Page 133 - America's Failure to Perceive the PKK

to render nature understanding and of
course above all else in order to make
themselves sovereign, appeal to the
notions of religion and God. As a matter of
fact, people have their eyes on being "sovereign".
As a prerequisite of this, they create gods for them-

selves… If we were to materialize it even further, reli-
gion is the first form of thought and psychological devel-
opment in the confrontation of human species with nature. 53

This is in fact a new tactic on the part of Öcalan, who until then
had rejected religion entirely. He still speaks as an atheist and still

backs the PKK's atheistic strategy, but also seeks to give the impres-
sion that religion is "an acceptable institution" by claiming it was a
need felt by the earliest humans. He is actually using a means of
fighting religion described by Lenin in the words, "... We must explain
the origins of faith and religion to the masses from a materialist per-
spective." He adopts a guise that seeks to account for religion in soci-
ological terms but that does not reject it completely, and thus seeks to
influence the devout Kurdish people.

Another passage from Öcalan on the subject reads:

Religion is a remedy for humans to overcome all weaknesses
and to eliminate their fears, concerns and pains. And it is
necessary. It is not possible to say why did the first man not reach
the scientific facts, why did he fall into errors and obsessions. That
is because it was not possible to act any different under the con-
ditions of that day. In that case, a better understanding of the truth

of the first man is necessary. 54

Adnan Oktar (Harun Yahya) 131