NEWS CENTER – The following text is a memoire of Mustafa Sarıkaya about the two revolutionaries Çekdar Botan and Lecwan Munzur who joined the PKK from Europe.
“Early martyrdom is much more painful
Of course, it is not easy to talk about two comrades who joined from Europe and with whom we spent some time together….Comrades Çekdar Botan and Lecwan Mûnzûr.
They have become martyrs in a very short time. Of course, we are not a people or a movement to which martyrdom is alien. Nevertheless, every comrade who becomes a martyr is both meaningful and painful for us. Especially early martyrdom.
Without a doubt, this movement and this society has understood the importance of martyrdom and is responding to it accordingly. First of all, it would be correct to say the following: starting in the revolution of Kurdistan under the leadership of Rêber APO, probably the most beautiful and strongest side of the resistance is that martyrdom as well as martyrdom is given an appropriate meaning. In addition, these have not gone unanswered. The most fundamental pillars for this are certainly the continuity in the leadership and the continuous movement itself, the struggle as well as the resistance.
Together with the PKK, the revenge of the martyrs has been taken
There are thousands of martyrs in the history of our people. Unfortunately, every defeat has also meant that the revenge for the martyrs could not be taken. At last even on the way to the gallows the shouts and the resistive cry of the Seyîd Rizas, Şêx Seîds. It was the same with Qazî Mihemed, the founder of the Kurdish Republic in Mahabad. The martyrs have always left such a legacy: One day our grandchildren, that is, the young people will take our revenge.
Actually, a part of the revenge has to be taken as well.
However, the freedom movement, the PKK resistance, the apoist movement that created Rêber APO, has managed from all these experiences and lessons to give martyrdom a meaning that is appropriate to it and thus valuable. What has this led to? To the fact that the spiritual, ideological as well as organizational and political revenge of all our martyrs has been taken and continues to be taken. Şehîd Çekdar has been apoistic with his attitude towards life and his accession. From this point of view, man already finds comfort. At the same time, however, Çekdar and Lecwan left very beautiful traces in their short lives in the resistance, despite their early martyrdom. I have always wanted to tell about them in this way, but I don’t know how well I will succeed….
I will start with comrade Çekdar.
He was very young when he joined, but gave the impression of having grown up within the movement. He was not a person of big words and theory. Rather, he seemed made for the practical work. He was an activist of practice, a person who lived for working. It was his eyes, his attentive eyes, that left the greatest mark on me. They were full of brightness and joy, those laughing eyes. He came from Curnê Reş (Hilvan). He was a child of Hilvan, a youth of Hilvan.
In any case, he was thoroughly apoistic with his attitude to life and his accession. This often exists when one is with youthful comrades in these works. As if they were born into the work, grew up in it and as if they needed nothing else. As if they came into the world apoistic by nature. This piques my interest a lot. I have been racking my brain to understand why some young people are like this. Actually, the result leads us to the following answer: if one does not live detached from the social morality, if the pure child in himself does not detach from his social reality of ethics, then he is an apoist anyway. Because this child will be ethical, social, conscientious and rebellious from head to toe and consequently will oppose injustice.
This is what I realized with the friend. It has nothing to do with what he said, because as I said he was not a person of big words. We were together in some formations. He had a very refined intelligence, that stimulated my attention. They say humor is a matter of intelligence. In fact, people who have dealt with humor have left deep traces in history. People who question and make people think by means of humor are in possession of a wonderful intelligence.
Heval Çekdar was also such a person. He could decorate everything with humor. He could express everything he saw in his environment, negative or positive, promising or not, rejecting or accepting, through his humor.
He had a very intelligent attitude. But I think the most important thing was the child in him, the social morality and conscience, his meeting with PKK and getting to know Rêber APO. These things created a wonderful attitude. He always wanted to do something, to understand and could think beyond the horizon. He always wanted to learn something from the practical dimension of the experiences of the pioneers of the party, first of all Rêber APO.
He has shown that to be apoist is not demagogy but feeling
So we can say that these friends, despite their very young age, have come and gone from us like real apoist militants. This has shown me the following again: To be apoist is actually to be PKK, to be a revolutionary of Kurdistan, to be a resistant of Kurdistan, to use feeling more than empty words. If you feel, your feelings are a kind of manual. I don’t want to call knowledge worthless here, but knowledge detached from feeling leads to empty talk, to saying but not doing. But those who feel and know something, and unite the power of speech and that of action, really learn to live, to become alive. It was possible to see this in comrade Çekdar.
So he was not someone who spoke a lot and without meaning. By not talking much, I don’t mean that he was not talkative. He was not someone who merely dealt with things theoretically, throwing around theories only to fail to act. Rather, he was interested in the actionist side of things, and that side was even immense. He was very emotional. From this point of view, to be revolutionary is also to be sentimental. To feel the experienced tragedies of society, to feel the painful events of history, to feel the lack of identity and to feel that you are not perceived are the greatest sources of revolt. It is also very interesting that Rêber APO also came to such resistance with great feelings.
So, in memory of the friends, there is this to say: that which was also shown in their personality and is an example for all of us: a revolutionary must start with feeling. Of course, he/she must straighten his/her feelings and dedicate himself/herself to the work. He had a very pure feeling and also very pure feelings. Such a comrade was Heval Çekdar.
They became our pioneers, the source of our strength.
Of course, there was a lot they would have done. This is, among other things, the reason why their early departure leaves such a void. However, they undoubtedly left a legacy to the youth, to our people, and to us. There may have been a generational gap, but even though they were new to the Party, they also taught us a great deal. So with his attitude and his involvement, we saw that with the friend Çekdar.
He was always so excited, always attentive, always wanting to do something, always wanting to be a solution, always wanting to contribute to the development of the movement. He was an attitude, a life and a search. Even at times when he was in Europe, it was like that. I am sure it was the same on the mountains. Always with the desire to contribute something positive to the struggle for freedom of our society as soon as possible. So he was a friend who was very promising. A friend who could bring about a lot of things and could continue to do so.
Of course, such an early martyrdom affects a person very emotionally. Honestly, it touched me very much when I learned about his martyrdom, because we spent some time together and shared many things. And I am in this action telling about him. Maybe I don’t succeed so well. But what is certain is that they became our pioneers, the source of our strength. They became the source of our morale and that at a very young age.
In Şehîd Lecwan existed the resistant personality of Dersîm.
The friend Lecwan joined a short time before him. What particularly attracted my attention regarding his person was that in him still lived the upright resistance personality of Dersîm. So very pure and free, because in Dersîm this character is always defended. I think that Dersîm is a place that insists on its autonomous life and expresses a sociality. Thus, Dersîm is also always considered as a thorn in the side by the colonial powers and oppressors. By this I mean that although they carry out their policy of extermination in Agirî, and the route of Amed, Çewlîg, Erzirom, Mûş and Koçgirî, they are always aware that the final will be in Dersîm. This is because Dersîm has always defended its own autonomy throughout history, kept its natural social autonomy and identity alive, and has by no means broken away from that.
Since the colonial powers and all the other oppressors are aware of this, they also know that they will not get Kurdistan under control without bringing Dersîm down and massacring it. Perhaps they have also deliberately interpreted it as the final point. Marked it as the place of the last attack and accordingly carried out their most revengeful, ugly and brutal massacres there. In Northern Kurdistan, the biggest massacre in the 20th century took place in Dersîm. The stories are still being told. The reason for this lies in the characteristics of a natural society there, namely the insistence on autonomous society.
He was full of enthusiasm for the encounter with his sociality.
These characteristics of Dersîm could be seen in the friend Lecwan. I don’t know to what extent he was aware of it, I noticed it immediately. So with him, too, there was a quality that stood out. From his childhood it is clear that the family is Welatparêz. There were from this family also already accessions to the PKK, which influenced him. Especially the meeting of Dersîm’s stubborn and persistent resisting identity with PKK, brought out a great beauty. Heval Lecwan was always full of excitement and friends. He was so enthusiastic, so excited. So excited as if he had discovered life too late, as if he had found his home, as if he had found the sociality with which he must unite. I think Dersîm’s stubbornness and persistent resistance with the contemporary resistance of PKK became a synthesis. This synthesis produced in him this enthusiasm.
At the same time, he was a seeker. He was also a person who always wanted to do something immediately and find solutions to the problems of our community. Honestly, he has been a friend who has influenced me. So with his smile, his behavior, even with some awkwardness…so kind-hearted and sincere….
Although he grew up in Europe, he was able to be resistant to capitalist modernity
I was also thinking about the family in this regard. He was a friend who grew up in Europe. Heval Çekdar as well. But they kept the colors of Kurdistan, kept the sociality. This definitely has to do with the family. For this reason, I think we have to think a lot about the family. At the same time, I also respect this very much: It is not easy for families to raise young people in the punishing, nerve-wracking environment, in an environment of destructive relationships, of modernity.
It is understandable that deep Welatparêzî values existed in the family and that these values were passed on to the children. This could be seen in the case of Heval Lecwan, and it was also visible in the case of Heval Çekdar. Consequently, the family must also be commemorated and mentioned at this point. And for this reason, something must also be said to the families.
The first place of education is the family. If you can educate your children in accordance with morality, conscience and sociality, allowing them to encounter culture, wonderful personalities will emerge. These can withstand modernity and also withstand the exploitative massacre. These young people develop their selfhood, that is Xwebûn, much faster.
These people are naturally loved much more. Finding such people is not easy. These qualities were present in both comrades. In the case of the friend Lecwan, one could clearly see that he came from such a family. Therefore, when he first met the party, he did not feel like a stranger. He had an attitude and joined the PKK as if he had found his real big family. Needless to say, it was a very tragic situation when both of them became martyrs at the same time in the same place. We learned at the same time that both had become martyrs. The martyrdom of comrades who were so forward-looking naturally hits us hard.
(…)
They are the source of our strength, we try to do justice to them. Because I know, their longing was also a free Kurdistan, and that Rêber APO will be liberated. In our time together we have seen this clearly. That for which they became martyrs is the center of our resistance today. This resistance makes us feel closer to our friends. We are still trying to do justice to them.
Once again, and once again, I would like to remember them with great love and respect and promise them that we will continue to keep their struggle alive.
We try to become their true comrades.
MUSTAFA SARIKAYA
