CENTRAL NEWS
On March 21, 1990, Zekiye Alkan would open a new page in Amed’s legacy of resistance. The walls of Sur which have witnessed and even become history, watched on as a young student from the Dicle University Faculty of Medicine became a mighty Newroz fire in the heart of Amed. And the walls of Sur stood upright in honour of the courage they were witness to.
“Newroz is celebrated with fire,” said Zekiye Alkan, and set her body on fire amidst a vantablack oppression. Another resistance was appreciated by the century-long bystander, all words a knot in it’s throat. Resistance, was going to walk without hesitation on the paths paved by the Mazlum’s and the Fours.
The arrival of spring has different meanings in the peoples’ language. For Kurds, 21 March, which is the symbol of oppression and uprising, is also becoming the day of the freedom fighters who burn the fire of freedom with their bodies.
“If freedom were easy, Zekiye would not have burned herself”
Zekiye Alkan opened her eyes to the world in 1970. While studying the Faculty of Medicine at Dicle University in Amed, the roaring freedom struggle of the Kurdish people attracted attention. She coincided with a time when the people of Kurdistan rose to uprisings led by women, and especially in Nusaybin, for rights to the Kurdish.
She was locked in the moment 13 PKK members were buried by women in the heart of Nusaybin. Zekiye Alkan, who had not been able to sleep for days deepened her search in understanding the meaning of being a Kurdish woman. The answer was clear. She was not going to accept persecution.
Before she made her action, she took out all the money in her pocket and burned them on a table in Traffic Park. When asked what she was doing, she replied, “I am celebrating Newroz. Newroz is celebrated with fire.” And she climbed the Surs of Amed which she had travelled to become a Doctor. Rising to the heights of Amed, Zekiye’s heart was burning with the desire of freedom. And all that remained was her body. Passersby watched as a goddess was revived from her ashes. She refused to live a live which was not free.
Zekiye Alkan was a rebellious and combative Kurdish woman. She was a woman who had never accepted to live in a normal life, her intelligence was a rebellion against slavery. Against the system that imposed the young are too inexperienced to have an idea to the future. The Newroz fire that she had burned encompassed the woman’s revolution, she did not leave her freedom in the hands of elderly men of the system building lives from lies.
