Message from terrorist organization leader Öcalan read at DEM Party conference

The DEM Party hosted the 'International Peace and Democratic Society Conference' in Istanbul. The conference saw significant participation; Ilham Ahmed, the Foreign Relations Officer of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), participated via an online video link.

SO-CALLED SDF OFFICIAL PARTICIPATED

Ilham Ahmed, who holds a controversial position regarding Syria's territorial integrity, participated in the conference digitally. Ahmed's participation sparked widespread reaction, particularly in Turkey. The DEM Party had called on the government to allow Ahmed to enter Turkey. However, AKP Spokesperson Ömer Çelik, in his statement, expressed opposition to Ilham Ahmed's entry into Turkey, criticizing Ahmed's approach by saying, "Someone who talks about laying down arms is talking about our international obligations." Çelik also stated that the title used by Ahmed expresses an approach contrary to Syria's territorial integrity.

Another notable development at the conference was the reading of a message from PKK terrorist organization leader Öcalan.

Öcalan stated the following in his message:

'Distinguished thinkers, dear comrades, esteemed delegates, and all people who still believe that socialism is possible; I address you from Imralı Island, in a process where negotiations with the state have begun regarding the Kurdish issue in Turkey, under isolation conditions that have completed their 26th year, in search of peace and a democratic society. It is valuable and meaningful to speak with you today, here, at the International Peace and Democratic Society Conference on the path to the reconstruction of socialism.

As Kurds, we have completed our struggle for existence and dignity with the 52-year PKK struggle, and we have now entered a period where a democratic republic and a democratic society will be rebuilt. The PKK, by securing the national existence of the Kurdish people, has fulfilled its historical mission and at the same time exposed the impasse of nation-state socialism. In the 1990s, at a time when most segments were fleeing from socialism, I dedicated my entire life to rebuilding this hope by saying, "Insisting on socialism is insisting on being human." The struggle, carried out despite great costs, has today turned into a legacy kneaded with theoretical and practical criticisms. Properly owning this legacy requires moving socialism from being a memory to becoming a living social force in the pulse of the people.

The socialist tradition in history should be treated as a legacy aimed at building both peace and a democratic society, and the way to do this is to fulfill international duties in theory and practice. Although utopian socialists and Marxists have comprehensively criticized the capitalist hegemonic system since the 19th century, they could not develop a result-oriented line. Today's capitalism is no longer a crisis, but has reached the level of a disease that threatens the human species. The monopoly of violence in the form of the nation-state is decisive in this collapse. Just as capitalism cannot be explained solely by economic reasons, we cannot explain the failure of socialist movements solely by capitalist pressure. Historical and current errors are also decisive in the decline.

'WHAT WE FEEL AS SOCIALISTS IS SELF-CRITICISM'

My criticisms of Marxism should be understood correctly. I am not blaming Marx; in his time, history was not as illuminated as it is today, there was no ecological crisis, and capitalism was in its rise period. And despite all this, Marx is an ideologue with high self-confidence who can constantly question his own views. He sees women's freedom, but because he read it superficially and did not grasp its depth, he believed that if economic exploitation were overcome, this would also be overcome automatically. The cost of trying to explain social history only through class, and not being able to sufficiently resolve the state and the nation-state, has had heavy consequences. While making all these criticisms, I would also like to add that I have great respect for Marx's labor, I do not doubt his intentions, and I see Marxism as separate from Marx. When we criticize Marxism and real socialism on some fundamental issues, what we feel as socialists is self-criticism.

Anti-system forces need to re-examine historical materialism in a way that suits the reality of human society. It is important to know that capitalism did not 'descend from the sky' in the 16th century, and that its roots extend to the 10–12 thousand-year civilization evolution in Lower Mesopotamia. Centers like Göbeklitepe and Karahantepe illuminate this historical beginning. For this reason, I find it more accurate to define the current civilization system as the 'Castic social killer system.' Archaeological and anthropological findings show that male hunter castes suppressed and enslaved woman-centered clan communities with the killing techniques they developed. This is the most deep-rooted rupture in human history. It is also a great counter-revolution that determined all subsequent development of civilization.

Analyzing capitalism from a past historical perspective will be quite enlightening. This system not only fuels intra-societal contradictions but also brings an end to the human species by developing chemical and nuclear weapon systems that will completely destroy the planet, polluting the climate, and destroying nature entirely to plunder underground and above-ground riches. Presenting a new capitalist analysis to humanity, remaining bound to this reality, is also among the fundamental duties of the international.

It is necessary to look at the history of the oppressed with a commune perspective as a self-defense formation before class. For this, there is a need for a history perspective that sees primitive tribes as the beginning of the commune and extends to the class called the proletariat today or all the oppressed.

Based on this, we say that history is not limited to class struggle. While including this, it is more accurate to read history as a relationship and conflict process between communal development dating back to approximately 30 thousand years ago and anti-communal development.

I believe that your conference will conduct important discussions that will contribute to a new political program and understanding of organization based on the theoretical analyses I have presented. The fundamental method in this process is dialectical materialism. However, some excesses of classical dialectics must be overcome. We must see contradictions not as ends that destroy each other, but as social phenomena that nourish each other. Because there is no state without a commune, and no proletariat without a bourgeoisie. Therefore, it is necessary to handle contradiction not with a destructive logic, but with a transformative historical perspective.

Scientific developments also show that as long as the dialectical method is not absolutized, it is still an effective tool in social analyses. In this framework, updating the commune-state and class-state dialectic is mandatory. The failure of 20th-century real socialism also stemmed from not being able to read this historical dialectic correctly: while statist socialism was seizing the state, it was eventually defeated by the state. By linking the right to self-determination of nations to the nation-state, it was also trapped within the limits of bourgeois policies. The concept of the 'proletarian nation-state' also created no result other than the reproduction of the statist mentality. Reading this truth correctly, I expressed the following: Nation-state socialism leads to failure, while democratic society socialism leads to victory. Today is the time to walk towards democratic liberation on the basis of democratic society socialism. On this path, I am moving forward believing that we will succeed in reconstruction with a woman-liberatory, ecological, democratic society paradigm, with a perspective of a democratic republic and democratic nation instead of the state.

This consciousness has brought our movement to a socialist program that can respond to the needs of the century by providing it with ideological and political renewal, organizational dynamism, and popularization. The relationship of democratic socialism with the state is also being reshaped in the process of solution and peace. I define my relationship with the state as a relationship of democratization. The understanding of a democratic republic requires the state to be a structure that operates within the framework of a democratic contract it has made with society, rather than a divine power over society. It is possible to create change and transformation in the state with a democratic politics strategy and to rebuild society on a democratic basis.

Grounding this strategy in law will form the permanent foundation of peace. Law is a tool of solution that prevents violence as a guarantee and balancing mechanism of the democratic relationship between the state and society. At the same time, it will assume a role that institutionalizes the establishment, legitimacy, and reconstruction of the social order of the democratic republic.

'MUST BE BASED ON 3 FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES'

One of the arguments I put forward as a fundamental struggle strategy within this was democratic integration and its concept of law. The law of democratic integration, where law is restructured in favor of society with individual and universal norms and collective rights, must also be based on three fundamental principles;

Law of free citizens

Law of peace and democratic society

Laws of freedom

The law of democratic integration will both transform the state into a norm-state and mean that society achieves its freedom by bringing the existence it has gained to institutional construction. The 'Call for Peace and Democratic Society' process I have initiated is a process of dialogue. In a region of complex ethnicities, religions, and sects like the Middle East, there is much to be achieved through dialogue and democratic negotiation. In fact, I find it appropriate for a meaningful socialism to organize itself not as a violence-filled revolution understanding, but as a positive construction and existence systematic, and for this to take place in the form of democratic dialogue. It is difficult to believe that socialism can be built without relying on a comprehensive and in-depth democratic dialogue, or that it can be permanent even if it is built. Lenin also said, 'Socialism cannot be built without comprehensive, developed democracy.'

With this thought and belief, I wish our meeting to be successful again, and I offer my never-ending comradely greetings and love.

06.05.2025

Abdullah ÖCALAN

Imralı Island'