august 13, 2022
The August 15 Offensive Still Continues
We would like to congratulate all peoples, women and all those resisting, especially Leader Apo [Abdullah Öcalan], the guerrilla and the Kurdish People, on the 38th anniversary of the historic August 15 [1984] Guerrilla Offensive, commemorate all the martyrs of revolution and democracy in the person of Comrade Egîd, the great commander of the offensive, with respect and gratitude, and reiterate our promise that we will lead the freedom struggle that has been following the August 15 line to success.
The August 15 Offensive is a great and historical act of liberation that expresses the reawakening of the Kurdish people, their rediscovery of their identity and their renewed existence under the leadership of the Kurdistan Freedom Guerrilla against the genocidal colonialist September 12 fascist military regime. This move, led by the great commander Egîd-Mahsum Korkmaz, was a turning point for the Kurdish people and the history of Kurdistan and has thus shaped history. With the August 15th Offensive, the Kurdish people, who had been condemned to extinction and brought to the brink of annihilation, re-created and realized the Resurrection Revolution in Kurdistan.
Understanding the August 15th Offensive and the developments it led to is only possible by grasping the conditions under which it took place. The genocidal colonialist Turkish state carried out a fascist military coup on September 12, 1980 in order to suppress the Kurdish Freedom Struggle, complete the Kurdish genocide and eliminate the existence of the Kurdish people. With this fascist military coup, the Turkish state put great pressure on the society in Kurdistan and Turkey, under which it aimed to silence the society and to crush the movements struggling for freedom through massacres and torture practices and to bring the genocidal politics to a conclusion. The places where torture and massacres were practiced most brutally were the prisons. However, the prisoners put up a great resistance against the torture and massacre practices of the genocidal colonialist fascist regime and refused to surrender. The August 15 Offensive was carried out on the basis of the line of resistance initiated in the prisons. Through the August 15 Offensive, the great prisons resistance, which started under the leadership of the Mazlum, Kemal and their comrades, was carried outside of the prisons, met with society and thus enabled the realization of the Resurrection Revolution. The prison resistance fought against the inhuman torture system of fascism. The aim was to make the voices of the prisoners heard in the society. For this goal, the prisoners were willing to go all the way to martyrdom. All of Leader Apo’s efforts were focused on making the cries of Mazlum, Kemal and Hayris heard by the people of Kurdistan and the world. Leader Apo acted with the idea that the most meaningful way to make this cry heard was to further expand the struggle. Therefore, he focused on taking a step that would bring the struggle in Kurdistan to a strategic stage and save the Kurdish people from extinction while re-creating and liberating them. This quest of Leader Apo was concretized with the August 15 Guerrilla Offensive. Thus, the process of extinction ended and a new history, a history of existence and liberation began for Kurdistan. The historic August 15th Offensive destroyed the fascism of September 12th and enabled the rebirth of the Kurdish people from the ashes.
The August 15 Offensive reversed the history of extinction in Kurdistan and at the same time created a new personality and way of life. It destroyed the personality that genocidal colonialism had created in Kurdish society and the individual, and created a new personality. First and foremost, it broke down the walls of fear created by colonialism and created courage and self-confidence in the Kurdish people. Because of this characteristic, the action of August 15th has been described as a bullet fired at the outposts that colonialism had created in the minds, in addition to hitting the enemy. This was a correctly expressed the essence of the August 15 Offensive. The Kurdish people, who were supposed to be subjugated by oppression, torture and massacres, became a people who revolted and fought for their freedom through the August 15th Offensive. Undoubtedly, it was the guerrilla that represented this new spirit and personality. For the Kurdish people, guerrilla means not only being armed, but also enlightenment, change, re-existence and struggle for freedom. Because of this role played by the guerrilla in Kurdistan, Leader Apo has defined the guerrilla as a way of life. The Kurdish people have also approached the guerrilla in this way from the beginning, seeing it as the pioneer and representation of a new life. In fact, the August 15th Offensive has not only created military results, but also political, cultural and social results, and has started a completely new historical process in Kurdistan.
The August 15 Offensive was also a historic step in terms of the development of the Women’s Freedom Movement and the will of women. It has played a very important role in the development and growth of the Women’s Freedom Line in Kurdistan. With the August 15 Offensive, Kurdish women started to experience the process of organization, militarization and of becoming a party. Ever since, they have led the Kurdistan Freedom Revolution and have ensured the development of the revolution on the basis of the Women’s Freedom Line. Today, Kurdish women are leading not only the development of the Kurdistan revolution, but also the development and strengthening of the women’s movement in the Middle East and the world.
The August 15 Offensive has played a positive role in the development of the democratic process not only in Kurdistan but also in Turkey and the Middle East. After the September 12 fascist military coup, all institutions, especially political parties, were closed down, the constitutional process was suspended, ministers and the prime minister were arrested and put on trial. However, the August 15 Offensive defeated fascism, prevented it from becoming a permanent order and ensured the resumption of the democratic process. It enabled the reopening of institutions, especially political parties. In this respect, the August 15 Offensive played a decisive role in the start of the democratic process in Turkey. If the August 15 Offensive had not taken place, the junta regime would have continued the executions and the killing of politicians. However, the junta regime did not dare to do so in the face of the August 15th Offensive and thus the executions in Turkey were stopped. Understanding these results of the August 15 Offensive and the guerrilla struggle is very important in terms of carrying out the struggle against AKP-MHP fascism correctly today and defeating AKP-MHP fascism.
AKP-MHP fascism is the continuation of September 12 fascism. It is a fascist structure created to realize the goals of September 12 fascism. Just as the September 12 fascism aimed to complete the Kurdish genocide by silencing the society through oppression, torture and massacre, today the AKP-MHP fascism aims to realize the Kurdish genocide by applying even more severe and inhumane methods than the September 12 process. It wants to suppress the Kurdish Freedom Struggle by attacking North Kurdistan, South Kurdistan, Rojava, Şengal [Sinjar], Maxmur and everywhere where Kurds are present and struggling. Thus, it wants to bring the project of completing the Kurdish genocide, which failed in the wake of September 12, to its conclusion by eliminating the Kurdish existence. AKP-MHP fascism is hostile to the Kurdish existence, culture, nature, in short, everything Kurdish, and resorts to all kinds of inhuman dirty practices for the destruction of the Kurds. In this respect, it is a requirement of being Kurdish and patriotic to resist and struggle against AKP-MHP fascism everywhere.
The August 15 line expresses the guerrilla’s way of life and struggle. Today. the epic resistance of the guerrilla everywhere, especially in Zap, Avaşîn, Metîna and Xakurkê, follows the August 15 line. The guerrilla fights in the spirit of victory of the August 15th Offensive and deals heavy blows to genocidal colonialism. Just as the fascism of September 12 was defeated with the August 15th Offensive, today the Kurdistan Freedom Revolution, which fights according to the August 15 line, will realize the destruction of the AKP-MHP. The Kurdistan Freedom Guerrilla is exhibiting one of the greatest resistances in history against AKP-MHP fascism and defending Kurdistan against the occupying army. The complete destruction of AKP-MHP fascism is possible not only with the resistance of the guerrilla, but also with the resistance of the whole society in the spirit of August 15. Therefore, the whole society, especially the youth of Kurdistan, should be in an active resistance against fascism along the lines of August 15. The defense of society and the development of the struggle against fascism is primarily the responsibility of the youth. The youth of Kurdistan must fulfill their historical responsibility by joining the ranks of the struggle and engage in an active struggle to organize and defend society on the basis of self-defense to defeat AKP-MHP fascism.
The historic August 15 Offensive has created great developments over the past 38 years. The Kurdistan Freedom Struggle, which developed under the leadership of the guerrilla, reversed the extinction process of the Kurdish people and started the process of consciousness, enlightenment and liberation in Kurdistan by reuniting with its essence. The Rojava Revolution was realized as a result of the historical process brought about by the August 15 Offensive. The guerrilla stopped the IS [Islamic State] attacks in Şengal, preventing the genocide of our Ezidi people and enabling them to develop their own self-defense and self-administration. Kurdish women have shattered the armor of slavery, created a new life in Kurdistan and reached a level that today leads the women of the Middle East and the world. All these developments are the results of the August 15 Offensive. These 38 years of uninterrupted developments show that the August 15 Offensive continues and that they will create great developments in the coming period. There is no doubt that this situation is the result of the uninterrupted continuation of the freedom struggle on the basis of the August 15 line and spirit. In this respect, it will inevitably create great developments in Kurdistan and the Middle East in the 39th year of the offensive.
As the Kurdish Freedom Movement, we call on everyone to celebrate the historic August 15 Offensive – which the Kurdish people owe everything and which led to the development of enlightenment and the democratic process in Kurdistan – with enthusiasm everywhere, to make more efforts to understand the August 15 Offensive, and to break the isolation of Leader Apo by completely destroying AKP-MHP fascism on the 39th anniversary of the offensive, to liberate Kurdistan, and to fight for the democratization of Turkey and the Middle East. AKP-MHP fascism and the genocidal colonialist enemy will be destroyed in the face of the Kurdistan Freedom Struggle that develops with the spirit of August 15. The peoples and women who resist with the spirit of August 15 will achieve victory.
Co-Presidency
KCK Executive Council