Armenian parliamentarian Gegham Manukyan reacted sharply to the handing over of two HPG guerrillas to the Turkish state, saying Armenia has not seen such betrayal for 30 years and noted that they will get rid of the occupation government.
Armenian parliamentarian Gegham Manukyan shared photos of two guerrillas named Atilla Çiçek and Hüseyin Yıldırım, who were handed over to the Turkish state, in a statement published on the “168.am” website and Facebook page, and said that they were “two Kurdish freedom fighters, revolutionaries, who fought for the liberation of their own people, fought against Turkish oppression.”

Pointing out that Dersim was one of the areas where the guerrillas were fighting, Manukyan said: “Many of our citizens were saved thanks to the Kurds during the Armenian Genocide in Dersim. Now, after they appeared on the territory of the Republic of Armenia, they were abducted and handed over to the genocidal Turkish authorities, the sponsor of the Azerbaijani aggression, who nowadays is an active participant in the 44-day war against our country.”

'Not an Armenian government. They are occupants'

Reminding that there was a court decision regarding the release of both guerrillas, Manukyan addressed the Kurds: Forgive us, my brothers, for the Armenians handing your children over to Turkey, where they will be tortured. Now we do not have an Armenian government. They are enemy forces invading our country.”

The parliamentarian added: “Armenia has never carried out such a betrayal in thirty years. There was no such thing in those years.

Manuykan reacted to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's government, saying that he already gave everything to the Turks.

'Forgive me for betrayal'

Expressing his concern that the heroes of the Artsakh (Upper Karabakh) war will come next, Manukyan pointed out that Nikol Pashinyan may meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Prague on 6 October.

“He gave a present to the Turks,” Manukyan said, adding; “Now he will even meet them to hand out the Motherland. Forgive me, my brothers, for treason (…) We will get rid of this occupation government.”[1]

Martin van Bruinessen,
‘Between guerrilla war and political murder: The Workers’ Party of Kurdistan’
MERIP Middle East Report 153 (July-August 1988), 40-46.

Counter-Guerrilla (Turkish: Kontrgerilla) is a Turkish branch of Operation Gladio, a clandestine stay-behind anti-communist initiative backed by the United States as an expression of the Truman Doctrine. The founding goal of the operation was to erect a stay-behind guerrilla force to undermine a possible Soviet occupation. The goal was soon expanded to subverting communism in Turkey.

The Counter-Guerrilla initially operated out of the Turkish Armed Forces' Tactical Mobilization Group (Turkish: Seferberlik Taktik Kurulu, or STK). In 1967, the STK was renamed to the Special Warfare Department (Turkish: Özel Harp Dairesi, ÖHD). In 1994, the ÖHD became the Special Forces Command (Turkish: Özel Kuvvetler Komutanlığı, ÖKK).

The military accepts that the ÖKK is tasked with subverting a possible occupation, though it denies that the unit is Gladio's Counter-Guerrilla, i.e., that it has engaged in black operations. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Counter-Guerrilla were used to fight the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) (cf. Susurluk scandal),[4] which has since its inception been regarded as a major threat by the deep state in Turkey. Mehmet Ali Agca was part of the group in the late 1970s.

Counter-Guerrilla's existence was revealed in 1971 by survivors of the Ziverbey incident, and officially on 26 September 1973 by Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit. The subject has been broached by parliament at least 27 times since 1990, however no successful investigation has taken place.[7] Deputies of the incumbent party in any given administration always voted in dissent.
Background
See also: Turkish Straits crisis and Truman Doctrine

Anatolia's geostrategic value has long attracted players of the New Great Game. After the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences in 1945, Joseph Stalin sent naval ships and troops to the region with his sights set on the Dardanelles. In 1946, the Soviet Union sent two diplomatic notes concerning the Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Turkish Straits, arguing that its terms were unfavorable to the Soviets. Ankara dismissed the notes, and the US also expressed its dissatisfaction with Soviet demands, stating that Should the Straits become the object of attack or threat of attack by an aggressor, the resulting situation would constitute a threat to international security and would clearly be a matter for action on the party of the Security Council of the United Nations.
Development of US-Turkish military cooperation
See also: Office of Defense Cooperation Turkey

After the British government declared on 21-02-1947 its inability to provide financial aid (though she would establish the Central Treaty Organization a decade later), Turkey turned towards the United States, who drew up the Truman Doctrine, pledging to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.[10] 100 million was appropriated two months after the US Congress ratified the Truman Doctrine on 12 March 1947. This figure was raised to 233 million by 1950, after Turkey contributed a brigade of about 5000 men to the United Nations forces in the Korean War. In August 1947, the Joint American Military Mission for Aid to Turkey (JAMMAT) was established in Ankara under the authority of the US ambassador.

On 5 October 1947, a delegation of senior Turkish military officials traveled to the United States to establish the military framework of the co-operation agreement.

In December 1947, United States National Security Council (NSC) Directive 4-A secretly authorised the CIA to conduct these officially non-existent programs and to administer them in such a way that removed the U.S. Congress and public from any debate over whether to undertake psychological warfare abroad. A few months later, the NSC replaced directive 4-A with directive 10/2, creating the Office of Policy Coordination (OPC, initially euphemistically called the Office for Special Projects), the covert action arm of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The OPC's charter unambiguously called for propaganda, economic warfare; preventative direct action, including sabotage, anti-sabotage, demolition and evacuation measures; subversion against hostile states, including assistance to underground resistance movements, guerrillas and refugee liberations [sic] groups, and support of indigenous anti-communist elements in threatened countries of the free world. In the words of career intelligence officer William Corson, no holds were barred... all the guys on the top had said to put on the brass knuckles and go to work.

After joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on February 18, 1952,[15] Turkey signed a Military Facilities Agreement on 23 June 1954, paving the way for a large scale US military presence. With a staff of 1200 by 1959,JAMMAT was the largest of the United States European Commands (USEUCOM), and also the world's largest military assistance and advisory group by 1951.[18] JAMMAT was renamed to Joint United States Military Mission for Aid to Turkey (JUSMMAT) in 1958, and the Office of Defense Cooperation Turkey (ODC-T) (Turkish: ABD Savunma İşbirliği Ofisi) on 1 May 1994.
Tactical Mobilization Group (1952–1965)
See also: Tactical Mobilization Group
The command structure of the Counter-Guerrilla, as suggested in Field Manual 31-15: Operations Against Irregular Forces Archived 2009-07-21 at the Wayback Machine. The Host Country in this case is Turkey.

With the consent of the National Defense Supreme Council (Turkish: Milli Savunma Yüksek Kurulu), brigadier general Daniş Karabelen founded the Tactical Mobilization Group (Turkish: Seferberlik Taktik Kurulu, or STK) on 27 September 1952.Karabelen was one of sixteen soldiers (including Turgut Sunalp, Ahmet Yıldız, Alparslan Türkeş, Suphi Karaman, and Fikret Ateşdağlı) who had been sent to the United States in 1948 for training in special warfare. These people were to form the core of the Special Warfare Department (Turkish: Özel Harp Dairesi, or ÖHD). It has been said that the training also entailed an element of CIA recruitment.

Some full generals that later ran the department were Adnan Doğu, Aydın İlter, Sabri Yirmibeşoğlu, İbrahim Türkgenci, Doğan Bayazıt, and Fevzi Türkeri.[22] Karabelen picked Ismail Tansu as his right-hand man, and they expanded the STK in a cellular fashion. They filled the ranks, mostly with reserve officers, inducted them with an oath, and educated them before allowing them to return to civilian life. The officers were given no weapons, funding, or immediate task. The recruitment was more concentrated in the east, where an invasion was most likely to occur.

Books used to educate the officers included:

David Galula's famous Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice. Translated in Turkish as Ayaklanmaları Bastırma Harekâtı: Teori ve Pratik per orders from then chief of the ÖHD, major general M. Cihat Akyol.
U.S. Army Field Manual 31-15: Operations Against Irregular Forces Archived 2009-07-21 at the Wayback Machine. Translated into Turkish as Sahra Talimnamesi 31-15: Gayri Nizami Kuvvetlere Karşı Harekat, and put into practice on 25 May 1964 per orders from general Ali Keskiner.
Senior infantry colonel Cahit Vural's Gerillaya Giriş (1972).

Later, the generals formed the Turkish Resistance Organization to counter the Greek Cypriot EOKA.Operating under the authority of the Chief of the General Staff, the STK was quartered in the JUSMMAT (Turkish: Amerikan Askerî Yardım Heyeti) building in Bahçelievler, Ankara. Ismail Tansu says that the American headquarters were facing the old Gülhane building, and that the STK's headquarters were in a villa near Kolej, Kızılay.He also said that he used to meet soldiers from the J3 Operations Directorate a few times a week, alternating between their bases. Some of his associates were colonel Latent, captain Berger, and major Hill.

In the 1960s, Türkeş established the civilian Associations for Struggling with Communism (Turkish: Komünizm ile Mücadele Dernekleri) and funded the far-right National Movement Party (Turkish: Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi, MHP). These formed the core of future ultra-nationalist militants, used by the Counter-Guerrilla in destabilizing events.

The CIA employed people from the far right, such as Pan-Turkist SS-member Ruzi Nazar (father of Sylvia Nasar), to train the Grey Wolves (Turkish: Ülkücüler), the youth wing of the MHP. Nazar was an Uzbek born near Tashkent who had deserted the Red Army to join the Nazis during World War II in order to fight on the Eastern Front for the creation of a Turkistan. After Germany lost the war, some of its spies found haven in the U.S. intelligence community. Nazar was such a person, and he became the CIA's station chief to Turkey.

The STK became the Special Warfare Department (Turkish: Özel Harp Dairesi, ÖHD) in 1967.
Special Warfare Department (1965–1992)
See also: Special Warfare Department
Search for funding

During the 1970s, the Special Warfare Department (Turkish: Özel Harp Dairesi) was run by General Kemal Yamak. In his memoirs he stated that the United States had set aside around 1m worth of support; part munitions, part money. This arrangement continued until 1973-4, when Yamak decided the munitions did not meet the department's needs. The Americans allegedly retorted that they were footing the bill, and had right of decision. Yamak left the meeting and expressed his concerns to the Chief of General Staff, Semih Sancar, and the agreement was subsequently annulled.

It was only when Yamak asked prime minister Bülent Ecevit for an alternative means of funding did Ecevit became aware of the operation's existence; the other members of the cabinet remained in the dark. Ecevit suggested that the organization seek support from Europe. Yamak contacted generals from the United Kingdom, followed by France. The commander of the Turkish army at the time, General Semih Sancar, informed him the U.S. had financed the unit as well as the National Intelligence Organization since the immediate post-war years.
Special Forces Command (1992–present)
See also: Special Forces (Turkish Armed Forces)
Post-USSR

In the early 1990s, Turkey and United States were at loggerheads over the Kurdish issue. In order to reduce U.S. influence over the Turkish military,[38] chief of staff Doğan Güreş[39] restructured the ÖHD and renamed it to the Special Forces Command (Turkish: Özel Kuvvetler Komutanlığı, or ÖKK) in 1992.[40] The ÖKK, whose 7000+ recruits are nicknamed the Maroon Berets (Turkish: Bordo Bereliler), combats terrorism and protects the chiefs of staff and the president on trips abroad.[40] Similarly, civilian counter-guerrillas are collectively named the White Forces (Turkish: Beyaz Kuvvetler).

In 1993, the parliament formed a commission (Turkish: Faili Meçhul Cinayetleri Araştırma Komisyonu) to investigate the numerous unsolved murders believed to be perpetrated by the Counter-Guerrilla. Their report enumerated 1797 such deaths; 316 in 1992 and 314 in 1993 alone. General Güreş contacted the Speaker of Parliament, Hüsamettin Cindoruk, to stop the investigation in order to prevent the outing of his men.Meanwhile, State Security Court prosecutor Nusret Demiral ordered the police force not to co-operate with the parliamentary commission in solving the crimes.

Turkey maintains strong military ties with the U.S., through the Office of Defense Cooperation Turkey (ODC-T), whose leader is the single point of contact with the Turkish General Staff regarding all United States military organizations and activities in Turkey.As of 2008, this position is held by major general Eric J. Rosborg. Since 1993, the chiefs of the ODC-T have been U.S. Air Force generals. The offices of the ODC-T are located at Kirazlıdere Mevkii, İsmet İnönü Bulvarı No. 94, Balgat, 06100 Ankara.
Incidents
Istanbul pogrom
Main article: Istanbul Pogrom

In 1955, members of the ÖHD participated in planning the Istanbul Pogrom, which promoted both the state's secret policy of Turkification, and the subversion of Communism.[48]
Coups of 1971 and 1980
Main articles: 1971 Turkish coup d'état and 1980 Turkish coup d'état

After the military coup in 1960, yet another plot was found by National Intelligence Organization (MİT) agent Mahir Kaynak, who in early 1971 informed both Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Memduh Tağmaç and also the fiercely anti-communist Commander of the First Army based in Istanbul, General Faik Türün, who was a veteran of Korean War and was decorated personally by General Douglas MacArthur there. The information conveyed to them was that a number of high-ranking Turkish officers, including the Army Chief of Staff and the Air Force Chief of Staff were planning to execute a military coup on 9 March 1971 with the media support of pro-Soviet leftist intellectuals in a number of Turkish newspapers.

On 10 March 1971, the CIA sent the State and Defense departments a cable stating that the Turkish high command had convened that day resolving to carry out a counter-coup.

The 1971 coup on 12 March was executed to forestall a Soviet supported left-wing coup originally planned to take place on 9 March 1971.

Immediately after the coup, Soviet leaning intellectuals, civilian and non-ranking participants in the 9 March plot were interrogated in a building allegedly belonging to the MİT (see the next section). One 9 March plotter, colonel Talat Turhan, was interrogated by the chief of the MİT, Eyüp Ozalkus. Turhan expended much effort on exposing the Counter-Guerrilla after his release.

It has been alleged that the groups of plotters were in fact two facets of the same organization.

The counter-guerrilla engaged in sporadic acts of domestic terror throughout the 1970s [citation needed], serving as a pretext [citation needed] for yet another coup in 1980. By the time it took place, this third military coup in the short history of Turkish democracy (1950–1980) was seen as necessary by the unwitting public to restoring peace. It was also encouraged by members of Parliament, many of whom had joined the Counter-Guerrilla in their youth.

With this coup firm steps were taken to bring the country under the military's heel. A stifling constitution was drafted, a Supreme Education Council was established to bring intellectuals into line, and the National Security Council was beefed up to do the same for politicians.

After having served his role in instigating the 1980 coup, Alparslan Türkeş was jailed by the high command. In fact, General Madanoğlu intended to execute him by a firing squad, but his friend Ruzi Nazar (of the CIA) intervened.
Ziverbey villa
Main article: Ziverbey Villa

After the 1971 coup d'état, the Ziverbey villa in Erenköy, Istanbul was used to interrogate Turkish communists. The mastermind behind Ziverbey interrogations was brigadier general Memduh Ünlütürk, working under Lieutenant General Turgut Sunalp, who was reporting to the Commander of the First Army, General Faik Türün. The latter two generals were Korean War veterans who had served in the Operations Department (Turkish: Harekât Dairesi). The interrogation techniques they used in Ziverbey were inspired by what they had seen done to Korean and Chinese POWs during the Korean War. Prisoners were bound and blindfolded.

Intellectuals such as İlhan Selçuk (one of the 9 March conspirators) and Uğur Mumcu were tortured there. Several Ziverbey victims confirmed that the interrogators introduced themselves as Counter-Guerrillas and claimed to be above the law and entitled to kill Under duress to write an apologetic statement, Selçuk famously revealed his plight using a modified acrostic which decrypted to I am under torture. The key letter was the first of the penultimate word of each sentence in his statement.

Another prisoner, outspoken liberal Murat Belge, says that he was tortured there by Veli Küçük, who later founded JITEM and Hezbollah (Turkey) to counter the Kurdistan Workers' Party. Küçük says he could not be responsible since he was stationed in Şırnak and has been charged with colluding with another Ziverbey victim, İlhan Selçuk (see Ergenekon).

The activist film director Yılmaz Güney was also present. A friend of his in the MİT had tried to prevent him from being captured by telling his superiors that Güney was also a spy, but the ruse failed. A MİT officer who was present, Mehmet Eymür, said Güney was treated well in return for his co-operation.

General Yamak denied that the ÖHD was involved, and dismissed any notion of a counter-guerrilla.

Ziverbey is notable for:

being the first time the term Counter-Guerrilla was mentioned to anyone who was not already a member.
revealing the fact that the counter-guerrilla co-operated with the MİT.

Kızıldere Operation
Main article: Kızıldere Incident

On 30 March 1972 special forces raided Kızıldere village in Niksar district, Tokat province and killed the 10 young men who had kidnapped three foreign hostages and kept them in Kızıldere. The victims included Mahir Çayan (THKP-C), Hüdai Arıkan (Dev-Genç), Cihan Alptekin (THKO), taxi driver Nihat Yılmaz, teacher Ertan Saruhan, farmer Ahmet Atasoy, Sinan Kazım Özüdoğru (Dev-Genç), student Sabahattin Kurt, Ömer Ayna (THKO) and lieutenant Saffet Alp. The three hostages (two British and one Canadian citizen) where part of GCHQ and were held in an attempt to prevent the execution of three student leaders (Deniz Gezmiş, Hüseyin İnan and Yusuf Aslan) were also killed.

Although General Yamak denied it, an active participant, hitman Metin Kaplan said that the ÖHD was responsible. He mentioned talking to general Memduh Ünlütürk (himself a Counter-Guerrilla, and infamous participant of the Ziverbey villa incident) about what to do with the Communist inmates of Maltepe prison, who were planning to escape. On the advice of two U.S. generals, they let the prisoners escape, and then take hostage three NATO officers at Ünye. This created the pretext for their assassination.
Taksim Square massacre
Main article: Taksim Square massacre

On 1 May 1977 the trade union confederation DİSK held a rally on Taksim Square, Istanbul with half a million participants. Unidentified people shot at the crowd and killed 36 people. The perpetrators were never caught.[68] Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit, and member of the social democratic Republican People's Party, declared to then President Fahri Korutürk that he suspected the Counter-Guerrilla's involvement in the massacre. According to Ecevit, the shooting lasted for twenty minutes, yet several thousand policemen on the scene did not intervene. This mode of operation recalls the June 20, 1973 Ezeiza massacre in Buenos Aires, when the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance (a.k.a. Triple A), founded by José López Rega (a P2 member), opened fire on the left-wing Peronists.

Moreover, Ecevit himself barely survived an assassination attempt twenty days after he publicly mentioned the possibility of a secret organization being behind the massacre.

Ankara's Deputy State Attorney Doğan Öz then investigated on relationship between Alparslan Türkeş's Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) the Special Warfare Department and violent incidents of the 1970s. Doğan Öz's report stated that Military and civilian security forces are behind all this work. It also stated that the National Intelligence Organization was complicit, and that all these activities [were] guided by MHP members and cadres. The attorney Doğan Öz was assassinated on March 24, 1978. İbrahim Çiftçi, a member of the Grey Wolves, confessed to the crime, but his conviction was overturned by the military judicial system.
16 March massacre
Main article: Beyazıt Massacre

Seven students (Hatice Özen, Cemil Sönmez, Baki Ekiz, Turan Ören, Abdullah Şimşek, Hamit Akıl and Murat Kurt) were killed and 41 were injured at Istanbul University's Faculty of Pharmacy on 16 March 1978. The assailants were members of the Grey Wolves. The lawsuit was canceled in 2008 due to the statute of limitation.
Bahçelievler massacre
Main article: Bahçelievler massacre

A group of nationalists under the leadership of Abdullah Çatlı killed seven leftist students on 9 October 1978. Çatlı was convicted in absentia.
Kahramanmaraş massacre
Main article: Kahramanmaraş massacre

On 23–24 December 1978, many Alevi people were targeted and killed in a neighbourhood. Martial law was declared afterwards, and the 1980 coup followed.[citation needed]


Assassination of Musa Anter
Main article: Musa Anter

Musa Anter He was a Kurdish nationalist and writer of Kurdish origin and claimed to have taken some actions against Turkey. Being a member of Revolutionary Cultural Eastern Hearths and Kurdish Institute of Istanbul Musa Anter, who received a total of 11.5 years in prison, was assassinated in 1992.[1]

PİRDOĞAN KEMAL BEHDINAN

The 40th anniversary of the 15 August Initiative was celebrated by guerrillas in Medya Defense Areas.
Guerrillas organized a ceremony on the 40th anniversary of the 15 August Initiative in Medya Defense Areas, where a fierce war against the occupying Turkish state is ongoing.
Guerrillas organized a ceremony on the 40th anniversary of the 15 August Initiative in Medya Defense Areas, where a fierce war against the occupying Turkish state is ongoing.
Speaking at the ceremony, HPG commander Baran Ararat paid tribute to all the martyrs of the revolution in the person of Egîd (Mahsum Korkmaz), the commander of the 15 August Initiative, when the first bullet was fired at the Turkish state.
Commander Ararat saluted the Kurdish People's Leader #Abdullah Öcalan# , all guerrillas and the patriotic Kurdish people, stating that forty years have passed since that important day, and said: The real meaning of this step was that the first bullet was fired at the slave mentality and colonialists.
Commander Ararat, who stated that the first bullet was fired not only against the occupation but also against internal betrayal and selling oneself to the enemy, said: This breakthrough was not only military. It was the intellectual power, courage and philosophy of the Kurdish people.
Speaking at the ceremony, HPG commander Baran Ararat paid tribute to all the martyrs of the revolution in the person of Egîd (Mahsum Korkmaz), the commander of the 15 August Initiative, when the first bullet was fired at the Turkish state.
Commander Ararat saluted the Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan, all guerrillas and the patriotic Kurdish people, stating that forty years have passed since that important day, and said: The real meaning of this step was that the first bullet was fired at the slave mentality and colonialists.
Commander Ararat, who stated that the first bullet was fired not only against the occupation but also against internal betrayal and selling oneself to the enemy, said: This breakthrough was not only military. It was the intellectual power, courage and philosophy of the Kurdish people.
Commander Ararat said that today’s attacks on the lands of Kurdistan and the Middle East are aimed at weakening and taking control over them, and added: Today, we are waging an unprecedented war against the occupation in the Medya Defense Areas and in every area. Just as we have defeated this enemy with the spirit of 15 August, we will also be waging a historic war from today and give the necessary response to the occupying enemy.
The ceremony ended with the HPG and YJA Star guerrillas dancing the halay.[1]

HPG warned that the guerrilla forces would exercise their right to shift to an active stance and develop responses in various forms if the attacks on their areas were not halted.
Despite a ceasefire declared unilaterally by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the Turkish army continues to escalate their attacks on the guerrilla-held Medya Defense Zones in southern Kurdistan (northern Iraq). According to the HPG balance sheet for March, the Turkish army carried out a total of 11,585 air and ground attacks against the guerrilla areas in northern Iraq. On April 7, two guerrillas were martyred in the Çirav area in Garê region as a result of two bombardments carried out by an UCAV of the occupying Turkish army. On April 11, two guerrillas were martyred as a result of Turkish attacks with chemical weapons and banned explosives in the Zap region.

The Press Center of the People's Defense Forces (HPG) announced that the occupying Turkish army continued to target guerrilla areas.

In a statement on Thursday, the HPG Press Center said the following:

“As the public is aware, all our forces have taken a different position with the ceasefire that began on March 1. However, Turkish military forces in the Zap and Metîna regions are taking advantage of the situation, exploiting our forces' abstention from action to move freely and encircle guerrilla base areas. In this manner, they are using the ceasefire position in a highly despicable manner, aiming to eliminate tunnel resistance fighters. As detailed in our daily statements, Turkish military forces are attacking our tunnels with high-powered explosives, chemical gas, explosive-laden drones, drills attempting to bore through the tunnels, excavators attempting to destroy the tunnels, and heavy weapons. Despite the decisions of the PKK's 12th Congress (to disband and disarm), the Turkish army has been intensively using chemical gas in recent days against our base areas in Girê Amediyê and Sêgirê village near Amediyê district of Başûrê (Southern) Kurdistan and the Şêlazê village in Metîna. The Turkish army has set as its primary objective the annihilation of guerrilla forces in these three camps using chemical gas.

It is very clear that a war-profiteering tendency aimed at undermining the decisions developed by Leader Apo (Abdullah Öcalan) and taken by our Movement at its 12th Congress is playing a role here. The warmongering, massacre-oriented approach, which is taking advantage of the ceasefire conditions to destroy the guerrillas, especially in these three areas, is a cowardly approach. They not only seek to achieve this goal through actions with weapons banned at the international level but also persist in an aggressive stance aimed at sabotaging the peace process that is being sought. Those behind these attacks should be aware that if they do not halt these despicable assaults, the guerrilla forces will exercise their right to shift to an active stance and develop responses in various forms. In order to prevent such a situation from developing, it is necessary to put an end to this dirty, cowardly, opportunistic, and cheap heroism of war profiteers. It is very clear that without the ceasefire, they would not have been able to develop such a siege situation. It is obvious that they want to take advantage of this ceasefire to achieve their goals. We call on all those who genuinely support peace and a solution to take the initiative in this matter. We also urge all human rights organizations opposed to the use of banned weapons, as well as all democratic pro-peace circles, to take action to prevent the Turkish state from using banned weapons in a inhumane manner in Metîna and Western Zap.”

HPG shared the following details of the attacks carried out against guerrilla forces and the responses by the guerrillas:

“Attacks by the Turkish army:

On June 9, our tunnels in the Girê Amediyê Resistance Area in the Şehîd Delîl Western Zap region were bombed twice with explosives.

On June 10, our tunnels in the Girê Amediyê Resistance Area in the Şehîd Delîl Western Zap region were bombed nine times with chemical gas.

On June 5, 6, 9, 10, and 11, our tunnels in the Girê Amediye Resistance Area in the Şehîd Western Western Zap region were bombed 11 times with explosive and chemical gas-laden drones.

On June 7 and 8, our tunnels in the Şêlazê Resistance Area in the Metîna region were bombed 5 times with explosive and chemical gas-laden drones.

On June 10, the Deşta Kafya area in the Garê region was bombed once by warplanes.

On June 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, and 12, Turkish troops attempted to destroy our tunnels in the Girê Amediye Resistance Area in the Şehîd Delîl Western Zap region 26 times with excavators and drills.

Between June 5 and 11, the areas of Spîndarê, Kanî Sarkê, Zêvkê, Deriyê Hirçê, Deşta Kafya, Dêreşê, and Girê Zengil areas in the Garê region; the Serê Metîna and Bêşîlî Resistance Areas in the Metîna region; and the Girê Amediyê and Girê Bahar Resistance Areas in the Şehîd Delîl Western Zap region were heavily bombed with heavy weapons, artillery, and mortars.

Response by our forces:

At 1:45 p.m. on June 6, occupiers in an attack position in the Girê Amediyê Resistance Area in the Şehîd Delîl Western Zap region were struck by our YJA Star (Free Women’s Troops) forces, destroying one camera and an explosive.

On June 9 at 1:46 p.m., occupiers who were in an attack position in the Girê Amediyê Resistance Area in the Şehîd Delîl Western Zap region and were trying to drill through our tunnels were hit using a sabotage tactic.

On June 10 at 12:00 p.m., occupiers in the Serê Metîna Resistance Area in the Metîna region were struck and one radar system was destroyed.”[1]

The Press Office of the People's Defense Forces (HPG) announced in a statement that at least 22 soldiers of the Turkish military have died as result of guerrilla actions in Northern and Southern Kurdistan.
Fourteen soldiers were killed in the Heftanin region of Southern Kurdistan, which has been attacked by the Turkish army since 15 June as part of an occupation offensive. Regarding the details of the actions, the HPG said: On June 26, our forces hit an enemy unit in the area of Şeşdara. Two soldiers were killed by the effective strikes. On June 29, our air defence units carried out an action against the occupying forces on Hill Şehîd Bêrîvan at about 11.45 am. Details will be announced at a later date.
About two hours later, on Hill Xantur, our forces targeted an enemy unit trying to infiltrate the area of Dola Beraza. The unit was fired upon from close range, leaving ten soldiers dead. Our forces observed the battle zone until the evening hours and also targeted military units that moved to the area to reinforce them. The fighting continued into the night of Tuesday, and more information will be released as soon as it is available.
At about 14.30 on Hill Dupişk an enemy soldier was shot by a sniper. At about 16.30, another sniper action took place on Hill Katosulê, also leaving one soldier dead.
Actions in Xakurke
The HPG hit the Turkish army forces on Hill Koordine on Monday. The hill, located on the border of Xakurke, is one of the headquarters of the Turkish army in the region and is an important coordination centre for the attacks on the Medya Defense Zones: The action was carried out around 12.30 p.m. and targeted the positions and shelters of enemy soldiers. One position was completely destroyed and four soldiers were killed here. Following the action, the casualties were evacuated from the area under the protection of Sikorsky transport helicopters.”
On the same day, the Turkish occupying army launched an occupation operation in the area between the Lêlîkan and Kevortê hills. Our forces responded twice with sabotage actions that resulted in the death of three soldiers.
Air raids on Zap region
HPG also announced that the region of Zap in Medya Defense Zones has again been bombed by the Turkish air force. The air strikes took place yesterday afternoon around 2:30 pm and hit the Saca region. There were no casualties to the side of the guerrillas.
At least one soldier killed in Şemdinli
In the Şemdinli district of Hakkari province, guerrillas have targeted the Turkish military twice since Sunday. The actions took place on the occasion of the revolutionary offensive in memory of martyrs Bager and Ronya.
On Sunday, a soldier was shot by a sniper on Hill Leylek. Yesterday HPG units hit the Turkish soldiers on Hill Cibri. Cibri is one of the security hills of the Bezelê military base. It was not possible to determine how many soldiers were killed and injured during the action.[1]

Mustafa Karasu of the KCK remembers those who fell in the month of March with gratitude and respect, stating that the PKK is the continuation of the struggle of the martyrs who gave their lives for a free Kurdistan.

Mustafa Karasu, member of the KCK (Kurdistan Communities Union) Executive Council, spoke about the historically important occurrences in the month of March, the development of Abdullah Öcalan into a people's leader, and the current developments in Turkey with regard to the Kurdish question. Karasu also gives an insight into how the Kurdish freedom movement approaches the current discussions and what perspective it is pursuing.

We publish the first part of the in-depth interview broadcast on Medya Haber TV below:

To get straight into our conversation, we would first like to take a look at the past few weeks. March in particular is a month of great significance for your movement. Historically, this month has seen critical developments for Kurdistan, and within it, many important people have given their lives for the freedom struggle. Last but not least, Newroz and the week from the 21st to the 28th, which your movement calls ‘Heroism Week’, are also part of March. What significance and impact do these developments still have today?

In the past month, some precious people, such as Mother Sakine (Sakine Arat), one of our precious mothers who fulfilled an important role in our struggle, and Heci Ehmedi, one of the founders of PJAK, who has an important place in the freedom struggle of Eastern Kurdistan, as well as all four parts of Kurdistan, have become martyrs. Both have made significant contributions to this struggle and will always be remembered.

On this occasion, and since it is the month of Newroz, I also want to gratefully and respectfully remember our modern-day Kawa comrade Mazlum Dogan, as well as the comrades Zekiye Alkan, Rahshan Demirel, Ronahi, and Berivan, whose struggle has made Newroz what it is today.

As you mentioned, March 21-28 was also the Heroism Week, and in this context, I would also like to commemorate comrade Mahsum Korkmaz. Mahsum Korkmaz’s place in this struggle is well known. His stance and attitude played a very decisive role in the mobilization of the people, in the initiation and development of the armed struggle. We will always remember him as people and keep him alive in our struggle.

I also want to take the opportunity to respectfully commemorate three martyrs of the early stage of our struggle, who gave their lives on March 28, 1980, in Shikestun, Merdin (tr. Yaykili, Mardin); Mehmet Kurt, Ahmet Kurt, and Salman Dogru. They were some of the most important militants at the beginning of our struggle. They were really valuable comrades. We were in prison when they were martyred.

Then, I want to gratefully and respectfully commemorate Abdurrahman Timoki, who was also martyred this month. He was a valuable person, a man of religion, a man of faith, and in his last years he became an Apoist. He had joined the PKK because he found all the positive values that he searched for in the religion he believed in, in Islam, in our party. He saw that our party kept alive the real moral, conscientious, and social values that he believed in. He became a true Apoist. So much so that at that age, after joining the party, he did community work in Aleppo. Maybe this is little known, but he did public work in Aleppo as part of a committee assigned by Rêber Apo [Leader Abdullah Öcalan] himself. Because he saw the development of the PKK’s struggle as the realization of his own goals and values. He remained committed to this movement until his last breath. I remember him with gratitude and respect.

The month of March also brought along even more historically significant developments. Like the execution and martyrdom of the leaders of the Mahabad Republic, Qazi Muhammad and his friends, in Eastern Kurdistan after its collapse. I also commemorate them with gratitude. They too have a very important and prominent place in the memory of the freedom-struggling Kurdish people. They played a great role in the continuation of the Kurdish uprising and in the revival of the Kurdish passion for freedom. They have also made a great contribution to today’s struggle, which can be seen as a response to their legacy, as the PKK is the continuation of the struggle of the martyrs who gave their lives for a free Kurdistan. The PKK keeps their memories and struggles alive. It was like this in the past, it is like this in the present, and it will be like this in the future.

Of course, there are many other martyrs we need to commemorate. There is for example the martyrdom of Mahir Cayan and his friends on March 30, 1972 in Kizildere. Mahir Cayan is a very important leader of the revolutionary movement in Turkey. If there is a leftist tradition, a revolutionary spirit in Turkey today, then Mahir Cayan’s thoughts and practice have had a very important impact in creating, sustaining and carrying this tradition until today. Rêber Apo is big a sympathizer of Mahir Cayan. In fact, when Mahir Cayan was murdered in Kizildere, Rêber Apo led the boycott at the Faculty of Political Sciences, the university where Mahir Cayan had studied. He was young then, just a freshman. He was not in any organization, just a revolutionary sympathizer, a sympathizer of Mahir Cayan. Because of this leadership he was imprisoned for about seven months. It was in this period when Deniz, Yusuf and Huseyin were executed. The struggle and resistance of Mahir Cayan had an impact on our struggle, and they still are alive in our struggle. I also want to remember them with gratitude and respect.

Something else drastic also happened a few years ago in the month of March. It was in Mush where 14 of our guerrilla fighters had been brutally massacred with chemical weapons. This created a great outrage and anger in Amed (tr. Diyarbakir) and all of Kurdistan. The uprisings that followed this month in Amed were some of the most important actions in the history of Kurdistan. The spirit of resistance, the militancy, the patriotism, and the general will to struggle of the people of Kurdistan were clearly seen. That month, Amed recreated itself once again. In fact, throughout our 50 years of struggle, the people of Kurdistan have been constantly recreating themselves. The spirit of Amed is the spirit of Kurdistan. Amed’s resistance is the resistance of Kurdistan. Amed’s measures of patriotism and struggle also express the measures of patriotism and struggle of all Kurdistan. It raised not only its own standards of struggle, patriotism, and resistance, but also the standards of patriotism, struggle, and resistance of the entire Kurdistan people. On the occasion of this month, while commemorating those 14 comrades with gratitude and respect, I salute once again the people of Amed who stood up.

Can you elaborate on the meaning of these martyrdoms? In particular, with regard to the beginning of this movement and the role that people’s leader Abdullah Ocalan also played in this beginning? And also what this led to?

We have just passed the Heroism Week. Of course, this is a symbolic week, but looking at today’s reality all the guerrilla fighters have become heroes, the whole people have become heroes. This is the result of 50 years of struggle. And it was the great sacrifice of Rêber Apo who created the beginning. In those conditions when Kurdishness and Kurdistan were almost forgotten and made to be forgotten, when fighting for Kurds and Kurdistan was considered the biggest crime, Rêber Apo took the risk and started the struggle and showed a great example of sacrifice. This is how it should be understood. In fact, when Rêber Apo said, “Kurdistan is a colony,” he was almost whispering at the time. Because the emergence of a new, radical organization, an organization that would change the fate of Kurdistan, meant the greatest enmity, the greatest danger for the Turkish state. Rêber dared to do this.

That is the way on how Rêber Apo’s steps in those years should be evaluated. At that time, the Turkish left was influential, particularly among the youth. There were also some groups among the Kurdish youth, groups like Rizgari or DDKD; they were mostly reformist nationalists or collaborationist nationalists. In this environment, forming a separate group needed courage, and it was a very difficult but important step. From the very first day, the group was both excluded by the leftist forces in Turkey and perceived as the other and despised by Kurdish groups. When the group first emerged, both a significant part of the Turkish left and some Kurdish groups were ridiculing it, saying, “Apo has taken 15-20 people with him and is going to establish Kurdistan”. They were belittling and laughing. Back then, Rêber Apo stated: “The revolution in Kurdistan is not easy; it is difficult. If we are going to develop as a group, if we are going to carry out this struggle, we will have to face these difficulties. Everyone must be ready to take the upcoming risks”. In other words, he did not fantasize about the ease of the revolution. He was very clear and told us that the conditions are as difficult as they get, that there are no prepared opportunities that we can simply grab for, and that we are in a period of great chaos, with a harsh geography and a cruel enemy. In fact, when describing the reality of the society of Kurdistan at that time, in order to show how deep the colonial domination was, in order to reflect how sensitive society was, he used the expression “There is almost no Kurd left who has not betrayed himself”. When he said this, he meant that there is hardly a personality, a thought, or a stance that can show will and dare to put up a serious struggle against this genocidal colonialism. It was clear that nothing could be reached just through some words, phrases, and slogans.

Rêber Apo analyzed the absence of such a thought and feeling, the lack of such an understanding of resistance, and the absence of such an attitude. Of course, there still was the Kurdish, but there was no willful stance that could prevent and stop the genocidal and colonialist policies of the Turkish state. At that time, there was a social reality that was struggling in a genocidal-colonialist siege. From such a social reality, a sacrificial army emerged, a sacrificial people emerged. How was this possible? Rêber Apo criticized the Kurdish people, revealing their shortcomings and inadequacies. And of course, while criticizing the Kurds, he also criticized himself. He always said that the personality in Kurdistan had not yet been created and that this would only be possible at all through struggle. This approach gave birth to the self-sacrificial militancy and mentality.

Rêber Apo has a deep-rooted patriotism and a deep-rooted passion for freedom. With these, and with his approach, he was able to unleash the strongest anger in the people against the genocidal colonialism raging in Kurdistan. Through this, he was able to create this self-sacrificial militancy and mentality and this great people’s resistance. Because if you don’t feel the oppression and pressure exerted on you deeply, if your anger doesn’t come out, if you can’t grasp its depth, you can’t put up a great struggle. This is one of the most important effects of Rêber Apo. He creates this kind of anger, consciousness, and passion for freedom in everyone, regardless of who. Just as Kemal Pir said, “I love life so much that I would die for it,” Rêber Apo set forth a goal, a life that people are ready to make sacrifices for. It is Rêber Apo’s sacrificial personality that, for example, made at all possible the death fast of July 14th in the prison. It is the spirit of Rêber Apo. It is the anger, the spirit of struggle, the passion for freedom that Rêber Apo has created against the genocidal colonialists, which has revealed this dimension of resistance in the prison.

For more than 50 years, Rêber Apo has been pioneering this and thus paved the way for hundreds and thousands of militants from Mazlum to Mahsum, from Asya to Rojger. All of these have arisen from Rêber Apo’s passion for freedom, the depth and consciousness created by his commitment to the cause, and the emergence of this in society and cadres.[1]

Guerrilla Ayşe Bayram’s body has not been returned to her family for six years. State officials told the family: “She is alive in our records, bring a death report.”
In September 2019, YJA Star guerrilla Ayşe Bayram (Evrim Amed) was killed along with six of her comrades in a Turkish military airstrike in the district of Uludere (Qileban), in Şırnak (Şirnex), North Kurdistan (Bakur). For the past six years, her body has not been returned to her family. After learning of her death days later through a television broadcast, her family first went to Şırnak and later to Beytüşşebap (Elkê), where they were met with insults and threats. Just moments after being told, “Ayşe Bayram is among the fallen,” family members were escorted out of the courthouse at gunpoint.

Since then, they have submitted numerous applications to recover Ayşe Bayram’s body, but without success. Most recently, during a visit to Şırnak last week, state officials told the family: “We need a death certificate. According to our records, she is still alive. Let her assign power of attorney to a lawyer.” Miyaser Bayram, Ayşe Bayram’s sister, reacted to this and asked: “If my sister is alive, then where is she?”


All applications have gone unanswered

Ayşe Bayram joined the guerrilla ranks in 2015 while she was a university student. She lost her life on 23 September 2019. The incident was covered not only by mainstream Turkish media but also by several international and European news outlets. Many newspapers reported that Ayşe Bayram had died. Her sister, Miyaser Bayram, explained that since their parents had already passed away, they could not provide DNA samples, making it impossible to retrieve the body. Their request to exhume their parents’ graves for DNA testing was also denied. Despite media reports and televised coverage confirming her death, officials continue to insist that Ayşe Bayram is “alive,” said her sister. Miyaser Bayram called these claims both legally and morally unacceptable. She added, “We have been struggling in the courts ever since. If they are going to speak of peace, then let them start by returning our sister’s body.”

They said ‘the body is here,’ then threw us out

Miyaser Bayram recounted the ordeal they experienced with the following words: “My sister was martyred six years ago. After receiving the news, our family went to Şırnak. When we arrived in Beytüşşebap, we told the prosecutor we had come to retrieve her body. They responded, ‘Yes, Ayşe Bayram’s body is here.’ But then the police asked where we were from. When we said Pasur (Kulp), they went inside to consult with the prosecutor. They told us they would show us the body, but after speaking with the prosecutor, their entire attitude changed.”

Miyaser Bayram stated that the prosecutor turned them away with harsh insults: “The prosecutor came out with armed guards and shouted, ‘Get out of here! There is no body here.’ When my sister stood up to him, they pointed their guns at her and told us to leave. Their fingers never left the triggers. It was an utterly immoral and degrading experience.”

They will not return her body because there is no DNA

Miyaser Bayram stated that they have repeatedly taken legal steps to retrieve Ayşe Bayram’s body: “We cannot provide a DNA sample because our mother and father have passed away. We even requested that their graves be opened, so blood could be taken, but that too was rejected. That is why we have been unable to recover my sister’s body for six years.”

First they said she was dead. Now they say she is alive

Miyaser Bayram explained that they recently returned to Şırnak to submit another formal request, only to receive a completely different response from the authorities: “This time, the prosecutor’s office told us: ‘Ayşe is alive, she does not appear as deceased in the system. Bring a power of attorney or a death certificate.’ Then what is this contradiction? The same people who once said, ‘the body is here’ are now saying ‘your sister is alive.’ Maybe they truly do not know what they did, or where they buried her body. If they are going to talk about peace, they should start by returning our sister’s body. All we want is for her to have a grave. As long as I live, I will not stop pursuing this. Even if it is just a bone, a finger, we want to receive what remains of her.

Miyaser Bayram called on members of parliament and human rights defenders to support their cause. She concluded: “The state should stop trying to intimidate us with situations like this. We are not afraid. Let them give us the body they claim they have.”[1]

#Murat Karayilan# said that the next three months will be crucial for the guerrilla struggle in Kurdistan.
Murat Karayilan, a member of the PKK Executive Committee, told ANF in this interview that the next three months are crucial for the guerrilla struggle in Kurdistan. “It is not for nothing that we speak of a struggle for existence. That's the reality. Therefore, everyone in this process should play their part. This period is a very important time in the history of our struggle and we want to win in this process, said Karayilan, adding: If I were not a Kurd, if I were an impartial person, I would support those who struggle to defend themselves with their own resources. People should have a conscience, a certain honor.”

However, Karayilan also emphasizes that the PKK as an ideological movement cannot be crushed.

A week ago, the HPG published a war balance sheet for the past five months. The balance sheet made it clear once again how comprehensive the war was. How do you evaluate these five months?

The last five months have been very important for us. Another week has now passed. For five months and a week, there has been a constant and all-out war in Zap, Metîna and Avaşîn. This is a new situation in the history of Kurdistan and in our history of struggle. For the first time in more than five months, the Turkish occupation is being resisted in the same place, and the Turkish state is being stopped. This is not an ordinary situation. As I said before, this is a new situation in the history of our people, in our history of struggle. Despite the Turkish state's support from inside and outside and the use of all modern weapons, including internationally banned weapons, the Turkish state has not achieved the desired result. Everyone should know that this war is something new. Fighting on one side is a huge force, large in numbers, possessing all the technology of the time, and on the other is a force possessing conviction, courage, expertise, knowledge of the terrain, and tactical knowledge. In other words, in this war we put human will against modern technology and banned weapons.

The new tactical methods we developed surprised the enemy. Presumably he did not expect that such a deep, rich tactic could be carried out in a coordinated manner. An important achievement is being made in this war, and it is being done in a spirit of sacrifice. A great sacrifice is made. The courage shown today by Kurdish women and men, as well as Arabs, is a great example of the sublimation of the human will. We believe that the new ways and methods we have developed in this war will be an example for all, especially for those forces that do not have the technical means against large armies and modern weapons to fight their countries and themselves with defending guerrilla methods within the perspective of people's revolutionary war.

As you know, there were fortresses in the past. In the past, peoples used castles to defend themselves against large armies. Now there are no more above-ground fortresses, because these can be destroyed with modern weapons. The Kurdish freedom guerrillas, meanwhile, have built underground fortresses and fight in the terrain with special teams that turn every tree into a position against the enemy. The same applies to the underground. The Turkish state can no longer move freely in the field and occupy terrain with its army as before. If he wants to move from one hill to another hill, covering only a distance of one kilometre, he is afraid, because on the land path he encounters many obstacles. For this reason, he first bombards the place he wants to go with planes and missiles. Then the cobras [helicopter] come and shoot. In the dust created by the bombing, troops are dropped from Sikorsky helicopters. This is the Turkish state's current method of occupation. He cannot invade and advance as before. He comes out of the air. The Turkish army is fighting us from the air and with forbidden weapons. We fight them with the will, the courage and the commitment of the people.

Where would the Turkish army be now if they hadn't been stopped in the Zap?

The political consequences for our entire people are also important. If the Turkish army hadn't been held up for five months in Zap, Avaşîn and Metîna, who knows where they would have gone and how far they would have come by now. She would have extended her dominion over the people of the region even further. However, she is stuck here. For this reason, the resistance is of great importance for the Kurdish nation and of great importance for the future of the people in the region, especially the Arab people.

The Turkish state is building roads in South Kurdistan and wants to consolidate its position in the occupied territories. What is its goal?

It is true that the Turkish state builds roads everywhere it goes, spending a lot of money. This shows that it wants to stay there permanently. He's building his system. What is his goal now? He used to fight us within the borders set for Turkey. There have also been cross-border attacks, but he has always withdrawn. So his strategy was inward. But after the fight against ISIS, the Rojava Revolution has developed and gained status. The Kurdish people came to the fore in Rojava and the other parts of Kurdistan and the Middle East. The Turkish state was afraid of that. During these development processes, a dialogue was also held with Rêber Apo [Abdullah Öcalan] on Imrali. This dialogue culminated in the Dolmabahçe Memorandum in February 2015, which was created before the eyes of the world public. It was signed by HDP MPs and representatives of the Turkish state. An agreement should be reached between the Kurdish and Turkish sides. However, the state got scared. Tayyip Erdoğan rejected the agreement and the Turkish state developed a new strategy and concept for itself. They said the state had a survival problem, the Kurds had become a force of its own and already had foreign powers behind them, they wanted to crush Turkey and that this threat had to be eliminated. Therefore, interventions should not only be made within the borders of Turkey, but also in southern and western Kurdistan [Rojava]. They said it was already a mistake to recognize the status of Southern Kurdistan [Kurdistan Region of Iraq] and Rojava should not have any status either.

This is how they came up with a new concept and in 2015 they declared war on us. They speak openly of a thirty-kilometre zone beyond their borders, which stretches from Afrin in Rojava to Xakurke and Sidekan in southern Kurdistan. Their ultimate goal, however, is to occupy the territory within the borders of Misak-ı Milli [National Pact; a plan drawn up in the Ottoman parliament in the early 1920s, which envisages a Turkish territory including Thrace, northern Syria and northern Iraq]. They want control of three parts of Kurdistan.[1]

By Dr. Thoreau Redcrow

“I don’t like having to shoot my gun. I wish there was another way to stop Turkey’s inhumanity, but there isn’t. We shoot to live. They shoot to kill.”
— A PKK guerrilla woman I interviewed in 2014

To paraphrase Arundhati Roy and Stokely Carmichael’s observations on the issue, non-violence is a piece of theatre in need of a persuadable audience, and it can only work if your opponent has a conscience. Unfortunately, the Turkish state—which has been murdering Kurds since they chased them off of cliffs in the Dersim Genocide (1937) and continued such brutality into the 1990s where they burned down over 4,000 Kurdish villages—has no such ethical compass. Indeed, the Turkish state has committed nearly every barbaric act the human mind can imagine against Kurdish citizens demanding their human rights, from torturing them in the infamous Diyarbakir Prison No. 5 until they lit themselves on fire, to cutting the ears off of dead Kurdish guerrillas to wear as necklaces. Yet, armed resistance against a criminal state that rapes your sister or throws your brother from a helicopter is criminalized internationally for being the wrong ‘remedy’, as Kurds are expected by the outside world to simply ask nicer not to be slaughtered. Consequently, in order to fully understand the risks of committing to such ‘nonviolence’, it is important to pierce the illusion behind the supposed moral superiority of the dogmatically nonviolent position.

Violence can be ghastly, nauseating, and soul numbing – but for many groups facing annihilation around the world, it is the only option granted to them for preserving their existence. Naturally, nearly everyone is theoretically against violence, in the same way everyone is against disease, but like the latter, the former exists and thrives regardless of one’s personal inclinations or sincere wishes regarding it. For this reason, oppressive states count on most people’s instinctive aversion for mass violence overriding their distaste for injustice, as it effectively lets them off the hook for their own structural violence and destruction. In view of that, I would argue that an expectation or demand for nonviolence places one’s subjective self-conception of ‘innocence’ above forcibly preventing murder, while often unwittingly advocating for the mass suicide of unarmed victims.

As an important caveat, I would not argue that violent resistance is always effective, or even more successful, but rather that assuming a universally nonviolent position is a luxury and privilege that many of the world’s systematically oppressed (such as the occupied Kurds throughout Greater Kurdistan) do not possess and simply cannot afford. For example, I would remind those who question why the Kurdish guerrillas in the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) do not ‘work within the system’, that they have repeatedly tried to pursue their aims peacefully and put forth numerous unilateral ceasefires, all of which the Turkish state then continually denies, effectively leaving no nonviolent mechanism to operate under. It is not just the PKK either, as historically the Turkish Government has repeatedly banned and arrested members of every peaceful democratically elected pro-Kurdish party for decades, such as the HEP, ÖZDEP, DEP, HADEP, DEHAP, DTP, BDP, and most recently the HDP. Thus, there is no ‘system’ to work within, and Turkey rewards any attempts at such a course with a one-way ticket to a mass grave, or a dungeon for daily torture.

None of this is a surprise however, as history unequivocally shows—to quote Leon Trotsky— that, “No devil ever yet voluntarily cut off his own claws.” As such, the Turkish state’s oppression of Kurds is constructed around perpetual agony, disenfranchisement, dispossession, and a profound disallowal of hope and it will not stop because Kurds ask nicely, or else it would have stopped long ago. Similarly, Turkey’s brutality will also not cease because it is the right thing to do, or else it would never have started to begin with. To this end, what I believe history displays is that there is no such thing as a situation where both sides are peaceful, as the state is always violent, even when it does not appear to be directly; the only decision is whether those victims of structural violence—such as the Kurds via the PKK—would like to fight back or not. The reason for this is that ossified structures of power like the Turkish state do not surrender to change unless threatened with either radical pressure or systemic collapse. Sure, Kurds can idealistically ‘be the change they want to see’, but without defensive armed organization, their protestors wearing yellow sandwich boards are just a brighter form of Turkish police target practice.

When Legal Means Evil

Take for example the actions of the Turkish military against Kurds just in late 2015, when forty-four Kurdish children were tragically murdered by the Turkish military according to a report literally entitled, We do not want War! We do not want you to Kill Children!. It should be noted that these attacks on children were in response to elected Kurdish mayors announcing that they would like to exercise their peaceful and democratic rights to self-rule. Instead, this was greeted by the AKP government in Ankara with curfews and military assaults against Kurdish civilians, which forced at least 200,000 Kurds to flee their homes. Amidst this climate where Turkish Army snipers were shooting at ambulances and killing civilians carrying white flags, along with using tanks to block hospital entrances, the HDP’s co-leader Selahattin Demirtaş summed up the lack of options as the following:

“Nothing the (Turkish) government does has a legal basis. What can people do in the face of a state that does not recognize the law? The state itself is acting illegally. If the President and the Prime Minister are doing illegal things, then where can we go for help? To the prosecutors? They are in prison. The government even arrests writers and members of the press. So the youths are digging ditches? The people are setting up barricades? Show them another way and they will do that instead.”

Predictably, Demirtaş was later arrested by Erdoğan’s regime in 2016 and has been imprisoned ever since, despite the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) condemning his arrest and continually calling for his release.

Now for those who would ask why the occupied Kurds of Northern Kurdistan do not just increase their peaceful protests and outreach to the broader world, I would remind them that the Turkish Government systematically closes off that avenue as well. For instance, in late 2016, Turkey’s education ministry suspended around 11,000 teachers in Kurdish areas and banned twenty-three predominantly pro-Kurdish radio stations and TV channels. Turkish authorities then used a ‘state of emergency’ decree, to replace twenty-four democratically elected Kurdish mayors with state trustees, jail 120 journalists, and close more than 100 news outlets for allegedly ‘spreading terrorist propaganda’. As Erol Önderoğlu, Turkey’s representative for Reporters Without Borders, observed following these aforesaid crackdowns, “The main aim is to break all social links with Kurdish political movements. To avoid a humanitarian approach to the issue or the humanization of Kurds.” In fact, in response, the PKK foreign minister Rıza Altun, addressed how his movement would like to utilize nonviolent methods of outreach directly, stating that:

“Our battle is multi-faceted and includes action on the social, intellectual, diplomatic, media and even military fronts, with the method used depending on the attitude of the state… When the state uses military power to threaten your very existence, you find yourself forced to use violence in order to defend yourself… We have lately been subjected to great pressure and were thus forced to resort to armed resistance. Parties and media outlets were shuttered, parliamentary immunity lifted and arrests made, leaving us but one available avenue; namely, the use of force.”

The Naiveté of Pacifism

Nonetheless, despite this reality, there are of course many people around the world who still expect the Kurdish people of occupied Northern Kurdistan (southeastern Turkey) and the PKK to universally refuse armed resistance in all circumstances. But what I would contend an uncompromising commitment to nonviolent resistance essentially does is disenfranchise and gaslight oppressed populations and victim-blames them if they have the audacity to reclaim their inalienable rights. Furthermore, in situations where those who are calling for ‘peace’ are not those directly experiencing the violence themselves, but rather outside insulated observers pontificating from a theoretical position of relative safety, their stance of patiently abstaining from force exhibits their privileged status.

Accordingly, it remains difficult to advance the position that the Kurdish people are not morally justified in defending themselves in the face of such a systematic onslaught as the one Turkey has wrought upon them since the 1980s. Indeed, I believe the situation of the Kurds and the PKK is a perfect case study for the necessity of defensive violence and the often-futile potential of relying on oppressors to voluntarily desist their dominance. Unfortunately, in situations like with the Turkish state and the Kurds, Ankara has repeatedly displayed they have no inhibitions about furthering Kurdish sorrow. In fact, Turkey has continually shown they have an insatiable hunger for it, as the entire Kemalist crypto-fascist political structure hinges on the myth of ethnic indivisibility within Anatolia (with historical Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian genocides to prove it).

The limitations of nonviolence were even a lesson that the great advocate for peace Mahatma Gandhi learned the hard way, as he wrote Nazi leader Adolf Hitler two letters pleading with him to seek peace in 1939 and 1940 on the verge of WWII – and was surprised when he was ignored. Despite the popular mythology which advocates sacrificial satyāgraha amidst impending slaughter, several years later even Gandhi was forced to admit that, “Though violence is not lawful, when it is offered in self-defense or for the defense of the defenseless, it is an act of bravery far better than cowardly submission.”

And in seeking that submission, what I believe history shows is that when ruling structures cannot offer political solutions to curtail oppression, they instead appeal for order, making their requests for nonviolence in effect a demand for compliance and silence. Now with regards to the armed guerrillas of the PKK, they are the collectors of all the metaphorical screams representing the internalized alienation, discontent, hopelessness, misery, and wrath of the subjugated Kurdish people, with the hopes of transforming them into a reaped whirlwind of liberation that will consume their tormentors. And while it is true that such armed methods of guerrillas are not always successful, they are often morally justified, and only shouldered when it is perceived that all other avenues to halt the war crimes and institutionalized viciousness of the oppressors are closed off.

As Nelson Mandela—who was held in isolation on an island prison for decades in the same way PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan has been—recounted in his autobiography:

“Nonviolent passive resistance is effective as long as your opposition adheres to the same rules as you do. But if peaceful protest is met with violence, its efficacy is at an end. For me, nonviolence was not a moral principle but a strategy; there is no moral goodness in using an ineffective weapon.”

Therefore, if you want to truly understand why people turn to defensive violence, one has to ask those compelled to personally partake in it, and what they will mostly reveal is that it was begrudgingly undertaken as a last resort. For instance, since I began this article with words from the PKK, I will close with the observation of another Kurdish guerrilla in the Qandil Mountains who told me in 2014:

“Is it terrorism to fight off your rapist? What about your kidnapper? Should victims of oppression first check with those in power and get a list of acceptable ways to defend themselves? I have a right to live. I have a right to exist, regardless of what those in Ankara, Brussels, or Washington think. And it is my natural right to protect my life with everything I have at my disposal. Terror comes from fear, and we in the PKK only instill hope.”

Author
Thoreau Redcrow

Dr. Thoreau Redcrow is an American global conflict analyst who specializes in geopolitics, stateless nations, and armed guerrilla movements. He is a frequent speaker before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva and has been a foreign policy advisor for several groups seeking self-determination. He has previously worked on the ground throughout Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean, Eastern Africa, and the Middle East. He is currently Co-Director of The Kurdish Center for Studies (English branch).[1]