Our Statements

On the Murder of the Kurdish Patriot Zeki Çelebi in Süleymaniye

Due to the dirty collaboration of the Turkish MIT and the KDP-controlled Parastin [secret service], Zeki Çelebi, a patriot living in Süleymaniye in South Kurdistan, was murdered on May 17. We would like to take this opportunity to express our heartfelt condolences to Zeki Çelebi’s family and all his relatives. We will always remember Zeki Çelebi by building a free Kurdistan, cleansed of all collaboration.

Like many other Kurds, Zeki Çelebi was forced to leave his family and home and live as a political refugee due to the oppression of the Turkish state. In South Kurdistan, he lived under the protection of the UN and the South Kurdish government. Zeki Çelebi was married and father of two children. As a businessman, he was well known in Süleymaniye and throughout South Kurdistan. The fact that he was a Kurd and a patriot made him an enemy for the MIT and Parastin and sufficed as a reason for his assassination. Since one year, many of our revolutionary and patriotic people have become the targets of such attacks and have been injured or murdered. This shows that the Turkish state is murdering political refugees together with the collaborating KDP. Meanwhile, the whole world remains silent and simply watches these political murders. Since the UN Refugee Agency and the government of South Kurdistan have not taken a serious stance on these political killings so far, they bear the responsibility.

The political forces and our people in South Kurdistan must take a stand against these political murders as clearly as possible and show a clear stance against the murder of patriotic and revolutionary people. Otherwise, all of them will have to take measures to ensure their own security and exercise their right to resist and retaliate against such attacks. While we hope that there will be no such consequences, we would like to emphasize that we are not responsible for the possible consequences.

The aim of these massacres and political assassinations is to intimidate the Kurdish people and all their revolutionaries and patriots and force them to make concessions. Currently, the Turkish state and the KDP, which collaborates with it, are suffering a heavy defeat against the Freedom Movement and the guerrillas and are consequently in a hopeless situation. At the same time, they call our people or visit them personally in order to threaten, pressure, intimidate and thereby turn them into agents. However, they do not succeed in achieving their desired goals with this policy. Therefore, they consider every Kurd as an enemy and murder them. For the Turkish state, every Kurd represents an enemy who deserves to be murdered. This has been clearly demonstrated once again with the murder of Zeki Çelebi. But everyone must be aware that the Kurds will not back down in the face of such attacks. On the contrary, these attacks increase the anger of the Kurdish people and enlarge the front of the free Kurds. The Kurdish liberation struggle has become invincible due to its high toll and its Şehits [fallen].

Such attacks are deliberately aimed at making Süleymaniye a center of political assassinations. The patriotic parties and institutions of South Kurdistan are blackmailed in order to make them ineffective and to make them collaborate in a dirty way. The KDP’s dirty collaboration with the Turkish state is met with a great deal of rejection from the population, and the KDP is increasingly isolating itself as a result. Süleymaniye is a center of Kurdish patriotism and is being targeted so that the city no longer remains a safe and livable place. The administration of Süleymaniye and the political leaders should be aware of this situation and take a clear stand against it. The political murders must be clarified in all details and the public must be informed about the results. The Kurdish people and the families of those murdered expect such a stance.

All contract killers who commit political murders in Süleymaniye flee to Hewlêr [Erbil]. Hewlêr has now become a place where murderers are trained, housed and protected. The KDP pursues a policy of hunting down all Kurds who do not think like it. There is no sign that the KDP will back down from its dirty cooperation with the Turkish state. On the contrary, it is surrounding the guerrilla areas, preparing ambushes, gathering intelligence and directly participating in the attacks.

It is imperative for our people to recognize this situation and take a clear stance against the KDP. We call on the international institutions dealing with the rights of refugees and political people, the Red Cross, the UN Refugee Agency and human rights organizations to take a stand against the political killings committed by MIT and Parastin. The Kurdish people and the free Kurds have the right to defend themselves against any attacks. The murderers will definitely be brought to justice.

KCK Foreign Relations Committee