The Enemy Will Not Make Young People Step Back
Besê Erzincan, coordinating member of the KJK (Community of Kurdistan Women), spoke about the situation of young people in Kurdistan on the Xwebûn program on Jin TV hosted by Arjîn Baysal. Evaluating the Turkish state’s attacks on young people, Erzincan noted that a special war policy had been carried out in Kurdistan in the past, but this has intensified in recent years.
All revolutions began with young people, with their rebellion. In this sense, what role and importance does youth have in revolutions?
Of course, youth is one of the groups that suffers most from the system of capitalist modernity. Especially young women. They are oppressed in society. It is assumed that they have no will. Above all, the nation state wants to enslave the youth through work and education. Each side wants to use it for their own interests. The search among young people is very long. When they see society, they realize that they have no say, that they are under pressure, that they are not valued, that their work is not valued, and they start looking. They want to clarify their future; they want to survive in life.
If we look at how many freedom, environmental, democracy and women’s movements there are, we see that most of them are led by young people. Young people are at the forefront of protests against the capitalist system. Because young people don’t see a future. The situation in Kurdish society is the same. At Newroz it is the young people who come to the fore. In the case of guerrillas, it is the young people who are in the most difficult places who make more sacrifices. When the women’s issue comes up, it is the young people who rebel. They lead society in both their courage and their thoughts. When young people see the right idea, they are convinced that they can do anything. This is also the case in our movement. Young people are very active and are creating radical alternatives.
As the number of active young people in the world increases, the policies of states are also changing. In recent years, many political measures have been taken towards young people. What kind of society does the nation-state want to build based on youth?
The nation state promotes male and state power the most. A few rich men dominate the entire society. The nation-state system is based on this foundation. That’s why the nation state doesn’t do all this just through oppression. It begins with education from childhood. It creates a change in mentality. He educates good public servants for himself. This education system creates robots. Young people are taught rules, traditions, history, art, philosophy so that they can serve the nation state well. There is no culture, no freedom, no native language, no real history.
When one nation becomes sovereign, other nations are displaced. This is also the case in Turkey. The young people are, for example, Kurds, Armenians, Alevis, but a system has been created in which everyone speaks the same language. When a young person has no identity, when he has no language, then how can he find his identity and have a personality? The situation is not much different when it comes to young Turkish people. People without a will accept everything.
It’s the same in Iran. Let’s look at the Syrian system. The Ba’athist regime does the same thing. Especially in the Middle East, the nation-state system means a lack of will for young people. It means that they deny their own culture and mother tongue. Capitalist modernity does not want young people to be free. It encourages drugs and prostitution. The goal of capitalist modernity is to make young people weak-willed and unable to think about freedom, politics, their country and democracy. These young people live according to the nation state, according to personal interests, according to individualism. When these young people grow up, they commit violence against women, their elders and do not accept community life. The system does not want young people to know themselves, to organize themselves, to make decisions for themselves and to work for their country.
In my opinion, the young people are still very good. There is so much pollution, lies, poverty, violence, hierarchy and pressure on them that the youth are revolting even though they barely understand the idea of freedom. We should not blame the young people, there is a system and that system needs to be analyzed. There has never been such an attack on youth as in the 21st century. There are major attacks on young people through television, the Internet, technology and education.
In order for capitalist modernity to organize its future and maintain its slave rule, it prevents the youth from becoming conscious and implements its entire policy through women and young people. Young people have never suffered so much. There has always been politics against the youth, but this is the first time such dirty politics has appeared at this level. This is particularly true for young women. Young people are most affected by violence and rape, both girls and boys. Young people are also hit hardest by unemployment. In contrast to this policy, Rêber Apo [Abdullah Öcalan] relies mainly on women and young people. The 21st century is the century of women and youth. If there is to be a breakthrough, it will be based on Rêber Apo’s paradigm.