ERBIL – One of the history of the PDK’s betrayal, 25 years have passed since its militants massacred Turkish soldiers in central Erbil, killing 83 journalists, politicians, artists and defenseless wounded.
South Kurdistan was in a state of turmoil due to the civil war and the events of August 31, 1996, when the PDK ousted the Iraqi Ba’athist army in Erbil and joined the war against the PUK. were against the policies of the PDK with hatred and concern. They had no faith in those powers. On the contrary, the PKK was spreading among the people day by day and its organization was expanding in South Kurdistan.
The PKK has been negotiating peace with the PDK at the administrative level in order to prevent a recurrence of the Kurdish-Kurdish war and to prevent the PDK from defending itself against the Turkish state.
On March 14, 1997, the Turkish state launched a large-scale invasion of South Kurdistan. The PDK also joined the attack directly with the Turkish army. More than 200,000 Turkish soldiers and thousands of PDK militants took part in the attack.
KCK Executive Council Co-Chair Cemil Bayikk said: “Friends came and said that the PDK pêşmerge had attacked us and wanted to take Bihar Hill. I was surprised, I said how can this be? “Yesterday we met with them and promised not to fight and cooperate with the Turkish state.”
Betrayal of oaths and promises
Witnesses to the incident say PDK leader Massoud Barzani himself told the PKK leadership: “I swear on my father’s grave that I will not fight the PKK.” They also believed these words, but the opposite came out.
Also at the beginning of the massacre, many people in Erbil made a human shield to prevent a massacre and gathered around and around PKK headquarters to prevent the incident. But, once again the PDK promised the people not to kill the people and no war to take place. So again on these promises people returned to their homes.
Kurdish politician Kani Miran says about this process: “They came to South Kurdistan for the sake of national unity and the unification of Kurdistan. The PDK gave us a deceptive welcome. Prior to the Erbil Massacre in 1997, the PDK had begun a process of detention. Me and a few of my friends, friendly called their barracks. After arriving there they betrayed us and attacked us. We caught up. “He was sent to the secret prison in Acre.”
According to sources, the PDK has officially requested the Turkish state to attack the PKK in South Kurdistan. Last afternoon, on May 16, 1997, PDK militants launched the Erbil Massacre alongside Turkish state forces.
Turkish PDK and MIT forces simultaneously attacked the Kurdistan National Democratic Union (YNDK), the Mesopotamian Intellectual Center, the Kurdistan Free Women’s Union, a hospital for wounded guerrillas, the Kurdish Red Crescent, the Welat newspaper and the Wetan Şems newspaper. to do.
According to the documents, 83 journalists, politicians, artists and wounded guerrillas were killed and disappeared unarmed inside the hospital.
According to a report shared by Çetr Newspaper in issue 56 in 2011, the bodies of some of the martyrs of the Erbil massacre were buried in a mass grave on the Erbil-Makhmur road, known as the Qir Factory, at the Black Army and there are mass graves in several other places where the bodies of those martyrs are suspected to be buried.
