Prof. Norman Paech: The nation-state is not the future

2025-12-08 13:35:15


	 

	NEWS CENTER - Proffesor Norman Paech said:  "The nation state is always linked to the capitalism and this is not the future of any state." 

	 

	The People's Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party organised a two-day "International Peace and Democratic Society Conference" in Istanbul on 6-7 December as part of the Democratic Society Process. 

	 

	At the conference, experiences of conflict and resolution were shared, and many well-known figures discussed the solution to the Kurdish issue, the paradigm of Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Ocalan, and the impact this would have on resolving the issues, expressing their views. One of the prominent figures attending the conference was Proffesor Norman Paech.  

	 

	Speaking to the Mezopotamya Agency (MA), Paech said that he became acquainted with the Kurdish Movement when he was asked to file a lawsuit in the administrative court against Germany's 1993 decision to ban the PKK. Paech stated that after this encounter, when he came to Êlih (Batman) and saw what the Kurds were going through, he saw their struggle for freedom as his own cause. 

	 

	He stated that although the court did not rule in their favour, he has been striving for the Kurds' freedom struggle ever since. Pointing to his interest in freedom movements around the world, Paech said: "But these were just examples of activism. In contrast, my support for the liberation of the Kurdish people was direct, a stronger commitment, and this commitment has continued to this day." 

	 

	'A CONFEDERAL STRUCTURE IS NECESSARY'

	 

	Paech said that the liberation of colonised peoples is one of the most important issues in international law. As a lawyer, he said he is committed to this law and to human rights conventions, and therefore feels a professional responsibility towards the Palestinian people and Cuba for example. Paech said that he met with Abdullah Öcalan in Damascus in 1996 and that during that meeting, Abdullah Öcalan shared his ideas on non-violent struggle with him. 

	 

	Paech said: "The nation state is always linked to the capitalism and this is not the future of any state. So, we have not to take over the state but to divide the power, the political situation, the decisions between the local people, regional people, different linguistic and other entities so to democratize society. It's not possible within a nation state because he's too strong linked to the imperialism and to hegemonic power. Now we have to divide those centralism into a more federalism, confederalism structure and this was very convincing perspective which we followed." 

	 

	‘THEY CAN'T SHRINK IT TO GUARANTEE INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS’

	 

	Paech stated that it is the duty of European states to pressure the Turkish state to democratise society, saying, "They can't shrink it to guarantee individual rights but they have to have collective people, like the Kurdish people, has to be guaranteed by collective rights. And this is not only you can fight with your internal power but if you have to add the support of the surrounding states of democratic states like Switzerland for instance or Austria or the Nordic states. I think those are examples which can give the right to autonomy even to the within the borders of the given borders. By the way 1996 even Ocalan said, ‘No we only want to have autonomy within the borders of the Turkish state never separate from Turkey.’"

	 

	Paech recalled Abdullah Ocalan's assessment that peace is possible through the distribution of decision-making power to different segments of society, saying that local democracy must be strengthened against centralisation. Paech said: "I think the best idea to foster democracy within the state to decentralize but within the former frontiers and not to separate but to disperse the power from the center of the government to local entities, to regional entities, to societies and to NGOs for instance to give them more influence to political science. I think this is the core of democratization." 

	 

	'THE PKK BAN MUST BE LIFTED'

	 

	Paech said that the PKK is listed as a "terrorist organisation" in Europe, except Switzerland, and that Kurds are often prosecuted in Germany for being members of or supporting the PKK. He said that this law, which he described as "absurd", must be repealed. Paech said that civil society organisations, parties and politicians must fight for the repeal of this law and the lifting of the PKK ban, noting that Belgium's Supreme Court used the legal framework he first employed in 1993 in its ruling that the PKK is not a "terrorist organisation". 

	 

	Paech added: "This is a very late rectification that international law gives the platform to say no the PKK like all other liberation movements in Africa and so on before they have a right to fight for their rights and to fight for the democracy in the land. I think this is one of the best examples where the civil society has the responsibility not only to give some commentaries to this but to fight against such absurd legislation." 

	 

	'DEMOCRACY IS NOT ONLY THE GOVERNMENT'S PROBLEM, BUT ALSO THE PEOPLE'S'

	 

	Paech stated that international law guarantees fundamental rights such as freedom of expression, freedom of association and freedom of the press, and that many countries have chosen these rights and enshrined them in their laws. "This is the call of given democracy to the people. Democracy is not a problem of the government this is a problem of the people and always the people even Germany has to fight for their rights for publication for open mind and for open speech and open society," he said. 

	 

	'THE STRUGGLE FOR DEMOCRATISATION IS NECESSARY'

	 

	Paech emphasised the importance of not forgetting what happened and keeping it in our memory. He concluded: "We have fought and we have started an enormous war, the Second World War. This is the lasting guilty of the German people and now we have to remember and to remind our everyday what we have done, the holocaust and the genocide against the Jewish and the Roma and Sinti people. This is our destiny and even in Turkey you have to remember and you have to take in your historic remembrance all what happened. I think first is to fight for the democratization of the state and of your society and then when you got the autonomy the self-government and the freedom of expression and so on then you have to build up a remembrance of what happened. Then even you have to go to court yes and to say ‘No this is not only to punish them but even to have such a determination and such a written memory what happened.’ I think this is two stage of your fight first you have to fight and with other associations and with other people in the world for your liberation. Up to now and you are not liberated because you have to fight to this and afterwards you have to fight for your commemoration and you have to fight for how to integrate the past in the new society and how to get rid of all those and without any hate and without any feeling of vengeance.”

	 

	MA / Berivan Altan - Hivda Celebi