Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Scholarships 2025/2026

Application Deadline: 5th April 2025

About the Award: The Islamic Development Bank funds and implements its scholarship programmes as part of its overall efforts to develop the human resources of its member countries and those of the Muslim communities in non-member countries.

1. Undergraduate
2. Master’s
3. PhD and Post-Doctoral Research Programme
4. IsDB-ISFD for Technical Vocational Education & Training (TVET) for 21 Least Developed Member Countries (LDMCs):  Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somali, Sudan, Togo, Uganda and Yemen
5. IsDB-ISFD Bachelor studies for 21 LDMCs as mentioned in No. 4 above
6. IsDB-The World Academy of Science (TWAS) Joint Programme for Capacity Building and Technology Transfer

Objectives: The Programmes are important parts of the developmental initiatives led by the Bank since 1983 to foster technology and knowledge sharing among its member countries and Muslim communities in non-member countries. They are designed to attract talented male and female students and in order to build the right competencies required with a special focus on sustainability sciences to empower communities and to assist them in achieving their national and global development plans including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  The motto is to develop the students/researchers as Good Citizens & Competent Professionals (GCCPs).

Concept:

The IsDB Scholarship Programme is more than just a scholarship programme in the traditional sense of a straight financial assistance to the outstanding and qualified students. It is also a tool for the improvement of the socio-economic conditions of the Member Countries and Muslim communities.It is basically a scholarship programme and a development programme at the same time, since the scholarship is given as an interest-free-loan (Qard Hasan) to the students and as a grant to their communities /countries to which they belong.

The students are required to fulfil the obligations detailed, under each programme, after graduation and gainful employment. Besides, the students are also required to take part in the development of their communities/countries, through their respective professions. The repaid fund will be used to provide scholarships to other students from the same community/country to complement the IsDB Programme and to ensure its continuity in the long run, while the community development services rendered by the students and graduates will contribute to the overall development of the community/country.

Type: Undergraduate, Masters, PhD, Postdoc

Eligibility:

Undergraduate

The Programme is open for academically meritorious students with strong desire to engage in social services and community development after graduation. Candidates MUST ensure that they meet all the criteria of the programme listed hereunder, failing which the Application will not be considered:

• Must be a citizen of any of the IsDB member countries or Muslim communities in non-member countries.
• Candidate from non-member countries must be a Muslim.
• Must have obtained a high school diploma or registered in one of the top 10 public/government universities in his/her own country.
• Must have minimum of 70% in his/her high school final GPA.
• Must choose a field of study listed among the approved disciplines of the programme.
• Must provide evidence of language proficiency in university medium of instruction as relevant. The language proficiency must be supported by a document or certificate, e.g., for English, by a recognized language certificate such as TOEFL, IELTS or passed required level test conducted such as by British Council or equivalent system in French or other language).
• Must provide certified English or French translation of all documents in case if they are initially in other languages.
• Must not be in receipt of any other scholarship at the time of application and during study.
• Must be medically fit and willing to undergo medical tests after selection.

Masters:

The Programme is open for academically meritorious students and mid-career professionals from member countries and Muslim Communities in non-member countries. Candidates MUST ensure that they meet all the criteria of the programme listed hereunder, failing which the Application will not be considered:

• Must be a citizen of any of the IsDB member countries or Muslim communities in non-member countries.
• Candidate from non-member countries must be a Muslim.
• Must have minimum of 70% in his/her Bachelor studies’ GPA.
• Must choose a field of study listed among the approved disciplines of the programme.
• Must provide certified English or French translation of all documents in case if they are initially in other languages.
• Must provide evidence of language proficiency in university medium of instruction as relevant. The language proficiency must be supported by a document or certificate, e.g., for English, by a recognized language certificate such as TOEFL, IELTS or passed required level test conducted such as by British Council or equivalent system in French or other languages).
• Must not be in receipt of any other scholarship at the time of application and during study.
  • Must be medically fit and willing to undergo medical tests after selection.

PhD and Post-Doctoral Research Programme:

The Programme is designed to help promising and outstanding scholars from member countries and Muslim communities in non-member countries who meet the following criteria:

1. PhD study

• Have Master’s degree in one of the fields of study of the programme.
• Have minimum (“Very Good”) academic standing;
• Preferably have work and/or research experience.
• Have a research proposal in one of the fields of study of the programme stating its scientific and development relevance to the community / country.
• Be medically fit and be willing to undergo medical tests after selection.

2. Post-doctoral research

• Have PhD degree in one of approved fields of the programme.
• Have minimum (“Very Good”) academic standing.
• Have not less than two (2) years of experience in the field of research.
• Must have a record of publications/research in the same field.
• Have a research proposal in one of the fields of study of the programme stating its scientific and development relevance to the community / country.
• Be medically fit and be willing to undergo medical tests after selection

Eligible Countries: Muslim communities

Number of Awards: Numerous

Value of Award:

Undergraduate & Masters:

The programme covers the following items:

• Monthly stipend commensurate with the cost of living of the country of study.
• Tuition fees, if any, subject to IsDB’s approval.
• Cost of medical treatment at university/government hospital.
• Economy class return air tickets (once at the time of joining and on completion of study) and installation and equipment allowance for the students selected to study abroad at partnered universities/countries.

PhD study

The programme covers the following items:

• Monthly stipend commensurate with the cost of living of the country of study;
• Tuition fees, if any, subject to IsDB’s approval;
• Cost of medical treatment at university/government hospital.
• Economy class return air tickets (once at the time of joining and on completion of study) and installation and equipment allowance for the students selected to study abroad at partnered universities/countries.
• Thesis preparation allowance
• Scientific papers’ preparation allowance

Post-doctoral research

The programme covers the following items:

• Monthly stipend commensurate with the cost of living of the country of study;
• Cost of medical treatment at university/government hospital.
• Economy class return air tickets (once at the time of joining and on completion of study) and installation and equipment allowance for the students selected to study abroad at partnered universities/countries.
• Scientific papers’ preparation allowance

How to Apply: Apply below

• It is important to go through all application requirements in the Award Webpage (see Link below) before applying.

Visit Award Webpage for Details

Thailand: Opposition parties file no-confidence motion against prime minister

Robert Campion

Thailand’s opposition parties in the National Assembly filed a censure motion against Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra of the Pheu Thai Party (PT) last Thursday. At the end of March, a debate will be held that could potentially oust Paetongtarn or even lead to the dissolution of the lower house of parliament. At present, the prime minister is expected to survive the no-confidence motion.

Thailand‘s Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, centre, arrives at Government House for cabinet meeting in Bangkok, February 4, 2025. [AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit]

While 10 ministers in the government’s cabinet were originally targeted, the opposition, led by the so-called “progressive” People’s Party (PP) instead chose to focus solely on Paetongtarn, who took office last August. The People’s Party was previously known as the Move Forward Party (MFP) before the latter was dissolved by the Constitutional Court in August as well.

Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut, who leads the opposition bloc in parliament and is also head of the People’s Party, stated, “We cannot trust the current government to govern the country because the prime minister lacks the qualifications, knowledge, and the will to resolve the people’s problems. She has shown no responsibility as prime minister.”

The debate is scheduled to begin March 24 and could last five days, though Pheu Thai is attempting to limit it to only two days. Other issues to be addressed include alleged failures in public administration and corrupt practices with large business conglomerates.

None of the parties in parliament is attempting to improve conditions for workers or protect the democratic rights of the population. All of them in their own way defend the capitalist system and are hostile to the working class, including the PP, which did not lift even a finger to fight the dissolution of its predecessor, the MFP.

The censure debate instead reflects divisions within the Thai ruling class. Serious concerns about the economy exist, which has been struggling, a product of the crisis of world capitalism. According to the Office of the National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC) the economy grew 2.5 percent in 2024, the slowest in South East Asia. The economy is only expected to grow between 2.4 and 2.9 percent this year.

Last year, agriculture and manufacturing contracted 1 percent and 0.5 percent respectively. Thai workers are also struggling with the highest levels of household debt in the region, roughly 89 percent of GDP.

These concerns have only intensified since Trump came to power. Thailand is highly vulnerable to Trump’s trade tariffs. It has the fifth largest trade surplus with the US, which has grown 343 percent since 2017. No doubt sections of the Thai ruling class feel Paetongtarn is incapable of maneuvering amid dramatically changing world politics and economy and will also be unable to contain social unrest as living conditions further decline for the working class.

Natthaphong also accused Paetongtarn of allowing her father, Thaksin Shinawatra, of leading her and being involved in the government administration. Thaksin was prime minister from 2001 to 2006 until he was driven from office in a military coup. His administration had cut across the interests of the military, the monarchy, and other conservative sections of the bourgeoisie. He is also the founder of Pheu Thai and its de facto leader, though he holds no official position in the party or government.

Thaksin spent 15 years in exile before Pheu Thai reached a backroom deal with the military to form a government in August 2023, which allowed Thaksin to return. An eight-year prison term for corruption was reduced to one year by Thailand’s king, of which Thaksin only served six months in the comfort of a hospital room. He remains a target of the military and its allies and currently faces charges of lèse-majesté.

Censure debates are not uncommon in Thai politics. Pheu Thai called four similar censure debates along with the MFP between 2020 and 2022 against the military regime. All of these were unsuccessful, but they served the opposition’s purpose of promoting illusions that democratic issues could be resolved within the parliamentary system.

However, the People’s Party is now openly aligning itself with the opposition Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP), which supports the censure motion. The PPRP was the party of the military junta under General Prayut Chan-o-cha, who seized power in the 2014 coup and remained in power until 2023. Before the 2023 general election, he split from the PPRP to join the United Thai Nation Party (UTN).

The PPRP was removed from the ruling coalition after it cooperated with the antidemocratic efforts last year to successfully remove the first Pheu Thai prime minister Srettha Thavisin on trumped-up ethics charges. Significantly, the PP, the successor to the MFP, now finds itself in the league with the PPRP which played a central role in blocking the formation of an MFP-led government following the latter’s victory in the 2023 general election.

The PP’s posturing as “progressive” has nothing to do with defending the democratic and social rights of youth and workers. Rather it is aimed at suppressing unrest by directing hostility and anger over attacks on democratic rights and social conditions into the dead-end of parliamentary politics.

Based on current seats, the opposition does not have the numbers to pass the censure motion. Pheu Thai’s coalition, comprised of nine parties including the right-wing Bhumjaithai Party (BJT, 71 seats) and United Thai Nation Party (36 seats), holds 322 seats out of 500.

Paetongtarn stated following a closed-door meeting of coalition party leaders last Tuesday, “We’ve discussed the censure debate in detail because we want this coalition to maintain its unity and stability. We will all help each other [in the debate] across all ministries.”

However, the BJT is a right-wing party, which previously backed Prayut’s military government. It has emerged as the standard bearer for the right-wing sections of the ruling class grouped around the military and monarchy. It also played a key role in preventing the MFP from coming to power in 2023.

The BJT recently walked out of two sittings of parliament regarding PT-led discussions to amend the 2017 junta-imposed constitution. The walkouts on February 13 and 14 meant a lack of quorum, ending any discussion on the issue. It is therefore not out of the question that the BJT could leads a split of right-wing parties to remove Paetongtarn.

New Austrian government will implement right-wing programme

Markus Salzmann

Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen with the representatives of the new government Christian Stocker (ÖVP), Andreas Babler (SPÖ) and Beate Meinl-Riesinger (NEOS) [Photo by Peter Lechner/HBF]

Five months after the parliamentary elections in Austria, for the first time, a three-party coalition will be sworn in consisting of the conservative Austrian Peoples Party (ÖVP), the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) and the New Austria and Liberal Forum (NEOS). Christian Stocker (ÖVP) will be the head of government, with SPÖ leader Andreas Babler taking over the post of vice-chancellor.

In November, President Alexander Van der Bellen had already tasked the conservative ÖVP with forming a government. However, these initial negotiations with the Social Democrats and NEOS failed because the latter withdrew due to disagreements on financial issues. The ÖVP then also ended talks with the SPÖ; together, these two have only a wafer-thin majority of one vote in parliament.

Van der Bellen then asked Herbert Kickl, leader of the far-right Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ), to form a government. The ÖVP was immediately willing to negotiate with the right-wing extremists and agreement was reached very quickly in almost all areas.

Ultimately, the formation of this coalition failed because of the Freedom Party’s demand to take over the Interior Ministry. This would have given them control over the security apparatus and the secret services, which met with resistance from the ÖVP and, above all, from European governments due to the FPÖ’s close ties to Moscow.

In hastily convened crisis talks, Van der Bellen and the leaders of the ÖVP, SPÖ and NEOS then agreed to renewed coalition negotiations. At the same time, the Greens, who were also available as coalition partners, declared that they would support the government from the opposition and would not vote together with the FPÖ in the event of a vote of no confidence.

Even though the FPÖ is not part of the administration, the new government programme clearly bears its hallmark. Large parts of it were already found in the agreements between the FPÖ and the ÖVP and were penned by the right-wing extremists around Kickl. The new Austrian government will be the most right-wing since the end of the Second World War. Its programme provides for comprehensive cuts, extensive rearmament spending, the curtailment of democratic rights and attacks on refugees and migrants.

The three parties have agreed on massive budget cuts. This year, €6.4 billion will be slashed and at least another €2 billion set to be cut next year. The cuts will primarily affect pensions, health, social services and education.

A frontal assault on pensions is planned. The retirement age is to be increased through a “mix of measures.” Pension cuts and an increase in the retirement age are simply being hidden behind various buzzwords such as “partial pension” and “partial retirement.” This is made clear by the so-called “sustainability mechanism”: If pension expenditure is higher than budgeted, there will be further “mandatory” measures.

Furthermore, the health insurance contribution for pensioners will rise from 5.1 to 6 percent as of June 1. In addition, pension increases will be slowed down. In the first year of retirement, only half of the inflation rate will be considered.

There are also to be fundamental changes to the health service. Following the latest “reforms” in Germany, which have led to an unprecedented number of hospital closures, the coalition parties in Austria say they want to promote care outside of hospital. In order to plan drastic cuts, there are to be “expert groups to develop new forms of financing.”

The cuts to the poorest sections of society, on which the FPÖ and ÖVP had agreed, can now also be found in the incoming government programme.

Social assistance is to be significantly reduced for a large number of people. Instead of the current €1,209, a single recipient is to receive only €950 per month. Those affected by this are mainly asylum seekers and those entitled to subsidiary protection, who, for example, make up around 44 percent of all social assistance recipients in Vienna. They are to receive only reduced support during an “integration phase” of up to three years.

Recipients of state support are also to be obliged to work or do community service. At the same time, family allowance is to be offset against social assistance in the future, which in effect means a reduction in benefits for poor families.

All measures, no matter how small, that could mitigate climate change are falling victim to the cuts. For example, the climate bonus, a special payment made to all Austrian residents to help with the cost of climate change, is being abolished without replacement. So-called eco-subsidies are also being cancelled or radically reduced.

One of those responsible for these social attacks is Social Affairs Minister Korinna Schumann. The fact that the leader of the Austrian Trade Union Federation (ÖGB) has accepted this post indicates that the new government will be closely involving the trade unions in order to push through the cuts.

While broad sections of the population will be affected by the massive cuts, the rich, corporations and banks are being spared. Regarding the much-discussed bank levy, the governing parties agreed on a contribution of €500 million over the next two years. To speak of this being a symbolic amount would be a gross exaggeration. In 2023 alone, Austrian banks made a profit of €12.6 billion.

On the issues of domestic security, asylum and migration, the government programme is almost identical to that of the FPÖ. For example, family reunification for migrants is to be suspended with immediate effect and a “quota system” developed. The official goal is to “reduce the number of asylum applications in the country to zero.” The outgoing and now incoming interior minister, Gerhard Karner (ÖVP), said his motto was: “Lock up and deport.”

Detention pending deportation in repatriation centres, which has been criticised by human rights organisations, is to be used more frequently and for longer periods. The rules for basic welfare support are to be standardised, i.e., adjusted downwards. Even minor violations are to lead to severe penalties and deportation.

Girls up to the age of 14 will no longer be allowed to wear headscarves in Austria. A corresponding ban is being drafted to protect girls “from segregation and oppression,” representatives of the future government cynically explained.

Furthermore, it is planned that migrants and refugees must sign a declaration against antisemitism. This is particularly noteworthy considering that antisemitism is virtually the foundational politics of the FPÖ, with which the party of the new head of government had sought a coalition. The current president of the National Council (federal parliament), Walter Rosenkranz (FPÖ), who was also elected with votes from the current governing parties, has compiled a list of “high achievers” from the 1930s, which includes several avowed antisemites and members of the then illegal Nazi Party.

While radical cuts are being made in all areas, funding for the police and secret service apparatus will be massively increased. This will be accompanied by drastic attacks on fundamental democratic rights.

Among other things, the coalition agreement provides for an increase in the budget of the security apparatus, in terms of both finance and personnel. Body cameras and additional weapons such as tasers are to be introduced across the board.

Under the pretext of fighting crime, more video and drone surveillance is to be used at the country’s borders, along with “more comprehensive data analysis.” There are also plans to make it mandatory to search the mobile phones of asylum seekers.

So-called “Bundestrojaner” (federal Trojan programs) are also to be used, which the coalition agreement refers to as the “constitutional surveillance of potential offenders.” This means that virtually anyone can be spied upon.

While the real danger of right-wing terrorism is being ignored, further measures under the pretense of combating Islamic terrorism are planned. For example, there are to be new penal provisions and extended powers for the intelligence services. A reform of the Political Parties Act, intended to make it easier to ban parties, is also a possibility.

The money from the cuts will mainly be used for arms spending. The new coalition is explicitly committed to further rearmament of the Austrian armed forces and to participation in the Sky Shield European air defence initiative.

The new government programme states that the “2032+ development plan,” which provides for around €17 billion in additional investments in the armed forces by 2032, will continue to be pursued. In addition, the government wants to establish a new standby force made up of professional soldiers and parts of the militia. Austria would also be more involved in foreign missions and international peacekeeping operations.

With NEOS leader Beate Meinl-Reisinger entering office, a hardliner is taking over the foreign ministry. The NEOS, along with the Greens, are the most vehement supporters of rearmament and war. They demand an end to Austrian neutrality and advocate an independent, aggressive war policy for the EU.

Most recently, Meinl-Reisinger railed in parliament against President Donald Trump’s negotiations with Russia. She said the EU must now take responsibility for its own security. There had been much talk of wake-up calls and a turning point in history, she said, but now “words must be followed by action.”

Mass protests continue in Serbia

Markus Salzmann

Mass protests against the right-wing government and President Aleksandar Vučić have been taking place in Serbia for months. Initially, while the protests were mainly organised by students, all age and professional groups are now participating. Students and workers have been demonstrating almost daily in over 300 cities since November.

Protest in the city of Čačak in central Serbia on 26 January 2025 [Photo by Dejan Krsmanovic / flickr / CC BY 2.0]

On December 22, around 100,000 protesters gathered at Slavija Square in the capital, Belgrade. It was the largest demonstration in Serbia in 20 years.

Since December, students from 65 of the country’s 80 faculties have been on strike. Schools are also on strike, and at major demonstrations, farmers have blocked main roads with dozens of tractors.

The protests are enjoying widespread support among the population. According to surveys, more than 61 percent support the demonstrations against the government and the president. During demonstrations in freezing temperatures, local residents provide participants with warm drinks and meals. Belgrade taxi drivers travelled to a rally in Novi Sad, Serbia’s second-largest city, and provided students with free rides back.

Rallies and protests by Serbs are also taking place outside Serbia, in Vienna, Berlin and other European cities. On March 1, tens of thousands protested in the southern Serbian city of Niš.

The protests were triggered by the deaths of 15 people, including two children, due to the collapse of a railway station canopy in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad in November. The collapse was preceded by a renovation of the station, but the dilapidated canopy was not replaced. The general contractor responsible for the renovation was a Chinese company, which has stressed that the roof was not part of the renovation project.

It is reasonable to assume that corruption lies behind the lack of transparency in the construction projects. Shortly after the incident, Construction Minister Goran Vesić resigned. He was arrested weeks later, along with other top officials. Corruption among politicians and authorities is commonplace in Serbia and affects almost every area. Without good connections or sufficient bribes, it is often impossible to get official permits, medical treatment or jobs.

The protests quickly spread beyond the immediate cause and express massive opposition to the right-wing government and the hated President Vučić.

Vučić has been in office since 2017 and has implemented a drastic shift to the right. He comes from the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party (SRS), of which he was a member from 1993 to 2008 and for which he occasionally held ministerial posts. In the 1990s, the SRS recruited nationalists for the wars in Croatia and Bosnia and formed paramilitary units that were notorious for carrying out atrocities.

Since the civil war in Yugoslavia and NATO’s war against Serbia, the situation facing the population has been precarious. Poverty and unemployment have continued to rise in recent years under Vučić.

The gross domestic product (GDP) per capita is $11,352, placing the country in 10th place among the poorest countries in Europe. Only countries such as Albania, Armenia, Moldova, Kosovo and Ukraine are poorer. One in five Serbs is affected by poverty.

In order to fulfil the criteria for the country’s EU accession aspirations, the last governments have continued to trim the few remaining provisions of the social safety net. At the same time, the wealth of the country’s narrow upper class is growing. Armament spending has also been stepped up in recent years.

Against this background, the protests have a social character and are directed against the entire political system. Since Vučić came to power, there have been repeated spontaneous protests, most recently in 2023 after a school shooting rampage in Belgrade that killed nine students and a security guard.

In addition to the publication of all documents about the tragedy in Novi Sad, the protesters are demanding the prosecution of violent attackers of the students, as well as the release of all detained demonstrators. Furthermore, they are calling for an increase in the education budget by 20 percent.

Vučić responded to the ongoing protests by sacrificing his prime minister, Miloš Vučević, who he forced to resign at the end of January. Vučević led an extreme right-wing government made up of the Progressive Party (SNS) and the Socialist Party (SPS), the nationalist party of former head of state Slobodan Milošević. Vučić ruled out new elections, so the manoeuvre did not stop the protests.

Nor has the brutal crackdown on protesters intimidated them so far. Not only are the official security forces cracking down harshly on the demonstrators, but members of the SNS, who have close ties to fascist groups, are also attacking students. Sometimes they have driven cars into groups of peaceful demonstrators.

Vučić is receiving support from the European Union. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who never hesitates to support any protest that is in any way directed against Russia, did not comment on the protests in Serbia. Gert Jan Koopman, the EU’s director-general for neighbourhood and enlargement negotiations, had merely noted “steady progress” towards the EU during a visit to Belgrade and also ignored the protests.

The reason for this is the interests of the leading European powers in the Balkans, where Serbia is a major player. Belgrade is supposed to ensure stability there and continue to be harnessed for the EU’s war policy against Russia. Vučić has not only condemned Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine but has also recently been moving ever closer to the EU in military terms. As early as 2023, Belgrade abandoned plans to purchase a new batch of Russian fighter jets in favour of a €2.7 billion contract to supply 12 French fighter jets.

Serbian military officials also declared that they would no longer purchase Russian weapons produced under licence in third countries. Instead, Serbia has since supplied Ukraine with ammunition worth around €800 million via third countries, thereby supporting the policy of waging war against Russia.

Serbia also plays a central role in the EU’s policy of sealing Europe’s borders off from refugees. The country is located on the so-called Balkan route and regularly uses force against migrants trying to reach Europe via the route.

Last year, Belgrade signed an agreement with the EU allowing the stationing of the EU border protection agency Frontex along Serbia’s borders with Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia.

Furthermore, Serbia has mineral resources that are of great interest to the European automotive industry. In June last year, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz accompanied the signing of a “Memorandum on Critical Raw Materials” in Belgrade, which provides for the resumption of lithium mining in western Serbia.

PKK accepts Öcalan’s call to end armed struggle

Ulaş Ateşçi & Barış Demir

Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), made a statement last Thursday through a visiting delegation of the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party). Calling on the PKK, which has been engaged in an intermittent civil war with the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) since 1984, to lay down its arms and dissolve, Öcalan proposed “integration with the state” by declaring his party historically and politically bankrupt.

The DEM Party delegation meeting with PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan makes a statement. February 27, 2025 [Photo: DEMGenelMerkezi/X]

The PKK leadership, based in the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq, has welcomed the call and declared a ceasefire. “We agree with the content of the call as it is, and we say that we will follow and implement it from our own side,” the PKK Executive Committee said in a statement Saturday.

The PKK wrote, “It is clear that a new historical process has begun in Kurdistan and the Middle East with this [Öcalan’s] call. This will also have a great impact on the development of free life and democratic governance worldwide.”

The PKK leadership stated that “a suitable democratic political and legal foundation must also be established” for the success of the call, and suggested that Öcalan himself should lead the congress. This would require Öcalan to attend the congress from the prison on İmralı Island, where he has been held since 1999, or to be released.

“As of yesterday, we have entered a new phase. We have the opportunity to take an important step towards the goal of demolishing the wall of terrorism that has been built between our millennia-old brotherhood,” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on February 28, claiming, “When the pressure of weapons and terrorism is removed, the democratic space of politics will naturally expand further.”

This statement comes amid an intense wave of repression and arrests targeting broad swathes of political and social opposition, under conditions where the PKK has largely ceased its activities in the country for a long time. The abolition of remaining democratic rights in Turkey is not based on the “pressure of arms and terror”, but mainly on the deepening war in the Middle East and the growing class tensions at home.

Erdoğan threatened that if the PKK fails to fulfil its promises, “We will continue our ongoing operations, if necessary, leveling with the ground and leaving no head upon shoulder.”

After previous negotiations collapsed in 2015 over fears of a Kurdish state in Syria and Turkey, the civil war inside the country escalated bloodily and the Turkish army launched several military operations against Kurdish militias in Syria. Turkey now controls many areas of north-western Syria, while the north-east of the country is controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and US forces.

Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the fascist ally of Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party, welcomed Öcalan’s call, saying that “in the chaotic environment the world is in, a historic opportunity for Turkey has been opened”.

Bahçeli said the call was “valuable from the beginning to the end” and that the PKK’s statement was “supportive and complementary” to it. The Erdoğan government’s negotiation process with Öcalan and the PKK began in October with Bahçeli’s own call.

Selahattin Demirtaş, the imprisoned former co-chairman of the Peoples’ Democracy Party (HDP), the predecessor of the DEM Party, wrote an article praising the role of Erdoğan, Bahçeli and Öcalan in the process, saying, “May God grant them all a long and healthy life, but I will do my best to ensure the success of these three leaders who have taken the initiative for peace in the Middle East and for the historic Kurdish-Turkish peace at the last stage of their lives.”

Demirtaş, whose immunity was lifted with the support of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), has been unlawfully imprisoned since November 2016.

Sırrı Süreyya Önder, a DEM Party deputy and member of the delegation that met with Öcalan, joined the chorus of praise for Bahçeli, the leader of a party with a history of massacring working-class militants, leftists and minority Alevis, and of supporting the oppression of the Kurdish people. “Mr. Devlet [Bahçeli] is one of the most elegant people I have seen in my political life in terms of one-to-one human relations,” said Önder in a Habertürk live broadcast on Monday.

Workers will not oppose the end of an armed conflict which has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Kurdish and Turkish youth since 1984 and has been exploited to divide the working class. But the glorification of the reactionary representatives of the Turkish bourgeoisie must be rejected. These political leaderships are organically incapable of building a democratic regime because of their bourgeois class nature, tied to imperialism and hostile to the working class.

Throughout the history of the Republic, the Erdoğan government has continued the state policy of suppressing the democratic demands of the Kurdish people. Even during the negotiations with Öcalan, the government’s repression against Kurdish politicians and people has escalated. Since last year’s local elections, 12 mayors from the DEM Party--elected by hundreds of thousands of Kurdish voters--have been dismissed, hundreds of Kurdish politicians arrested, and the legal political organisation the Peoples’ Democratic Congress (HDK) criminalised as an “extension of a terrorist organisation”.

The government’s wave of repression and arrests is not only directed against the Kurdish political movement, but against all political opposition, and is mainly aimed at suppressing a mass movement of the working class.

In the last months, there have been operations against CHP municipalities, the leadership of the Istanbul Bar Association has been charged with “terrorism”, opposition journalists, trade union leaders and left-wing party members have been arrested or are under investigation and strikes and demonstrations have been banned. These steps are taken under an authoritarian presidential regime, built with the support of the bourgeois opposition parties in one way or another.

The US and European powers welcome the negotiations between Ankara and Öcalan/the PKK because they further their predatory aims in the Middle East. They believe that an agreement between their ally Ankara and the Kurdish nationalist movement will serve their aggressive plans, especially against Iran and its allies.

On Sunday, the pro- Erdoğan government daily Türkiye Gazetesi accused Iran of planning to undermine the negotiations in a report citing AKP and senior security sources.

Without proof, the newspaper wrote, “Iran knows that if the PKK disintegrates, it will have no more organisations to use in the region. For this reason, Iran may want to undermine the process in the coming period by using the leaders of the organisation close to it.”

“The marginal left wing within the DEM [party] will oppose it because it does not suit their calculations... There may be those who want to infect the process. Marxist remnants inside could infect it,” the paper added. This comment comes in the wake of the arrest of 30 people from parties, which are members of the HDK, in the midst of an investigation into the HDK involving thousands of people.

One of the critical points in the debate on the PKK’s laying down its arms and dissolving itself was whether Öcalan’s call included its sister organisations in other countries, in particular the YPG (People’s Defence Units) in Syria.

Ankara advocates that the YPG should dissolve itself and be subordinated to the new Damascus regime. “The terrorist organisation PKK, PYD, YPG, SDF, by whatever name, with all its extensions in Iraq and Syria, must lay down arms and dissolve itself,” AKP spokesman Ömer Çelik said.

Last month, it was announced that during talks with the HTS in Syria, an agreement was reached on the integration of the SDF and its autonomous administration into the Damascus regime. According to SDF representative Abu Omar Al-Idlibi, speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, “the SDF would be integrated into Syria’s Ministry of Defence as a single unit, potentially within a corps or as part of the ministry’s eastern command.” Meanwhile, tensions continue to rise between Israel and Turkey, which has expanded its occupation of Syria following the regime change in Damascus and declared the Kurds a “natural ally”.

Öcalan calls on Kurdish PKK to lay down arms and dissolve itself

Ulaş Ateşçi

A delegation from the Kurdish nationalist People’s Equality and Democracy Party (DEM) visited imprisoned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan for the third time on Thursday. As expected, he delivered a letter to the delegation, calling on the PKK to lay down its arms and dissolve itself. Tens of thousands of mostly Kurdish people have been killed and millions displaced in the ongoing conflict between Ankara and the PKK since 1984.

PKK's imprisoned leader Abdullah Öcalan (middle) and DEM Party delegation on İmralı Island, Thursday, February 27, 2025. [Photo: DEMGenelMerkezi on X/Twitter]

Öcalan’s “Call for Peace and Democratic Society”, read in Kurdish and then in Turkish at a press conference in an Istanbul hotel, was broadcast live on many national channels and watched by millions of people in Turkey and around the world.

“The inevitable outcome of the extreme nationalist deviations—such as a separate nation-state, federation, administrative autonomy, or culturalist solutions—fails to answer the historical sociology of the society,” he declared in his call, claiming that the Kurdish question could be solved by “democratizing” the existing state.

“In presenting this perspective, there is no doubt that the laying down of arms and the PKK’s self-dissolution in practice require the recognition of democratic politics and its legal dimension,” Öcalan said in an additional note read separately. At the time of writing, there was no reaction from the PKK leadership or President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to the call.

Erdoğan’s adviser Mehmet Uçum welcomed Öcalan’s words, stating: “The call basically said that there is no more [Kurdish] identity problem, that the denial [of Kurds] is over, that there are no two nations, no two official languages, no two citizenships, no demand for autonomy, no demand for federation. The unitary state has been defended.”

Uçum added, “Öcalan emphasized that the internal Kurdish problem in Turkey, which is based on denial and rejection, has been solved. Now the issue is democracy, integration with the state and society and the development of democracy.”

The Erdoğan government’s recent negotiations with Öcalan began last October with a call from Devlet Bahçeli, the leader of Erdoğan’s fascist ally, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). Bahçeli said that Öcalan could be released if he declared that the PKK had been dissolved and that he would be allowed to speak “at the meeting of the DEM Party group in the Turkish Parliament.” Subsequently, with Erdoğan’s approval, the DEM Party started talks with Öcalan, who has been held in a high-security prison on İmralı Island in the Sea of Marmara since 1999.

As the World Socialist Web Site explained, Öcalan, as the leader of a nationalist political movement with mass support, had been handed over to Ankara with the help of the CIA while the European powers had denied him political asylum.

Öcalan’s call on Thursday was in line with his and the PKK’s political evolution after the Stalinist bureaucracy dissolved the Soviet Union in 1991.

He said, “The PKK was born in the 20th century, in the most violent epoch of the history of humanity, amid the two World wars, under the shadow of the experience of real socialism and the cold war around the world. The outright denial of Kurdish reality, restrictions on basic rights and freedoms—especially freedom of expression—played a significant role in its emergence and development,” before adding: “In terms of theory, program, strategy, and tactics, it was heavily influenced by the reality of the real-socialist system of the century.”

He then states: “The collapse of real socialism in the 1990s due to internal reasons, the erosion of identity denial in the country, and advancements in freedom of expression led to a lack of meaning and excessive repetition within the PKK. Consequently, like its counterparts, it reached the end of its lifespan, making its dissolution necessary.”

In reality, despite some official steps to recognize the existence of the Kurdish people and the Kurdish language, which have been denied for decades, the existence and democratic rights of the Kurdish people are still not constitutionally recognized and Kurdish is still considered as an “unknown language” in the Turkish Parliament. Basic democratic rights, especially freedom of expression, are still being systematically violated by the government.

Öcalan’s call comes amid an intense wave of repression and arrests targeting large sections of the political and social opposition, with thousands of Kurdish political prisoners in jail, elected mayors of the DEM party dismissed, and the right of millions of Kurdish voters to vote and be elected violated.

The PKK’s “lack of meaning” is not due to the dissolution of the Soviet Union or the supposed solution of the Kurdish question, but to the bankruptcy of national programs in the era of global integration of capitalist production. Ultimately, this is what underlay the end of the USSR, which was the culmination of the Stalinist betrayal of the October Revolution of 1917.

Like many bourgeois and petty-bourgeois nationalist organizations that falsely call themselves “socialist” or “revolutionary,” the PKK responded to these major developments with a rapid shift to the right. Founded in 1978 as a Stalinist guerrilla organization that rejected the unified struggle of Turkish and Kurdish workers against the ruling class, the PKK, which gained strength in an environment of violent state repression against the Kurdish people, quickly declared the “failure of socialism” in the post-Soviet period, abandoned its program of national independence and sought reconciliation with Ankara and the imperialist powers. In fact, it was Stalinism, falsely identified with socialism, and its reactionary program of “socialism in one country”, that failed.

The critical issue completely omitted in Öcalan’s “call for peace” is that this call is made under the conditions of an emerging global imperialist war of for the redivision of the world that could overshadow the two world wars of the twentieth century.

In the past three years, the US-NATO war against Russia over Ukraine has brought the world to the brink of a nuclear conflict, while the new Trump administration has now declared a program of global conquest and hegemony, targeting not only China but also Washington’s nominal allies. The US-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza is deepening with ongoing aggression in the West Bank and plans for the deportation of more than two million Palestinians. The Islamist-led regime change in Syria could turn into a new conflict pitting the occupying allies, Turkey and Israel, against each other and various other forces in the country. The US-Israeli aggression against Iran and the preparations for a war that would engulf the entire region are in full swing.

This explains why the Erdoğan government has re-opened negotiations with Öcalan. Erdoğan himself expressed it as follows: “While the maps are being redrawn in blood, while the war that Israel has waged from Gaza to Lebanon is approaching our borders, we are trying to strengthen our internal front.”

A comment in The Middle East Eye on Öcalan’s call stated, “Many insiders in Ankara believe the government’s motivation for engaging in talks with Öcalan is linked to escalating regional tensions between Israel and Iran.”

Ankara and the Kurdish nationalist movement, both allies of the US-NATO and both oriented towards the imperialist powers, are not opponents but parts of the deepening war in the Middle East. The US and European powers believe that a settlement between the Turkish and Kurdish elites will contribute to their plans for imperialist domination in the region, especially targeting Iran and its allies.

That is why the United States and Germany welcomed the call. Berlin has announced that it will do everything in its power to support the “process.”

“It’s a significant development and we hope that it will help assuage our Turkish allies about U.S. counter-ISIS partners in northeast Syria,” said Brian Hughes, spokesman for the White House National Security Council. He was referring to the PKK’s sister organization, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), and its armed wing, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which together with US forces control northeastern Syria.

Mazlum Abdi, the leader of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), of which the YPG is the backbone, declared that Öcalan’s call was directed against the PKK, not them. Referring to Ankara’s military operations against them in Syria, Abdi said, “The relationship and peace between the PKK and Turkey will have an impact on our region. If this process is successful, it will have a positive impact on us and Turkey will have no excuse to attack our region.”

Salih Muslim, a leading member of the PYD, welcomed Öcalan’s call, he told the Al-Arabiya, “There would be no need for weapons if we were allowed to work politically. If the reasons for carrying weapons disappear, we will lay them down.”

The last negotiations between Ankara and the PKK, which began in 2009 and continued with interruptions until 2015, collapsed as the US-NATO war for regime change in Syria intensified. Fearing that a Kurdish enclave in Syria led by the YPG could encourage a move toward independence in Turkey’s Kurdish provinces, where some declarations of “democratic autonomy” have been made, Ankara has launched a fierce offensive both at home and in Syria.

Thousands of people were killed and hundreds of thousands of Kurdish civilians were displaced. This bitterly demonstrated the organic inability of the bourgeoisie to solve basic democratic questions in a country with late capitalist development in the epoch of imperialism, as Leon Trotsky explained in his Theory of Permanent Revolution.