Davutoglu: "We will smash the gun barrel and cleanse the mountains"
The Front: You cannot defeat the People's War of Liberation!
Shows of strength, statements that "we will hang you/cut your throat/wipe you out", massacres, torture... The basic, indispensable policies of the oligarchy and imperialism towards opposition forces that do not accept their system and are resisting are on display.
The AKP has declared war on the people and every statement it makes indicates that this is its policy.
Davutoglu (prime minister of Turkey): "Those mountains will be cleansed of those terrorists. They will be cleansed no matter what. The mountains, plains, plateaus and cities of this country will not be abandoned to the terrorists. (...) We will smash any gun barrel that anyone levels, we will cleanse those mountains.
They said they supposed they could declare districts to be autonomous. They said the Kurds would be behind them. Are you behind them?
The Kurds have supported peacekeeping operations. The Kurds want quiet, peace and security. They do not want weapons, cartridges, mines and trenches. This people is not looking for a future of trenches but a future at the ballot-box."
Erdogan: "From this hour onward only one solution will satisfy this state and this people: an end to the activities of all terror organisations and an abandonment of weapons. The weapons of terror organisations will either be surrendered to the state or concrete will be poured over them to make them unusable. There is nothing other than this that is open for discussion."
The basic policy of repression and terror of imperialism and the oligarchy towards the forces of the people does not simply take this form. One of its most important forms of attack is an assault at the ideological and political level. Repression and terror are ineffective and insufficient unless supplemented by ideological and psychological warfare.
What the imperialists and their collaborators aim for is obvious, irrespective of whether they use weapons of terror against the people and the revolutionaries or use ideological pressure: they aim to preserve their own power, make the peoples give up fighting against their authority, extinguish their struggle and make them accept their system.
This is the essence of their policy. For this they put into practice diverse policies. But we can clearly say that what determines whether their policies are effective or ineffective, achieve or do not achieve their result, is not the policies of imperialism and the oligarchy themselves but the political strength of the ideology and policies of those who are being targeted. As is shown by their behaviour and attitudes.
Minds are conquered prior to the war itself
War concludes with one of the forces that is fighting making the other side bow to its will. In war, the side that is most determined wins. And prior to the war, minds are either conquered or else not conquered.
For example: while the spokesmen of the oligarchy openly say to the Kurdish nationalists, "We will liquidate and destroy you," those individuals who speak for the Kurdish nationalist movement say:
"Nobody can win this war, we too cannot win it, we are in favour of the weapons falling silent," and the representatives of the oligarchy then say, "First of all you will hand over your weapons." On one side determination, on the other a search for conciliation... On one side "you do as I say or I will destroy you," on the other "we are persisting with peace, we are persisting with the solution process."...
Those who say "the solution process no matter what", "we are persisting with peace against war", we cannot win, the state cannot win, have the mentality that they have already lost the war. What determines such a mentality is not the weapons in their hands, because these weapons are not for establishing people's power, they are not for the liberation of the peoples, the mentality firing them is one seeking conciliation, peace and liquidation.
It is not of decisive importance for this attitude that there are guerrilla forces in the mountains and in the cities. Because the guerrilla forces in the mountains and in the cities are not governed by a revolutionary strategy, do not aim for revolution and do not seek to win, they are there as a threat brandished to make the oligarchy sit down and negotiate and seek conciliation.
Power is not a matter of weapons or the number of guerrillas or the means at their disposal. Power is a matter of ideology. It lies in the target and the aims. Power is not a matter of the noise the gun makes but the thoughts of those who guide the weapon.
What is decisive is not the politics of the enemy but the politics of the revolutionaries
After the oligarchy has perpetrated dozens of massacres, horrors, lies and deceptions, it might be thought by many that the Kurdish nationalist movement would see the true face of the enemy and abandon the policy of conciliation.
But we are seeing the exact opposite.
While the oligarchy attacks, while it gradually drives the Kurdish nationalist movement back, the latter's policies of conciliation and surrender only deepen further.
The reason for this is not the politics of the oligarchy, it is the politics of the Kurdish nationalist movement.
Its state of mind exaggerates the strength of our enemies, seeks to convince itself and the masses that "it is not possible to win", erodes the anger the people feel to make them "harmless" to the system, and so there is no point in having weapons and fighters. In the face of the enemy's massacres, this mentality offers advice that not anger but conciliation with the system is necessary. It does not try to increase the people's anger, it tries to quieten their anger and desire to struggle. And this increases their fear. Their disbelief grows. It creates intimidation and hopelessness. The massacres at the Diyarbakir rally, Suruc and Ankara were all about this.
The Kurdish nationalist movement and the left that tails it have not organised the anger that this period has given rise to, they have not turned it into a search for justice and a demand for reckoning from the oligarchy. Instead they have fallen silent or else when they have spoken they have preached "peace, common sense, reconciliation".
This is what is most striking about reformist and opportunist beliefs. Their mentality has lost any claim to power and is bankrupt. But over and above this, it is a situation where even the most basic demands of the masses are not being supported.
The shows of strength by Davutoglu and Erdogan are about confronting such a mentality. Because they know they will get a result from such shows of strength. But the oligarchy has no chance of success against revolutionary politics.
They are not strong enough to smash gun barrels! Because this is a class war!
Yes, this is a class war. A war of the oppressor against the oppressed, exploiter against exploited, rich against poor, those who are fed against those who are hungry, imperialism and the oligarchy against the oppressed peoples. A war between the just and unjust. Exploitative, class societies politically, economically and socially also create the basis for injustice. This war was started by private property, exploitation and the separation of society into classes. And it will end with the abolition of private property, exploitation and classes.
Class war is an objective reality independent of the will of classes. Classes cannot prevent this war. But those who comprehend this reality can do what is necessary. This is what class consciousness is. The forces of the exploitative ruling class and the tyrants have spewed out the threat in almost every period that "the mountains will be cleansed". But they have never succeeded in doing this. Success or failure are dependent on the determination, aims and wishes of those who fight in the mountains.
OK, are the spokesmen for the oligarchy ignorant of this truth? Certainly they know it very well.
But they also know that in the mountains there is an objective basis for taking up weapons and resisting tyranny.
This is why: they know those mountains will never be left empty and they will not be able to prevent gun barrels from being turned on themselves.
So they try to make the war they cannot prevent ineffective and deviate it from its path by resorting to shows of strength, tough guy statements that "we will hang you or cut your throat", policies of massacre and torture and ideological attacks.
It was the ruling classes themselves who showed that "the 21st century will be the century of uprisings". They have reserved for the oppressed peoples hunger, poverty and injustice through the tyranny and exploitation they practise. Moreover they are responsible for it. And for this reason they know very well that the oppressed peoples will react to their exploitation and tyranny.
In making such evaluations the imperialists and their collaborators do not seek to remove injustice, hunger or poverty. Their aim is to preserve their own governments and system and take precautions in the face of the anger and violence of the oppressed. They know the weak points of the people's forces and shape their policies accordingly. They know their own weaknesses and try to reinforce themselves at those points.
It is the Marxist-Leninists who will wage war to the end against such a force.
Rebellion against tyranny in the mountains is a statement of the search for justice
"We have swords and spindles in our belts
our spears and arrows can pierce holes
the state has issued a directive about us
the sultan has directives but the mountains are ours."
This was said by the popular folk singer Dadaloglu.
"If trouble gets too much for you
Come, come to the mountains
They hide you and won't betray you
Come, come to the mountains"
This was said by the popular folk singer Gevheri.
The mountains are ours. The mountains are a statement of resistance to tyranny and a search for justice. The mountains are the symbol of the people's liberation war. You cannot cleanse the mountains with ending the reality of rebellion. It means finishing those who fight in the mountains; it means ending tyranny and exploitation.
While tyranny and exploitation exist, while injustice, hunger and poverty exist, our country's mountains will never be empty. And our gun barrels will not be silent.
This war has continued for thousands of years.
Our most powerful weapon is our historical and political rightness. But the peoples have seen that this war is just but there are deficiencies and they have learned the correct behaviour to make use of their own strengths.
So they left for the mountains. So they developed new methods of war and strategies. Look at what the victorious commander of the Vietnamese people, General Giap, said:
"(...) Our weapon is an invincible people's war and we gained rich experience in using this weapon. Nowadays, it can be said that in military matters people's war is an even bigger discovery than atomic weapons. The people of Vietnam have contributed in an effective manner to perfecting this new weapon, and have made sound use of it. (...) The people have strengthened themselves step by step in this war and in the end the enemy will be defeated."
Peoples using this weapon have not lost sight even for a moment of their historical and political rightness. Not for even a moment can they forget why they wander these mountains, weapon in hand. To forget means to lose their most powerful weapon. To lose the reason for existence and the values they fight for.
We ourselves know very well who we are and who we are fighting against. And this is why we say you cannot defeat the people and you cannot put an end to the people's war for liberation.
War Until Liberation!
Translated by Steve Kaczynski
Yuruyus magazine no.497, November 29, 2015, pages 25-6, translated from Turkish)
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