The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)… War and the Philosophy of Life

How Ocalan transcended the state and reinvent Democratic Modernity?

Analysis by Jihad Hassan

In an era where traditional models of power are fracturing, and the meaning of “victory” is shifting from military decisiveness to the ability to maintain moral integrity and political renewal, the experience of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) stands out, not only as a national liberation movement but as a philosophical project to redefine political life, the position of the state, and the role of society.

But how does an armed organization transform into a bearer of a civilizational project that transcends borders? And can peace be more radical than war? Do global experiences prove that what the party has done is not an exception but an extension of a global liberation path alternative to the nation-state and institutional violence?

The Philosophy of Transformation: From War to a Life Project

Since 2009, when Abdullah Ocalan launched the peaceful solution project from his prison, it was clear that the vision went beyond a mere ceasefire. His call contained a radical dismantling of the concept of politics as a struggle for power towards a new understanding of society as an active entity, and the state as a function without sanctity.

From the isolation of Imrali Island, Ocalan wrote not about a temporary truce but about an alternative civilizational horizon that transcends the national model and capitalist modernity, launching the concept of the “Democratic Nation” as a new framework for coexistence and pluralism.

But is this radical transformation in thought and practice only local? Or does it resonate in major global experiences that have also redefined peace, sovereignty, and the state?

In post-apartheid South Africa, the choice was seemingly easy: either revenge and the reproduction of war!!! Or reconciliation and mutual recognition!!! Nelson Mandela chose the more difficult path; he established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, where the goal was not “free pardon,” but the establishment of a shared memory upon which a new political legitimacy could be built.

The question was: Can a bloody past be addressed without retaliatory justice?

The answer came through the recognition of “truth” and its transformation into a basis for future coexistence.

This is what Ocalan’s call emulates; recognizing pain does not mean perpetuating hostility, but rather the necessity of birthing a new awareness of political ethics. Within this context, we can address the experience in Northern Ireland, where society was exhausted by a long sectarian armed conflict between Catholic nationalists and Protestant unionists. The Good Friday Agreement of 1998 was not merely a political deal, but a declaration of breaking the pattern of the “eternal enemy.” Resistance forces such as the Irish Republican Army (IRA) entered a transformative political path, accepting coexistence and establishing a participatory democratic culture despite the wounds.

The question here is: Can someone who carried weapons transform into a political partner?

The realistic answer: Yes, if there is courage to dismantle binaries and build new systems of trust and recognition.

This is what the Kurdistan Workers’ Party is doing today; transforming armed struggle into a societal energy that establishes ethical political action. We can also touch on the Rwandan experience; the transformation from massacres to construction, after one of the most horrific massacres in modern history in 1994, where about a million Rwandans were killed in a hundred days. Rwanda had no choice but to continue in the logic of genocide. Under the leadership of Paul Kagame, the state chose to establish transitional justice through popular “Gacaca” courts to overcome the acute ethnic division between Hutu and Tutsi.

The difficult question here was: Can a society where half has exterminated the other half reunite again?

The answer came through building a state of citizenship… not revenge, and through a constitution based on non-ethnicity and social justice.

This merges with Ocalan’s concept in his defenses on “the ethics of peace,” where memory and participation prevail over the nation-state and concepts of forced victory.

All these experiences, like the experience of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, share a moment of philosophical awareness; is the state the solution or the problem itself? Western modernity has defined the state as a tool for organizing society, but in many cases, in reality, it has become a tool for excluding it and erasing its diversity. Ocalan, through his defenses, goes beyond criticizing the state to dismantling its very cognitive structure, and affirms that “there is no separation between man and nature, or between ethics and politics except in the thought of centralist states.”

Therefore, establishing a real alternative requires a “revolution in concepts” that begins with society.

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party… The Kurdish Moment and the Civilization of Societal Democracy

When the party’s general congress convened a few days ago in May 2025, with Ocalan’s technical presence, its goal was not a mere organizational restructuring, but rather the declaration of a new era, an era of collective memory for peoples, not the center… a culture of coexistence, not the gun.

In that, we find a reflection of what could be described as “Only the mind capable of transformation can make history.”

The party that built its strength from resistance is now building its legitimacy from philosophy. It was not and is no longer merely a Kurdish actor, but has become a carrier of a liberation project that transcends borders. Herein lies the essence of the equation: “Peace is not surrender, but the highest form of strength.”

That is, redefining victory is the deepest lesson from all these experiences; from South Africa to Ireland to Rwanda, and from Kurdistan to all societies yearning for freedom. Consequently: those who dare to redefine the battle are the ones who shape the future.

It is not military victory that raises the voice… but the ability to transform wounds into philosophy… enemies into partners… and borders into bridges.

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party today, in Ocalan’s philosophy, is not only fighting the past, but also opening a door to a different future, which may be one of the boldest attempts to invent a democratic modernity alternative to the narrow national borders of the twenty-first century, and to be a basis for transforming the Middle East into the birth of a human civilization instead of remaining hostage to fighting, conflict, and division.