Abdullah Öcalan > Quotes

“تمام منظور من این است که زندگی را به شیوه ای تغییر بدهم که بشود زندگی کرد”
― Abdullah Öcalan

“برای من آزادی زن از آزادی خاک و فرهنگ ارجح تر است. هر ملتی که زنانش آزاد نباشند نخواهد توانست ملتی آزاد باشد”
― Abdullah Öcalan

“اگر لذت موجود در عمل جنسی ــ که ضامن تداوم حیات با کیفیت تکرار و تجدید است ــ تحت عنوان «عشق» ارزیابی گردد، خطای بزرگی است. برعکس، لذت ناشی از عمل جنسی، انکار «عشق» است
مدرنیتەی کاپیتالیستی با توسعەی سرطان وار جنسیت گرایی، جامعه را تحت نام عشق می کشد. عشق حقیقی، هیجان بس عظیمی است که از زبان تکوین کیهان، شنیده و احساس می شود. شاید این سخن مولانا که می گوید: «هرچه اندر عالم است، همه عشق است و مابقی قیل و قالی بیش نیست» تفسیر صحیحی در مورد عشق باشد”
― Abdullah Öcalan

“برای با تو زیستن
از زمان آدم و حوا تا به اکنون
باید خارزار روئیدەی بین مان را درو کرد و
این برافراشته باروها را
.دیوارها را درهم شکست

باید نخستین ستمکار مردان دروغگوی را
شکست داد و
آتشی که تمدن از ما ربود را
.دگرباره بازپس ستاند

.از برای این همه، مــن جنگ را آغازیــــــدم

به اندازه ی همه پرومتئوس ها
جهان را در برابرم یافتم
و در سرزمین پرومته
.به بند خائنانش اسیر گشتم
!ای مقدس مادر
!و ای بانوی عشق”
― Abdullah Öcalan

“از یک نقطه نظر می توان کُردها را تحت عنوان "خلقی که خلق نیست" هم نامید، زیرا ممکن نیست به خلق و جماعت انسانی دیگری برخورد که این همه از ارزشهای ذاتی خویش گریزان باشد و یا او را به گریز واداشته باشند

نمی توان کُردها را خلقی بسیار ناتوان و فاقد استعداد جنگی نامید، کُردها اجتماع انسانی هستند که به واسطەی جغرافیای استراتژیک و منش انسان شناختی خویش، بیش از همگان قادر به جنگیدن و پیروزی می باشند. پتانسیل ناشی از جسارت موجود در زنان و جوانان کُرد در سطحی بسیار بالاست،اما چنان ترسی در دل آنها انداختەاند که حتی از سایەی خویش هم وحشت دارند!”
― Abdullah Öcalan

“کوردبوون تاڵە،
ڕاکردن لێی نامەردییە”
― Abdullah Öcalan

“Heke tevayî hêzên cîhanê di destê me da be, êrîşî nabene ser çikesî. Heke tevayîya cîhanê jî êrîşî ser me bike, em serî natewînin.”
― Abdullah Öcalan

“The right of self-determination of the peoples includes the right to a state of their own. However, the foundation of a state does not increase the freedom of a people. The system of the United Nations that is based on nation-states has remained inefficient. Meanwhile, nation-states have become serious obstacles for any social development. Democratic confederalism is the contrasting paradigm of the oppressed people. Democratic confederalism is a non-state social paradigm. It is not controlled by a state. At the same time, democratic confederalism is the cultural organizational blueprint of a democratic nation. Democratic confederalism is based on grassroots participation. Its decision-making processes lie with the communities. Higher levels only serve the coordination and implementation of the will of the communities that send their delegates to the general assemblies. For limited space of time they are both mouthpiece and executive institution. However, the basic power of decision rests with the local grassroots institutions.”
― Abdullah Öcalan, Democratic Confederalism

“ئێمە تڕسمان لە مردن نماۆە
چۆنکە لە مردن ژێانمان دڕوست کردۆە”
― Abdullah Öcalan

“Another important point we have to mention is dependence and oppression of the youth established by the experienced elderly man in a hierarchical society. While experience strengthens the elderly man, age renders him weak and powerless. This compels the elderly to enlist the youth, which is done by winning their minds. Patriarchy is strengthened tremendously by these means. The physical power of the youth enables them to do whatever they please. This dependency of the youth has been continuously perpetuated and deepened. Superiority of experience and ideology cannot easily be broken. The youth (and even the children) are subjugated to the same strategies and tactics, ideological and political propaganda, and oppressive systems as the woman – adolescence, like femininity, is not a physical but a social fact.”
― Abdullah Öcalan, Liberating Life: Woman's Revolution

“Family, in this social context, developed as man‘s small state. The family as an institution has been continuously perfected throughout the history of civilisation, solely because of the reinforcement it provides to power and state apparatus. Firstly, family is turned into a stem cell of state society by giving power to the family in the person of the male. Secondly, woman‘s unlimited and unpaid labour is secured. Thirdly, she raises children in order to meet population needs. Fourthly, as a role model she disseminates slavery and immorality to the whole society. Family, thus constituted, is the institution where dynastic ideology becomes functional.”
― Abdullah Öcalan, Liberating Life: Woman's Revolution

“have come to recognise Abdullah Öcalan not only as a political leader who has been able to engage in self-criticism and change his positions radically, but also as a political philosopher and inspiring civic rights figure.”
― Abdullah Öcalan, The Political Thought of Abdullah Öcalan: Kurdistan, Woman's Revolution and Democratic Confederalism

“Societies without any mechanism of self-defense lose their identities, their capability of democratic decision-making, and their political nature.”
― Abdullah Ocalan

“Simple majoritarianism can easily lead to populism, which in turn might lead to fascism and the oppression of ethnic, religious and sexual minorities, women, the poor, and the socially marginalised.”
― Abdullah Öcalan, The Political Thought of Abdullah Öcalan: Kurdistan, Woman's Revolution and Democratic Confederalism

“is highly probable that Kurdish language and culture began to develop during the fourth ice age (20,000–15,000 BC). The Kurds are one of the oldest indigenous populations in the Middle Eastern region. About 6,000 BC they became distinct from other cultures. Historiography first mentions the Kurds as an ethnic group related to the Hurrians (3,000–2,000 BC). So it is assumed that the predecessors of the Kurds, the Hurrians and the descendants of the Hurrians – the Mittani, the Nairi, the Urarteans and the Medes – all lived in tribal confederations and kingdoms at the time. Kurdish society at”
― Abdullah Öcalan, The Political Thought of Abdullah Öcalan: Kurdistan, Woman's Revolution and Democratic Confederalism

“Since the settlement area of the Kurds spans the present territories of Arabs, Persians and Turks, the Kurdish question necessarily concerns most of the region. A solution in one part of Kurdistan also affects other parts of Kurdistan and neighbouring countries. Conversely, the destructive approach of actors in one country may have negative effects on potential solutions to the Kurdish question in other countries. The rugged Kurdish landscape is practically made for armed struggle, and the Kurds have been fighting colonisation or conquest by foreign powers since time immemorial. Resistance has become part of their life and culture.”
― Abdullah Öcalan, The Political Thought of Abdullah Öcalan: Kurdistan, Woman's Revolution and Democratic Confederalism

“Abdullah Öcalan is not only a theorist; he is the leader of a movement that strives not only for the liberation of Kurdish people, but also to find answers to the question of how to live meaningfully. This is why his writings have such impact on the lives of so many. He has been concerned with the issue of women’s freedom all his life, and especially so during the struggle. He strongly encouraged women in the movement to take up the struggle against male dominance, providing inspiration through his critique of patriarchy.”
― Abdullah Öcalan, The Political Thought of Abdullah Öcalan: Kurdistan, Woman's Revolution and Democratic Confederalism

“Power has reached its full capacity in the form of the nation-state. It derives its strength mainly from the sexism it spreads and intensifies by the integration of women into the labour force as well as through nationalism and militarism. Sexism, just as nationalism, is an ideology through which power is generated and nation-states are built. Sexism is not a function of biological differences. To the dominant male, the female is an object to be used for the realisation of his ambitions. In the same vein, when the housewifisation of woman was done, he started the process of turning males into slaves; subsequently the two forms of slavery have become intertwined.”
― Abdullah Öcalan, Liberating Life: Woman's Revolution

“everybody.”
― Abdullah Öcalan, The Political Thought of Abdullah Öcalan: Kurdistan, Woman's Revolution and Democratic Confederalism

“It is indispensable, therefore, to recognise the existence of the Kurdish phenomenon. This, however, is not possible without information about the historical background. ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORDS KURD AND KURDISTAN The name Kurdistan goes back to the Sumerian word kur, which more than 5,000 years ago meant something like ‘mountain’. The suffix ti stood for affiliation. The word kurti then had the meaning of mountain tribe or mountain people. The Luwians, who settled in western Anatolia about 3,000 years ago, called Kurdistan Gondwana, which in their language meant land of the villages. In Kurdish, gond is still the word for village. During the reign of Assure (from the early to mid Bronze Age through to the late Iron Age) the Kurds were called Nairi, which translates as ‘people by the river’. In the Middle Ages, under the reign of the Arab sultanates the Kurdish areas were referred to as beled ekrad. The Seljuk sultans who spoke Persian were the first to use the word Kurdistan, land of the Kurds, in their official communiqués. The Ottoman sultans also called the area settled by the Kurds Kurdistan. Until the 1920s, this name was generally used. After 1925 the existence of the Kurds was denied, particularly in Turkey.”
― Abdullah Öcalan, The Political Thought of Abdullah Öcalan: Kurdistan, Woman's Revolution and Democratic Confederalism

“It was Zoroastrianism which had a lasting impact on the Kurdish way of thinking, between 700 and 550 BC. Zoroastrianism cultivated a way of life that was marked by work in the fields, where men and women were equal to each other. Love of animals played an important role, and freedom was a high moral good. Zoroastrian culture influenced Eastern and Western civilisation equally, since both Persians and Hellenes adopted many of its cultural influences. The Persian civilisation, however, was founded by the Medes, believed to be the predecessors of the Kurds. In Herodotus’ histories there is much evidence for a division of power among both Medes and Persian ethnic groups in the Persian Empire. This is also true for the subsequent Sassanid Empire.”
― Abdullah Öcalan, The Political Thought of Abdullah Öcalan: Kurdistan, Woman's Revolution and Democratic Confederalism

“for Neolithic society divinity had nothing to do with coercion, exploitation, or tyranny. It had more to do with mercy, gratitude, abundance, affection, excitement and, when things went wrong, fear and light. It was important to be in harmony with nature.”
― Abdullah Öcalan, Civilization: The Age of Masked Gods and Disguised Kings

“Foreword”
― Abdullah Öcalan, The Political Thought of Abdullah Öcalan: Kurdistan, Woman's Revolution and Democratic Confederalism