Aims and Principles

Axis AA Nationalist Ideological Centre

As the National Initiative of Kurdistan, we hold that at the present moment the Kurdish political class is experiencing fragmentation and inadequacy in terms of national agency and representation.

We assess that one dimension of this fragmentation and inadequacy stems from the fact that nationalist ideology has not been sufficiently internalised by our political class, and that this class does not systematically ground itself in the national sources of knowledge.

On the other hand, the degeneration and moral decay spread through our society today by the colonialists are likewise bound up with the weakening of nationalist ideology's power of address, with the rupture from national sources of knowledge such as history, language, culture and tradition — and thus with the national spirit falling into weakness.

For this reason, as the National Initiative of Kurdistan, we deem it essential to establish a centre or centres that demonstrate, on a canonical scale, the role of nationalist ideology in national enlightenment and consciousness, in national will and unity, and that build real influence by systematically cultivating the national sources of knowledge.

Axis BNational Political Restoration

We, the National Initiative of Kurdistan, assess that the Kurdish political class stands at a moment of restoration.

On one side, thousands of people — from the younger generations to independent figures — are searching for a way to become political subjects in the name of our nation and to gain the power of representation; on the other, various unity efforts and platform-building initiatives are under way.

In this context one may speak of a rising national wave. Yet the searching has not settled onto strong ideological ground, and the unity and organising initiatives have not yet moved beyond palliative measures.

To transform this rising nationalist wave, with all its potential, into an institutional national force, we deem essential the intense and widespread involvement of Kurdish intellectuals and academics. From conservatives to liberals to the left, we invite intellectuals of every persuasion — each from their own front — to support the process with thorough analysis and strong ideological texts.

We believe this political restoration cannot be achieved under the monopoly of any Kurdistani party, or of a party initiative resting on one particular persuasion. For our existing Kurdistani parties, by their very structure, are not in a position to embrace this national wave arriving from every persuasion. Nor does any of the existing political currents possess the cadre reserves to unite the national forces.

We therefore find more meaningful a national platform effort — composed of political currents of every persuasion, with our Kurdistani parties among them — that will in time evolve into a “National Congress Party”, a “National Mass Party”, or a “National Congress Movement”. Totalitarian ideological currents, political currents and service movements that carry no ideal of “national sovereignty”, and organisations structurally under tutelage, however, must be given no place in such an effort.

For the restoration process to run on the right track, a reckoning with the fifty years of national struggle in Northern Kurdistan is imperative. The political experience of the past fifty years has produced tragic results seen in no other national liberation struggle. In this period, more than one hundred thousand of our people were martyred for national liberation, hundreds of thousands paid with prison, millions were driven from their homes into exile. All these sacrifices were made so that we might attain our sovereignty as a nation and halt the colonialists' efforts to erase our nation from history. Yet the Apoist movement that dominated this process has — contrary to our nation's expectation, with the “Turkey without terror” process — committed itself to the project of eliminating our nation through Turkification. Projects such as the “democratic republic”, “democratic society”, “democratic integration” and the like are not merely a renunciation of national demands; they are projects that lend support to the colonialist assimilation of our nation.

More tragic still is that the Apoist movement, despite its evident role in purging Kurdishness from politics, is still able to dominate a considerable portion of the Kurdish political class.

To explain the tragedy solely by the dubious role of the Apoist movement leads to mistaken conclusions. In truth, the whole of the Northern Kurdish political class bears responsibility for this scene of devastation. It must therefore also be asked why the Kurdish political circles outside the Apoist movement could not develop an alternative, why they could not stem this destruction.

We, the National Initiative of Kurdistan, believe the inadequacy experienced stems from problems of ideological and philosophical comprehension regarding nationalism. Nationalist ideology envisages the attainment of national sovereignty and the founding of the nation-state, and in the struggle towards this end it holds the existence and place of every national element to be legitimate and necessary.

Yet for the past fifty years the Kurdish political movements carried out their work under the influence of totalitarian, sectarian ideological currents. While these currents rested the national struggle on one particular persuasion and acted on the impulse to secure that persuasion's hegemony within the struggle, they also bred factionalism, alienation and antagonism among the national forces.

National unity

Kurdish political structures have made certain unity attempts in the past. But these were ventures driven by the motive of building alternative power rather than by the requirements of the nationalist political ground. That is, these initiatives never became efforts that safeguarded the unity of forces from every political persuasion, or that opened channels to every persuasion. And in practice these efforts dissolved, whether through pursuits of factional hegemony or through problems of accord between political structures.

There have also been efforts conducted in the spirit of a mass party or a congress party. But here too, no “culture of cadres of different persuasions working together” could be developed, nor were pursuits of tutelage absent. Instead of recognising the rights of every national persuasion and holding its group belonging legitimate, individuals from different persuasions were pressed into subordination to a particular centre — positioned in the mission of guardian.

Working together

Owing to the totalitarian-sectarian mindset that has prevailed over the past fifty years, the Northern Kurdish political class has neither lived any experience of political structures of different persuasions working together, nor produced any ideological work on the subject. We, the National Initiative of Kurdistan, propose to Kurdish intellectuals and political activists that in the coming period they apply their minds to this question and multiply, as far as they are able, the ideological texts on the “culture of working together”.

Giving oneself to the cause

One of the most fragile aspects of Northern Kurdistan's national political class is its inadequacy in giving itself to the national cause. This weakness, too, stems from the insufficient internalisation of nationalist ideology. The Kurdish national political movement still lacks a literature and a rhetoric able to convey in full the deep philosophical and spiritual bond between individual freedom and national freedom, individual sovereignty and national sovereignty, individual existence and national existence — between life and nation.

We deem it essential that Kurdish nationalists devote part of their ideological work in the coming period to this field as well.

The capacity to address the nation

The number of Kurdish nationalist political activists of various persuasions reaches into the tens of thousands. Yet because they are unorganised and scattered, they hold no central position from which to address our nation. Unless Kurdish nationalist activists of all persuasions gather their work into a centre with the capacity to address our nation, the way is thrown wide open to the activities and manipulations of the colonialist regime and its collaborators aimed at erasing our nation from history.

Axis CNuclei of National Resistance

Throughout the past century, while the colonialist regime sought in the North to erase Kurdishness from history through genocidal practices, in the other parts of our country it tried every kind of intervention to prevent our nation from gaining any political status. The military-political upheavals of the past thirty years in our region offered our nation certain opportunities: as a nation we attained federal status in Southern Kurdistan, and hopeful developments were recorded for our nation in the other parts as well.

This political conjuncture, however, has shifted in recent years. As the global powers escalate their military and political contest for hegemony on a world scale, the entrenchments and conflicts they pursue in our region have brought about a new alignment among the region's military-political forces. This situation has also afforded regional hegemonic powers such as Turkey room to manoeuvre in their expansionist ambitions.

Turkey seeks to use this conjuncture both to cut off any opportunities that might develop in the Kurds' favour and as an opening for its neo-Ottoman / pan-Turkist expansionist policies.

To realise its expansionist ambitions, Turkey deems it imperative to erase Kurdishness from politics and from history. To this end, taking the Apoist movement in tow, it is preparing — to put it aptly — to “reconquer” our country. With a comprehensive plan — condemning the Kurds of Rojava and Rojhilat to statuslessness, annexing Başûr, and intensifying assimilation in Bakur — it directs its entire entrenchment towards erasing Kurdishness from history.

We, the National Initiative of Kurdistan, regard our formation not merely as an effort to build a force of national representation, but at the same time as a nucleus of national resistance against the colonialists' operations of reconquest, annexation and erasure of our country from history.

In this context, we deem the development of such national resistance initiatives — in every social cell of our nation, in the youth and women's movements, in trade unions, professional organisations, civil-society organisations and local communities — essential to our national existence.

As the National Initiative of Kurdistan, given the political moment we have entered, we advocate civil forms of struggle. Our struggle will rest on the achievements our nation has historically built on the road to liberation, on legitimacy, and on the fundamental rights that international law grants to nations.

Thirteen ArticlesOur Core Principles

The National Initiative of Kurdistan grounds itself in the following principles:

1. National UnityAims to strengthen the national unity of the Kurdish nation; encourages political parties, civil-society organisations, intellectuals, academics, artists, women and youth to come together on common national ground.
2. Dialogue and ConcordGrounds itself in developing a culture of dialogue, solidarity, concord and common struggle among Kurdish political and social structures; rejects the mindset of internal conflict and division.
3. Independence and InclusivenessActs neither as an extension of nor an alternative to any political party; adopts an independent, impartial and inclusive national stance, standing at equal distance from all national circles.
4. The Right to Self-DeterminationRecognises as a founding principle the common national interests of the Kurdish nation, its common will, and its right to determine its own future freely.
5. Solidarity Across the PartsAims to strengthen cultural, social and democratic solidarity among the Kurds of all four parts of Kurdistan; to develop national consciousness and a shared sense of belonging.
6. Language and Cultural HeritageWill work to keep the cultural heritage and historical memory of the Kurds alive. Our initiative regards the preservation, development and transmission of all Kurdish dialects to future generations as a national responsibility; moreover, mindful of the dramatic decline in the everyday use of our Dimilkî/Kirdkî dialect, it sets as a duty a special effort for the widespread use and learning of this dialect.
7. Active ParticipationValues the role of women, youth, intellectuals and academics in building national consciousness; supports their active participation in decision-making mechanisms and social processes.
8. Fundamental FreedomsCounts freedom of belief, thought and expression, pluralism, democratic participation and transparency among the indispensable principles of social life.
9. National Congress ConsciousnessAccepts as a historic responsibility contributing to the development of a democratic, institutional and inclusive national congress consciousness reflecting the common will of the Kurdish nation.
10. The Limits of CooperationMaintains solidarity with Kurdistani parties, platforms and formations, and joint work where needed. It develops no partnership, however, with political structures that fail to keep a clear distance from the colonialist regimes and their collaborators.
11. International RepresentationSets as a strategic goal the formation of a legitimate “National Representation Delegation” to carry the collective rights of the Kurdish nation onto international platforms.
12. Minority Rights and a Pluralist OrderRecognises safeguarding the rights of the ethnic, religious and cultural minorities living in Kurdistan as one of the founding principles of a democratic legal order. To ensure the equal and effective participation in public life of historically disadvantaged communities, it supports the development of temporary and proportionate affirmative-action mechanisms in fields such as education, culture, local government, public employment and political representation. It is grounded in the constitutional guarantee of every community's right to live and develop its languages, cultures, beliefs and identities freely; it regards differences as an inseparable part of social richness and common citizenship. It aims to build an inclusive political society founded not on the supremacy of the majority but on equal citizenship, mutual respect and a shared democratic future.
13. The Measure of LegitimacyAs the National Initiative of Kurdistan, we recognise no parliament that does not recognise the collective rights of our nation as legitimate, and we do not regard elections to such parliaments as our agenda.