Who was Olof Palme?
Olof Palme was an internationalist activist and Prime Minister for Sweden when he was assassinated in February of 1986 on a main road, on his way home from a cinema. He was a true social democrat who took a clear stand against American imperialism in Vietnam, exposing many world powers for their oppressive regimes in economically disadvantaged countries.
Palme, who had won the hearts of the oppressed and exploited, utilised all resources of the state to build the framework of a just future for all. He acted against American imperialism in Vietnam and the racist apartheid regime in South Africa. Olof was also in solidarity with the Kurdish people.
Supporting that the Kurdish people deserve freedom and that the Kurdish problem should be solved on a democratic-political basis, Olof Palme opposed the genocide committed against Kurds under the guise of the fascist 12 September 1980 coup in Turkey.
Why was he killed?
Olof had become a growing threat to world powers, who had selected Turkey as a pilot nation or a gateway to the riches of the Middle East. After the PKK launched an armed struggle against Turkey on 15 August 1984, the decision to criminalise the PKK was taken. This was to be done by assassinating Olof Palme: international forces devised a plan to get rid of both Palme and the PKK by accusing the Kurds of the murder.
Turkish national intelligence designed confessions by old members of the PKK and in 1985, the Swedish intelligence Säpo declared that Olof Palme was also on the target list of the PKK and that this was the sign of how the murder was planned a year before.
How did this affect the Kurds?
After Palme’s killing, major operations against the PKK developed in Sweden, but also in Germany and other European countries. The shooting of Palme was considered the beginning of the process of putting the PKK on the list of “terrorist organizations”. Criminalisation of the PKK carried heavy consequences for the Kurdish struggle after human rights organisations shut their doors to people who were on the verge of annihilation.
After the killing of Palme, a terrorist campaign against the PKK was developed in Kurdistan and the Middle East, and in the international arena, especially in Europe. Today, the PKK is declared a terrorist organisation in almost a quarter of the world’s countries for a crime it did not commit.
