PKK Presidium Statement

To Our Patriotic People, To The Revolutionary,
Patriotic Forces, And The Free Nations

     The imperialist and Zionist forces have completed the
process of transforming Turkey into an aggressive
fascist force. The results of the April 18, 1999
elections are a clear indication of this. The DSP and
MHP [the two ultra-rightist parties] won the election
as a requirement of a plan put into action some time
ago. The plot against our National Leader, the closing
of the Kurdish Med-TV, the arrests and aggressions
against the Kurds, and several other fascist
initiatives were carried out in order to bring the
Turkish Republic to a position appropriate to the role
assigned to it. Thus, the Turkish army, ever ready to
serve the interests of imperialism and Zionism,
acquired the political mask it badly needed with these
elicited results of the elections. Thus, the
preparatory phase for [the coming] attacks against the
Kurdish people and the anti-imperialist forces within
Turkey, and abroad against those forces that are either
opposed to the New World Order or could not adjust to
it, has been completed. Now, the Turkish armed forces
are ready to fulfill - both domestically and in the
international arena - through genocide and oppression,
the tasks that its masters have assigned to it. As an
expansionist force, it is paused to attack in the
Middle East, in the Caucasus, and in the Balkans.
     After the fall of the socialist system, the U.S. has
been attempting to reconfigure the world according to
its emerging interests. To realize its plan for the
'New World Order', the U.S. has concentrated its
efforts in the Middle East, in the Balkans, and in the
areas under the influence of the now fallen socialist
system. To carry out this plan, the U.S. has developed
acts of aggression in the military, economic, and
cultural fields. It [the U.S.] has acted in an
extremely harsh manner to crush the forces that showed
any resistance [to its plan], accepting nothing short
of a complete surrender. The imperialist system has
intensified its aggression in cooperation with the
collaborationist forces. The one-sided and ongoing war
that NATO has been carrying out against Yugoslavia is
put on the agenda as part of this plan for complete
surrender. The imperialist aggressions that impose
either complete surrender or elimination have brought
much death and destruction. Beside the losses in human
life, it also wreaked havoc in the infrastructure of
its targets.
     Imperialism is striving to hide the real motives of its
aggression behind the smoke screen of defending human
rights and democracy. The imperialist aggressions have
created nothing but deaths, hunger, poverty, exile, and
refugee status. It has been justifying its aggression
against Yugoslavia, also, in the name of "freeing the
people of Kosova". This contention of fighting for the
freedom of the Kosovars as an oppressed people is
nothing but a shameless lie, for has not imperialism
approved and supported by all means the [Turkish] war
of annihilation against our people in Northern and
Southern Kurdistan? Has it not been imperialism that
kidnapped our leader, Mr. Ocalan, and handed him into
the hands of the torturer-executioners of the Turkish
state? Has it not been imperialism that approved and
supported the destruction of thousands of Kurdish
villages and settlements, the genocide, expulsion,
robbery, and torture committed against our Kurdish
people? Those who could fight for the freedom of the
people of Kosova out of their sincerity could never
support the colonialist war of elimination by Turkey in
Kurdistan. They would never turn in the leader of the
liberation movement of a people to the executioners.
Contrary to the propaganda being waged right now, what
is clear is that the imperialists are waging wars in
many areas of the world for their own dirty interests.
     They want to offer our people as a sacrifice to put the
world under the imperialist hegemony. It is this fact
that underlies the unwavering support the U.S., the
Israeli, the British, and other imperialist forces
offer to Turkey. They [the imperialists] are doing all
that is needed for the plan that requires the use of
Turkey in the Middle East, in the Caucasus, and in the
Balkans. As a requirement of this plan, the
colonialist, fascist war against our people's
liberation war [in Turkey] is being intensified to
suppress it as soon as possible. The MHP-DSP were
brought to power to push the colonialist war of
annihilation [against the Kurds] to its zenith and to
initiate the active participation of Turkey in
conflicts abroad. From now on, our people will face
unhampered massacres leading to complete annihilation,
expulsion, torture, and death and destruction. The plot
against our leader, Mr. Ocalan, will be deepened in the
absence of the reporting of the revolutionary,
alternative media such as the Med-TV. The Islamic
movement in Turkey and the revolutionary-democratic
forces will be the target of the fascist aggressions.
The occupation of Southern Kurdistan will acquire a
permanent character and [that piece of Kurdistan] will
gradually become a colony of Turkey.
     As a requirement of the new fascist character acquired
by Turkey, Mr. Ocalan, our national leader, will
increasingly be targeted for elimination by ever
intensifying extra-legal practices [methods]. The
physical, psychological and medical tortures on him
will be intensified. Our President, Mr. Ocalan, is
being held under severe conditions of heavy torture and
elimination. And daily he has been subjected to
physical, psychological, and medical torture. He has
been kept alive in an environment not much different
than a coffin, to subject him to more torture and
treatments that wound human dignity. He is deprived of
all human needs. He has no access to radio, TV,
newspapers, and books. He is not allowed to talk in
privacy with either his family or his lawyers.
Necessities that these visitors take for him are
confiscated. Due to severe restrictions, he cannot
prepare his defense. The health of our national leader
is so deteriorated that he cannot stand on his feet.
The ever more tightening of the restrictions imposed on
him a day after the elections is a sign of the
approaching intense pressures that will reach to
unbearable proportions.
     It has become quite clear that the aim of a trial that
Turkey wants to conduct under these conditions is to
eliminate Mr. Ocalan. It is also interesting that
England shut down the Kurdish Med-TV right at this
period. Just like the way the elections were engineered
to bring victory to the MHP and DSP, the trial of our
leader has also been engineered in the same way to pave
the way for his elimination. Human rights and democracy
[for which the war against Yugoslavia is supposedly
being waged] are put on a shelf [when it comes to the
Turkish treatment of the Kurds] in order to prepare the
conditions for the elimination of our leader. As we
have already mentioned, the U.S. closes its eyes to all
these violations for the sake of creating an atmosphere
conducive to Turkey's participation in interventions
elsewhere to protect the interests of the imperialists.
Human rights and democracy did not apply to the
pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party (HADEP) and other
revolutionary forces during the recent election
campaign. Practices such as extensive arrests,
prohibition of marches and demonstrations, forcing
people to vote for the fascist parties, the destruction
of the ballots cast for the HADEP, threats, and the
silencing of the patriotic press were all tolerated [by
the imperialists] as the price for this plan. That is
why the imperialist powers have accepted without
criticism the dubious elections in Turkey and deemed
them as free.
     The only way to stop the Turkish state which is getting
ready for a big assault on the Kurdish national
movement and on the anti-imperialist forces is to
expand and develop the war of resistance. The forces
that are threatened by Turkey must resist to avoid a
dishonorable surrender. These forces must unite and
resist. There is no other way of stopping the
aggression of Turkish fascism. Otherwise, what awaits
all of the revolutionary, progressive, patriotic, and
anti-imperialist forces is a dark life defined by
massacres, torture, and oppression at the hands of
fascism. Life with freedom is possible only with the
defeat of fascism.
     Our party will intensify its war of resistance against
the war of liquidation by Turkey. It will respond to
this war of annihilation against our leadership and our
people by strengthening the war of liberation. Through
a war of guerrillas, mass uprisings, and a war waged by
the 'fedai' [someone who sacrifices themself to achieve
their goal - ed.], it will do all that is necessary to
preempt the policies leading to a fratricidal war
between the Kurds and the Turks. While intensifying our
liberation war on these foundations, it must be known
that Turkish plans for annihilation of our people and
our leader will receive the harshest response. Our
party, too, is going to deny the right to life for
those who deny the right to life for our people. Peace
for peace, war for war, violence for violence - mass
response will be our unwavering line [of struggle]. We
are warning the Turkish Republic to revise for the
better all of its policies and practices directed
against our people and against our leader.

Patriotic Kurdish People!

     Following the sham elections, the conditions for the
two fascist parties [in Turkey] to take power have been
created. As you know it by experience, the fascist MHP
and DSP have been brought to power fraudulently. They
are put in positions that will enable them to carry out
more comprehensive attacks both at home and abroad. At
the same time, the atmosphere for the elimination of
our national leader is being created. They want to deny
us a future with freedom. They aim to destroy our
national gains by using barbaric methods of fascism,
they want to eliminate our national existence from the
history. The colonialist [Turkish] fascism wants to
accomplish this both in Northern and Southern
Kurdistan. It strives to squash our people everywhere,
in order to wipe out the Kurds from the history.
     Given these circumstances, the only option that we have
is to strengthen and widen the resistance for national
liberation. With utmost clarity, our people must
organize in ways that will enable them to resist and
defend themselves. Everyone should get organized
immediately for self-defense, for resistance, and to
take revenge. No one should be left unorganized. The
war which is pressed by the fascist enemy can be
defeated only through an organized war of liberation.
Thus, everyone from Kurdistan will take his/her place
in this war in an organized way and mobilize
accordingly. Every capable individual should get ready
to participate more strongly in our war to defend our
honor, secure our right to life, protect our leader,
and realize our liberation.

The Democratic, Revolutionary Forces!

     The two parties which have been groomed for power by
means of the rigged elections are here to turn Turkey
into a rabid, fascist force. The life of the majority
is threatened greatly under a government composed of
the MHP and DSP. Under these circumstances, some tasks
await every revolutionary, progressive, democratic,
patriotic force from Turkey and Kurdistan that need to
be fulfilled immediately. The holiest of all holy tasks
is to move against fascism, to wage a war to defeat it
with the resistance of the people.
     Our party, the PKK, calls on you to display, in
alliance with us, a more effective resistance against
the colonialist fascism in Turkey.

Nations Which Are Threatened By The Turkish Republic!

     The U.S., Israel, and other imperialist powers have
transformed Turkey into an active intervention force
for the Middle East, the Caucasus [Central Asia], and
the Balkans. Turkey is ready now to intervene in any
area. Turkey under the fascist rule of MHP-DSP will
aggress against sovereign nations. Turkey will want to
put an end to your progress and to your freedom. As it
happened under the Ottomans, it will drown you in a sea
of blood in order to realize the goals of Pan-Turkism.
     To avoid a predicament of this sort, the free nations
must get ready to resist with our people and urgently
provide support for the national liberation of
Kurdistan. As is due, we call on the free nations to
take action.
     Our party calls on all revolutionary, democratic,
progressive, and humanitarian forces to take a stand
against the Turkish Republic, which has undertaken the
role of Hitler's fascism [in our time], and our party
promises emphatically to fulfill its historic role.
There is no difference between the sham trial against
our leader Abdullah Ocalan and that against Dimitrov
under Hitler's fascism. The outcome of this trial will
be like the outcome of Dimitrov's trial: It will be
Turkish fascism that will be tried and condemned.

Victory To Our People In Resistance And To All Free
Nations!

Chairman's Council of the PKK
April 25, 1999