In 1998, we were a group of thirteen women undertaking intensive study at the Leadership’s home. Every day followed the Leader’s program.

When he was home, he gave us analysis twice a day and went out for exercise toward evening. Before he arrived, we lined up on the field and waited for him. One day we prepared for exercise as usual, but when we went into the garden we saw that he had come out before us. We had failed to catch up with him that day. Realizing we were late, he had not gone directly to the field; he lingered in the garden, waiting for us to emerge. When he saw us, he slowly began walking toward the field. He said nothing to us that day. Aware of our mistake, we silently followed him. Before we reached the field, he suddenly stopped. A hen and her chicks were crossing our path. The Leader stood without taking a single step until they had crossed, yielding the way to them. The chicks had barely passed when he turned to us and asked, “One of them is missing—where is it?” When a comrade replied that we did not know, he said, “I know. There is a snake here; it must have eaten it,” and continued on.

Frankly, until then I had not known how many chicks there were, nor had it ever caught my attention. Although I often saw them wandering in the garden, I had never felt a need to count them. To me it was a trivial detail, not worth dwelling on. I was therefore stunned by the Leader’s conduct that day and by his knowing even the number of chicks. How does he know their number, I wondered. Yet the Leader observed every detail of life with great care and invested it with meaning; he could not possibly miss such a detail. Of course, because I could not make sense of it with my reasoning at the time, the situation surprised me. That day he said, “This snake must be killed.” Then we all proceeded to the field to play ball.

We all knew very well that the Leader was a person true to his surname and invariably carried out what he said. Only a few days later, while waiting on the ball field, we heard him call us. Looking through the wire fence, we saw him trying to kill a snake. He called because he wanted us to see and draw a lesson. Some comrades ran to him; the rest of us watched through the fence. Having found the snake, he struggled with it as if at war. He held only a tiny stick. After a brief struggle, he killed the snake and placed it on the stick. Meanwhile, delighted by his victory, he laughed without pause. He said things to the comrades who had approached and laughed. Finally he brought the snake to the field, showed it to us, made some assessments, threw it outside, and came to play ball.

We were all watching the Leader with complete attention. He truly never let go of something he had said until he had done it. If the goal was clear, success was certain. This was his style; he never accepted defeat. He possessed extraordinary conviction and striking power. Toward something to which we showed no sensitivity, he displayed tremendous care. Using highly varied and rich methods in the face of events and phenomena, he tried to make what he wanted to teach comprehensible. Because everything had meaning for the Leader, he could show such sensitivity. His bond with nature contained an incredibly powerful intuition, examples of which we encountered many times. From his sensitivity toward a chick to the value he gave a human being, the Leader possessed depth of meaning. He understood and knew nature’s language. His communication with animals was very difficult to explain, because animals understood him. For example, the same pigeons that fluttered away when we approached flew around him when he came and perched on his hand, shoulder, and head. After the Leader was captured on February 15, those pigeons could not bear it and died one by one. Such was the Leadership’s profound relationship with nature; truly, understanding and expressing such communication was very difficult.

The human phenomenon occupied a very distinct place for the Leadership. One day he said, “The human being is the best technology.” Thus, the human being was his fundamental field of work. He recreated people again and again and formed new typologies, developing and shaping this as an investment in the future. His basic method was teaching through education. Accordingly, he gave far greater weight to sociological, psychological, and personality analyses. By imparting the qualities of natural society to our fragmented personalities, he recreated us. In this respect, through powerful analyses of women—the essence of society—he confronted us with our reality. Starting from women’s empowerment and return to their essence, he sought to reshape society. In fact, by resolving social sexism, the Leader created a revolution among the people.

Yet many of his projects were intended to be left unfinished. At a time when the Leader was making powerful preparations for a new initiative, he faced the conspiracy. Status-quo forces attacked to prevent such a move. There was an alliance and common concept uniting all reactionaries. What could stop that unbridled mob now? With inadequate comradeship and false friendship added to it, the picture was complete.

The Leader did not speak of the “lying and cruel man” for nothing. Is it not this male mentality that has brought us face to face with such terrible pain? However much we write and tell, it is not enough to quell the anger within us. We face such a crime against humanity that the tongue refuses to relate it.

What could be demanded of a person who loved humanity and nature so deeply and worked only in their service? In the system of capitalist modernity, ears seem deaf, eyes blind, and tongues mute. Although we struggle to accept such a reality, when it concerns the Leadership there remains neither justice, rights and law, nor humanity. Capitalist modernity will of course not tolerate ideological opposition and will carry out every reactionary attack within its power. Yet it is well known that during the İmralı process the Leader further deepened the philosophy of the free human being and strengthened the ground for a greater struggle against the thought patterns of today’s system.

It is a fact that freedom will prevail against this reactionary and inhuman system living through its final convulsions! Even nature displays its reflexes as if taking revenge upon it. We believe with our entire being that the Leader will soon attain his freedom and secure the freedom of all humanity. The project of an ethical-political society will thereby come to life once again!..

Revolutionary Greetings and Respect

Bengi Muş