Kemal Okuyan explains the TKP's stance on Palestine: 'The Left will act according to its own values'

TKP General Secretary Kemal Okuyan made striking remarks regarding the ongoing war between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians.

On Saturday, October 7, Palestinian groups in Gaza broke through the Gaza blockade with an unexpected attack and infiltrated Israel. The clashes are still ongoing, but the focus has now shifted to Israel's indiscriminate bombardment of Gaza. Let's return to the first day. The primary force in the operation was undoubtedly Hamas.

TKP General Secretary Kemal Okuyan spoke to soL.

The numbers are still not clear, but during the initial infiltration on the first day, in addition to military targets, many civilians were also killed and kidnapped. The images from that day sparked a reaction in many people. Even those who support the Palestinian resistance condemned the operation. The TKP, however, issued a statement saying, "The Palestinian resistance is legitimate." Instead of discussing the details, you chose to make such a direct and sharp statement; why?

To avoid becoming a tool for the propaganda of the Israeli state and imperialists, and to push back against this propaganda! Look, is it possible for us to defend the brutality and barbarism in these images? Some of these were filmed and circulated by Hamas. There is a calculation here as well. However, an incredible campaign has been launched across Israel, the US, and Europe aimed at eliminating the legitimacy of the Palestinian resistance, which has been ongoing for decades.

First and foremost, it was necessary to take a stance and intervene in this. We were going to face a situation where the Palestinian resistance was claimed only by political Islamists and jihadists in Turkey. Ultimately, they want to sacrifice the Palestinian issue to the perception of "civilized and peaceful Israelis, barbaric Arabs." The TKP will not bow to this.

Well, it is certainly difficult to know and interpret what is happening on the ground, but we still want to ask: Could the operation not have been carried out more meticulously and responsibly? Why was it chosen to create and also share the terrifying images?

There is no simple answer to this question. First of all, this is an operation carried out against a force that is many times stronger in terms of military power, but it can never be called small. Thousands of Palestinian resistance fighters participated in this operation. When you reach these numbers, control becomes increasingly difficult. Moreover, for every young person in Palestine, Israel has only one meaning: death and cruelty. It is clear that the armed groups that infiltrated Israel acted with great anger. Look, a Palestinian journalist who entered Israel with the resistance fighters says, "For the first time in my life, I felt free"; one must understand this feeling. Israel was inflicting what it experienced on October 7 upon the Palestinians every single day.

There are also those in the public who express the view that "conducting this operation in this way and the images that emerged harm the Palestinian cause." How do you interpret this, what did they calculate?

The TKP's thoughts on Hamas are clear. It is also clear that we did not watch these horror images saying, "well, what goes around comes around." We have no duty or intention to rationalize what Hamas did or to create excuses for them. However, it is clear that they wanted to shatter the Israeli state's perception of "I can do whatever I want, no one can touch me, I protect myself." They were successful in this. A large segment in Israel is blaming Netanyahu, saying, "It was clear that these policies would explode at some point."

'THE TRUTH IS COVERED BY THE TRUTH'

Let's go back to the beginning, to the first day and the TKP's stance. As we said, some of those who condemned the Palestinians in the face of the images were people who had supported the Palestinian resistance in the past. Among them are those who see the TKP as a friend, and they express the following: "Couldn't the TKP have said, 'Regardless of the purpose, what happened is unacceptable'?"

It's not that it couldn't say it, it wouldn't say it. Look, reducing this operation to "they killed civilians" is not correct. There is a political will here. Moreover, this operation cannot be reduced to Hamas. Hamas is undoubtedly the strongest and leading organization, but for the first time in a long time, Palestinian groups are acting with such large-scale cooperation. All Palestinian revolutionary organizations are part of this process. Contrary to what is claimed, the Palestinians' operation is primarily aimed at military targets and is successful to a degree that surprises everyone. To cover this up, images of violence against civilians are constantly being circulated.

This is the characteristic of our age. The truth is covered by the truth. Let alone the world, even in Turkey, which has a special sensitivity regarding Palestine, the reaction given to the barbarism of Israel in Palestine did not even reach a tenth of the reaction given to what happened on Saturday. Some prejudices also play a role in this. I don't want to go into that here. But let me just say this: there are deep-rooted prejudices that create the feeling that "jihadist barbarians massacred civilized, modern, innocent Israelis." On top of this comes imperialist propaganda.

'THE MEDIA DOES NOT CIRCULATE THESE'

Your observation that there was not as much reaction to the death of Palestinians as there was to the death of Israelis on the first day is correct. On the other hand, isn't there the influence of the mainstream media's dominance over which images and which footage will be produced and how they will be spread?

There is. Look, I have been following all the Western media for a few days. It was like this before, too. They show Israel's destruction of houses, hospitals, schools, and mosques in Gaza with a general plan. In the distance, multi-story buildings collapse one after another, as if there is no blood, no death, no horror, no barbarism while Israel is striking. They handle their business with high technology, with clean hands. That is the perception. We have known for years that Israeli soldiers have killed countless children and women, sometimes for no reason at all. The media does not circulate these.

Well, let's go back to a point you made at the beginning: you said that some of the images from Saturday were circulated by the Palestinian groups themselves. Whether you call it "perception management" or "imagistic struggle," is it useful to follow the same method as Israel in this fight? Do you have a problem with this approach?

This barbarism is inherent in Hamas's ideology. We are fighting against this ideology. However, those who try to reduce the Palestinian resistance to this ideology do not know what they are saying. A government that says "it is time to get rid of Palestine completely" is in power in Israel. They have put into effect a systematic policy aimed at suffocating the Palestinians step by step. A strong voice saying "enough" came from Palestine. Regardless of its reasons, whys, and consequences, this voice is legitimate. It is enough for everyone in Turkey and the Middle East to be as sensitive as the TKP regarding the struggle against political Islam and to do their part. The Left in this region needs to regroup and become a dominant force. And, of course, the Left will act according to its own values.

'THE EROSION OF VALUES IS INEVITABLE'

Can you say, "If revolutionaries were still the main force in Palestine, these images would not have happened"?

They wouldn't have happened, of course. But this is war. There is no clean war. Never. There is no "aesthetics" on a ground where one strives to end human life. We must get rid of wars entirely. This is possible by eliminating the causes that create wars. But of course, revolutionaries also reflect their own values in their struggle. This is a moral development. On the other hand, as numbers increase, the erosion of these values is inevitable.

There have been many just wars in history. These were legitimate to the end. But none of them, I underline, none of them were entirely "clean." If today's technology existed, the battlefields would be full of enough dirt and brutality to condemn each one in the conscience of humanity. You control a small scale, you equip it with high morality and consciousness.

The best example of this is the guerrilla movement of Fidel and his friends in Cuba. They acted with the most advanced ethical values possible in an armed struggle. However, they were few enough to protect this; even if they had difficulties when they multiplied, they protected these principles and they already won the war. But when large units enter the picture, when numbers go from thousands to tens of thousands, to millions, even a struggle for the noblest goals becomes intertwined with the "ugly." Are we going to focus on that "ugly" or on those noble goals? The answer is very simple. When humanity has highly developed moral values to a large extent, we will have already eliminated the capitalism that causes wars.

I repeat, let us do our best, but let us not make an assessment that consists only of "they killed children." Children die in all wars. As I said, we cannot compete in barbarism. But the "barbarism" assessment of US imperialism, which is responsible for the deaths of millions of people all over the world, and its acceptance in the world, makes me sick.

Not even three days before the operation of the Palestinian resistance, 123 people were killed in a drone attack on a military academy graduation ceremony in the city of Homs, Syria. 35 of them were women and children. No one has claimed the attack yet, but either Israel, the US, or a jihadist organization carried out this drone attack. The imperialist media didn't even care. They didn't care when jihadists were beheading people in Syria for years, then when they needed to settle in Syria using the same jihadists as an excuse, the images started to be circulated. This is the Western media.

I repeat, we must be very vigilant so that they do not take over our minds in this dirty and complex world. We had to stand against the systematic campaign carried out to delegitimize the Palestinian resistance and reduce it to Hamas on October 7. Not only the TKP, but communist parties all over the world acted vigilantly on this issue. Among these, the Communist Party of Israel, which says the responsibility lies with Netanyahu, should be especially noted. As for the influence of jihadists in the Middle East... Let no one worry, the only force that can break this influence is again the communists.