Neither the Turkish State nor PKK Practice Democracy!

Omar Sindi | Exclusive to iKurd.net

There are some people who most likely will argue that the Turkish state is a constitutional republic, a multi-party system, and holds elections. However, politicians and activists are often arrested, accused of terrorism.

Since its inception, Turkish democracy has never been Athenian democracy or the Wilsonian vision of ideals. Particularly on the Kurdish issue, the system has been manipulated by covert agendas. The Turkish state has failed to recognize or acknowledge that the Anatolian land it occupies is home to a multi-ethnic society.

Take, for example, Ismail Besikci — a Turkish-born academic, sociologist, and writer. He has been imprisoned multiple times for expressing his views in a nonviolent way on the mistreatment of Kurdish people by various Turkish governments.

Another example is Osman Baydemir, a member of the Grand National Assembly–Turkey — in December 2017, he was expelled from parliament after the speaker repeatedly questioned him on the location of “Kurdistan.” Baydemir responded, pointing to his heart: “This very place is Kurdistan, Mrs. Speaker. Kurdistan is right here.” Now living in England, he is facing extradition, accused by the Turkish state of being a PKK member.

Many elected mayors across Turkey have been removed and replaced by government appointees. Although the Ottoman Empire’s rule was far from ideal, it still acknowledged the Kurdish Nation and Kurdistan — something that the Turkish state does not.

Under President Erdogan, even opposition politicians are not immune. Erdogan’s alliance with Devlet Bahçeli of the far-right MHP has led to the removal and jailing of Ekrem İmamoğlu of the CHP, the mayor of Istanbul — Turkey’s largest city.

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), originally an armed Kurdish militant group based in the mountainous area, is itself an undemocratic organization. It has been intolerant of dissent, often violently silencing former members or opposition Kurdish parties. Evidence shows the PKK assassinated its own defectors.

“Patriotic Democratic Party of Kurdistan breakaways (PWDK) threatened and killed by Kongra Gel/PKK [-] The breakaways set up a new party, the Patriotic Democratic Party of Kurdistan (PWDK). They insisted on democratic channels for resolving the Kurdish issue in Turkey, but the die-hards they left behind in Qandil would have none of it. They insisted on maintaining arms and armed resistance. Within a short succession, assassination attempts were carried out against the leading breakaways. An influential Iranian Kurd, Siphan Rojhilat, was killed first (October 2004). Kamel Sahin, a Syrian Kurd, was killed on 17 February 2005. Five months later, the assassination was followed by the murder in Turkey of former HADEP chair, Hikmet Fidan, on 5 July 2005. This murder was followed by the killing in Iraqi Kurdistan of Kani Yilmaz, a Kurd from the Turco-Syrian border in the Kurdish heartland, assassinated on 11 February 2006 in a car bomb…” — by Sheri Laizer.

Ironically, the two non-democratic forces, the Turkish Government and PKK, claim they want to resolve their conflict through a democratic process.

Abdullah Öcalan (left), founder of the PKK, pictured alongside Massoud Barzani, tribal leader and head of the KDP, in a rare meeting from the late 1980s or early 1990s. Photo: SM

In the 1990s, the PKK attempted to dominate the Duhok Governorate in Iraq through force. Since its founding, how many times have Abdullah Öcalan and the PKK leadership tried to impose their failed political ideologies under the guise of the Kurdish National Movement?

Initially, a) demanding an independent Kurdish state and Greater Kurdistan under leftist ideology, b) then shifting to autonomy within Turkey, c) later emphasizing cultural and political rights, d) and now declaring intentions to dissolve and embrace Turkish democracy.

The founder of the Turkish state, Kemal Atatürk, declared that all people in Turkey are “Turks,” denying the existence of any other ethnic identities. The proverb applies: “A leopard changes its position but not its mind.”

Murray Bookchin (right) 1992 and Kurdish leader and PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan 1990s. Photo: iKurd.net/Creative Commons/wikimedia/PKK

“In spring 2004, Abdullah Öcalan, the [de facto] leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Turkey, sent a letter to Murray Bookchin, an 83-year-old, wheelchair-bound, arthritic eco-anarchist in Burlington, Vermont [America]. Öcalan was serving a life sentence in solitary confinement on an island off the Turkish coast. In prison, he’d abandoned Marxism-Leninism and was in search of a new philosophy. He told Bookchin that he considered himself his ‘student,’ had acquired a good understanding of his work, and was eager to make the ideas applicable to Middle Eastern societies.” — London Review of Books by Wes.

Öcalan’s letter is noticeable, even paradoxical. As the undisputed leader of the PKK — from within a Turkish prison — he calls himself a student of Bookchin, who promoted a form of “democratic socialism” widely regarded as an impractical, failed policy of political ideology, especially in the Middle East.

For generations, Kurds have suffered brutal oppression by regimes in Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria. These governments have consistently attempted to eliminate Kurdish identity — denying the Kurdish nation’s existence, criminalizing their culture, demolishing villages, deploying chemical weapons (as in Halabja), and engaging in imprisonment, torture, executions, persecution, and ethnic cleansing.

One such atrocity was the Dersim Massacre in Turkey in 1937. During Iraq’s Anfal campaign, Saddam Hussein’s cousin, “Chemical Ali,” made it clear:

(Paraphrasing) “Either I’m going to wear Kurdish clothes, or the Kurds are going to wear Arab clothes.”

This chilling declaration echoes the mindset of the Spanish Inquisition, which persecuted, jailed, and executed people who did not conform to Catholicism: “The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition was established in 1478 by the Catholic Monarchs, King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile, and lasted until 1834. The Inquisition was originally intended primarily to identify heretics among those who converted from Judaism and Islam to Catholicism.” — (Wikipedia)

The international community has a moral obligation to support the creation of an independent, democratic Kurdish state. The regimes currently controlling Kurdistan have offered no peaceful solutions.

These oppressive governments have stifled economic and social development for generations. Meanwhile, some foreign powers, in pursuit of “stability,” have backed these regimes — ironically fueling further instability by enabling authoritarian rule.

Cemil Bayik (left), the co-president of Executive Council Kurdistan Communities Union (Koma Civaken Kurdistan KCK), the political wing of the PKK, at the PKK’s 12th congress, Qandil Mountains, Iraqi Kurdistan, May 2025. Photo: PKK video/Firat News Agency ANF

Even now, despite being imprisoned, Öcalan and the PKK claim to disband their armed movement and embrace Turkish democracy — a questionable move considering Turkey has made no concessions in return. This scenario resembles entrusting wolves to guard sheep.

Neither President Erdogan is Frederik Willem de Klerk, the South African president who helped dismantle apartheid. Nor is Öcalan a Mandela-like figure, who held firm to his principles until apartheid collapsed.

“History is not there for you to like or dislike. It is there for you to learn from it. And if it offends you, even better. Because then you are less likely to repeat it. It’s not yours to erase. It belongs to all of us.” — Unknown.

Omar Sindi, a senior writer, analyst and columnist for iKurd.net, Washington, United States.

The opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of iKurd.net or its editors.