Stateless Democracy

ack then. In doing so, we would be giving a magical attribute
to what happened over the past 40 years. On the
contrary, although there was a solid footing, the view of
women’s enslavement and thus freedom developed to the
extent that it did as a result of the participation of women
in larger numbers and Öcalan’s dialectical approach as the
movement’s main strategist. Another important factor is
the complexity of the Kurdish question itself. There was
no easy answer or solution to the Kurdish question, and
the status quo that formed around it did not give way to
an easy solution. The Yalta Conference of 1945 between
the Soviet Union and the United States exasperated the
already terrible situation of their denial and policies of
elimination. Thus there was no room for deception; all
forms of dominant ideologies or venues that assimilated
movements into the system were shut down before the
PKK. This, I believe, led to the true freedom quest and to
see the disguise over different movements and ideologies.
However there was a military coup in Turkey in 1980.
The freedom movement was still very young and yet
not fully organized when we consider that the PKK was
founded in 1978. It was one of the harshest military coups
of all times. Many were killed. Thousands of people were
arrested, thrown into prisons, and put through horrendous
torture. Many more hundreds of thousands of people
were gathered in schools and sports stadiums and tortured.
Soon the renewed obedience of society was reinstalled
— or so they thought.
The resistance and struggle of the PKK members in
the notorious Diyarbakır prison — amidst them the resistance
of women and especially that of the founding member
of the PKK Sakine Cansız — soon became an almost
mythological narrative. The freedom aspirations of Kurdish
people but especially that of Kurdish women, and more
specifically Cansız’s relentless struggle and her resistance
in the face of the horrendous torture to which she was
subjected, paved the way for women to play a major role
in the days to come.
While at the beginning, the women’s struggle within
the PKK did not transcend the borders of the old left, it
could also not be contained by them. Öcalan’s role here is
important, both as a strategist and as the political leader
of the Kurdish movement. He did not ignore the enslavement
of women nor their desire and struggle for freedom.
Despite negative reactions from some male members
of the organization, Öcalan opened up political, social,
cultural, ideological, organizational space for women.
He stood strongly by this.
Women joined the guerilla forces from the beginning
because of the sexism they faced in feudal tribal structures
as well as the fury they felt in the face of increasing
colonialist and exploitative oppression against the Kurds by
the Turkish Republic. People from all walks of life came to
wage a common struggle. Yet coming together and joining
a revolutionary movement was not on its own enough
to overcome the attitudes inherited from colonialist and
feudal structures. Problems began to emerge, especially
in the approach towards women; there was an attempt at
regenerating traditional roles amongst the guerilla forces
and party structures. There were those women who accepted
the regeneration of these roles and there were also
women who rejected them. Thus, realizing the severity of
the problem, the organization established the Union of the
Patriotic Women of Kurdistan (YJWK) in 1987. The foundation
of this union was the very first declaration of intent to
target a unique and separate women’s organization.
In the nineties, there was a huge influx of women in
the guerilla forces. This compelled the formation of a new
organization within the guerilla forces. In 1993, the very
first all-women units were formed. This meant that women
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