WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17, 2010
Mazlum Dogan was born in Teman, a village outside of Mazgirt in the province of Dersim, in 1955. He went to school in Karakocan. In 1974, he passed the university entrance exams and won the right to go to Hacettepe, an ivy league level school, in Ankara, Turkey.
At Hacettepe, Mazlum Dogan met with other Kurds who introduced him to politics.
What began as a casual introduction soon became a vocation.
Reading became the passion of his life.
Those who knew him well have said that he read up to 500 pages a day.
Learning opened his eyes to the cruel world of oppression that reigned all around.
He vowed to fight injustice, if need be with his life.
In the Autumn of 1979, he was in Viransehir, Riha, organizing the Kurds for political rights.
On September 30, 1979, he was arrested and later placed in the infamous Diyarbakir Military Prison along with thousands of others Kurds.
For three years, he endured abuse, torture, and humiliation.
A political prisoner, he was ordered to wear a prison uniform. He refused.
A Kurd, he was beaten to sing the Turkish national anthem.
He let his body take the beating but did not let his lips sing the anthem.
Other, more cruel indignities followed suit.
Torture continued against the Kurdish prisoners 24 hours a day and the screams never stopped.
But outside the jails there was silence.
Silence of the world and indifference to the suffering of the Kurds.
Yes, it was a deafening silence.
The world was indifferent to the suffering of the Kurds.
One by one, in the Diyarbakir Military Prison, the Kurds were beaten into submission.
There were times when the torture never stopped. No one could think of a way out. Only Mazlum Dogan did.
On Newroz day of March 21, 1982, he did the ultimate.
He bid us all a farewell by setting himself on fire in the hope that his action would ignite the resistance of the Kurdish people.
It did!
And in so doing, he became a light, a star if you will, and shined on the darkness that had become the Kurdish world.
A bereaved nation took in its sorrow and has since honored him as the new Kawa of the Middle East.
