The most fundamental issue that has emerged in relation to preserving the memory of the 14 July resistance is this: the greatest failure is for a person not to understand, in all its dimensions, party comradeship, comradeship in the cause, and comradeship in the truth of resistance.
We have always said this: “If we are still committed to our duties today and have not abandoned our resistance, the most fundamental source of this is our bond with our resisting comrades and with all our comrades.”
It is extremely important to feel this within oneself until the very end and to live with the spirit of victory. Whatever may happen, we must place the lives of our martyred resisting comrades before our own lives.
Before everything else comes their life, and only afterward comes ours. Outside this understanding, you will fall to a very low level.
For years I have been crying out: “How do you understand this great resistance? Do you not see it?” Even my strength is not enough to keep their memory alive, and I live with the hardship of this. On the one hand, I try to advance the theoretical dimension; on the other, I try to create possibilities for practical realization. What are you doing? You are not even capable of carrying out your own education.
There are values that have been created. These values are the legacy of our resisting comrades. Many martyrs were given, great resistances were carried out, and these values have grown greater with every passing day. There is nothing in this that cannot be understood.
Within this lies the creation of the new human being. Within this lies the guaranteed establishment of the independence of an entire people. Within this lies the response to freedom and to the efforts that have been made. This is the true worth of these values.
Revolutionary theory, the source from which it draws, namely politics, every form of organization, every principle, and the power of life exist for this purpose.
At the very least, I am bound to these values of resistance, and I will never allow them to be crushed. Yet it is not enough for me alone to prevent these values from being crushed. From the lowest level to the highest, the entire party and all fighters must stand within this attitude.
You are very young. There is still nothing in your record of achievement. Will you not say to yourselves: “I must live for success. I must achieve certain victories in this life”?
Even if you are an ordinary person, you must ask yourselves this question. Will you not say to yourselves: “Am I living in a state of decay?”
You constantly say: “We were trained, we built a life for ourselves through your labor, we wanted to make ourselves influential, and we tried to show ourselves as powerful.” Will such an attitude be forgiven?
If a person has surrendered themselves to such things, every form of ugliness and disgrace will emerge from that person.
Discipline means this: a person must know how to be worthy of values and remain loyal to them. They must remain loyal to labor and consciously commit themselves to success.
We must overcome this disrespect and lack of discipline. How can this be overcome? It requires recognizing the value of one’s duties, carrying them out, and not allowing empty and destructive losses. In this matter, let your conscience move a little.
I ask once again: how did they learn resistance as though it were an art?
What kind of person of duty will you become? On the basis of becoming part of the party, you must become soldiers and guerrillas. If you devote yourselves relentlessly on this basis, then you will have chosen the truest path in your life.
Otherwise, even your death will serve no purpose. Everything that is not on this correct path is empty.
Let us remember 14 July. These comrades wanted to carry out a great struggle at the highest level. We knew the Hayris and the Kemals very well. They were comrades who had wholly devoted themselves through their passion for struggle.
For them, revolutionary practice was life itself.
Comrade Hayri lived the work of organization and propaganda with every breath. Outside this work, not a single day of his was empty, and in this way he became a great personality.
Comrade Kemal, too, placed everything he had in the service of the organization. With his entire being, he lived the party’s line of struggle. He was a personality who carried the party’s way of life forward breath by breath.
Much has been said on this subject. Much more can still be said and will be said.
How does a resister live?
In that merciless Amed Prison, despite every form of torture, they opened their chests under those conditions and lived resistance against torture.
If we are still committed to our duties today and have not abandoned our resistance, the most fundamental source of this is our bond with our resisting comrades and with all our comrades.
It is extremely important to feel this within oneself until the very end and to live with the spirit of victory. Whatever may happen, we must place the lives of our martyred resisting comrades before our own lives.
To confront death with life was such a decision. Yet making the decision alone is not enough.
After the decision, a person must devote themselves minute by minute to the work. Breath by breath, they must give themselves to party work so that this struggle does not stop.
When we speak of these things, we do so in order for you to draw conclusions.
We were alone. We had nothing. Yet even when we did small things, we gave them great meaning because we believed in them.
You know the result. In the South, we did not have a single friend. Today, millions are our friends. Not even one house would receive us as guests. Today, every house is our house.
How did this happen?
It happened through our decision and through the new life.
Who can stand in its way?
The greatest thing that can be given to you is this: then you will say, “This is the true life. Independence and freedom are the truth of humanity. This is the life of the honorable human being.”
This is for you as well, and we brought ourselves to it. We reached our own life.
The work of the party and the work of leadership have, until today, consisted of this. Once again, through our work, we reach ourselves. We do not lose ourselves, we do not burden ourselves, and we do not act with excessive haste.
Wherever and however a step must be taken, we take that step. Whatever the method is, we advance according to it.
Where death is required, we die. Where striking is required, we strike. Whatever is required, we do it and we succeed.
This is the method of the PKK. This is the life of the PKK.
On the basis of these truths, we wish success for you.
If we work correctly and devote ourselves properly to our struggle, even if the whole world unites as one force, it will not be able to keep us from success.
As we always say, we accept nothing other than success.
For us, success is a necessity.