july 13, 2022
We Call on Everybody to Develop an Even Better Understanding of the July 14 Resistance
We celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Great Hunger Strike Resistance of July 14th, commemorate all the martyrs of revolution and democracy with respect and gratitude in the person of the martyrs of July 14th Hayri Durmuş, Kemal Pir, Ali Çiçek and Akif Yılmaz and we reiterate our promise that we will adhere to the memory of the martyrs and carry their struggle to victory.
The July 14 Great Hunger Strike Resistance constitutes a great and historical action against the September 12 junta fascism, which defeated fascism and brought the peoples’ hopes for freedom to victory. The genocidal and colonialist Turkish state carried out a military fascist coup d’état on September 12, 1980 in order to crush the Kurdish people’s nascent struggle for freedom and liberation, to carry out the Kurdish genocide and to suppress the demands of the peoples of Turkey for freedom and democracy. With the military fascist coup of September 12, while the struggle of the people outside was suppressed through oppression and violence, the imprisoned revolutionaries were imposed to give up the cause of freedom and surrender in order to end the Kurdish people’s struggle for freedom and liberation and not to resurrect it again. However, since the prisoners did not accept surrender, the pressure in the dungeons was further increased and torture practices began to be put into practice.
Since the Kurdish people pinned their hopes on the revolutionaries of Kurdistan and believed that freedom and liberation would be won under their leadership, the September 12 fascist junta administration aimed to break these hopes of the people by braking the will of the prisoners and making them surrender and put into practice different forms of oppression and torture in the prisons.
Diyarbakır Military Prison was one of the places where oppression and torture were practiced the most. The genocidal colonialist fascist junta administration established a torture system in the Diyarbakır dungeon that is unprecedented in history in order to make the imprisoned Kurdistan Revolutionaries surrender. In Diyarbakır Prison No. 5, all kinds of inhuman methods were put into practice and a heavy torture was applied. Thus Diyarbakır prison was turned into a fortress of cruelty.
Mazlum Doğan was the first to demonstrate that the only and correct way against the torture system of the September 12 fascist junta in the Diyarbakır Prison was to resist and he carried out a great historical action. Mazlum Doğan stated that surrender would lead to betrayal and resistance against the torture system would lead to victory. This statement and action of Mazlum Doğan deeply affected the prisoners and led them to search for new ways. Ferhat Kurtay, Necmi Öner, Eşref Anyık and Mahmut Zengin, known as ´The Four´, were the first to walk in Mazlum Doğan’s path by rejecting surrender completely. The July 14th Great Hunger Strike Resistance was a step on the path of resistance shown by Mazlum Doğan and illuminated by The Four by igniting their bodies.
The July 14 Resistance fighters knew that surrender was being imposed on them and that the aim was to bring an end to the Kurdish people’s hope for freedom and liberation. Acting with this consciousness, they decided to launch their great and historical action. Undoubtedly, the fact that the July 14 Resistance fighters took this stance is an expression of their great commitment to the people and their historical responsibility. If it were not for this consciousness, commitment and responsibility, it would not have been possible to take such a big step. Therefore, the July 14 resistance was a great action with great historical depth and has led to great developments.
The most prominent feature of the July 14 Resistance is that it aimed for victory, did not stop until it achieved victory, and succeeded in doing so. The July 14 Resistance ensured the victory of the rebellion against the surrender that started with Mazlum Doğan and The Four. The September 12 fascist junta turned the Diyarbakır Dungeon, which the September 12 fascist junta regime had made a stronghold of oppression, into a stronghold of resistance and defeated the September 12 torture system and the fascist junta regime. It destroyed the enemy’s hopes of subduing the Kurdistan Revolutionaries and ending the Kurdistan Freedom Struggle in their person. Therefore, the July 14th Great Hunger Strike Action is an extremely great political move in terms of its ideological as well as its consequences.
Today, more than ever, the July 14 Resistance needs to be properly understood. It is very important to know the personalities of those who carried out this action, to understand the emotion, virtue, aestheticism and great love of the people at the core of the action they carried out. In carrying out a great action, they expressed what they owed as a result of their great commitment to the people and the struggle and their historical responsibility. In reality, they are the creators of the great values that have made everything we have today possible. They are not the debtors, we are. They are great monuments of humanity who deserve every praise.
The PKK developed the Kurdistan Freedom Struggle on the basis of the line of July 14th. Today, it still struggles against genocidal colonialism on the basis of this line. Therefore, the PKK’s line is the line of July 14th. Undoubtedly, it was Leader Apo [Abdullah Öcalan] who understood the July 14th line best and acted as this line required. The July 14 Resistance was a great support and basis for the armed struggle that Leader Apo wanted to launch against genocidal colonialism. In this respect, Leader Apo drew great strength from the July 14 Resistance. As a requirement of his commitment to the July 14th Resistance and their line, Leader Apo developed the guerrilla and realized the goals of the July 14th Resistance by developing the August 15th great guerrilla offensive on the foundations of the July 14th Resistance. Thus, all the values created and gains achieved by the Kurdistan Freedom Struggle have been based on the July 14 resistance line and the foundation it created.
AKP-MHP fascism is a continuation of the September 12 junta fascism. Just as 40 years ago, the September 12 junta fascism aimed to realize the Kurdish genocide by liquidating the Kurdistan Freedom Struggle, the AKP-MHP fascism today pursues the same goal and attacks the Kurdish people and the Kurdish Freedom Movement for this purpose. In this respect, the AKP-MHP government is a genocidal colonialist fascist structure that was brought to the political stage in order to revive the genocidal colonialist September 12 junta fascism, which was defeated in the face of the July 14 resistance.
AKP-MHP fascism resorts to more severe and inhumane practices than even the September 12 period. It attacks the Kurdish Freedom Movement and the guerrilla in order to liquidate the Kurdistan liberation revolution and realize the Kurdish genocide. Every day dozens of Kurdish patriots, revolutionaries and democrats are arrested and imprisoned. A great system of oppression has been established against the people and society has been bombarded by the special war. Since the AKP-MHP fascism has a complete Kurdish enemy mentality and its existence depends on the destruction of the Kurdish people, it does not take into account any humanitarian and moral values in its war against the Kurds, and uses chemical and tactical nuclear weapons against the guerrilla. In the occupied parts of Rojava and Syria, it changes the demography and commits genocide against the peoples. It threatens new invasions every day. All these constitute war, genocide and crimes against humanity. The genocidal colonialist Turkish state and AKP-MHP fascism are committing these crimes because of their Kurdish enmity.
AKP-MHP fascism is under attack not only outside but also in the prisons. What the September 12 junta fascism did in the prisons, AKP-MHP fascism is doing today. Prisoners are under pressure and are being tortured. Many prisoners in serious health conditions are not being released. Prisoners who have been in prison for 30 years and whose sentences are over are refused to be released. The dead bodies of prisoners come out of the prisons every day. Undoubtedly, the prisons resist these tendencies of AKP-MHP fascism with the spirit of July 14th. Fascism will never be able to break the will of the prisoners who live and resist with the spirit of July 14th with pressure and torture and will never achieve its goal. Because fascism has no chance of success against the July 14 line.
The Kurdistan Freedom Guerrilla, which resists with the spirit of July 14 against AKP-MHP fascism and the occupying army, which aims to occupy South Kurdistan and carry out the Kurdish genocide by liquidating the guerrilla, strikes heavy blows everywhere, especially in Zap, Avaşîn, Metîna and Xakurkê. The guerrilla was founded on the foundations of the July 14th line of resistance and has always walked on this line of resistance. The guerrilla, built on these foundations and marching to victory, will surely defeat the invading army. Just as the September 12 junta fascism was defeated in the face of the July 14 resistance, the castles of oppression were demolished and turned into castles of resistance, the darkness was torn and light was born; today, the Kurdish people and the Kurdistan Freedom Guerrilla, who resist with the spirit of July 14, will defeat the AKP-MHP fascism. We congratulate the HPG and YJA-STAR guerrillas who resist with the spirit of July 14th and create heroic epics every day by dealing great blows to the fascist army, and we express our greetings and respect to all commanders and fellow fighters.
It is very clear that AKP-MHP fascism is on the verge of collapse and that it is struggling against the Kurdish people and the Kurdistan Freedom Guerrilla, who live and fight in the spirit of July 14th. By further increasing struggle based on the July 14th spirit, AKP-MHP fascism will be overthrown, Kurdistan will be liberated and Turkey and the Middle East will be democratized. On this basis, we call on everyone to understand the July 14 resistance even better, to stand by the guerrilla fighting against the occupation and betrayal with the spirit of July 14 and to raise the struggle. Victory will be for the peoples, women and those who fight for freedom with the spirit of July 14th.
Co-Presidency
KCK Executive Council