Kardo Bokani:
The Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK) is different with the other Kurdish classical organisations not in the name but in its ideologies. PJAK’s ideology is based on “Apoism” the philosophy of Kurdish national leader Mr. Abdullah Ocalan. PJAK believes that the Kurdish social and political issues can not be settled by Karl Marx, John Stewart Mill, Max Webber, Habermas or any other theorists from the left or the right; owing to the fact they have not provided a deep analysis of the Kurdish history, culture and society. The only philosopher who took a deep and thorough insight into the Kurdish society was Abdullah Ocalan; his thesis not only carries the potential to solve the Kurdish issue but also have the abilities to save the Middle East from all sorts of extremism.
One of the most outstanding works of Ocalan is called the “problem of personality” in which he provides a deep analysis of Kurdish classical personalities, individualities and characteristics. He concluded that the Kurdish personalities have over the course of history been created by the occupying forces of Kurdistan. If your enemy creates your personalities, he will create it in a way that suits its requirements. Ocalan suggested that with that classical Kurdish personality you cannot fight the occupiers; and Kurdistan will not be freed. With the personality of the enemy you cannot win the war against the enemy; this is the rules of fight. If you want to win the battle for the freedom; you need to have free personality; you need to re-create a ‘free’ individuality from the Kurdish classical oppressed character; a personality that suit the freedom paths. With the classical occupiers-made personalities you can not fight the occupiers. You will lose if you do, as the previous Kurdish resistance movements did.
Based on Aposim PJAK’s first battle is the battle against one-self; the social one; the battle against the classical-traditional oppressed individuality-personality-characters that had over the centuries been created by the occupiers of Kurdistan. In that sense PJAK believes in methodological individualism. All the PJAK’s members are engaged in a daily fight against their classical characteristic and seek to re-build a newly born and free individuality-personality. Hence PJAK is a social and cultural movement before it is regarded as a political one. If you have created free personalities-individualities for the Kurds, they occupiers would not be able to stay in Kurdistan. Mr. Haci Ahmedi the leader of PJAK says if you don’t leave the gaps, from where you would be attacked? The PJAK seeks to fill the gaps; that is why PJAK is different from the other Kurdish classical organisations.
PJAK is a movement that simultaneously struggles in five different fronts. Personality, nationality, gender, class and ecologic spheres; but its main battle is the battle against one-self, against the Kurdish classical oppressed personality-individuality-character. If you don’t manage to win the battle against your classical personality, you would face difficulties in the other areas of the struggle; this is what the PJAK has taken as the basis for its campaign and this is what makes it different from other Kurdish classical groups. Based on this argument the PJAK’s members are very well disciplined; they are expected to make a series of pledges, write regular reports on their own weaknesses and submit to regular, frequent “criticism and self-criticism” sessions. This generally seems adequate as a means of ensuring adherence to the ideal personality type. The PJAK keeps its members perpetually active, by convincing them that, no matter how well they apply themselves, they can never do enough.
The Kurds in all parts of Kurdistan now are embracing Aposim on an unprecedented scale. The PJAK now have members from all parts of Kurdistan. People now have noticed that Liberalism or Marxism can’t save Kurdistan. Neither Marx nor the liberal theorists have the recipe for the emancipation of Kurdistan; they have not studies Kurdish complicated social, historic, cultural and political issues. One might ask as to why the Aposit Movement in Kurdistan have enhanced into such a level. The underlying reason is that this movement took a deep analysis of the Kurdish social, cultural and political history, but before that, it had firstly analysed the Kurdish personality-individuality and oppressed characters; then it prescribed the solutions to the problems. It is like when you go to a doctor, the doctor has to test and examine ‘your’ body and then prescribe to ‘your’ body the required medications; with the examination of somebody else who can prescribe medication for you? Some one else can’t be examined and tested instead of you and your prescription can’t be used by someone else. That is why the PJAK says Liberalism and the Marxism have no solution to the Kurdish issue; because they have no the premise to support their conclusions; they have not studied Kurdish society; they have no analysis of the problems upon which they can prescribe solutions. The only possible solution is inherent in the philosophy of Ocalan the author of more than 100 valuable books; in which he has produced an outstanding analysis of the Kurdish society.
Based on the philosophy of Ocalan the PJAK is not a classic party; it doesn’t seek authority or power; it is as much ideological, ethical and organisational entity as it is an ecologic organisation which strongly advocates the rights of animals as well as the protection of nature. In the criticism of the liberalism, Ocalan claims that, “by taking the individual as the centre of the universe, the liberals give the individuals a free hand to dominate and exploit the nature”. The PJAK sees the gender inequality and the women’s oppression as a serious problem and reiterate that a free and equal society presupposes the emancipation of women. In that sense the PJAK is also a unique feminist movement which seeks the emancipation of women from the Middle Eastern cultural norms.
PJAK believe that a democracy which doesn’t transcend the mentality of the superiority of humans over the nature, superiority of male over female, its content will be hallow and won’t carry the potential to be an alternative for the society. All the backwardness and the damages that have been done to the nature go back to the liberal thinking which take the humans as a distinct entity and the centre of the universe. PJAK believes that in order to tackle these issues there is a need for an ecological revolution which revives the concept of the superiority to the nature.
Kardo Bokani