KCK Executive Council member Sabri Ok spoke to ANF about the isolation imposed on Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan, international solidarity and the need to increase the fight against isolation in Imrali.

It has been 31 months now that there has been no meeting with the leader of the Kurdish people, Abdullah Öcalan, and not any news or message has been received from him. What is going on in the genocidal system of Imrali [the prison island where Öcalan is being held captive]? Is there any new information that you can give us?

I clearly have to line out, that neither his lawyers, nor his family, nor us as a party have any information about what is happening in Imrali, about the health and security situation of Rêber Apo [Abdullah Öcalan] for about 3 years. This shows that the forces that carried out the international conspiracy and established the system of Imrali still insist on the conspiracy. As we have stated many times, such a system has been established in Imrali so that nothing that happens there is just happening by coincidence. There is a special team of people, a brain, that runs this Imrali system consciously. The task of this team is to complete the Kurdish genocide in Imrali. This is something that Rêber Apo has called ‘the genocide practiced against me’. In this sense, what is going on there is not consistent with national or international law but with the policy of genocide. This is the purpose of the establishment of the Imrali system. Otherwise, there is no other explanation for the fact that Rêber Apo has not been allowed to meet with his family and lawyers for nearly 3 years. What they call disciplinary offenses is a mockery of the Kurdish people’s values, psychology, law, human rights and democracy. How can a person, held alone on an island and in a cell, commit a disciplinary offense? What kind of disciplinary offense can a person commit who is forbidden to write letters, to have any kind of communication with the outside world, who is not allowed to meet with his lawyer or his family?

To conclude, it can be said that there is a multi-faceted, multi-method, immoral practice in Imrali, with a fierce struggle going on. This struggle has an ideological, psychological, political level. To put it even more clearly, the genocidal Turkish state is implementing a policy of collapse against the resisting Kurdish people and the Kurdish Freedom Movement. It first tried to achieve this in Imrali, but failed as Rêber Apo resisted despite all unimaginable pressures. Hence the great anger of the genocidal Turkish state. It is also important to know that the Turkish state is a vengeful state. Süleyman Demirel [President of Turkey from 1993 to 2000 ] once said concerning Rêber Apo that he was ‘the greatest person to plague the Turkish state in the last three centuries’. When we reverse this equation and read it more accurately, it is clear that Rêber Apo is the greatest chance of the last three centuries for all peoples, beliefs and cultures to live democratically and freely in Turkey and Kurdistan. That is why the state is acting like this and why it does not obey any war or international rules. But Rêber Apo is no longer one person; he is millions of people, the resisting women and youth, the peoples of the Middle East, the voice of all struggling humanity.

There is great international support for the leader of the Kurdish People, Abullah Öcalan. Trade unions around the world have called for his release. In addition, artists, politicians and academics from many countries of the world organized an artistic, political and academic event in Lausanne, Switzerland entitled “Embassy of a new world: Kurdistan”, where the thoughts and ideas of Abdullah Öcalan were discussed. How should we evaluate this international support?

It is true that there has been great international support for Rêber Apo recently. In particular, the labor unions of England, Italy and France have taken the lead in this. The decision taken by the international trade union congress that met in Brazil a few days ago, for the freedom of Rêber Apo is very valuable and very meaningful. The concerts, conferences, marches and rallies for his freedom, especially in Italy, are also very valuable. Most recently in Switzerland, Rêber Apo’s views and paradigm were discussed. I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere and respectful greetings to all those who organized concerts for the freedom of Rêber Apo, especially the international trade union congress in Brazil, to the artists who organized concerts, and to all those who discussed Rêber Apo’s paradigm in artistic, cultural and political events in Switzerland. It is important to know that, today, humanity demonstrates how much it needs democracy and freedom as much as it needs bread and water to live.

Because humanity sees and witnesses how capitalist modernity has made the world unlivable, from the massacres of women every day, to the massacre of the environment and nature, to everything that is done for the seduction of human beings. It is impossible not to seek awareness, anger and struggle against this. Otherwise, one must doubt one’s humanity. By developing the paradigm of women’s liberation, social ecology and basic democratic society against capitalist modernity, which is the name of all these evils, Rêber Apo played a great role in the enlightenment and consciousness of human beings. With the paradigm of democratic modernity, he developed the answer to the great ideological hunger problems of humanity. The reality of his paradigm and views have a great power of influence as much as they are read, discussed, spread and comprehended. For this reason, everyone who adopts Rêber Apo’s ideology, views and philosophy must work really hard on this issue and make it comprehensible to humanity. Like the apostles of Jesus, we have to constantly carry the views of Rêber Apo to people, societies and cultures, especially to the women and youth who stand up for freedom. There is no one who reads Rêber Apo and is not impressed.

A friend recently told me that a priest was asked to write an article about Rêber Apo. The priest said that he was anti-communist, that the PKK was a socialist movement that came from a communist tradition, and therefore, he did not like our movement. Upon the insistence of his friends, he said, ‘Then bring some of their books, let me look through them, read them and then I will see.’ The priest stated that he was very impressed after reading Rêber Apo and said the following to his friends: ‘This person is too much for this world. This world cannot handle this great person.’

One of the important reasons why all segments of society who are anti-capitalist, anti-power, in favor of labor, freedom and socialism support Rêber Apo so strongly, is that they find themselves, their dreams and their future in his views. Otherwise, there is no other reason why hundreds of thousands and millions of people all over the world, from Africa to Latin America, are supporting Rêber Apo. Dozens of trade unions, intellectuals, academics, artists around the world support Rêber Apo and adopt his views. This shows that he has now become a part of humanity with his ideology, paradigm and ideas.

How should the Kurdish people and politics evaluate the international protests for the leader of the Kurdish people, Abdullah Öcalan? What needs to be done for these mobilizations to achieve their goal?

It is necessary to have a deep understanding of the ‘Kurdish question’ and its dialectics. What I want to point out here is that there is probably no problem as complicated, multidimensional and difficult to solve as the ‘Kurdish question’. For the solution to such a problem, a personality like Rêber Apo was necessary. He stated the following about the ‘Kurdish question’ and its solution: “When I dared to dwell on the reality of Kurdishness, I always felt the overwhelming impact of these truths. I wanted to express it with science, which I considered the most appropriate method of explanation. Explanations were not enough. I wanted to do politics. All this proved how grave the contemporary state of Kurdish social reality was.” With this, Rêber Apo is not showing the impossibility of solving the problem, but the difficulty of the solution and the seriousness that has to be shown.

This is very well known within the Turkish state, which is why an extermination concept is implemented on him. And which is why they are doing everything in their power to prevent his ideas and voice from reaching the outside world. Kurds should do the opposite of what the genocidal Turkish state is doing and concentrate on the opposite of what it is thinking. If the genocidal Turkish state sees Rêber Apo as the scourge of the last three centuries, the Kurdish people should see him as a great historical opportunity. They should know very well, that the ‘Kurdish question’ cannot be solved like similar problems anywhere else in the world. The ‘Kurdish question’, which is not normal, could only be solved by a pioneer who transcended all common measures and mediocrity. Rêder Apo is a leadership created by this contradiction.

As the people and the Kurdistan Freedom Movement, we have to undertake the process for the physical freedom of Rêber Apo with a spirit of full mobilization. We have to raise the struggle at all levels: ideological, organizational, propaganda, agitation. For example, the world trade union congress held in Brazil recently passed a resolution and called for the physical freedom of Rêber Apo. As a party, we made a statement that we salute this decision. But it should not have been limited to this. A platform, a congress with millions of members; our press and media should have interviewed these unions, made programs on television. They should have made a special effort to set the agenda. Similarly, conferences and concerts were organized in Italy and different parts of Europe for the physical freedom of Rêber Apo. The press and media should have discussed these conferences and concerts afterwards and made programs. Obviously, it is necessary to be more creative in these matters. Because every struggle for the physical freedom of Rêber Apo is both vital and the most honorable struggle for us. For this, it is absolutely necessary to be organized. From our relevant organizations and institutions to all our people and international friends in general, we have to be in constant concentration and search on this issue. I sincerely believe that this process will be completed with the physical liberation of Rêber Apo, if we act in a truly disciplined manner with a perspective that focuses on the goal, makes good use of time, plans where and how to achieve what, reaches everyone possible and mobilizes everyone possible. If this happens, the reactions and activities developing in Kurdistan and around the world for the physical liberation of Rêber Apo will surely reach their goal.