Besê Erzincan: Women’s revolutions provide for an alternative free life
KJK Coordination member Besê Erzincan said that women’s revolutions provide for an alternative free life against the state and power, and added: “Humanity needs women’s revolutions.”
In an interview published on the official website of KJK, Besê Erzincan evaluated the year 2022.
Erzincan covered many issues from the women’s revolution to the serhildan that developed around the slogan of Jin, Jiyan, Azadi, from the attacks targeting the women of the vanguard to the meaning of Kurdish people’s leader Abdullah Öcalan for the women’s movement.
How do you evaluate 2022 in terms of women’s freedom struggle?
As the women’s freedom movement, we spent 2022 in the spirit of resistance, freedom and struggle. It is becoming clear that more and more women’s liberation movement leadership is needed for the solution of the daily and contemporary crises faced by humanity. Women, who are called the oldest colony, lead the opposition against injustices, inequalities and ecological destruction. Today, everyone accepts the impact of women’s liberation movements. Scattered, fragmented women’s movements are gradually evolving towards a more integrated struggle.
The crises experienced by humanity can only be overcome by women’s revolutions. Despite all the oppression and violence of nation-states and fascism against women and society, our goal of realizing the women’s revolution continues unabated. That’s why we say that ‘the 21st century will be a century of women’.
With the rise of women’s liberation struggles in the world, the dominant male system develops strategies and tactics to try and cancel the gains of women’s liberation struggles, making women’s resistance invisible, deflecting the radical women’s liberation struggle, and prolonging its own life. There is a very comprehensive war of aggression against women.
We see that the women’s revolution, embodied in Rojava, is increasingly echoing in the world. How do you define the women’s revolution?
The revolution that took place in Rojava is a source of inspiration. The Rojava revolution is taking shape as a women’s revolution. An attempt is made to create a democratic system against the state and power. Historically, in the nation and class perspectives of the 19th and 20th centuries, women sided with men. They played a leading role with great courage and self-sacrifice at the most critical moments in the formation stages of the revolutions. They well-intentioned thought that women’s problems would be resolved naturally in traditional revolutions. However, that didn’t happen. Since women could not create their own ideology, organization and system in these revolutions, they could not establish the free life mechanism they thought. They re-involved in the existing old system. A women’s revolution was necessary within the revolution. This could have been possible with the development of the women’s system and women’s democratic confederalism on the basis of a much more radical, aesthetic, sophisticated, cultural and social struggle.
Humanity needs women’s revolutions. Our leadership wanted to develop women’s revolutions with the science of women, Jineoloji. The women’s revolution means the most radical and deep-rooted realization of socialism, and the practice of democracy and freedoms at a social level. The women’s revolution is the creation of an alternative new free life against the state and powers.
The uprising, led by women in Rojhilat and Iran, continues to resonate around the world with the slogan Jin, Jiyan, Azadi. What can you say about the origins of this slogan?
With the murder of a young Kurdish woman from Saqız, Jîna Amini, by the Iranian state, the uprisings that rose around the slogan Jin, Jiyan, Azadî spread throughout Iran, starting from Kurdistan. In the person of Jina Amini, we commemorate all the people who were murdered and executed in Iran, and express our condolences to their families and to our people.
The Jin, Jiyan, Azadi slogan developed by Leader Abdullah Öcalan was recognized and universalized by women and peoples all over the world. The correctness of our leadership’s line of women has been proven once again. Our leader Abdullah Öcalan has been held in Imrali for 24 years under a severe isolation and torture system. Our Leadership made an extraordinary breakthrough in these very difficult conditions. His way of dealing with women’s comradeship, friendship and women’s freedom struggle is an example for all humanity. He created the cores of the development of a new, free and egalitarian life model primarily in his own person. He sincerely developed genuine camaraderie and sincerity with women. He has always worked for the development of an egalitarian and libertarian understanding in favor of women within the PKK and for the systematization of this in practice. He has destroyed the taboos that had developed on women. The woman has revealed her energy, her mind, her potential. The Rojava revolution was an example to the world. It has created hope. In this context, we owe a lot to our leadership as women.
There has been no news from Leader Abdullah Öcalan for 22 months. One of the main reasons for the international conspiracy was our Leader’s struggle for women’s freedom. The capitalist system, hostile to women’s liberation, had developed a conspiracy against our Leader, who placed women’s liberation at the center of the struggle. Demolishing the walls of the Imrali system, the most brutal system in human history, is the most fundamental duty of us women. The freedom of our leader is the freedom of women. We can tear down the walls of Imrali with our work, actions and the development of our women’s system.
While we were preparing ceremonies for the 10th anniversary of the Paris assassination of Sakine Cansız, Fidan Doğan and Leyla Şaylemez, a new massacre took place in the same place. Three people were killed, including the representative of the Kurdistan women’s movement. How do you evaluate this?
The Turkish state killed our comrades Evîn Goyî, Mir Perwer and Abdurrahman Kızıl on 23 December in Paris. France is also responsible for this massacre. Evîn Goyî was deliberating targeted.
The Turkish state thinks it will get results with such massacres. However, on the contrary, such massacres cause much greater anger and reaction among women.
What do you expect from 2023 in terms of women’s struggle?
I think that the developments in Kurdistan, the Middle East and the world show that 2023 will be a critical year for women, Kurds and all segments who want to be liberated. First of all, women should raise awareness among themselves and the community. They should develop new formations in the fields of self-defense, economy, politics, education, law, civil society, press and culture, and further develop existing ones.
The year 2023 will be challenging as well as a year in which opportunities for liberation will develop. As women, our stance of struggle and our resistance will be decisive in this sense. The development of the philosophy of free life will be possible with the achievements of the women’s freedom struggle and the development of the women’s system.