Xebat Andok spoke about the media in a new in-depth interview.
Xebat Andok, member of the KCK Executive Council, spoke about the media in this new in-depth interview. This is the first part of the interview.

We live in a fast-paced world today, where many decisive changes are taking place. To what extent are you able to follow these developments given your circumstances?

It is well known that the world has changed significantly. There have been decisive changes in information and communication technology. Access to information has greatly improved. Here, we are able to closely follow the discussions on television and via digital media to also quickly access information on any developments in the form of both written analyses and visual reports. We are in the position of an attentive observer. This stems both from the identity we represent and the issues we are dealing with.

Not only Ankara, but generally all regional and international hegemonic forces are currently making calculations regarding the region. To what extent are you aware of how the various political forces approach the Kurdish question and your movement?

We are currently amid a process referred to as the Third World War. It has been centered in the Middle East for some time, and at this stage, Kurdistan has become the center of this war. Accordingly, we are aware that today, we are one of the main issues on the agenda of world powers. The Kurdish question, which is our top priority to resolve, is essentially a global issue. It is a question created by the global capitalist system with roots in the beginning of the 20th century. It has become a curse for the peoples of the Middle East, especially our people, and the regional system in the Middle East. This we need to resolve. It is an issue that directly affects us, as it concerns our existence and freedom, but beyond that, it is also a regional issue that concerns at least four states in the Middle East due to its nature, and, as pointed out before, it is also on the agenda of the global powers.

In this sense, since we are part of such an issue that is on everyone’s agenda, we are being closely monitored, watched, and considered when equations are being formed. Then again, intense efforts by certain forces can be seen that try to exclude us from the equations being made. That is a reality that we are facing.

That said, we do have a fundamental uniqueness. This fundamental uniqueness is our leadership. He represents a stance that is different from those of the other mentioned forces. That is, Kurdish people’s leader Abdullah Öcalan is a leader who addresses the needs of the peoples of the region, primarily the Kurdish people, and seeks to resolve their problems as part of the struggle towards freedom. The ideological identity he represents is a humanistic approach. He offers perspectives on how all women, all forces, and all strata of society struggling against the state-centric, power-centric system can build a free and equal life within the conditions of capitalist modernity. And one can highlight that the influence of our leader is growing and spreading.

Therefore, it has to be said that we are not simply a leader, a movement, or an issue that is monitored by the states. At the same time, there is a strong interest from all kinds of peoples, all kinds of women, and all kinds of forces fighting against the capitalist system. They are showing intense interest, are following us, trying to understand what we are talking about, trying to see and learn from how we organize outside state-centric and power-centric forces.

So, we are aware that we are on the agenda of the hegemonic powers, especially the regional powers. This has been the case for years, and their focus on us is still increasing today. But at the same time, we are also on the agenda of society, especially women. We are an organization that they turn to. We have a clear system of society, and we are an organization of struggle. Therefore, we are also trying to understand and follow, with great sensitivity and seriousness, both the developments directed at us by the hegemonic powers and the interest and approach directed at us by the peoples, women, and society in general.

When viewed from the outside, the Medya Defense Zones are often perceived merely as centers from which the armed struggle is coordinated, but when a closer look is taken, one quickly realizes that this is only a very small aspect of what they are. The zones are centers where politics are discussed and developed, where new ideas and concepts are worked out…

Armed struggle had become a necessity when there was no other way left. The Kurdish people faced an existential crisis and needed a struggle that could prevent their annihilation, ensuring their survival. That is when the armed struggle came into play. The paths through democratic politics, as they are being negotiated today, did not exist back then. What did exist was a very rigid policy of denial, even assimilationist and genocidal policies. We put up a resistance against this with the method of armed struggle. That was a decision taken out of necessity, as there was no alternative.

The perception of the Medya Defense Zones as centers of war is one that was deliberately created by the special warfare they conduct. In their minds, Kurds are generally backward. In fact, if we take it further, in their minds, the Middle East is backward compared to the West; the village is backward compared to the city. These things are known. And in this understanding, Kurds are generally considered backward, not capable of developing anything. Even someone like Ecevit believed until his death that the Kurdish issue stemmed from feudalism and the lack of urbanization, and that the problem could be solved with village-city projects. A fierce struggle is being waged against us. It is a reality of war that you paint the one you are attacking in the blackest and most evil colors so that all the crimes you have committed against them are legitimized. It is a reality we see today in the Middle East. There are such comprehensive attacks against the peoples, and it is portrayed as if it were being done for freedom.

Regarding our movement, we are actually an ideological movement that did not rely on armed struggle when it was first formed. Ideology has for us the higher priority. We became a party before we developed the armed struggle. If you are going to do something, you first need to understand it, grasp it, and know what you want. You need to organize yourself as an educational force, as an educational movement.

So, as I said, the armed struggle is part of our reality; this aspect came to the fore because we were facing an existential crisis. At this point, we did everything we could to secure our existence. We waged a struggle in that way. But essentially, we waged this struggle based on the power of our ideology. We are a movement of intense education and discussion. We are a movement of art and culture that wants to be intense, despite its shortcomings. We are a movement that aims to reorganize a people that has been torn apart. We are a movement that brings together and leads towards freedom. It is wrong to reduce this struggle to a description of armed struggle. And this is something that essentially everybody is aware of.

This is something that is not portrayed in this way in the Turkish state press, of course. On the contrary, discussions surrounding the ‘Process of Peace and Democratic Society’ initiated by Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan are usually reduced to military matters. They talk about occupied territories, etc. What do you say to that?

The current mainstream media, as you are aware, is entirely the media of the ruling power. They are media that broadcast based on the official ideology and take positions according to the balance of power. In this sense, it is, of course, they are media that are biased from top to bottom. They are media that have taken side with the official ideology.

Beyond being influenced by the media, there is also the influence of this authoritarian, state-centric system on us Kurds. The way they show it, we have no existence, no identity, and no language. It mobilizes all its resources to assimilate us. It has occupied our country. The country has no name. The emotions that they create are of such a kind that a person with dignity could never accept and could never live with. It makes you feel anger because it attacks your very existence. It denies anything that makes you who you are.

Then there are also the physical attacks and the attacks on our culture. We all have experienced these intensely throughout our lives. Those before us also experienced them. If this does not change and the Kurds continue to exist, those after us will also experience them. Therefore, our only concern is to guarantee the existence of the Kurds, to enable the Kurds to live as Kurds in their own homeland.

The rhetoric of the mainstream media reflects the mentality of the state. It cannot go beyond this. It is the same as the approach of those in power, acting as its mouthpiece.

Now, there is the process of ‘Peace and Democratic Society.’ This process is a result of a century of genocide policies and rigid denial policies not working. Not because they did not try hard enough—to put it bluntly, every government, every regime did everything in its power to conclude it—but when viewed in this context, they probably realized that it was not going to end. In other words, it was necessary to take a different route. There are also regional developments. We are in the midst of the Third World War. Nation states cannot remain as they were before. It is contrary to the nature of the matter and contrary to the nature of society.[1]