NEWS CENTER – March is a tense month for the revolutionary movements in the Middle East and Turkey in particular. With important historical events.
On March 6, 1993, Devrimci Sol cadres Bedri Yagan, Gürcan Özgür Aydin and three other revolutionaries were assassinated by the counter-guerrilla. March 8 is the international struggle day of the revolutionary women’s movement, and on March 16, 1978, seven students lost their lives in an attack by the counter-guerrilla. During the student protests, fire was opened on the protesting crowd in front of Istanbul University and bombs became, as a result of which the seven students were killed.
On March 16, a gruesome massacre took place in Halabja, in southern Kurdistan. In a poison gas attack in 1988, by the Saddam regime, thousands of Kurds lost their lives.
The 21st of March, the date of the Newroz festival, the New Year and resistance festival of the Kurdish people that was revived by a small group that held its first meeting at the Çubuk dam in Ankara with Rêber APO in 1973. On March 21, 1982, Mazlum Dogan symbolically burned three matches in his cell in Amed torture prison and committed Newroz by taking his own life in protest against the repression and torture in prison. Many have followed his example and fought for the freedom of Kurdish society and against massive repression through self-immolation actions.
On March 30, 1972, Mahir Cayan and his comrades made history in Kizildere. A history that ended with another massacre.
STRUGGLE UNTIL LIBERATION
What happened on March 30, 1972?
In the course of the counter-guerrilla terror, the three revolutionaries Deniz Gezmiş, Hüseyin Inan and Yusuf Aslan were arrested and sentenced to death. The revolutionary movement in Turkey continued its struggle despite the most difficult conditions and fought for the three revolutionaries of the Turkish People’s Liberation Army (THKO). In addition to Mahir Cayan one of the most important leaders of THKP-C, the revolutionaries of THKO also joined protests against the planned execution. In response to the capture and planned execution, three English agents were kidnapped and taken to Kizildere. After the counter-guerrillas found out that they were in Kizildere, a bloodbath was carried out there on March 30, 1972, in which Mahir Cayan and nine of his comrades-in-arms were murdered.
Then as now, the fascist forces believed that they could stop the liberation struggle of the people in Turkey by massacring and physically destroying the leaders of the revolutionary movement. With the massacre in Kizildere, they wanted to crush the hopes of the society for independence, democracy and socialism.
Those who had taken the path of revolution in Turkey were aware that the history of revolution in Turkey could only be written in blood. That is why, when surrounded by the enemy, they responded to the demand to surrender by saying, “We did not come here to return, but to die.”
The enemy propagated to have “annihilated” them, but the youth held on to the revolutionary resistance and bravely resisted the enemy’s encirclement. The young generation had not listened to those who betrayed the tasks and ideals of the revolution, but had turned to the resistance tradition of Kizildere under the slogan “Kizildere is not the end, the struggle continues” and “fight until liberation”. Rêber APO was one of those young people who made a promise to themselves because of this massacre, who swore never to give up. To this day, the memory of the Şehîds of Kızıldere is held high in the revolutionary Turkish movements, as well as in the Kurdistan Freedom Movement.
THE ŞEHÎDS OF KIZILDERE CANNOT BE FORGOTTEN
In his memory of the Şehîds, Rêber APO expressed himself as follows on the anniversary of the massacre on March 30, 1994:
“Today is the 30th of March. Today is also the twenty-second anniversary of the Şehîds of Kızıldere. This is a very significant day. The Şehîds of Kızıldere are undoubtedly not Şehîds that can be passed over. The resistance of Kızıldere is first and foremost the noblest uprising of the time against the fascism of March 12 and the fascism of the Turkish Republic. For this, the hopeful, faithful and conscious personalities of the societies have resisted. This is the uprising of ten brave revolutionary leaders who did not surrender. To put it more concretely, we felt tied to the memory of the Şehîds to the bone at that time. We saw on that day the tradition of rebelling against a huge order and not letting down the flag of rebellion with great heroism, no matter how disinterested and weak they were. Regardless of their ideological and political reality, regardless of the shortcomings in their understanding of organization and action, it would be impossible not to commemorate this great community that believed that something must be done against a despicable order, against a fascism that relentlessly imposes itself on the hopes and liberation of society, and who went to their deaths with great bravery.
BEING FAITHFUL TO THE MEMORY OF THE ŞEHÎDS
Tens of thousands marched toward them and they were massacred. We were shocked why these people, whom we knew to be great people, were murdered so brutally. As survivors, we made a silent and deep promise and said we must keep it. In those early days of the amateur revolution, we protested against their murder. This was a courageous step against the darkness of March 12. We were arrested, served time, and were released. We wanted to do more, we wanted to do it with the Turkish revolution, it didn’t work out, we turned to the revolution of Kurdistan. As known, we considered the great task of putting an uninterrupted and continuous organization in action as the most important task for us in those days and we pursued it persistently. Even before a year had passed since the commemoration of those Şehîds, we decided to become a Kurdistan Liberation Group. That was a demand to be faithful to the memory of the Şehîds, a demand to be honest, a demand to be faithful to the revolutionary pledge and that was done.”
With the memory of the Şehîds of Kızıldere, Rêber APO built the revolution in Kurdistan and established a struggle on Newroz of 1973 that has continued until today for 50 years with great sacrifices and heroic deeds.
PROOF OF INTERNATIONAL UNDERSTANDING
Rêber APO attaches great importance to the memory of the Şehîds and, in order to prove himself worthy of them, has constantly increased the struggle for freedom and democracy and a correct approach to internationalism, during his speech on March 30, he explained this with the following words:
“Behind this story are centuries of popular resistance. These themes did not arise by themselves. They analyzed the Vietnamese revolution, the Cuban revolution, the Latin American revolutions, all of Asia, and the October Revolution. They tried to carry their heritage to Turkey and Kurdistan. They were the internalized expression of such great human values. We evaluate it in such a context. By the way, this is also a proof of our international understanding. We know very well that this heritage is also our heritage. In this way, we have connected with humanity, which is echoing for the first time on Anatolian soil with such great resistance. We are taking it up and now trying to spread it wave by wave throughout our country and gradually in the Middle East. This is also our response to the commemoration of the Şehîds.”
“OUR REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE REPRESENTS THEIR MEMORY”.
However, Rêber APO also criticized the radical left, the revolutionary movements in Turkey for being unworthy of the Şehîds with the lack of success of their struggle and said:
“Turkey is in this situation because the revolutionaries do not know how to claim their Şehîds properly; they are also in this situation because they have simply given up and forgotten. These revolutionaries is nothing in the face of the extreme right. Those who are so indifferent to their own livelihoods and cannot do what is necessary in time will be crushed even more. That is what is happening here.
Despite all our calls for fraternity and help, they are unable to raise their voices. And why? Because this is how they welcome their Şehîds. Hence the sadness. Nevertheless, it is certain that the memory of the Şehîds of this resistance is not in vain. This includes the great rebellion of Deniz Geçmiş on the gallows and his loud voice that did not give up. It also includes the voice of Kaypakkaya, who made no secret of the torture and resisted until the end. They were all answered. Our revolutionary struggle perfectly represents their memory. If we deepen this struggle in this way and fill the gaps, this will undoubtedly lead to victory.”
This year, especially at Newroz, it was shown that the resistance and struggle has united, the attitude of the revolutionary movements in Turkey has changed and united together at the Newroz festival for the physical freedom of Rêber APOs. The coming elections on May 14 will herald a new era in Turkey and for Kurdistan with the strengthening of this common struggle that has been going on within the PKK for 50 years.
Long live the common anti-fascist struggle, long live the freedom of the oppressed societies. Long live Rêber APO!
