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Dear friends,
we are writing to you on February 27th from Rojava, the heart of the women’s revolution, where life is being defended at this very moment.
Today is a historic day for the Kurdish movement and all movements worldwide striving for a democratic and ecological life, for gender liberation, and for peace.
Today marks the first anniversary of the ‘Call for Peace and a Democratic Society.’ After years of isolation, after years in which there was no sign of life, Abdullah Öcalan addressed the societies of Kurdistan and the world a year ago, ushering in a new era.
As a path opener of peace, he called for the dissolution of the PKK’s organizational structures and an end to the armed struggle. The party complied, and the guerrillas also took corresponding steps.
A commission was established in the Turkish Parliament to develop solutions to the Kurdish question and the future of the Republic of Turkey.
This process stands today at a critical turning point. The war of aggression against Rojava since the beginning of the year is clearly an attempt to block this process. However, it has not succeeded in destroying the Rojava Revolution, even though it has been severely damaged. While the integration process continues to develop in Syria, the parliamentary commission in Turkey presented its proposal a few days ago. It is insufficient, but it is a start, another step on the path to a solution.
The Coordination of the Kurdistan Women’s Community (KJK) writes in its statement for today:
“A year has passed since Abdullah Öcalan’s appeal of February 27th for ‘Peace and a Democratic Society.’ The appeal has the level of a manifesto. With the power of his democratic politics, Öcalan skillfully assessed the process in our region and, in the name of the people, the oppressed classes, and women, took a historic step. This step is not only an intervention in the current process, but an intervention in the centuries to come and has the potential to illuminate entire eras. We are at a critical juncture. The further course of the process depends on whether the state and its political representatives take the issue seriously and resolve it. A fundamental prerequisite for this is that Öcalan has the means to work freely and engage in politics.”
They also make it clear that laws alone are not enough to create peace. True peace can only exist if it is social peace. They write:
“For this reason, it is of great importance that the people, the workers, revolutionaries, democrats, intellectuals, mothers, and women of Turkey embrace the call for peace and a democratic society and, on this basis, transcend prejudices and differences to become sisters and brothers to one another.”
But this is not the only statement today. Abdullah Öcalan also issued a statement, another appeal.
From the prison walls of Imrali, he declares that the phase of armed conflict must be definitively left behind and replaced by a “positive development phase” of democratic politics.”
He says: “The appeal of February 27, 2025, was a declaration that weapons become meaningless where democratic politics is implemented – and a clear decision in favor of politics. […] Instead of recognizing the historical depth, the seriousness, and the risks of the issue, it weakens us all when short-term, narrow political interests guide our actions. To continue denial and insurrection is to try to make the greatest irregularity the rule. Our appeal is not only directed at Turkey, but at resolving the question of coexistence and the resulting crises throughout the Middle East. We defend the right of all the disenfranchised to exist and to express themselves freely. Women are among the social forces without which no society or state can sustain itself. Domestic violence, femicide, patriarchal oppression – all these are present-day manifestations of a historical attack that began with the enslavement of women. That is why women are the most libertarian element and the driving force. “
I would like to emphasize one sentence in particular as a call to action:
“We want to discuss how we come together and how we live together.”
Take this to heart, discuss with your friends, comrades, and neighbors what peace means in these times of war! Because while we talk about peace, the situation in Iraq and Iran is escalating, and everything points to another war happening soon in the Middle East.
World War III is in full swing, and it can only be stopped by a profound resolution of the contradictions that create it: the contradictions of the sexes, and the contradictions between state and community, between centralized, homogeneous power and diverse societies.
Rojava, Kurdistan, the Middle East, and all of humanity need peace, and this can only be achieved through a democratic society.
With revolutionary greetings from Rojava
