PKK changes leader, switches to co-chair system

DİYARBAKIR – Doğan News Agency

Bese Hozat (L) Murat Karayılan and Cemil Bayık(R). DHA photo

The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) changed its management cadre yesterday, naming previous Kurdish Communities Union (KCK) Executive Council member Cemil Bayık and Bese Hozat, one of the PKK’s prominent female figures who led the “female organization” within the PKK, as co-chairs.

Murat Karayılan, the former leader of the PKK, was appointed as the new leader of the PKK’s armed wing, the People’s Defense Forces (HPG).

The illegal armed group took the decision with a 162-delegate congress on Kandil Mountain in northern Iraq on July 9 according to news websites affiliated with the KCK.

The illegal group also formed a new KCK General Presidency Council, appointing Bayık and Hozat as co-chairs. Four deputy co-chairs, two female and two male, were also elected by the delegates.

The congress has been running for the last six days and a manifesto was aired at the end regarding the group’s policies on Turkey, Syria and in the Middle East in general.

“The Kurdish people are a leading force of the global democracy movement against global capitalism. Especially in Syria, the Kurdish people’s right and successful stance is being understood better and better. The Kurdistan Revolution inside Syria will be an example for the democratization of Syria and the Middle East. The PKK and the people have embraced [the jailed leader of the PKK] Abdullah Öcalan. And it will be achieved despite [Turkey’s ruling party Justice and Development Party] AKP. But we must be ready for any sort of intervention or war preparation by the AKP government,” the manifesto read.