NEWS CENTER
The month of May is considered the month of Şehîds in the freedom movement of Kurdistan and in the welatparêzen population of Kurdistan and Turkey. In the PKK’s 40-year struggle, many Şehîds were given in the struggle for freedom and democracy. Every month counts countless Şehîds, every day fighters, brave heroines and heroes have fallen for freedom. She is remembered especially in May and the fight is increased in her memory. It can be considered a revolutionary and socialist tradition to dedicate this month to the Şehîds and to remember those who fought and sacrificed themselves for freedom.
Rêber APO said that forgetting is like betrayal. This is especially true for the Şehîds. Whoever forgets the Şehîds not only betrays the heroes who sacrificed themselves for freedom, but also their relatives and the values that were built and developed in this struggle.
In a video address for the month of May, Murat Karayilan made it clear that the enemy believed that Kurdistan’s freedom struggle would be stopped and ended by killing its pioneers. But Rêber APO thwarted that. With every Şehîd, Rêber APO intensified the fight even more.
Murat Karayilan has compared it to a snowball which, once it starts rolling, gets bigger and eventually becomes an avalanche. Those who gave their lives in battle became immortal in battle, became immortal by their memory, by those who followed them, by those who took up arms and took vengeance for them.
It may seem strange to some that the Şehîds hold such a high value in the movement. But as Murat Karayilan makes clear, the struggle for liberation can only be successful if there is a willingness to give one’s own life for it. Anyone who believes that the fight for freedom is possible without sacrifice has already lost and is deluding themselves. If the fight for freedom were an easy one, all societies worldwide would already be liberated and would lead an equal life.
But what needs to be fought is a mentality, a system of male domination that has been growing for over 5,000 years, that has evolved. Those in power with this mentality will not give up that power easily. They have perfected their methods to such an extent that they have made society itself, in all its component parts, their supporters, creating a social mentality that is repugnant to social freedom, to women’s freedom.
Accordingly, it is not only a physical struggle that takes place for the sake of freedom, but also a mental one, a spiritual one that is fought every moment of life, every moment. Thus, those who have engaged in this struggle and sacrificed themselves for the freedom of their society, the freedom of oppressed societies, reflect the greatest truth. The truth of sacrificing oneself to achieve the goals of the struggle.
In Kurdistan there is a story about three butterflies. Three butterflies in search of the truth. The three butterflies see a light and want to find out what it is. The first butterfly flies towards the light, looks at it from afar and flies back again. He hasn’t figured out exactly what it is, can only say it’s a light. The second butterfly is a little braver and flies closer to the light, but when it comes back it can’t explain what it is either, but reports the warmth it felt. The third butterfly, however, flies straight towards the light until it burns up. This butterfly sacrificed itself to find the truth.
A story with a deeper meaning. Because the third butterfly was brave enough to fly straight into the light, the other butterflies knew what it was afterwards. It’s the same in the fight for freedom. For example, those who only approach the enemy from a distance may know it is an enemy, but do not know him. The others who approach a little closer may have recognized the face of the enemy more, but they still don’t know the reality. Those who fully engage in the liberation struggle also feel the enemy’s full severity, recognize the enemy’s reality and make it visible to all.
Haki Karer was one of them. One who fully committed himself to the fight for freedom and even though he wasn’t a Kurd himself, he fought for the freedom of Kurdish society. To understand the value of the Şehîds, it is important to understand Rêber APO’s approach to the martyrdom of Şehîd Haki Karer.
