Besê Hozat

Hozat has been a very outspoken critic of the nation-state and supported the PKK abandoning its plan for an independent Kurdistan. When Bese Hozat was asked by the New Internationalist what she thought about the referendum on Kurdish independence in September 2017, she said that "our movement's approach is not about building a state - a state system will not be to the benefit of the Kurdish people but a thorn in the side."

When Recep Erdogan held a referendum in 2017 that proposed to change Turkey from a parliamentary system to an executive system, Bese Hozat condemned the Constitutional referendum as a power grab by Erdogan and the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). Bese Hozat said in an interview with Haaretz that changing Turkey to an executive system would embolden the far-right and nationalists in Turkey and incentivize them to do border-crossings in Iraq and Syria. Hozat says that Erdogan is promising stability and an end to terrorism at the cost of more authoritarianism.

The General Assembly also said that men in leadership roles were too individualistic and that women naturally are more social, communal, and democratic then men. Bese Hozat agreed with the General Assembly and went on to say that "education has an unquestionable role in the liberation of women for it helps people to become conscious which is a must for the attainment of free will and liberation from slavery. This is in direct contrast to what Hozat claims about the Turkish government. Hozat says that after the Justice and Development Party (AKP) asserted control after the failed 2016 coup attempt, the Turkish government has been increasingly dominated by males and religious fundamentalists.

Hozat says that the European Union (EU) are hypocrites. She says that the EU knows what Turkey is doing to the Kurdish people, but that they do nothing to intervene. Hozat sees European Union–Turkey relations as pragmatic and that they are not doing enough for Kurds in Turkey. Hozat claims that Turkey is "blackmailing Brussels by playing the 'refugee crisis card'" When Erdogan arrested 13 Kurdish oppositions members of the Turkish parliament after the failed 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt, Hozat says that Europe has been silent about the 2016–present purges in Turkey. She says that "Europe is responsible for the rise of fascism in Turkey because this silence and indifference are indirect support for Turkish policies."

Bese Hozat claimed that the PKK kept up their side of the peace process by withdrawing fighters from Turkey and releasing prisoners. When the conflict resumed in 2015, Bese Hozat said that the time had come for a "revolutionary public war." She said that the AKP soon realized that the Kurdish movement was gaining strength in Rojava and that they were gaining international attention for their fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and the rescue of thousands of Yazidis after the Sinjar massacre. The AKP was further incentivized not to work with the Kurds after the Turkey's Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), a party which emphasises Kurdish rights, received 13% of the votes in the June 2015 general election.

At the Kongra-Gel congress held from the 30 June to the 5 July 2013, Bese Hozat and Cemil Bayik, were elected as the co-chairs of the Executive Council of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), replacing Murat Karayılan. The KCK is an umbrella organization that includes the PKK. Bese Hozat's election as the first woman in a leadership position in the KCK was seen as strengthening the women's movement within it.

Hozat told the New Internationalist that "We're experiencing a third world war in the region" in regards to Turkey. After the failed Kurdish-Turkish peace process in the mid-2010s, the PKK resumed fighting in the region after an attempted coup against Erdoğan. Bese Hozat said that there never was a peace process and that ruling AKP was badly in need of a ceasefire due to a difficult situation both in local and foreign arenas. She accused the AKP of instrumentalizing the peace process to get more sympathy at home and abroad.

Bese Hozat stayed in the Tunceli countryside for around four years and was a part of many actions. Her sister was killed in 1997. Her father, Hasan Oran, was traumatized by the death of Bese Hozat's sister and decided to withdraw from the Qandil mountains. Throughout her time in the PKK, Bese Hozat served at management level, and has been affiliated with many women's organizations within the PKK. One of Bese's main objectives was to preside over arming and training women within the organization. She was outspoken about the need for more female representation in the PKK.

During her years in high school, she was influenced by Abdullah Ocalan, who published articles in the Özgur Halk newspaper under the pen name 'Ali Firat.' In 1994, she joined the PKK in the mountains of Tunceli Province, taking the name Bese Hozat which is the name of the wife of Seyid Riza, the leader of the Dersim rebellion.

Hozat has also been critical of NATO because of their backing of Turkey. She claims that since the 1980s and 1990s, the Turkish state's strategy for warfare against the Kurds has changed, that it is no longer using as many ground troops and instead are using the Turkish Air Force and other sophisticated weapons against the PKK. Hozat says that now the Kurds are experiencing the most intense kind of warfare from the Turkish government and that NATO is not speaking out.

Besê Hozat (born 1978, Taner, Tunceli; also known as Hülya Oran) is a leader in the Kurdistan Workers' Party (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê, PKK) and is the co-chair of the Kurdistan Communities Union (Koma Civakên Kurdistan, KCK) alongside Cemil Bayik. She is the sixth member of the General Presidential Council, the most authoritative body in the PKK.

She was born in 1978 in Tunceli Province, as the seventh child of a family of nine children. She attended primary school in Taner and secondary school in Kayseri. Bese Hozat said about her secondary and high school years in Kayseri that "I experienced the othering in Kayseri through Alevism and Dersimilik. When it is known that you are Kurdish and Alevi, there is an approach that marginalizes, scorns, and humiliates. Alevism, immortality, infidelity, God, religion, was reflected as something that is not the Qu'ran." One of the ways in which Bese Hozat escaped this discrimination was being a part of radical left organization and many of these organizations were affiliated with Abdullah Öcalan.

Bese Hozat's family was a victim of a 1938 massacre during the Dersim rebellion, and she said that they were "victims of a genocide." She also said that "my grandfather was shot, my father's wife, his children were murdered. Many people from my family circle were massacred. My grandmother barely escaped the soldiers... this created a consciousness. In other words, there was a hatred and anger towards the state they created."