(en) Turkey, DAF Interview with corporatewatch.org - Building
autonomy in Turkey and Kurdistan: an interview with Revolutionary
Anarchist Action
In May this year, Corporate Watch researchers travelled to Turkey and Kurdistan to
investigate the companies supplying military equipment to the Turkish police and army. We
talked to a range of groups from a variety of different movements and campaigns ---- Below
is the transcript of our interview with three members of the anarchist group Devrimci
Anarşist Faaliyet (DAF, or Revolutionary Anarchist Action) in Istanbul during May 2015.
DAF are involved in solidarity with the Kurdish struggle, the Rojava revolution and
against ISIS' attack on Kobane, and have taken action against Turkish state repression and
corporate abuse. They are attempting to establish alternatives to the current system
through self-organisation, mutual aid and co-operatives.
The interview was carried out in the run-up to the Turkish elections, and touches on the
election campaign by the HDP, the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party. Soon after the
interview took place, the HDP passed the threshold of 10% of the total vote needed to
enter the Turkish parliament.
The DAF members – who all preferred to remain anonymous – began the interview by talking
about the history of anarchism in the region:
DAF: We want to underline the relationship between the freedom struggle at the end of
Ottoman times and the freedom struggles of Kurdistan.
In Ottoman times anarchists organised workers' struggle in the main cities: Saloniki,
Izmir, Istanbul and Cairo. For example [the Italian anarchist, Errico] Malatesta was
involved in organizing industrial workers in Cairo. The freedom struggles of Armenia,
Bulgaria and Greece had connections with anarchist groups. Alexander Atabekian, an
important person in the Armenian freedom struggle, was an anarchist, translating leaflets
into Armenian and distributing them. He was a friend of [the Russian anarchist, Peter]
Kropotkin and distributed Kropotkin’s anarchist leaflets.
We are talking about this as we want to underline the importance of freedom struggles and
to compare this to the importance of support for the Kurdish struggle.
Corporate Watch: What happened to anarchists after the Ottoman period?
DAF: Towards the end of the Ottoman Empire, at the end of the 19th century, Sultan Abdul
Hamid II repressed the actions of anarchists in Turkey. He knew what anarchists were and
took a special interest in them. He killed or deported anarchists and set up a special
intelligence agency for this purpose.
Anarchists responded by carrying out attacks on the Yildiz Sarayi palace and with
explosions at the Ottoman bank in Saloniki.
The government of the Ottoman Empire didn’t end at the Turkish republic. The fez has gone
since but the system is still the same.
At the beginning of the [Kemalist] Turkish state [in 1923] many anarchists and other
radicals were forced to emigrate or were killed. The CHP, Mustafa Kemal's party, didn’t
allow any opposition and there were massacres of Kurds.
From 1923 to 1980 there was not a big anarchist movement in Turkey due to the popularity
of the socialist movements and the repression of the state.
The wave of revolutions from the 1960s to the '80s affected these lands too. These were
the active years of the social movements. During this period, there were revolutionary
anti-imperialist movements caused by the Vietnam war, youth organizations, occupations of
universities and increasing struggle of workers. These movements were Marxist-Leninist or
Maoist, there were no anarchist movements.
In 1970 there was a long workers' struggle. Millions of workers walked over a hundred
kilometres from Kocaeli to Istanbul. Factories were closed and all the workers were on the
streets.
CW: Was there any awareness of anarchism in Turkey at all at this time?
DAF: During these years many books were translated into Turkish from European radicalism
but only five books about anarchism were translated, three of which were talking about
anarchism in order to criticize it.
But in Ottoman times there had been many articles on anarchism in the newspapers. For
example, one of the three editors of the İştirak newspaper was an anarchist. The paper
published [Russian anarchist, Mikhail] Bakunin’s essays as well as articles on
anarcho-syndicalism.
The first anarchist magazine was published in 1989. After this many magazines were
published focusing on anarchism from different perspectives; for example, post
structuralism, ecology, etc.
The common theme was that they were written for a small intellectual audience. The
language of these magazines was too far away from the people. Most of those involved were
connected with the universities or academia. Or they were ex-socialists affected by the
fall of the Soviet Union, which was a big disappointment for many socialists. That’s why
they began to call themselves anarchists, but we don’t think that this is a good way to
approach anarchism, as a critique of socialism.
Between 2000 to 2005 people came together to talk about anarchism in Istanbul and began to
ask: “how can we fight?”. At this time we guess that there were 50-100 anarchists living
in Turkey and outside.
CW: Can you explain how DAF organises now?
DAF: Now we get 500 anarchists turning up for Mayday in Istanbul. We are in touch with
anarchists in Antalya, Eskişehir, Amed, Ankara and İzmir. Meydan [DAF's newspaper] goes to
between 15 and 20 cities. We have a newspaper bureau in Amed, distributing newspapers all
over Kurdistan. Until now, it is in Turkish but maybe one day, if we can afford it, we
will publish it in Kurdish. We send Meydan to prisons too. We have a comrade in İzmir in
prison and we send copies to over 15 prisoners.
A few months ago there was a ban on radical publications in prisons. We participated in
demos outside prisons and we managed to make pressure about this and now newspapers are
allowed to go into prisons again.
The main issue for DAF is to organise anarchism within society. We try to socialize
anarchism with struggle on the streets. This is what we give importance to. For nearly
nine years we have been doing this.
On an ideological level we have a holistic perspective. We don’t have a hierarchical
perspective on struggles. We think workers' struggle is important but not more important
than the Kurdish struggle or women’s struggles or ecological struggles.
Capitalism tries to divide these struggles. If the enemy is attacking us in a holistic way
we have to approach it in a holistic way.
Anarchy has a bad meaning for most people in society. It has a link with terrorism and
bombs. We want to legitimize anarchism by linking it to making arguments for struggles
against companies and for ecology. Sometimes we try to focus on the links between the
state, companies and ecological damages, like the thing that Corporate Watch does.
We like to present anarchy as an organised struggle. We have shown people on the streets
the organised approach to anarchism.
From 1989 to 2000 anarchism was about image. About wearing black, piercings and Mohicans.
This is what people saw. After 2000, people started to see anarchists who were part of
women’s struggles and workers' struggles.
We are not taking anarchism from Europe as an imitation. Other anarchists have approached
anarchism as an imitation of US or European anarchism or as an underground culture. If we
want to make anarchist a social movement, it must change.
DAF’s collectives are Anarchist Youth, Anarchist Women, 26A cafe, Patika ecological
collective and high school anarchist action (LAF). These self-organisations work together
but have their own decision-making processes.
Anarchist Youth makes connections between young workers and university students and their
struggles. Anarchist Women focuses on patriarchy and violence to women. For example, a
woman was murdered by a man and set on fire last February. On 25 November there were big
protests against violence against women.
LAF criticises education and schooling in itself and tries to socialize this way of
thinking in high schools. LAF also looks at ecological and feminist issues, including when
young women are murdered by their husbands.
PATIKA ecological collective protests against hydro electric dams in the Black Sea region
or Hasankey [where the Ilisu dam is being built]. Sometimes there is fighting to prevent
these plants from being built.
26A Café is a self organization focusing on anti-capitalist economy. Cafes were opened in
2009 in Taksim and 2011 in Kadıköy [both in Istanbul]. The cafes are run by volunteers.
They are aimed at creating an economic model in the place where oppressed people are
living. It’s important to show people concrete examples of an anarchist economy, without
bosses or capitalist aims. We talk to people about why we don’t sell the big capitalist
brands like Coca Cola. Of course the products we sell have a relation to capitalism but
things like Coke are symbols of capitalism. We want to progress away from not-consuming
and move towards alternative economies and ways of producing.
Another self organisation, PAY-DA - 'Sharing and solidarity' - has a building in Kadıköy,
which is used for meetings and producing the Meydan newspaper. PAY-DA gives meals to
people three times a day. It’s open to anarchists and comrades. The aim of PAY-DA is to
become a cooperative, open to everybody. We try to create a bond which also involves the
producers in the villages. We aim to have links with these producers and show them another
economic model. We try to evolve these economic relations away from money relations. The
producers are suffering from the capitalist economy. We are in the first steps of this
cooperative and we are looking for producers to work with.
All of these projects are related to DAF's ideology. This model has a connection with
Malatesta’s binary model of organization.
These are anarchist organizations but sometimes people who aren't anarchists join these
struggles because they know ecological or women's struggles, and then at the end they will
learn about anarchism. It’s an evolving process.
As DAF we are trying to organise our lives. This is the only way that we can touch the
people who are oppressed by capitalism.
There is also the Conscientious Objectors' Association, which is organised with other
groups, not just anarchists. Our involvement in this has a relation with our perspective
on Kurdistan. We organize anti-militarist action in Turkey outside of military bases on 15
May, conscientious objector's day. In Turkey the military is related to state culture. If
you don’t do your military duty, you won’t find a job and it's difficult to find someone
to marry because they ask if you’ve been to the army. If you have been to the army, you’re
a 'man'. People see the state as the 'Fatherland'. On your CV they ask whether you did
military service. 'Every Turk is born a soldier' is a popular slogan in Turkey.
CW: Is Kemalism [the ideology associated with Mustafa Kemal] as strong a force as it used
to be?
DAF: Kemalism is still a force in schools but the AKP has changed this somewhat. The AKP
has a new approach to nationalism focused on the Ottoman Empire. It emphasises Turkey's
'Ottoman roots'. But Erdoğan still says that we are 'one nation, one state, one flag and
one religion.'. There is still talk about Mustafa Kemal but not as much as before. Now you
cannot criticize Erdoğan or Atatürk [the name used for Kemal by Turkish nationalists].
It’s the law not to criticize Atatürk and the unwritten rule not to criticize Erdoğan. The
media follows these rules.
CW: Can you talk about your perspective on the Kurdish freedom struggle?
Kurdish freedom struggles didn’t start with Rojava. Kurdish people have had struggles for
hundreds of years against the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish state.
Since the start of DAF we have seen Kurdistan as important for propaganda and education.
Our perspective relates to people’s freedom struggles. The idea that people can create
federations without nations, states and empires. The Turkish state says the issue is a
Kurdish problem, but for us it is not a Kurdish problem, it’s an issue of Turkish policies
of assimilation. It’s obvious that since the first years of the Turkish republic the
assimilation of Kurdish people has not stopped. We can see this from the last Roboski
massacre [of 34 Kurdish cross-border traders by Turkish F16s on 28 December 2011] by the
state during the 'peace process'. We can see this in the denial of Kurdish identity or the
repeated massacres. Making people assimilate to be a Turk and making the propaganda of
nationalism.
The AKP [the ruling Justice and Development Party] say they have opened Kurdish TV
channels, allowed Kurdish language and that we are all brothers and sisters, but on the
other hand we had the Roboski massacre which occurred during their government. In 2006
there was government pressure on Erdoğan at a high level. Erdoğan said that women and
children would be punished who go against Turkish policies. Over 30 children were murdered
by police and army.
The words change but the political agenda continues, just under a new government. We do
not call ourselves Turkish. We come from many ethnic origins and Kurdish is one of them.
Our involvement in conscientious objection is part of this perspective. We want to talk to
people to prevent people from going to the army to kill their brothers and sisters.
After the 2000s there has been an ideological change in the Kurdish freedom struggle. The
Kurdish organizations no longer call themselves Marxist-Leninist and Öcalan has written a
lot about democratic confederalism. This is important, but our relation to Kurdish people
is on the streets.
CW: Can you talk about DAF's work in solidarity with people in Rojava?
In July 2012 at the start of the Rojava revolution, people began saying that it was a
stateless movement. We have been in solidarity from the first day of the revolution. Three
cantons have declared their revolution in a stateless way. We try to observe and get more
information. This is not an anarchist revolution but it is a social revolution declared by
the people themselves.
Rojava is a third front for Syria against Assad, ISIS and other Islamic groups. But these
are not the only groups that the revolution is faced with. The Turkish republic is giving
support for ISIS from its borders. The national intelligence agency of the Turkish
republic appears to be giving weapons to ISIS and other Islamic groups. Kurdish people
declared the revolution under these circumstances.
After the ISIS attack on Kobane began [in 2014] we went to Suruç. We waited at the border
as Turkish forces were attacking people crossing. When people wanted to cross the border
to or from Kobane they were shot. We stayed there to provide protection.
In October, people gathered near Suruç, and broke through the border. Turkish tanks shot
gas over the border at them.
From 6 to 8 October there were Kobane solidarity demonstrations across Turkey. Kader
Ortakya, a Turkish socialist supporter of Kobane, was shot dead trying to cross the border.
We helped people. Some people crossed the border from Kobane and had no shelter. We
prepared tents, food and clothes for them. Sometimes soldiers came to the villages with
tear gas and water cannons and we had to move. Some people came through the border
searching for their families and we helped them. Other people came, wanting to cross the
border and fight and we helped them. We wore clothing that said we were from DAF on it.
The YPG and YPJ ['People's Protection Units' of Rojava, the YPJ is a women's militia]
pushed ISIS back day by day. Mıştenur hill was very important for Kobane. After the hill
was taken by the YPG and YPJ some people wanted to return to Kobane. When they went back
their houses had been destroyed by ISIS. Some houses were mined and some people have been
killed by the mines. The mines need to be cleared, but by who and how? People need new
houses and help. We have had conferences and talked about how to help Kobane. There was a
conference two weeks ago in Amed.
CW: What is your position on the elections?
DAF: We do not believe in parliamentary democracy. We believe in direct democracy. We do
not support the HDP in the election, but we have links in solidarity with them on the streets.
Emma Goldman said that if elections changed anything they would be illegal. There are good
people in the HDP who say good things, but we think that the government can’t be good
because the election system isn’t equal.
In Rojava they do not call it an anarchist revolution, but theres no government, no state
and no hierarchy, so we believe in it and have solidarity with it.
Can you tell us about the bombing in Suruç [we asked this final question by email weeks
after the original interview
Over 30 young people who wanted to take part in reconstruction of Kobane were killed by an
ISIS attack. This attack was clearly organised by the Turkish State. They did not even do
anything to stop it although they got the information of the attack one mounth before.
Moreover, after the explosion the Turkish State has attacked Rojava and made operations
against political organisations in Turkey. Now there are many operations and political
pressures on anarchists and socialists and Kurdish organisations. They are using the
explosion as a reason to make this political repression on both the domestic and
international levels.
We have lost our 33 comrades, friends who struggled for the Rojava Revolution against the
state's repression, denial and politics of massacre. There are people who are killed by
state, ISIS and other powers. But our resistance won't stop, our struggle will continue,
as always in history.
With solidarity,
H. (DAF member)
https://corporatewatch.org/news/2015/aug/27/building-autonomy-turkey-and-kurdistan-interview-revolutionary-anarchist-action
