a solution reached in secret discussions behind closed doors, 
cannot be lasting! In the past, such deals did not bring about 
freedom to the Kurdish nation but slavery and dependency. Despite 
some certain differences in quantity, in case this route is to be 
taken, the same outcome, that is, the chains of slavery and 
dependency, should be expected! The Turkish state, being aware of 
the collaborationist tendency of the Kurdish bourgeoisie, would 
demand, through certain deceptions, the disarmament of the PKK and 
following their farewell to arms it would launch heavier 
oppression and humiliation campaigns. There is no need to go too 
far back on this subject. 

The experiences of the Sheikh Sait and Dersim uprisings are well 
known! Furthermore, the deals that the Iranian and Iraqi Kurdish 
national movements made with the ruling states and the oppression 
and massacres against Kurdish people that followed these deals are 
well known! Experience should not be ignored in the name of 
Òreconciliation at any costsÓ.

The real emancipation of the Kurdish people and the national 
liberation of the Kurdish nation should not be confused. The real 
emancipation of the Kurdish people can only be achieved through a 
struggle in unity with Turkish people and other minorities against 
the fascist Turkish state and imperialism, by joining the ranks of 
the TKP/ML who lead the revolutionary struggle in Turkey and 
Turkish Kurdistan and follows the principles of Marxism-Leninism-
Maoism and upholds the perspective of a world without classes and 
borders. 

This path finds its expression in PeopleÕs Democratic Revolution 
and Socialism under the leadership of the proletariat of Turkey, 
consisting of Kurds, Turks and other national minorities. The 
interests of the Kurdish people can never be sacrificed for the 
interests of the Kurdish bourgeoisie!

The capitalist world system is the source of all forms of 
injustice, oppression, brutality and massacres. Without burying 
this system and its owners in the rubbish bin of history, it is 
impossible to end oppression, massacre, genocide and exploitation 
that humanity suffers as a whole. It is an honour and privilege to 
struggle against and resist the major representative of this 
system, imperialism, and its regional servant the Turkish state. 

The attitude that Kemal Pir, Haki Karer, Mazlum Dogan and many 
other heroic sons and daughters of the Kurdish nation, in the 
courts of the Turkish state, before being murdered in its dungeons 
and torture chambers, is very clear. They never paid homage to, 
surrendered to or asked for amnesty from the state in the courts; 
on the contrary they brought the Turkish state to trial, hence 
raising the banner of rebellion and resistance!

They fell martyrs in this honourable fight; they were murdered 
brutally by fascism; they set themselves to fire to flare up the 
flames of Newroz, but they never surrendered! They believed in 
revolutionary resistance and war in order to reverse the negative 
aspects of the Kurdish history which is full of betrayals! This 
noble national revolutionary tradition should never be abandoned 
for the sake of a spoonful of soup! 

COMMUNIST PARTY OF TURKEY / MARXIST LENINIST International 
Relations Bureau June 10th 1999