Newroz message of Abdullah Öcalan

To all our people;

I am greeting the Newroz of all our people and friends who are on the side of peace, equality, freedom and democracy.

The crisis caused by neoliberal policies imposed on the whole world by imperialist capitalism and its despotic local collaborators is affecting our region and country. In this environment of crisis, ethnic and religious variations among our people and within our cultures are being erased by meaningless and brutal identity wars. Neither our historical nor our modern values, neither our conscience nor our political values can remain silent in this bleak political landscape. On the contrary, urgent intervention is our religious, political and moral responsibility.

Our struggle for democracy, freedom, fraternity and the honourable peace of our people is the next historic step. This painful struggle of our forty-year movement has not come to nothing, but is now at a stage which cannot continue in the same way. History and our people demand peace and a democratic solution proper to the spirit of the time. In this way, we are faced with a mission to start the new process on the basis of ten articles which are officially declared in the historic Dolmabahçe Palace (Dolmabahçe Sarayı).

With the agreement on principles in the declaration, I see it as historically necessary to hold a congress to bring to a stop the nearly 40-year armed struggle carried out by the PKK against the Turkish Republic, and to determine societal strategies and tactics suitable for a new period. I hope that it is possible to come to a principled agreement in a short time through the truth and reconciliation commission, which is composed of parliamentary members and the monitoring council, in order to make this congress successful. With this congress the new period begins. In this new period, we are entering a new process in the Turkish Republic based on free and equal constitutional citizenship in a democratic society, with democratic identity, living in peace and fraternity. In this way, going beyond the conflict-ridden 90-year history of the Republic, we approach the future in genuine peace and with the universal criteria of democracy.  The real historical meaning of Newroz is to join with you in welcoming this process. However, what is right for our country and our people should at the same time be valid for our whole region which is sacred. The reality of capitalist imperialism for the last two hundred years in general, and especially for the last hundred years, is:  On the basis of nation state nationalism, to set ethnic and religious identities against one another; that is, it has always depended on a policy of divide et imperia, divide and rule!

We should know that the old brutality of the imperialist powers – who do not give up their ambitions in the Middle East – has come back in the image of ISIS. This organization exemplifies the meaning of brutality, slaughtering Kurdish, Turkmen, Arab, Ezîdî and Assyrian people without sparing women and children.

The day has come to terminate this brutal and disastrous assault, and to change over to the fraternity and democracy befitting our past. In my belief, it is necessary to facilitate open democratic identities in order to bring a democratic solution to the problem of confrontational, exhausting and disastrous nationalism on which nation states depend. For this, I call on nation states to engage in a new type of democratic process, and I call on them to build for themselves a new democratic collective abode in the Middle East. In addition, today I call on the women and youths who beat the wings for freedom, and who form the overwhelming majority, to strive for success in economic, social and political fields and in the realm of security. Furthermore, I salute the resistance and victory of Kobane which has great significance for our region and for the whole world. In this manner, I greet the “Spirit of Eşme ^[1]” which has been embellished as a symbol of a new era. These declarations which I have stated above comprise in one sentence a vital call for the rebuilding of society and for revision and restoration, both for our past and for our present.

Once again, I greet this historic Newroz and wish for it to be beneficial for all the people of the world.

Long live Newroz!
Long live the fraternity of all peoples!

Abdullah Öcalan, Imrali Island Prison
21st March 2015

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