Koma Civakên Kurdistan
Encyclopedia
Koma Civakên Kurdistan (Union of Communities in Kurdistan) is a Kurdish
organization
founded by Abdullah Öcalan
as formerly named Koma Komalên Kurdistan (KKK) (Peoples' Confederation of Kurdistan) to put in practice his ideology
of democratic confederalism.
Abdullah Öcalan
is the group's honorary leader ( PKK terrorist organization leader) , however due to his imprisonment the organisation is led by an Assembly called the Kongra-Gel, which serves as the group's legislature. The President of the Kongra-Gel is Zübeyir Aydar
. The Assembly elects a 31-man Executive Council, the Chairman of this Executive Council is Murat Karayılan
. Cemil Bayık
is said to be the Executive Council's Vice-President.
and other organizations of the Kurdish society. It is designed in a bottom-up
structure.
Single parts are the youth council, women's council and councils of the four territorial entities of Kurdish
people (Turkey
, Iraq
, Iran
, Syria
) and one of the Europe
an diaspora
, also participating political parties
like PKK, PJAK and PYD, non-governmental organizations (NGO)
and armed
organizations like Hêzên Parastina Gel (HPG).
A parliament-like
structure of the KCK is called Kongra Gel, formerly part of Kurdistan Workers' Party's (PKK)
structure. Now it consists of 300 elected persons from the councils. The KCK is an alternative to the State. It undertakes all the responsibilities of a State. It establishes courts to solve disputes. It provides schooling. It imposes punishments on those who fail to comply with its rules.
Some commentators see KCK as the modernized version of PKK’s armed structuring in the 1990s. It carries the fear that PKK spreads from mountains to the universities, hospitals, municipalities, and streets. Ihsan Bal, Head of Security Studies, affirm that they can question the mayor, tell tradesman to take down the shutters when the prime minister visits, scare them and organize everything in the region.
consists of principles from social ecology
and is called democratic confederalism. Main intend is to create a Democracy
and ecologic
society
instead of nation-state or top-down
government to bring peace
to the war
-beaten Middle East
region with its lots of different ethnic group
s and religion
s. The aim is a "union of equity
an free will
".
gave his Declaration of Democratic Confederalism in Kurdistan to his lawyers. During the 3rd General Assembly of Kongra-Gel between 4 and 21 May 2005 Koma Komalên Kurdistán (KKK) was formed together with the Turkey Coordination. During the General Assembly between 17 and 22 April 2006 Turkey Coordination was renamed to Turkey Parliament (Türkiye Meclisi TM).
During a congress in May 2007 the contract, seen as the Constitution of KCK was passed. The contract names Abdullah Öcalan as the leader. Article 36 of the contract defines the PKK as its ideological power.
(DTP) or the Peace and Democracy Party
(BDP). Trade unionists and human rights defenders have also been among the detainees.
Many of the detainees were put in pre-trial detention, but most of them have been charged with membership of an illegal organization under Article 314 of the Turkish Penal Code. Special heavy penal courts in various cities such as Izmir
, Adana
, Erzurum
and Diyarbakir
are conducting trials against groups from different towns. While the 31 trade unionists tried in Izmir have all been released their trial was still continuing. The next hearing was scheduled for 1 February 2011. Many more trials were continuing in October 2010. On 18 October 2010 the main trial started at Diyarbakir Heavy Penal Court No. 6. It involved 151 defendants, 103 of them in pre-trial detention. The 7578-page indictment was prepared in 15 months. The detainees requested that they be allowed to defend themselves in Kurdish during the trial. The court rejected the request.
After 14 hearings Diyarbakir Heavy Penal Court No. 6 adjourned the case on 11 November 2010 to 13 January 2011. It did not allow the defendants to testify in Kurdish pointing at a decision of Diyarbakir Heavy Penal Court No. 4 of 10 November 2010 stating that the defendants should not be allowed to speak Kurdish since they had testified to the police and the arresting judge in Turkish.
At the beginning of October 2011 the number of detentions since April 2009 was given as 7,748 of whom 3,895 suspects were placed in pre-trial detention. 4,148 detentions were reported from the last six months, resulting in 1,548 arrest warrants. In an answer to the progress report of the European Union
of 12 October 2011 The Turkish Interior Ministry announced on 14 October 2011 that a total of 605 people suspected of membership of KCK remained in pre-trial detention.
Kurdish people
The Kurdish people, or Kurds , are an Iranian people native to the Middle East, mostly inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which includes adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey...
organization
Organization
An organization is a social group which distributes tasks for a collective goal. The word itself is derived from the Greek word organon, itself derived from the better-known word ergon - as we know `organ` - and it means a compartment for a particular job.There are a variety of legal types of...
founded by Abdullah Öcalan
Abdullah Öcalan
Abdullah Öcalan , Kurdish founder of the terrorist organization called Kurdistan Workers' Party in 1978.Öcalan was captured in Nairobi and extradited to the Turkish security force, and sentenced to death under Article 125 of the Turkish Penal Code, which concerns the formation of armed gangs...
as formerly named Koma Komalên Kurdistan (KKK) (Peoples' Confederation of Kurdistan) to put in practice his ideology
Ideology
An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...
of democratic confederalism.
Abdullah Öcalan
Abdullah Öcalan
Abdullah Öcalan , Kurdish founder of the terrorist organization called Kurdistan Workers' Party in 1978.Öcalan was captured in Nairobi and extradited to the Turkish security force, and sentenced to death under Article 125 of the Turkish Penal Code, which concerns the formation of armed gangs...
is the group's honorary leader ( PKK terrorist organization leader) , however due to his imprisonment the organisation is led by an Assembly called the Kongra-Gel, which serves as the group's legislature. The President of the Kongra-Gel is Zübeyir Aydar
Zübeyir Aydar
Zübeyir Aydar is a Kurdish politician and President of the Kongra-Gel, which is the parliament of the Koma Civakên Kurdistan , making him the de facto political leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party....
. The Assembly elects a 31-man Executive Council, the Chairman of this Executive Council is Murat Karayılan
Murat Karayilan
Murat Karayılan is the current acting leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party.He has been the PKK's acting leader ever since its original founder and leader, Abdullah Öcalan, was captured in 1999....
. Cemil Bayık
Cemil Bayik
Cemil Bayik , also known as Cuma, is one of the five founders of the Kurdish separatist movement Kurdistan Workers' Party , who are still alive and is among the organisation's top leadership as he is a member of the 12-man leadership council of the Koma Civaken Kurdistan , a Kurdish political...
is said to be the Executive Council's Vice-President.
Structure
The KCK exists of several councilsCouncil communism
Council communism is a current of libertarian Marxism that emerged out of the November Revolution in the 1920s, characterized by its opposition to state capitalism/state socialism as well as its advocacy of workers' councils as the basis for workers' democracy.Originally affiliated with the...
and other organizations of the Kurdish society. It is designed in a bottom-up
Top-down and bottom-up design
Top–down and bottom–up are strategies of information processing and knowledge ordering, mostly involving software, but also other humanistic and scientific theories . In practice, they can be seen as a style of thinking and teaching...
structure.
Single parts are the youth council, women's council and councils of the four territorial entities of Kurdish
Kurdish people
The Kurdish people, or Kurds , are an Iranian people native to the Middle East, mostly inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which includes adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey...
people (Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
, Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
, Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
) and one of the Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an diaspora
Diaspora
A diaspora is "the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral homeland" or "people dispersed by whatever cause to more than one location", or "people settled far from their ancestral homelands".The word has come to refer to historical mass-dispersions of...
, also participating political parties
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
like PKK, PJAK and PYD, non-governmental organizations (NGO)
Non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...
and armed
Armed forces
The armed forces of a country are its government-sponsored defense, fighting forces, and organizations. They exist to further the foreign and domestic policies of their governing body, and to defend that body and the nation it represents from external aggressors. In some countries paramilitary...
organizations like Hêzên Parastina Gel (HPG).
A parliament-like
Parliament
A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...
structure of the KCK is called Kongra Gel, formerly part of Kurdistan Workers' Party's (PKK)
Kurdistan Workers' Party
The Kurdistan Workers' Party , commonly known as PKK, also known as KGK and formerly known as KADEK or KONGRA-GEL , is a Kurdish organization which has since 1984 been fighting an armed struggle against the Turkish state for an autonomous Kurdistan and greater cultural and political rights...
structure. Now it consists of 300 elected persons from the councils. The KCK is an alternative to the State. It undertakes all the responsibilities of a State. It establishes courts to solve disputes. It provides schooling. It imposes punishments on those who fail to comply with its rules.
Some commentators see KCK as the modernized version of PKK’s armed structuring in the 1990s. It carries the fear that PKK spreads from mountains to the universities, hospitals, municipalities, and streets. Ihsan Bal, Head of Security Studies, affirm that they can question the mayor, tell tradesman to take down the shutters when the prime minister visits, scare them and organize everything in the region.
Ideology
Its ideologyIdeology
An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...
consists of principles from social ecology
Social ecology
Social ecology is a philosophy developed by Murray Bookchin in the 1960s.It holds that present ecological problems are rooted in deep-seated social problems, particularly in dominatory hierarchical political and social systems. These have resulted in an uncritical acceptance of an overly...
and is called democratic confederalism. Main intend is to create a Democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
and ecologic
Ecology
Ecology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...
society
Society
A society, or a human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations...
instead of nation-state or top-down
Top-down and bottom-up design
Top–down and bottom–up are strategies of information processing and knowledge ordering, mostly involving software, but also other humanistic and scientific theories . In practice, they can be seen as a style of thinking and teaching...
government to bring peace
Peace
Peace is a state of harmony characterized by the lack of violent conflict. Commonly understood as the absence of hostility, peace also suggests the existence of healthy or newly healed interpersonal or international relationships, prosperity in matters of social or economic welfare, the...
to the war
War
War is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political...
-beaten Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
region with its lots of different ethnic group
Ethnic group
An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...
s and religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
s. The aim is a "union of equity
Equity theory
Equity theory is a theory that attempts to explain relational satisfaction in terms of perceptions of fair/unfair distributions of resources within interpersonal relationships...
an free will
Free will
"To make my own decisions whether I am successful or not due to uncontrollable forces" -Troy MorrisonA pragmatic definition of free willFree will is the ability of agents to make choices free from certain kinds of constraints. The existence of free will and its exact nature and definition have long...
".
History
In March 2005 Abdullah ÖcalanAbdullah Öcalan
Abdullah Öcalan , Kurdish founder of the terrorist organization called Kurdistan Workers' Party in 1978.Öcalan was captured in Nairobi and extradited to the Turkish security force, and sentenced to death under Article 125 of the Turkish Penal Code, which concerns the formation of armed gangs...
gave his Declaration of Democratic Confederalism in Kurdistan to his lawyers. During the 3rd General Assembly of Kongra-Gel between 4 and 21 May 2005 Koma Komalên Kurdistán (KKK) was formed together with the Turkey Coordination. During the General Assembly between 17 and 22 April 2006 Turkey Coordination was renamed to Turkey Parliament (Türkiye Meclisi TM).
During a congress in May 2007 the contract, seen as the Constitution of KCK was passed. The contract names Abdullah Öcalan as the leader. Article 36 of the contract defines the PKK as its ideological power.
Detentions and court cases of alleged members
Since April 2009 some 1.800 people have been detained on charges of being members of KCK/TM. Most of them were politicians active in the meanwhile closed down Democratic Society PartyDemocratic Society Party
The Democratic Society Party was a Kurdish Kurdish nationalist political party in Turkey. The party considered itself social democratic, and had observer status in the Socialist International. It was considered to be the successor of the Democratic People's Party...
(DTP) or the Peace and Democracy Party
Peace and Democracy Party
The Peace and Democracy Party ) is a political party in the Republic of Turkey. It succeeded the Democratic Society Party following the closure of the latter party for its alleged connections with the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by the EU.The BDP has observer status in the...
(BDP). Trade unionists and human rights defenders have also been among the detainees.
Many of the detainees were put in pre-trial detention, but most of them have been charged with membership of an illegal organization under Article 314 of the Turkish Penal Code. Special heavy penal courts in various cities such as Izmir
Izmir
Izmir is a large metropolis in the western extremity of Anatolia. The metropolitan area in the entire Izmir Province had a population of 3.35 million as of 2010, making the city third most populous in Turkey...
, Adana
Adana
Adana is a city in southern Turkey and a major agricultural and commercial center. The city is situated on the Seyhan River, 30 kilometres inland from the Mediterranean, in south-central Anatolia...
, Erzurum
Erzurum
Erzurum is a city in Turkey. It is the largest city, the capital of Erzurum Province. The city is situated 1757 meters above sea level. Erzurum had a population of 361,235 in the 2000 census. .Erzurum, known as "The Rock" in NATO code, served as NATO's southeastern-most air force post during the...
and Diyarbakir
Diyarbakir
Diyarbakır is one of the largest cities in southeastern Turkey...
are conducting trials against groups from different towns. While the 31 trade unionists tried in Izmir have all been released their trial was still continuing. The next hearing was scheduled for 1 February 2011. Many more trials were continuing in October 2010. On 18 October 2010 the main trial started at Diyarbakir Heavy Penal Court No. 6. It involved 151 defendants, 103 of them in pre-trial detention. The 7578-page indictment was prepared in 15 months. The detainees requested that they be allowed to defend themselves in Kurdish during the trial. The court rejected the request.
After 14 hearings Diyarbakir Heavy Penal Court No. 6 adjourned the case on 11 November 2010 to 13 January 2011. It did not allow the defendants to testify in Kurdish pointing at a decision of Diyarbakir Heavy Penal Court No. 4 of 10 November 2010 stating that the defendants should not be allowed to speak Kurdish since they had testified to the police and the arresting judge in Turkish.
At the beginning of October 2011 the number of detentions since April 2009 was given as 7,748 of whom 3,895 suspects were placed in pre-trial detention. 4,148 detentions were reported from the last six months, resulting in 1,548 arrest warrants. In an answer to the progress report of the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
of 12 October 2011 The Turkish Interior Ministry announced on 14 October 2011 that a total of 605 people suspected of membership of KCK remained in pre-trial detention.