{"id":14669,"date":"2026-07-16T12:05:55","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T10:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/?p=14669"},"modified":"2026-07-16T12:10:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T10:10:00","slug":"beyond-the-assertion-of-kurdish-existence-messages-on-societal-organization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/beyond-the-assertion-of-kurdish-existence-messages-on-societal-organization\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyond the Assertion of Kurdish Existence: Messages on Societal Organization"},"content":{"rendered":"

The congratulatory message addressed by the leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, Abdullah \u00d6calan, to the editorial board of the magazine \u201c<\/span>Kominal\u201d <\/span>on the occasion of its inaugural issue, can be considered a theoretical framework for the entirety of the new stage\u2019s policies currently being undergone\u2014and actively shaped\u2014by the Kurdish movement in Northern Kurdistan.<\/span><\/p>\n

The new magazine emerges as the mouthpiece of the Kurdish movement in Turkey, replacing the magazine <\/span>Serxweb\u00fbn (<\/span>Independence), which published its first issue in 1978 and carried the ideas and theories of the movement\u2019s leadership alongside their analyses of Kurdish reality and the developments of both political and military actions vis-\u00e0-vis the Turkish state. Now, that magazine has ceased publication, succeeded by <\/span>Kominal<\/span>, which will focus on the phase of “peace and democratic society” launched by \u00d6calan in his historic address in February 2025.<\/span><\/p>\n

In his message, \u00d6calan emphasizes the importance of the new platform transcending theoretical debates in favor of building a vibrant media discourse capable of responding to all the questions of Kurdish society regarding this new stage. He seeks a living interaction and contact with society and the debates taking place within it. He wants a rapid tempo that keeps pace with the demands of the era, thereby allowing a departure from the framework of theoretical talk to delve into explaining concepts. In \u00d6calan’s view, the “new media line” means engaging society in politics, descending from the world of theorizing to the lived world and the practical field, where questions pour in from all directions regarding the essence of the new phase, the changes it will bring, and even the nature of the duties it will impose on society\u2014especially on the “solid core” carrying the Kurdish struggle project in Northern Kurdistan, as well as in the major cities and “metropolises” of Turkey.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00d6calan wants language that formulates lines of action, maps out the steps and stages of organizing society, and “invents practical ways and methods.” He wants language capable of providing the appropriate and adequate response to the requirements of the “peace and democratic society” phase. This phase will be one of building social organization\u2014that is, the phase of “building the commune”\u2014where society is organized, prepared, and trained to be politically conscious, understanding the stage and what lies beyond it, and capable of achieving “societal empowerment.” This empowerment aims to transform the Kurds into a key political actor and policymaker inside Kurdistan, Turkey, and abroad.<\/span><\/p>\n

This language also encompasses the necessity of defining the headings of organizational work and drawing its lines, rather than merely indulging in theorization, “regurgitating” basics, and re-interpreting what is already interpreted\u2014far removed from elitist theoretical discourse that breeds confusion and leaves ambiguity when attempting to provide answers. On the contrary, what is required are clear headlines for society that translate into practical plans and actions on the ground, deepening social organization and guiding the Kurdish citizen toward choosing the paths that assert their existence and force the opposing counterpart in power to yield to their rights and accept them as an influential actor and decision-making partner.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to bearing the burden of the “peace and democratic society” phase, the new platform is also tasked with researching and excavating Kurdish history. All of this is to prepare the “new Kurd,” who departs from a history laden with tragedies and genocides to position themselves in a present that enables them to “correct” and “review” that history, building a new personality that mobilizes the legacy of “half a century” of struggle and sacrifice to establish a new reality where they are the subject, not the object.<\/span><\/p>\n

The previous phase of struggle was one of rescuing the Kurds from cultural genocide. It was a phase in which Kurdish youth (as well as revolutionary Turkish youth) refused to let the Kurd remain a lifeless corpse after undergoing all those genocides and policies of national assimilation. Those youth refused to let the Kurd be dead; instead, they took their hand to make them rise and revolt, thereby proving their existence in life and making everyone understand that the embers of the Kurdish struggle remain burning beneath the ashes, capable of igniting anew to light the path of freedom and burn the chains of injustice. In that history, fifty years ago, \u00d6calan and his comrades launched the phrase: “We are capable of drawing strength from the reality of our people.” This is the very phrase that brought Kurdish society to this stage, where existence is recorded and established, and political presence is asserted. In \u00d6calan’s words, the Kurdish movement has accomplished its mission of imposing the “Kurdish existence” upon everyone, putting an end to the debate over the “cultural” and “scientific” wreckage left by the Turkish official establishment regarding the “Mountain Turks” and their isolation (or rather, their erasure!) that spanned thousands of years, turning them from “Turks” into “Kurds.” Here, according to \u00d6calan, the Kurdish movement achieved an “anthropological” and “ontological” breakthrough, establishing the truth as it is, while restoring prestige and dignity to science.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, it is crucial to protect the “existing Kurds” with their language and culture, to guarantee their presence in politics, and to continue the democratic struggle to achieve their full freedom. The era of “real socialism” and the phase of the “national liberation war” have ended, but a new phase is rising: the phase of “peace and democratic society,” in which the Kurd will be present, active, participating, and contributing with enthusiasm, confidence, and a deeper understanding of all the developments and changes occurring around them. All of this will be achieved through “developing the theory of democratic modernity, establishing the program of democratic society, and consolidating democratic politics.” The primary and essential building block in creating all of this is building the commune\u2014meaning the primary social organization\u2014and mobilizing and rallying around it to construct the entire structure of a deep-rooted “democratic society” that relies on a solid and conscious base for its decisions and its understanding of reality.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the text of the message, \u00d6calan states:<\/span><\/p>\n

“The magazine <\/span>Kominal<\/span>, which began publication at a historic stage, has declared its adoption of all these tasks. Through its name, it has confirmed its determination to accomplish them. Therefore, this new publication should not be viewed merely as a periodical; rather, it must be the voice of the social, political, and ideological construction of the new era, and perform a guiding and directing role. Undoubtedly, the effort exerted to build a solid theoretical framework is important, but the requirements of the new phase demand a focus on the headings of practical organization, and that this work plays a leading role in the process of societal construction, because the new phase will be the phase of social organization. This also means the necessity of working together on construction projects, in a collective spirit based on the philosophy of social organization. A publishing policy that takes the self-organization of the people, social organization, councils, cooperatives, women\u2019s and youth organizations, and moral and cultural reconstruction as its foundation will carry the spirit of the new stage, because a democratic society does not grow or endure except through organized relations in daily life. Therefore, alongside theoretical depth, this policy must pay great attention to practical organizational experiences, their methods, and their ways of development.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Accordingly, what is required is a platform that guides and directs the Kurdish citizen to be a politically conscious individual, rallying within the “social organization” and contributing to shaping the structure of this alignment, while spreading national and democratic awareness among all segments of Kurdish society and the segments of other components in Kurdistan and Turkey.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The congratulatory message addressed by the leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, Abdullah \u00d6calan, to the editorial board of the magazine \u201cKominal\u201d on the occasion of its inaugural issue, can be considered a theoretical framework for the entirety of the new stage\u2019s policies currently being undergone\u2014and actively shaped\u2014by the Kurdish movement in Northern Kurdistan. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1249,"featured_media":14670,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"jnews_post_split":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,61],"tags":[142,983,399,36],"ppma_author":[904],"class_list":["post-14669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","category-slider","tag-abdullah-ocalan","tag-kurdish-question","tag-northern-kurdistan","tag-turkey"],"authors":[{"term_id":904,"user_id":1249,"is_guest":0,"slug":"tariq-hamo","display_name":"Tariq Hemo","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Tariq-Hamo-2.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Tariq-Hamo-2.jpg"},"0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1249"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14669"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14673,"href":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14669\/revisions\/14673"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14669"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=14669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}