Global powers continue to intervene in the Middle East with the aim of reshaping the region. While Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, citing Hamas attacks as justification, a new era has entered in Syria. After the attacks launched by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in Syria on November 27, the 61-year old Baath regime came to an end. Turkey and its Syrian National Army (SNA) took advantage of this situation and launched attacks in North and East Syria. 

 

Every intervention in the Middle East to date has deepened the existing crises and further destabilized the region. There is no solution to the crisis and instability proposed by the global powers and their affiliates. 

 

PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan states that the root cause of the wars, conflicts and chaos in the Middle East is the nation state. Describing what happened in the early 2000s as the 3rd World War, Abdullah Öcalan proposes a “democratic solution without borders” model for the Middle East. 

 

In the 4th volume of his book “Declaration on the Democratic Solution of the Kurdish Question”, Abdullah Öcalan made extensive evaluations on the Middle East and proposed the idea of “Democratic Modernity” as a way out of the current chaotic environment.  

 

'THOSE WHO CANNOT SUCCEED IN VISION CANNOT SUCCEED IN LIFE'

 

Stating that there are intense debates about modernity in the world of mentality in the Middle East, Abdullah Öcalan said: “These debates of adopting the technical and scientific basis and excluding and completely adopting other elements are far from a scientific understanding of what they are up against. Moreover, the choice was not up to them. As the hegemony enveloped them, they found no choice but to compromise. Regardless of left-right views, there is still no world of opinion and mentality that transcends Orientalism. There are very few views that have not been melted and reconciled within capitalist modernity. What cannot succeed in vision cannot, of course, succeed in life. Since evaluations regarding the opposition to the system have been made in previous chapters, they will be repeated only when necessary.”

 

'DEVELOPMENT IN THE MIDDLE EAST IS NOT AT THE LEVEL OF CENTRAL CIVILIZATION'

 

Drawing attention to the contradiction in the depth of geoculture in the Middle East with the fragmentation of nation-states, Abdullah Öcalan stressed that the depth and contradictions give strength to integration tendencies. Abdullah Öcalan noted the following on this issue: “Even the fragmentations that have been experienced have remained in the dimensions of power and have not affected cultural life much. The fact that ethnic and religious differences have been able to live together for thousands of years is related to the integrity of geoculture. Even hegemonic rises in power have always developed across the region. From the first hegemon recorded in history, King Sargon of Akkad, to the most recent Ottoman hegemony, integrity has been the predominant aspect of power. Each new rising power quickly became regional. Whether it was class and state-based civilizations or democratic civilizations that did not transcend the dimension of ethnicity, religion and sect, they all lived and left their mark as regional cultures. A closed civilizational identity like Japan, China, India or even Britain has not been experienced in the geoculture of the Middle East. There is no doubt that similar geocultures exist in Africa and Latin America, but not at the level of a central civilization as developed as in the Middle East. The elements of capitalist modernity are in contradiction and conflict with both historical geocultural tendencies of the region. It is due to these deep contradictions that the Middle East and its problems are much discussed but never resolved.”

 

DEMOCRATIC NATION

 

The understanding of nation is flexible and that democratic modernity is a multi-element holistic understanding of nation as opposed to the state, language, religion, sect and ethnicity based understanding of nation said Abdullah Öcalan and added: "It provides a strong basis for the peace and brotherhood needed in the geoculture of the Middle East. It can even be said that a great regional nation, that is, a Middle East nation, can be formed from the three great monotheistic religions and all kinds of different languages, ethnicities and political formations. Just as there is an American (USA) nation and a European Union (EU), a Middle Eastern nation can also be created. It is more favourable and stronger than both culturally based blocks. The problems of minority-majority, fragmentation in large nations (Arab, Turkish, Kurdish, Persian) and isolation in small nations (Armenian, Jewish, Assyrian, Caucasian) can be solved in such a large and open-ended, flexible nation understanding. It is clear that the democratic nation paradigm has the quality and capacity to eliminate the deep deadlocks and conflicts caused by the homogenising, conflicting, nationalist, sexist, religious and positivist mentalities in the nation-state, as well as the ruling and exploitative monopolies."

 

ECONOMIC, ECOLOGICAL AND COMMUNAL UNITY

 

Stressed that the economic and ecological element of democratic modernity does not only cause crises in the economy and the environment imposed by capitalism and industrialism Abdullah Öcalan said: "Democratic modernity not only eliminates the negativities that fragment on the basis of the nation-state, which is an important factor in the enormous low productivity, but also provides the framework that enables maximum productivity by providing the holism needed by the economic and ecological society and that causes the least damage to the environment. All kinds of economic and ecological communal unions to be developed around the agricultural-water-energy communes make possible the order that enables solidarity, prevents unemployment, considers work as liberation, and leads to productivity, which is needed by the economic and ecological society and imposed by historical culture."

 

Pointing out that the moral and political society created by democratic modernity will change and transform a society, Abdullah Öcalan said: "Instead of the closed-ended and rigid identity power monopoly that fragments and sterilises the geopolitics of the region, it makes possible the holism and brotherhood in all its diversity, which is sorely needed with an open-ended, flexible and democratic understanding of politics in the region and even worldwide. It will also realise a democratic society on the integrity of historical-social culture."