No to the Betrayal!

On February 27, Apo (Abdullah Öcalan), the leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), called for all Kurdish groups to disarm and the PKK to dissolve itself. Less than two weeks later, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) shook hands with the leader of the new Syrian government, Ahmed al-Sharaa, agreeing to liquidate SDF militias into the Syrian army. All this is an absolute betrayal of the Kurdish liberation movement—suicidal acts that would mean death to Kurdish fighters—and a logical consequence of the Kurdish leadership’s capitulation to imperialism and its agents in the region.

In calling for disarmament, Apo dropped the very fundamentals of the Kurdish national liberation struggle. Armed struggle has been critical to the achievements in Rojava and defense of the Kurdish people. While the current struggle is not being waged in a way that can lead to victory, to surrender can only lead to disaster. In his statement, Apo repudiated the struggle for a separate national state and even “administrative autonomy” for the Kurds. He emphasized the “democratic consensus.” Such talk is delusional when for months the “democratic” government of Erdoğan has been removing Kurdish officials from their posts and replacing them with his kayyums (trustees). The former leader of the Kurdish party Selahattin Demirtaş has been in jail since 2016.

Apo’s call serves only the Turkish state, which aims to remove the “Kurdish problem” as an obstacle in order to be able to skim more cream off the top as a subordinate player to the imperialists in the Middle East. The Turkish army now has greater control of the border area separating Rojava from Bakur (north Kurdistan). Apo’s betrayal was part of a plan made by Erdoğan and his allies to give Erdoğan a boost at a time when he has been losing popularity due to insane inflation, increased repression and horrendous living conditions.

SDF Bows to HTS

The SDF’s call to abandon its militias threatens everything won in Rojava. These achievements were made in a period of turmoil after the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011, when the fighting forces were constantly shifting in that country. Rojava’s gains came out of democratic and armed struggles and created a measure of safety for Kurdish people who had never experienced any in Bashar al-Assad’s Syria, while also establishing a certain autonomy and communal social structures. Rojava was primarily able to maintain itself through a strong militia that countered many threats, including Türkiye and ISIS.

The YPG, the main component of the SDF, made an alliance with the U.S. at the time of the siege of Kobani in 2014. It was one thing to accept aid from and be in an objective alliance with the U.S. to stop the serious threat of genocide of the Kurdish people at the hands of ISIS. But it was another thing entirely when the YPG launched an offensive in conjunction with the U.S. in territories overwhelmingly inhabited by Arabs. This was effectively the seed that undermined the Kurdish struggle, deepening national divisions. The YPG became a pawn of U.S. imperialism and eventually signed off on their own demise by subordinating the struggle to defend the gains of Rojava to imperialist interests, instead of setting a course to spread those gains to Bakur and other regions.

Having capitulated to the U.S. imperialists, the Kurdish leadership refused to mobilize against the genocide being carried out in Palestine by the U.S.-backed Zionists. And now the head of the SDF claims, referring to Israel, that “we welcome anyone in the world who can help support our rights and protect our achievements.” This has aroused deep distrust and hostility among the non-Kurdish Muslim and Arab masses, further isolating the Kurds.

Today, the government of the Syrian Arab Republic (SAR) has adopted a “temporary” constitution based on Islamic law. Protests broke out in Rojava against the new constitution and the massacres of Alawites. It is clear that the new SAR will not tolerate any advance of the Kurdish liberation struggle. In fact, the SAR is demanding of the SDF that all “foreign” Kurdish forces leave Rojava. This underscores again how the moves by Apo and the SDF are endangering the very lives of the Kurdish fighters.

Kurdish fighters: These two capitulations must be resisted and the struggle must be organized based on genuine revolutionary and democratic strategy. Do not surrender your arms! Organize against U.S. imperialism, their lackeys and the Zionist butchers! For joint struggle with the working class in Türkiye against Erdoğan and NATO! Forge an alliance with the Arab toilers in the region!