Statement by the PKK

[Jay]

PKK Spokesman Zagros Hiwa released this video on YouTube
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Today, the Kurdistan Workers' Party and the Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan announce that, in a coordinated effort, our forces have carried out a joint operation targeting the structures of imperial domination in Iran’s Kurdish regions.

This operation was not undertaken lightly. It represents a continuation of a long-standing struggle against occupation, political exclusion, and the denial of Kurdish identity across the region historically known as Kurdistan.

For decades, Kurdish lands have been divided and controlled by external powers, including Turkey and Iran, whose policies have systematically undermined Kurdish political aspirations. The result has been an enduring cycle of repression and resistance. The Kurdish question remains unresolved and these realities give rise to resistance movements that seek to assert the fundamental right of self-determination.

We emphasize that the Kurdish struggle is not one of senseless violence, but of political necessity born from decades of marginalization. The ideals that guide us freedom, democracy, and self-governance are principles recognized by the international community, yet denied in practice to millions of Kurds.

We call upon regional governments and global institutions to confront this contradiction. A durable peace cannot be achieved through force or denial, but through recognition of Kurdish political rights and the establishment of democratic frameworks that allow for independence and self-determination.

Our joint action demonstrates a unity of purpose: to challenge these structures and to assert the Kurdish people’s right to live freely, govern themselves democratically, and preserve their cultural and political identity.

However, let this also serve as a warning.

If regional powers continue to reject meaningful dialogue, refuse political reform, and persist in their policies of occupation and suppression, a renewed and intensified campaign of liberation will follow. The responsibility for such escalation will not rest with those who resist, but with those who deny the possibility of peaceful resolution.

We remain open to negotiations grounded in mutual recognition and respect. A just peace is still possible but it requires courage from those in power to move beyond force and toward political solutions. Let today's strikes serve as a reminder. We are capable. We are fierce. We are ready to die for our cause.

The Kurdish people have endured. They have resisted. And they will continue to do so until their rights are acknowledged and secured.

Victory to the Resistance! Independence for the Kurdish people!"

 

[Jay]

Dijlin Hamad released this video on YouTube​

For too long, our people have endured violence, repression, and the denial of their most basic political rights. For too long, decisions about our future have been made without our consent. Entire generations have lived under policies designed to silence our identity, suppress our aspirations, and deny us the right to determine our own destiny.

We reject this future.

We declare that the status quo is unacceptable and unsustainable. No people can be expected to indefinitely accept political exclusion, cultural marginalization, and the continued suffering of their communities. Our struggle is not merely against present injustices; it is for the creation of a new future founded on dignity, freedom, and self-government.

The recent Olympic Games were presented to the world as a celebration of unity, progress, and international cooperation. Dignitaries gathered, cameras rolled, and the world applauded the spectacle. Yet beneath the banners and ceremonies, the oppressive Turkish state suppressed its own population.

For a brief moment, the occupation of the Kurdish homeland was draped in the language of normalcy. The suffering of our communities was pushed to the margins while the world celebrated at our expense. Those who visited were encouraged to see monuments and stadiums, but not the realities faced by ordinary workers, families, and villages whose voices have too often been ignored.

But history does not stand still.

The tides have begun to turn. The working people, whose labor built these cities and whose sacrifices have sustained this land through generations, will have their day. No spectacle, however grand, can permanently conceal injustice. No ceremony can erase the demands of a people seeking dignity, recognition, and a future of their own making.

We say to the world you cannot ignore our plight forever. You cannot celebrate prosperity while refusing to acknowledge those who have borne its costs. You cannot feast in comfort while treating the suffering of our brothers and sisters as an acceptable price of political convenience.

Today, we present our demands clearly.

• Recognition of the Kurdish people's right to self-determination within our homeland.
  
  
• The establishment of an independent and sovereign Kurdistan.
  
  
• An immediate end to all violence against our communities.
  
  
• The withdrawal of all Turkish forces from Kurdistan.
  
  
• The release of political prisoners detained for their beliefs and advocacy.
  
  
• The release of President Arslan, members of the Turkish Workers' Party, members of the Kurdish Workers' Party, and ordinary civil servants held in indefinite detention.

Should the Turkish Government fail to meet our demands, a new wave of reprisals shall be carried out until our demands are met. Our enemies will feel the terror that every Kurd across the world feels. Our enemy will understand the pain. Our enemy will understand death.

To the international community, we say the era of ignoring our grievances must come to an end. Every effort to suppress our identity has only strengthened our resolve. Every attempt to silence our voice has only made our cause more visible. The future cannot be built upon repression. Any aid to the Turkish Government will be viewed as your government's complicity. To which we shall respond accordingly.

To our people, who call for unity, determination, and unwavering commitment. The path ahead will require sacrifice, discipline, and courage. Our strength lies in our solidarity and in our shared belief that a better future is possible.

We fight for a future in which our children inherit peace instead of conflict, hope instead of fear, and sovereignty instead of subjugation. We fight for a future where our nation stands among the nations of the world, governing itself in freedom and dignity. To die for such a cause is our duty.

The demand for our own state will not disappear. The call for justice will not be silenced. The aspiration for freedom cannot be extinguished.

A new future is possible. A new future is necessary. A new future begins with the recognition of our people's right to determine their own destiny.

Long live the struggle for freedom.

Long live the will of the people.

Victory to the Resistance.

 

[Jay]

PKK Spokeswoman Nesrin Abdullah released this video through various social media accounts
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For decades, the Turkish state has waged a campaign of erasure against the Kurdish people, our language, our villages, our history, our right to simply exist on our own land. Today that campaign has taken the form of tanks and airstrikes pouring across the border into South Kurdistan, driving hundreds of thousands of our people from their homes in a single day. This is not a counterterrorism operation. This is ethnic cleansing, carried out in plain sight, and the world's silence is complicity.

We condemn in the strongest terms the government of the United States and its Western allies for the material, financial, and political support they continue to extend to Ankara even as it carries out this assault. Weapons sold to Turkey do not distinguish between "counterterrorism" and the destruction of Kurdish towns. Diplomatic cover extended to Turkey in international forums does not distinguish between an ally's security concerns and a campaign of dispossession against millions of people.

Any government that arms, funds, or shields the Turkish state during this campaign is not a bystander. It is a participant, and it will be regarded as one. We will act accordingly and extract an equal price. A child for a child. A father for a father. A fighter for a fighter. A house for a house.

To the international community: your silence has a cost, and that cost is being paid in Kurdish blood. History will record who spoke and who stayed quiet while a people was driven from its homeland.

We say plainly to Ankara this war will not be one-sided. The PKK will respond to this aggression in kind. Just as you seek to destroy our cultural sites we will target yours. Just as you seek to subjugate our people through fear we will subjugate yours. Just as you seek to kill our people we will respond in kind. Wherever you operate, inside Kurdistan, Turkey, or internationally consider yourselves at risk for as long as this offensive continues. We did not choose this war. But we will not stand and watch our people erased without answering it.

The struggle for Kurdish freedom did not begin with this invasion, and it will not end with it. From Amed to Qamishlo, from Hewlêr to the mountains of Zagros, the Kurdish nation has endured worse than this and has always endured. We call on every Kurd, and on every person of conscience, to stand with a people fighting for the simple right to live.

We will not be erased. We will not be silent. And we will not stop.