CHAPTER 6 COLONIALISM, SELF-DETERMINATION AND INDEPENDENCE: THE NEW PKK PARADIGM 1 Joost Jongerden Introduction In its 1978 manifesto, the PKK, like other national liberation movements at the time, declared the establishment of an inde- pendent state to be the only correct political goal. However, fol- lowing a critique (and self-critique) on the character of national liberation struggles and socialism as it actually was, or ‘real ex- isting socialism’, the PKK started to question whether independ- ence should be conceptualized and practised as a state/nation- state construction. This resulted in a redefinition of the PKK’s political strategy. Though adhering to the idea of self- determination, the PKK does not now tie itself to the establish- ment of a state, but rather to developing people’s capacities to govern themselves. The PKK disconnected the idea of self- determination from the idea of state establishment and re- connected it to that of self-government. In this chapter, I will discuss this new paradigm of the PKK and the redefinition of self-determination. I will try to explain the PKK as it under- stands itself, how it makes sense of itself and the world. First, I 1 An earlier version of this chapter was presented at the international conference “The so-called anti-terror struggle using the example of the Kurds in the light of International Law” organized by the EU lawyers’ association EJDM/ELDH e.V., of MAF-DAD e.V. and AZADI e.V. on February 6-8, 2015, and the CAMPACC (Campaign Against Criminal- izing Communities) workshop on “Self-determination and the global ‘counter -terror’ regime,” February 21, 2015. 10