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Although some people might well get upset at this, I thought I would clarify my own personal opinion of the PKK although I usually brush it off.
My opinion is simple, they are at the point in their history where they are doing more harm than good by staying as they are.
My opinion is simple, they are at the point in their history where they are doing more harm than good by staying as they are.
I am not an ideologue. I subscribe to no real direction politically except promoting equal rights for citizens as well as good, representative governance.
In light of this, I think every political movement needs to ask what it is they want to achieve as well as how to do that.
In light of this, I think every political movement needs to ask what it is they want to achieve as well as how to do that.
In the PKK's case, their goals have obviously changed since 1978, but the clear overall mission is some sort of democratic autonomy for Kurds in Turkey. This, alas, isn't going to happen. There simply isn't an ally in the world - not to mention Turkey itself - that will accept it
And if it was even somewhat close to realistic, is the PKK the force beat equipped to do that or is the military imbalance which is growing by the day in Turkey's favour going to make that an impossible thing to achieve through military means?
The fact is, that in Turkey, there is a Kurdish movement relatively close in following to those sympathetic to the PKK which is attempting to achieve more measured goals and is being hampered through government insistence party members are linked to the PKK.
PKK offshoots in other areas (if we want to say HDP and PKK are at least spiritually related) are doing historically well through adapting and changing to suit a flexible political and military solution they can entrench themselves in. The PKK is also only hampering here.
These are all complex points and there is a lot to be said of the e experience of Qandil helping all these movements get started as well as Kurdish people even existing in any important capacity in Turkey today being partly because of the military struggle they forged.
But the reality is still what it is. If there is no attainable goal, and the existence of the org itself is hampering at least overt goals from succeeding, I think it is time to internally discuss what there is left to do.
This is the internet and I expect a lot of pushback for this thread - especially at this time. But I felt I needed to be honest about how I see that particular org.
