MLKP Turkey/Kurdistan November 29, 2024
The Scope of National Question
In the early 20th century, the national question primarily revolved around the issue of colonial oppression, with colonized nations fighting for freedom from imperialist powers. The struggle was about breaking the chains of imperialist rule, even within multinational states, like the Russian Empire, Austro-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire. National and colonial oppression was linked to imperialism’s dominance.
The October Revolution, alongside the victories of antifascist wars, catalyzed the global collapse of imperialist colonialism, fueling national liberation movements worldwide. The victory of the Vietnam Revolution in 1975 and the independence of Portugal’s African colonies signified the decline of formal colonial rule. However, imperialism transformed from traditional colonialism into neocolonialism, with the U.S. playing a pivotal role in leading this shift. Neocolonialism created multinational states where oppressed nations were still subjected to economic, political, and cultural domination, ruled by elites who collaborated with imperialism, as seen in countries like Turkey, South Africa, or Indonesia. The fight against imperialist control in these mutlinational countries is inherently democratic. Oppressed nation’s resistance against imperialist powers, and their fight for self-determination, aligns with broader democratic and anti-fascist movements. In the Americas and Oceania, indigenous peoples, decimated during the colonization era, continue to face racism and disenfranchisement. The struggle of indigenous people, emphasizes the return of their ancestral lands, political autonomy, and the end of cultural assimilation, is also a democratic struggle.
In this period, qualitatively changes of imperialist world system introduced the era of imperialist globalization. The world capitalist system has integrated and neocolonies turned to financial-economic colonies, where all restrictions limiting the free movement of capital were
eliminated, allowing capital to flow freely into any country, where labor was cheaper or markets had more potential. The tendency of the internationalization of production and the integration of the entire economy reduces the material basis of the nation-state, because the economic unification and internationalization of the world is incompatible with national borders and national economies became interdependent. But the nation-state remains the foundational platform for monopolies, as imperialist globalization necessitates the preservation of the nation-state system rather than its dissolution. This is because uneven development grows more pronounced, and imperialist competition intensifies. Contradictions inside and among nation-states have aggravated. With regional integrations, this competition had become a general tendency.
Despite the objetively and historically narrowing scope of the national question under imperialist globalization, national liberation movements retain their revolutionary potential. The struggles in Kurdistan and Palestine today demonstrate that oppressed nations are still capable of challenging and undermining the imperialist system.
Kurdistan and the patriotic socialist struggle
After the First Imperialist Partition War and the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire, Kurdistan was divided among four colonial powers: the French in Rojava (West Kurdistan), the British in Başûr (South Kurdistan), the Turkish in Bakur (North Kurdistan), and the Iranian in Rojhilat (East Kurdistan). Following the withdrawal of the French and British imperialists, Rojava and Başûr fell under Arab bourgeois control. Bakur, the largest part, suffered the harshest colonial oppression, with the Turkish state denying Kurdish identity, banning the language, assilimating and exiling millions, and committing massacres. Throughout the history, the Kurdish people repeatedly rebelled against this colonial rule, with the PKK’s 1984 guerilla struggle recorded as the “30th Kurdish Rebellion” by Turkish Authorities. Since then, the Kurdish Freedom Guerilla is waging a revolutionary war for 40 years against the NATO-affiliated Turkish bourgeoisie with its second largest NATO army. The PKK’s position against bourgeois nationalism, its internationalist solidarity with Marxist-Leninist forces, and its vision of Kurdish liberation through a united regional revolution make it a strategical ally in the struggle for the social liberation of Turkey and Kurdistan. The Kurdish liberation struggle is, at its core, an anti-colonial and anti-imperialist struggle that intersects with the broader social liberation of all the oppressed peoples of Turkey.
The Kurdish national liberation struggle is an uprising against colonialism and denial and determines the struggle for social liberation in whole of Turkey. Those who distance themselves from this just and legitimate struggle are objectively siding with the Turkish bourgeois state, that maintains hegemony over Turkish workers through chauvinism. The yoke over Kurdistan is the main reason why basic rights and freedoms, political freedom is suppressed throughout Turkey by the repressions of the fascist state.
Some political forces claim that the Kurdish national struggle serves imperialism. According to this view, the imperialists would want to divide the Turkish state and abolish its independence and use the Kurdish national liberation struggle with this intention. The links
between USA and the Barzani Clan in South Kurdistan are shown example in this narrative. According to this social chauvinist view, it is precisely the Kurdish national liberation struggle that leads to the Turkish state fomenting chauvinism, preventing the Turkish working class from dealing with its own economic democratic demands and dropping the problems of the class from the agenda. Apart from the fact that this view hides a base economism, it also obscures the fact that the struggle against colonialism is the main axis of the class struggle in Turkey. As long as the working class of Turkey does not unite with the Kurdish national liberation against colonialism and imperialism, it cannot liberate itself from the Turkish bourgeoisie, which together with the Zionist entity, is a stronghold of imperialism in the region. The Kurdish national liberation struggle has an objective anti-imperialist character. Some others, however, reject the armed methods of the Kurdish national liberation struggle, arguing that such actions provide the state with a pretext to repress the entire society and brutally oppress workers. But the armed struggle is not the cause, but the consequence of oppression. The origin of fascism in Turkey today is the colonial yoke over Kurdistan. As long as this yoke is not broken, which is only possible with arms, the fascist dictatorship and its military- technology complex cannot be broken either. That is why the anti-fascist struggle and the anti- colonial struggle go into each other. Every nation whose existence has been denied and which has been deprived of its rights has the right to defend itself. The armed defense of its own national existence and rights is fully just, legitimate and revolutionary; it is part of self-defense. The guerrillas of Kurdistan are fighting a revolutionary war, a just war. The NATO-aligned Turkish bourgeoisie and the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) are waging an unjust, counter- revolutionary, reactionary, and oppressive war. This war maintains the regional colonization of all four parts of Kurdistan and upholds the imperial regional order.
Socialist patriots in Kurdistan represent the integration of national liberation with socialist objectives, where the struggle against colonialism and national oppression is inseparable from the fight for social and class liberation. Meanwhile, communists in Turkey, as consistent internationalists, unconditionally support the liberation of Kurdistan through all means, united in their revolutionary aims. This revolutionary internationalism is embodied in the martyrs from Turkey, who fought against the Turkish colonial state in defense of Rojava/North and East Syria.
The Risks of Tactical Maneuvers Amid Imperialist Contradictions
The ISIS attack on Kobanê ignited a powerful revolutionary resistance that garnered worldwide sympathy and brought international recognition to the Kurdish Question. In contrast, the U.S. struggled to make significant progress against ISIS, while Kurdish revolutionaries successfully defended North and East Syria on the ground. Mass pressure compelled the U.S. to intervene militarily through the anti-ISIS coalition, resulting in a temporary tactical alliance with Kurdish forces, despite their divergent long-term strategic objectives. For the U.S., this intervention aligned with its broader goals of countering Iran, curbing Russia’s influence, and safeguarding Israel’s interests. For the Kurdish liberation movement, the military cooperation with the U.S. was a necessary tactical decision to defend the revolution against ISIS and the Turkish colonialist attacks, leading to developments like involving U.S. oil companies and military bases in the region.
However, this alliance is unstable, as U.S. imperialist presence is antagonistic to the revolutionary democratic goals of the Kurdish liberation movement. The U.S. seeks to suppress the revolutionary content of Rojava’s Autonomous Administration, aiming to reduce it to a local, collaborationist model similar to Iraq’s Kurdish autonomy. Despite their contradictions, the Turkish NATO state remains a strategic ally of the U.S. in the region. Revolutionary forces must remain vigilant against the threats posed by imperialism.
To secure the revolution, the Autonomous Administration must resist relying on tactical maneuvers with imperialist powers and instead focus on building and consolidating the democratic people’s organization and defence. The revolution’s strength lies in its ability to use contradictions between imperialist and reactionary forces, while expanding common property and strengthening its social base. Communists in Rojava not only defend the region militarily but also participate in building the revolution and educating the people about the risks posed by imperialism.
Strategical Unity of the People
On October 7th, the anticolonial front of the Palestinian resistance dealt a significant blow to Israel, breaking through its Iron Dome. This marks a turning point in the struggle against Zionist occupation, with Palestinians asserting their determination for self-determination.
Simultaneously, Rojava in northern Syria remains a hotbed of revolution, resisting Turkish fascism’s airstrikes and occupation. The Kurdish and Arab peoples in Syria have built an alliance that is the guarant of the democratic revolution. Both Israel and Turkey, as colonial states, rely on imperialist support and use racism and religion to justify their expansionist policies and oppression. The Palestinian and Kurdish struggles are deeply intertwined, as both peoples resist occupation, despite facing prison, massacres, torture, and genocide. The formation of alliance between these liberation movements is strategical for their success. We must firmly repel any imperialist and Zionist attempts to sow mistrust and division among peoples under the illusion of concessions and solutions. Throughout history, Kurdish and Turkish revolutionaries have stood in solidarity with Palestine, receiving first military training in Palestinian camps and fighting against Zionism. The liberation of Kurdistan and Palestine are inseparable; as long as one remains under occupation, the struggle in the Middle East will continue. This historical bond represents the path to the only revolutionary solution in the region.
The region is in deep political crisis, exacerbated by imperialism, lack of political freedom, unresolved national issues, and religious conflicts. Popular uprisings across the Middle East are a sign that this crisis is evolving into a revolutionary moment. The fight against imperialism and colonialism is inseparable from the fight against capitalism, and the liberation of the Middle East can only be achieved through the liberation from capitalist structures.
While Rojava is taking steps toward democratic revolution, lasting change requires regional cooperation and continuation of the revolution. A revolutionary democratic federation in the Middle East, with the goal of socialism, offers the most viable path forward. This federation
would address national questions—such as the Kurdish and Palestinian question—and challenge the current borders set by imperialist powers. By breaking up the existing colonial states, and forming new, equal, democratic states, the Middle East would undergo a revolutionary transformation.