NEWS CENTER – With the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, the concept of annihilation and denial was introduced against the Kurdish people, while the uprisings of the Kurds, especially Şêx Seîd, Agirî, Koçgiri and Dersim, were suppressed with blood. Because almost all of the Kurdish revolts could not go beyond their own regions, none of them could turn into a nationally organized revolt. By the middle of the 20th century, the colonial powers were confident; The “Imaginary Kurdistan” that was buried would not be resurrected. However, the emergence of a group of young people led by Abdullah Öcalan on the stage of history in the early 1970s rekindled the Kurdish people’s hopes for freedom.
The armed attacks against the group that became a party under the name of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan-PKK) in Fis village of Lice district of Amed on 27 November 1978 revealed the tendency of the group members to take up arms for self-defense. Armed struggle for the members of the group, who for the first time seriously resorted to arms to avenge Haki Karer, one of the leading cadres of the group who was murdered by the contras on May 18, 1977; It became an indispensable method with the actions against the fascists and the resistance that emerged in the Hilvan and Siverek districts of Urfa between 1978-1980.
PKK movement to transform the armed struggle into a professional guerrilla warfare and a national army; Since the summer of 1979, he took the first step in the Palestine-Lebanon field, where he had removed his cadres. The military officer of the movement, Kemal Pir, who returned to Northern Kurdistan after receiving guerrilla training here, was captured by the Turkish state in the autumn of 1980 and the arrival of the fascist junta on September 12, 1980 delayed the armed struggle.
THE PROCESS THAT STARTS WITH THE 2nd CONGRESS
During this time, PKK cadres and militants who landed in the Middle East underwent ideological, political and military training organized by Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan. Following the second 2nd Congress held by the PKK in the summer of 1982, as of September of the same year, the groups that would initiate the armed struggle set out to settle in the camps prepared on the borders of Southern and Eastern Kurdistan.
However, the “return to the ideal” was quite difficult and arduous. On November 24, 1982, on the way back to Kurdistan, 8 fighters from the group led by Şahin Lider were martyred by flooding in the Hêzil Stream. After such a difficult journey, towards the end of 1982, the guerrilla groups reached their places, and in early 1983, camps were set up on the steep cliffs on both sides of the Zap coast.
Martyrdom of MEHMET KARASUNGUR
The practical administration of the PKK, which was in Lolan in April 1983, met to discuss the organization of the military and social resistance to be developed against the September 12 regime. The most important question was: How, when and where would the armed struggle be launched? It was envisaged that a preparation unit would be deployed in a wide region extending to the border line of Zagros, Botan and Serhat, and the work for this has started. According to the guerrilla commanders, a guerrilla line should have been established that would extend as far as Şırnak, Eruh, Baykan, Sason over Kozluk.
An unfortunate event awaited the PKK in those days when the countdown for the guerrilla war began under very limited opportunities and difficult conditions. PKK Central Committee member and Central Military Committee Officer Mehmet Karasungur was martyred with his comrade İbrahim Bilgin in the Iraqi Communist Party camp in Qandil, where he went to meet with organizations from Southern Kurdistan. The martyrdom of Karasungur, who was one of the organizers of the Hilvan-Siverek resistance before 1980, delayed the armed resistance that was planned to start in the summer of 1983.
FOUNDATION OF HRK AND FINAL PREPARATIONS
At the beginning of 1984, the Central Committee, which was elected by the PKK’s 2nd Congress and transformed itself into the “Central Preparatory Committee” for one year, held its second meeting in Damascus. At this meeting, attended by Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan and 7 Central Committee Members, it was decided to expand the freedom struggle against the liquidationism imposed on the movement and to start the guerrilla resistance as soon as possible.
In April of the same year, a large meeting was held in the Çiyayê Reş area of Zap with the participation of around 150 PKK staff. While the results of the Central Committee meeting were conveyed at this conference-level meeting, it was decided to develop the armed struggle in Uludere and Çukurca, and assignments were made among the cadres. However, the effort given in Çukurca was not enough. Upon this, Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan stepped in and sent a comprehensive perspective of struggle and organization to the guerrilla forces.
Based on the perspective presented by Abdullah Öcalan, 6 members of the PKK Central Committee met in the Xinêre area on 16-18 June 1984. At this meeting, it was decided to establish the Kurdistan Liberation Forces (Hêzên Rizgariya Kurdistan-HRK), which will organize the guerrilla war. The decisions taken by the 6 leading cadres of the PKK in the mountains of Kurdistan in those years were transferred to a larger staff force in the Shikefta Birîndara area in mid-July.
At that historic meeting in Şikefta Birîndara, the founding statement of HRK was prepared, the places and dates for the actions were determined. Accordingly, on August 15, 1984, the districts of Eruh, Şemdinli and Çatak would be published simultaneously. Among these actions, during which the establishment of the HRK would be announced, the 14 July Armed Propaganda Unit under the command of Mahsum Korkmaz (Egîd) would raid the Eruh district of Siirt, and the 21 March Armed Propaganda Unit under the command of Abdullah Ekinci (Gözlüklü Ali) in the Şemdinli district of Hakkari. In the Çatak district of Van, the action would not take place that day. (A guerrilla unit under the command of Egîd would complete the unfinished business in Çatak a year later, on the anniversary of the 14 July Resistance, and shock the Turkish state by raiding this district opened to Serhat)
RESISTANCE WRITTEN BY 29 WARRIERS IN ERUH
As of mid-July 1984, guerrilla groups set out for the districts in Northern Kurdistan. The most difficult task was that of the Eruh group. Egîd, the commander of the group, noted the difficulties they faced in the “Action evaluation report” as follows: “We could not find a single person from whom we could obtain intelligence at the accident centre. Many of the villages are deeply estranged from our struggle.” Moreover, Egîd’s flat feet created serious obstacles to his walking. Egîd, who described this situation with a single sentence in his diaries to be published later, “Pain in my knee prevents me from walking on the road”, was hiding this discomfort in his feet from many of his friends. Historiographers would liken Egîd’s handicap in mountain treks to Che Guevara’s asthma.
Commander Egîd, who was rehearsing the model of Eruh with his action group, made the final discovery for the raid on 13 August. Hours before the action, many in the group did not know exactly where to attack. The group reached the previously set point at the dawn of August 15. The geography of Kurdistan was still in deep silence in the red of twilight. As the dawn broke, Egîd pointed to what seemed to be a distant dot. The whole group studied that small town through binoculars. Eruh was three kilometers away.
Everything for the action was calculated to the smallest detail, even the ‘plan B’ was ready. If the plan failed, the group members would try to reach a meeting point at the foot of the Çırav Mountain, where they would wait for their friends for a maximum of 1.5 hours, and then retreat to the bases. The task distribution of Egîd for the action in which 4 militia and 25 fighters took part was as follows:
Attack Group: Erdal, Selim, Şiyar, Fikret, Musa, Haydar, Azad, Ferhan.
RBC Shooting Group: Hashim, Baran, Keleş (militia).
Defense group: Kazım, İbrahim (militia).
Command: Agit and next to him is Diktiryof user Serdar.
The group that raided the casino and the commander’s lodgings in the courtyard of the division: Bedran, Biji, Kerim.
Address group in the mosque: Tevfik, Ömer Şoreş.
Statement, banner, robbery group: Botan, Cengo, Bozan.
The group that cut the Eruh-Sirt road: Hacı, Xalil, Salih.
The group that cut off the Eruh-Şırnak road: Ali, Cuma, Halil (all three of them militia).
On the evening of August 15, 1984, the group set out at around 19.30, with the coming of darkness. Entering Eruh towards 21:00, the group quickly split into three branches. A few minutes later came the sound of the first bullet. The first fire was opened to the guard posts of the gendarmerie station. While the rocket fired to the upper floor of the division hit, a few minutes later the two-storey military building fell into the hands of the group. The soldiers were in a panic. Meanwhile, the “main attack column” raided the officers’ casino.
While the establishment of the “Kurdistan Freedom Army” (HRK) was announced with a statement read from the mosque loudspeaker, the guerrillas who took over the district turned to the symbols of the Turkish state regime. While the post office building and the bank were destroyed, the commander’s taxi, a military cemse, was set on fire. The guerrilla group, which left Eruh with a cart full of confiscated carriage at midnight, threw their cargo on the backs of three mules when they arrived at the bridge outside the town. After a long journey of 3 days, the guerrilla group was able to reach their base only on 18 August.
ŞEMDİNLİ Raid and his Commander ALI WITH GLASSES
Simultaneously with Eruh, a raid took place in Semdinli. Contrary to Eruh, there were violent clashes between Turkish state forces in Şemdinli. Here, the guerrillas under the command of Speckled Ali targeted the outposts and military lodgings, and the Turkish army suffered serious losses. Despite the intense fighting, the guerrilla unit also participated in the process of declaring the establishment of the HRK by distributing leaflets in Şemdinli.
PKK Executive Committee Member Duran Kalkan explained the differences between the Eruh and Semdinli protests in an interview he gave to the newspaper Yeni Özgür Perakende in 2018:“There is no such thing as the Semdinli actions are left behind. But in practice a somewhat similar situation actually happened. It was partly due to the command position of the troops carrying out the actions. Comrade Egîd, who carried out the Eruh action, was martyred in a clash in Gabar on March 28, 1986. Therefore, this state of martyrdom, the activity of Comrade Egîd, brought a focus on Eruh’s actions. The commander of the “21 March Armed Propaganda Unit” that carried out the Şemdinli action was Comrade Gözlü Ali (Abdullah Ekinci). This comrade also waged a truly heroic struggle during 84-85. He became the commander of the guerrilla unit that went to Hakkari in 84 and Garzan in 85 and carried out numerous actions.”
In the same interview, Duran Kalkan made a historical note of the following information regarding the commander of the Şemdinli action, Gözlüklü Ali: “The fact that Comrade Gözlüklü Ali committed suicide, especially under the suffocating influence of the liquidator, caused both him and the Şemdinli action to remain in the background. He was a very sensitive, very emotional person. He could not stand the arguments and rhetoric developed by the liquidationism to prevent the guerrilla.”
72 HOURS HAS BEEN 38 YEARS…
Returning to the days following August 15, 1984, the PKK’s breakthrough had an earthquake effect in Ankara. Although the Turkish state tried to hide the Eruh and Semdinli raids, this news was at the top of the world media from the very first moment. While the BBC, Voice of America radio and Iranian radio were the first organizations to announce August 15, European media announced that the Kurdish people were once again on the scene of history with the following headlines and statements: “They adopt the strategies and tactics of the South American guerrillas”, “The Turkish press is banned from reporting” , “The surprise attacks may be the work of PKK militants known as Apoists”, “Their intention is to establish a socialist independent state with Diyarbakır as its capital” and “They choose mountainous areas suitable for an ideal guerrilla war.”
The Turkish media, on the other hand, only carried 15 August on their pages on 18 August 1984. While Milliyet newspaper gave a short report on its inside pages with the headline “Separatists attacked two gendarmerie stations and an officer’s club”, Hürriyet censored the events on 15 August with the headline “Searching for terrorists attempting action in Eruh and Şemdinli”. In the following days, the Turkish media tried to win the moral superiority lost on 15 August with the headlines “The Mehmetçi’s breath is on their necks”, “The attackers are surrounded” and “The Gendarmerie does not let a bird fly in Eruh”.
While similar news appeared in the media as if they were prepared from a central place as part of the psychological warfare, the leader of the September 12 regime, Kenan Evren, instructed that “terrorists who dare to draw arms against the state should be caught immediately and handed over to the iron grip of Turkish justice.” Evren, who gave 72 hours for this, said, “The Marauders will learn their lesson.” As a matter of fact, they thought that the end of this resistance, which was defined as the “29th Kurdish Revolt in the history of the Republic,” would not be different from the others.
Aside from the destruction of the Kurdistan Freedom Guerrilla, the bullets that exploded on August 15, 1984 brought a new awakening, first in Botan and then in the whole of Kurdistan. With this awakening, within a few years, a guerrilla army consisting of men and women from almost every city, county, town and village, from every sect-religious group was formed.
38 years have passed since the “72-hour life” that the Turkish state had reaped, just like the American philosopher Dale Carnegi’s saying, “Most of the important things in the world have been achieved by people who keep trying even when there is no hope,” in 1984, one of the darkest years in Kurdistan. a group of freedom fighters; They went down in history as the name of hope and success in a geography where there is no hope.
