After the establishment of the modern Turkish state under the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, Turkey began to forcibly assimilate the Kurdish people, having asked for and got their support in fighting the 'imperialist' powers including Britain, France, Greece and Italy. The Turks had appealed to the Kurdish people by way of their Islamic identity presenting a 'Christian' army as the enemy.
After the defeat of the 'imperialist' powers Turkey turned on the Kurds, epitomised in the dishonourable treachery displayed towards Hasan Hayri,the Kurdish representative who stood in the Turkish parliament, at the request of Mustafa Kemal Pasha himself, and said that the Kurdish people were accepted by Turkey and that their culture and identity was respected and that Kurdish people did not want a separate state as provided for in theTreaty of Sevre but wanted to live in peace and harmony with Turks in Turkey. His speech's were transmitted to the delegates at Lausanne and the international press. It was as a result of his speech's that the delegates signed the Lausanne Treaty in 1923, confident that the Kurdish people had rights in Turkey and did not want separation. Not long after his speech Hasan Hayri was hanged for treason by the same Turkish authorities that asked him to speak in the parliament. and a brutal and cruel policy of forced assimilation of the Kurdish people began.
A policy that was designed to annihilate Kurdish culture and identity. IsmetInonu (below) said to the Turkish Congress May 1925,
"We are frankly Nationalist........and Nationalism is our only factor of cohesion. Before the Turkish majority other elements have no kind of influence. At any price, we must turkifythe inhabitants of our land, and we will annihilate those who oppose Turks or 'le turquisme."
And so the Turks began a policy of annihilation. Banning Kurdish language, Kurdish names, Kurdish culture and implementing a policy of racism on genocidal proportions against the Kurds.
Thousands of Kurdish villages were razed and tens of thousands of Kurdish people killed in the most barbaric of manners. Of course there followed many uprisings against the racist policies enacted towards the Kurdish people that were always crushed by similar methods used against the Jewish people in Nazi Germany. Decapitations, gassing's in caves, mutilations, rape, arielbombings with chemical weapons, hangings, torture, mass imprisonment, etc etc, etc.
The Kurdish people have never accepted forced assimilation and cultural genocide. Many of the Kurdish organisations that existed before the Turkish coup d'etat in 1980 were brutally crushed by the Turkish state after the military coup and thousands fled into exile to organise and publish Kurdish periodicals in Egypt, Sweden and other countries. The only organisation that was able to resist the Turkish onslaught was a group that had been started in 27 November 1978, by among others, a man called AbdullahOcalan, the PKK.
The PKK set up their resistance HQ in Damascus and a training camp in the Bekka Valley called MahsumKorkmaz Academy in 1979 and began an armed struggle against the Kemalist and racist policies of the Turkish state on 15th August 1984. Thousands of young Kurdish volunteers from Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Iran came to the party and very soon the PKK became the most affective advocate of the Kurdish people living under savage military racist law and circumstances.
The PKK fought for the rights of the Kurdish people and soon from its small beginnings became the National Liberation Organisation of the Kurdish people.
It has faced the most extraordinary enemy in the powerful Turkish army massively funded by the USA and European countries. It has fought provocations, infiltrations and has drawn its resources solely from the Kurdish people themselves, both in terms of finance and human resources.
It has been, theMartyrs, the self sacrifice of the Kurdish and at times, non Kurdish volunteers, that have brought the Kurdish struggle to the stage that it finds itself now.
Without the beginning of the armed struggle and the political and diplomatic work of thePKK there would be no Kurdish Question in Turkey today. There would only be 'mountain Turks' as the racist policies of the Turkish state tried to label the Kurds.
It is to the shame of the US and European powers that they have slavishly accepted the labels placed on the victims of Turkish fascistic practices and criminal that some have even aided these policies by giving training in psychological warfare and supplying weapons to Turkey to be used against the Kurdish people.
Abdullah Ocalan in solitary confinement on Imrali Island.
On the anniversary of the beginning of the Kurdish armed struggle for freedom and as we remain hopeful of a political soluton, AbdullahOcalan has been incarcerated on Imrali Island since Feb 1999. The only political prisoner on the island prison. Kept in solitary confinement (above)against international law and only allowed restricted visits by his lawyers he has remained at the head of the Kurdish Freedom Movement. Any political resolution of The Kurdish Question in Turkey must have as a precondition the release of Abdullah Ocalan.
FREEDOM FOR ABDULLAH OCALAN!
BIJI HPG!
BIJI PKK!
SEHID NAMERIN!
BIJI AUGUST 15th 1984!
