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Review by Mufid Abdulla:
13 years on and Öcalan is still in a Turkish prison on Emrali island. Öcalan’s ‘The Road Map to Negotiations’ is a collection of his writings that provided the basis for secret negotiations between the Turkish state and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leadership from 2009 until they broke down in mid-2011. It creates a balanced picture of the leader, freedom fighter and champion of the nation who is seeking ways to end his people’s suffering. This book underlines the urgency to both sides of finding a solution to the conflict.
The mentality of the Turkish state is still dominated by chauvinist divide and rule schemes but the abduction of Öcalan on February 15, 1999 and the attempt to isolate him from the outside world have failed to prevent the man from continuing to think and strategise about the Kurdish cause.
‘The Road Map to Negotiations (Prison Writings III)’ is a genuine attempt by the PKK leader to re-define his position concerning the Turkish state and the PKK. Öcalan argues for an adjustment in concepts, theoretical framework and principles regarding the democratization of Turkey, saying this is paramount. However the state has failed to make these adjustments and has made little headway on the Kurdish issue despite the pledges of Turkish leaders such as former president Turgut Ozal and current president Abdullah Gül who once said: “It shall be resolved – there is no other way”.
The Turkish state is still in the grip of elements of the old Ataturk apparatus. ‘The Road Map to Negotiations’ is not only about ending the years of depression and repression of the Kurds but also about creating a truly democratic constitution for Turkey.
The state has been in continual denial about its war against the Kurds. “During the years 1950 to 1980 the Kurds had to try to prove their existence”, writes Öcalan.
Öcalan’s ‘Road Map’ argues that, in order to achieve a democratic constitution in Turkey, new concepts are required, including a “democratic nation”, of which he says, “ a nationhood that brings unity should not be a nation-state – rather, it should be a democratic nation”. Öcalan also argues for a “democratic homeland … made up of multi-lingual, multinational and multi-religious citizens, rather than a single ethnicity with one language and one religion”.
The PKK’s shift of direction and goals – from pursuing a Kurdish state to demanding democratic rights – is because this is how the Kurds can resolve their problems. This does not means the armed struggle from 1984 to 2009 – and continuing to this day – has achieved nothing. Öcalan says it is “identified as the fight for truth” but that the Kurdish question in Turkey must now be resolved by the two sides around a table. He admits that the PKK has abandoned its previous leftist ideas and relinquished its demand for statehood and expects in return big concessions from the Turkish state. The PKK has been the only alternative to the Turkish policy of denial and annihilation. Öcalan does not want this strife to continue and hence ‘The Road Map to Negotiations’ seeks a solution for the Kurdish and Turkish nations, bringing to an end the long conflict that has claimed thousands of lives on both sides.
‘The Road Map to Negotiations’ is published by ‘Freedom for Abdullah Ocalan-Peace in Kurdistan’, P.O .Box 100 511, D-50445 Cologne: www.Ocalan-books.com
Copyright © 2012 Kurdistantribune.com
The prisoners on hunger strike in Turkey are calling for educational instruction in Kurdish. This request should be met. It is time to provide bilingual Turkish-Kurdish education for primary students as well as improved school facilities. In remote villages of the Kackar Mountains, primary students have computer labs and a dedicated computer science teacher. In eastern Turkey, in the province of Agri near Mount Ararat, village schools lack functioning toilets and a teacher’s desk.
Article 147 of the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres dictated that ‘Turkish nationals who belong to racial, religious or linguistic minorities shall enjoy the same treatment and security in law and in fact as other Turkish nationals. In particular they shall have an equal right to establish schools with the right to use their own language.’ It is time to deliver on that broken promise.
Many Kurdish adults and pre-school children speak little or no Turkish. They are not demanding instruction in the Kurdish language to be contrary, but to be able to learn. Bilingual education has worked successfully in other countries and should be introduced in eastern Turkey.
Story and photos at ‘Prisoners on Hunger Strike for Kurdish Education ‘ http://tinyurl.com/a5fs676 by Dr. Amy L. Beam, educator and tour operator for Mount Ararat Trek http://www.mountararattrek.com
Until honor killings and girls being sold into marriage with older men, along with other draconian acts against women are stopped, no one in their right mind can support this.
You do know that the old president Turgut Ozal was ethnically Kurdish by the way.