Our Martyrs Are the Values That Bring Humanity’s Most Forgotten People into the Present Age in the Most Honorable Manner

 We had responded, through various assessments, to the different links in the chain of martyrs. Let us state at once that although the links at the beginning of our party’s history had the character of large links, today these links may have grown smaller in physical terms, but in terms of meaning—in terms of rousing millions to their feet—they are links as great as those at the beginning. We can speak of reaching a point where, from the beginning to the present, they become physically smaller and, from the present back toward the beginning, grow in meaning until they attain the magnitude of meaning possessed by the first ones, and where our joints are united with them to such a degree that none of us can readily contemplate breaking away and those joints cannot readily be dislodged. In this way, we have also expressed how the most fitting response to the memory of them all must be given. Let us state once again that this development is the accumulation and formation into an army of the martyrs.

Let us immediately state that the role of the martyrs is extremely intense and decisive not only in connection with the proclamation of the party and our political strengthening, but also in the development of the armed struggle—that is, our militarization. If we also take into account how decisive the martyrs have been in the development of the PKK, we can say that this characteristic must be placed foremost and that nothing can prevent us from setting it out in this way. To form an army and fight the existing enemy with arms means daring to undertake the most extraordinary and fiercest form of war. Theory and political activity also affect this directly, but it is clear that this is an army that must be established as a definitive command of the martyrs on this matter. We cannot claim that theoretical and political activity are as important and decisive in its establishment as the martyrs are.

Whenever we began all our important initiatives, we acted under the profound memories of the martyrs we had previously given. This is not merely loyalty to them; it is also a matter concentrated in the martyrs and requiring that their weapons not be left on the ground. It means that the struggle they waged for the construction of the army must not be left unfinished. This, in turn, carries the meaning of our ideas becoming a force. Defending thought with arms is the greatest form of defense. When this is still being done against the most tyrannical force, it becomes clear once again that it is the greatest defense. When we say that loyalty to the memories in this manner is to form an army, we are also setting out another of the soundest measures. Through these assessments, we wished to state that no great meaning can be attached to other measures on this question. We also wish to say that no other definition of the martyrs can be reached. In stating all this, we say that they exist in the depths of life. We state that these things are necessary in order to eliminate the deadly effect of the poison in the present, unbearable life of a nation and a people. Otherwise, it is not possible to commemorate these values in any other way, to keep their memories alive, or to be their spokesperson.

If we turn to the duties of those who live more concretely and of those who are in the position of spokespersons, these principal explanations reveal how we must view matters and how we must be. If you truly live in this way, let us say at once that you will multiply your strength a thousandfold. You can virtually pass over the phenomenon called struggle like a powerful person. Whatever its nature, you can overcome every obstacle standing before you in this way. We regarded the martyrs we gave during important periods as those who cleared and arranged our path by removing the obstacles before us. We determined that the resistance of a Mazlum in the prison resistance against the fascism of September 12, and later the resistance of Hayri and Kemal, constituted the soundest bridge truly built between death and life—that is, a firm bridge between the death imposed by fascism and the life that resistance sought to attain. And we said that walking across this bridge, and if necessary giving martyrs one after another against fascism, was the path to victory. We also stated that the bridge had been opened all the way to its end. We needed a bridge as we advanced toward the path with its utterly dark precipices, with which fascism tried to frighten us by saying, ‘If you approach, you will be razed to the ground.’ This is why the meaning of the prison resistance and its martyrs is so great, and this greatness is precisely a political value. At the same time, it is also great political support for our struggle. More than that, it is a political victory won by our struggle. A few people succeeded in defeating the enemy’s armies by fighting them physically.

The prison resistance is a situation that those who witnessed it over a long period could explain only one after another, and one they would have considerable difficulty explaining even then. This war, waged under those conditions with a power of endurance perhaps granted to very few people in the human race, is truly a struggle that very few could accomplish. This struggle was waged and initiated. Therefore, the place of these martyrs in becoming PKK members, in turning the PKK into a resisting force, and in determining the resistance that followed stands above every assessment. And when we say that what was truly defeated here, what received the truly mortal blow, was fascism itself—and when, looking at the life we witnessed in the subsequent rise of our resistance, we state these things—we are telling the exact truth. The truth here finds expression in the slogan ‘to resist is to live.’ Fascism sought to make certain people, and in their person an entire people, surrender with everything it possessed. It sought to lead the party and, increasingly, the people to defeat, and in their place to continue uninterruptedly its own blind, dark tradition woven from injustices. At just such a moment, when fascism sought at the most critical point to complete in the prisons, on its own behalf and through a chain of developments, the tradition in which it had placed such confidence and which it had sustained for centuries—its domination in this form—these acts of resistance developed.

If a great success was to be achieved, this situation had to be shattered. It is here that the meaning of the prison resisters emerges. At the necessary moment, they shattered this structure of the Republic of Turkey. Consequently, what was defeated here was not merely the history of the Republic of Turkey. It was despotism, perfected to its utmost degree in the person of the Republic of Turkey, receiving a vital blow and having its most fundamental link broken. Naturally, once a chain is broken at its most fundamental link, it can no longer perform much of a function or secure its continuity in history.

If the meaning of the prison resistance is considered more deeply, it will also be understood that carrying this resistance into the future is an undertaking of great organization. If we succeed in representing this development by every means, political and armed activity foremost among them, we will see that the breaking of this link is in fact a mortal blow dealt to a despotism more than a thousand years old. It also means that one of the greatest wars has been won by our party in the name of peoples and freedom. As we have stated before on this matter, this is so if we, as their spokespersons, understand and carry out this duty in this way.

It is clear that, under the conditions of the period, the most correct thing for us to do was to make the resistance somewhat more searing and not allow the distance between ourselves and the martyrs to grow too wide; to this end, we had to carry more of our strength into the country and develop the armed struggle still further. Indeed, our advance is taking place despite every kind of obstruction. This advance is the product of an understanding that loyalty to the memories of these prison martyrs, as much as to those of our first martyrs, is an urgent duty and debt. All our other activities consist of preparation. In other words, armed equipment, training, and all other organizational tasks are duties carried out in order to keep these memories alive in a concrete way. It is most correct to see that the new period is, even in itself, a stage of the most fundamental importance for national liberation and, naturally, to explain this fundamentally through loyalty to the memories of the martyrs. This is already what is being done.

Some wanted to prepare, interpret, and implement this in very different ways. Yet while our advancing upon this matter with all our strength furnished another correct example of loyalty, it also opened the way for developments once again. If we did not want to leave these martyrs in the darkness of the prisons and lose them, truly meaningful deeds had to be carried out. This is one of those meaningful deeds. Indeed, what does it mean that the prison martyrs assigned value to the great meaning of their resistance, made assessments that even those involved outside could not make regarding the resistance, drew conclusions from it, identified the tasks, directed appropriate criticisms, and so forth? It shows that the resisters experienced their own actions vividly and how close they were to the truth in reflecting them.

As can be seen throughout its history, the Republic of Turkey has massacred millions of people, silenced them all, and left no trace in history. Faced with the Republic of Turkey's concealment of truths in this way, even socialists and progressives remained silent until recently. The Republic of Turkey has not been held to account for what it has done. What we have accomplished here is, for the first time, to halt this manner in which history has flowed in favor of fascism and to show that the deeds of this regime will not remain as profit in its hands. In this way, it is to put an end to the distortion imposed on the history of peoples, perhaps for years, by silencing them and blinding their eyes; to show that the fallen children and martyrs of peoples are values that sustain peoples and are never defeated; and to prove that this is so. This means accomplishing one of the most serious revolutionary tasks. Had the fascism of September 12 achieved against our practice a success similar to that history of its forebears to which it was bound, a very great loss would have occurred not only in the name of the PKK but in the name of peoples. Likewise, had the prison resistance and all the efforts that developed in relation to it and under its influence been suffocated, September 12 fascism would not merely have made itself politically successful; a tradition of despotism consisting of blind darkness and every kind of injustice and oppression would also have continued successfully. As the nearest example, this would have led to the progressive youth movements of Turkey and our own truly considerable efforts being lost in darkness.

Let us immediately recall one matter: liquidationism toward the memories of these revolutionaries, practiced today even by those closest to them; cursing one's own past; speaking with the same mouth as fascism by saying, 'the terrorists acted excessively in such ways, put us in a difficult position, poisoned life,' and so forth; even carrying matters as far as contemptibly surrendering to it; and the presence of those who betray the memories to the point of saying, as if displaying remorse, 'democracy is developing; we made mistakes in the past'—all this is developing with reckless intensity. That we allowed fascism no possibility of success, that when such deviations regarding the memory of the martyrs emerged we confronted them and denied them the chance to flourish, and that today we have carried this to an important point, constitute a great achievement whose meaning stands above every assessment.

In commemorating our martyrs in memory of them all, imparting another meaning is an event that possesses great, exalted values and enlarges the personality. This is another way of explaining the people's concentration around us today and the PKK's transformation of a truly great life into a value. If today we reveal historical truths more than ever and represent the most correct policies in favor of the laboring people, this proves that we have reached a point capable of affecting even the enemy. Today we are the soundest spokespersons of truth. It is this correct approach of ours that has brought us to this point. It is also the value we have assigned to the history of the laboring people and to their massacres coming alive in the PKK, finding expression, and becoming a force.

In the recent period, our armed struggle has had valuable martyrs. These martyrs represent an important generation. Through the most correct style of struggle, they played a truly important role in bringing our party's new advances to success. Had they not developed in this way, it is clear that our great truths would have been concealed at birth and that this would have meant the destruction of an entire nation. The emergence of these martyrs as a result of intervening at a critical stage and advancing with complete courage was the doing of what had to be done, the giving of the blood that had to be given. By doing so, they placed fascism in a situation from which it could not easily extricate itself again. This resistance, at the nation's most critical moment, was the giving of the energy and blood that had to be given. It thereby constituted the realization of one of the most fundamental stations or stages in winning this history in a revolutionary manner. To seize such a period, hundreds of thousands could be sacrificed if necessary. Our accomplishment of this task here with a few hundred people demonstrates the PKK's great mastery, as well as proving that the most difficult task can be carried out through its most valuable children.

Let us not forget that in our recent history our people were sacrificed in numbers reaching into the hundreds of thousands in the name of nationality. Yet today, upon their legacy, some seek only to satisfy their own repulsive familial, tribal, and personal interests. We truly see the worst collaborators trampling upon these values, upon the blood of hundreds of thousands—those who seek to pass off as politics every repulsive act into which they enter in order to sell themselves to the enemy, and who produce every kind of lie on this basis. Our approaching this period in this way today, interweaving our action and our martyrs, and once again carrying out our action upon the memories of our martyrs is the greatest answer given to them as well. It is also the most meaningful response, one that razes their demagogy and fraud to the ground. Particular attention must be paid to the meaning of their shouting, a thousand times louder than the enemy, that our resistance today is impossible.

They mean to say: 'For centuries we created a way of life by having our members, our bodies, and our limbs slaughtered for nothing, and even more for our own interests, and by exploiting their blood. You are attacking this; therefore you are committing a great sin—give it up. You must not reveal the truth in the name of the people; you must not give martyrs for the people's own fundamental interests. We did these things in our own idiom; if you do not do likewise, we will stand against you, develop collaboration, and make all the traditions speak.' They said these things and today they are doing what they said. Here, too, lies a great meaning of our martyrs in this period. If one considers that there is no scheme they have not devised and no slander they have not made in order to distort, in an unprecedented manner, our truths that are as clear as the sun, one will see once again what a great historical task was accomplished by our martyrs proclaiming our truth on a national scale and by making it known through action to friend and enemy throughout the world—and consequently how great their values are.

The martyrs of our armed struggle in the recent period are also our values of forming an army, whose meaning is so great and whose realization is becoming increasingly frequent. This is at the same time a matter of grasping the entire history of the nation on a correct foundation. It also makes what is current and most revolutionary prevail in a searing manner. In this sense, we say that our martyrs are the values that bring perhaps humanity's most forgotten people into the present age in the most honorable manner.

The martyrs of such a period, then, are values with historical importance at least equal to that of the first martyrs; values that leave us great strength and condition us at every level to be their spokespersons; that grant us advantages we possessed in no other period in drawing closer to what is right, and give us the strength to advance upon the future; and that, while doing all this, prove in their own lives how the correct struggle must be waged by purging it as fully as possible of errors and shortcomings. These values continually serve as a source of strength for us.

The distance between us and our martyrs is short. Only yesterday we were together with them all. In our own society we abundantly produce such sublime people. We will develop this still more broadly in the coming period. Let us immediately state that when, in the most difficult period, we bring our most valuable party assets to martyrdom, we do so in order that millions may rise to their feet. When millions rise, no force can represent the truth they will represent or create the revolutionary change they will create. The rising of the masses is the greatest truth and the most revolutionary transformation of truth. More than ever, our martyrs have also brought us to a position in which we can make this possible and realize it. As we lead the party today toward becoming a mass force and an army, as we say that creating these institutions is among our most fundamental tasks, and as we state that the martyrs are the true governing force here, we also emphasize clearly that we will accomplish an important duty at an important stage.

As the Kurdistan National Liberation Front and the People's Liberation Army are being created, this is the meaning of our essential sources of strength. Today we have become quite strong and our tasks have been clearly defined. Let us pay attention: this is an important position we have attained for the first time in our history, and we have explained how it was created by setting forth the true meaning of loyalty to the memories of the people who made it possible. As the spokespersons and executive forces advancing upon these tasks, we are the people who must be held most responsible. Here, the cause of the ego and the cause of personalism have now ended. This is also a truth that finds expression in the concentration of our party today. When what we have done from the beginning is analyzed, the conclusion to which the proven values lead us is that our latest martyrs, too, can in no way be interpreted otherwise. This does not mean that we disregard the individual's rights to freedom. No: here the individual is free to the extent that they adhere to this truth. Likewise, the people are free to the extent that they adhere to this truth. No matter how centrally we accomplish this, it is freedom itself. Together with these values, fusing and organizing the people is the greatest freedom. No matter how centrally we do it, this is freedom attained in its sharpest form. What exists here is concentrating the party in a militant, forming the party from such militants, and using this, through an administration stronger than required, to raise the entire people to their feet. There is no other current as libertarian and democratic as this.

On the basis of such a truth, without feeling even the slightest hesitation, individuals must analyze themselves in the most correct and creative manner and participate in it. Those who have doubts on this matter, those who insist on remaining dwarfs, must openly state their position. Otherwise, they cannot succeed in concentrating the party within themselves and advancing upon the future with the entire party. Let us state at once that, in accomplishing tasks, there is a difference as great as mountains between an individual's advance that is filled with errors but also represents what is right, and an advance and approach that sees the party as a whole. The personality that cannot represent the party in itself but individualizes it is the personality that creates the greatest danger. As many examples in the past have shown, even a person who does not act in this way but advances with the party's style, manner of struggle, and manner of winning is a great event in themselves. Such a person is also a leader. A party that makes all its militants advance in this way is a party capable of changing every matter it takes up in line with its own aims. Today our party has drawn closer to this point than ever before. Our share in such an approach has become more definitive and effective than ever before.

Thus, as we advance into the coming period, we have attained a power of breakthrough, transformation, and the exercise of duties and authority such as has been encountered in no other period. We carried out all our analyses to date in order to contribute to our grasping the character and clarity of this approach sharply. Here there can be no understanding and interpretation more contrary than, in one form or another, a person living for their own self and leaving themselves alone before important political and military tasks. To prevent this, we insistently set forth these truths anew in this form. An important weakness of individuals is this: during great mass developments, those who lose themselves become captives of the spirit of the masses. In important moments of difficulty and weakness, however, they withdraw entirely into themselves and this time live out a great ego and spontaneity. We live neither with the ego of a period in which the spirit of the masses is so exuberant, nor with a personality that has sunk entirely into itself and closed itself off amid difficulties and isolation. No; here we sacrifice the ego to the extent that it must be sacrificed. We remain committed to our personal and historical effectiveness to such a degree that our attachment to the masses will not disappear or be lost within them. These are subtle distinctions. Making them is an indispensable duty of every intelligent revolutionary leading militant.

Today our militants have also drawn considerably closer to this. This approach does not mean that everything has been resolved. No; this situation requires political analytical power, the power to bring it to life step by step through organization, and the utmost intelligence, fortitude, and maturity. We believe that we can grow stronger by making some contribution on this matter as well. In stating this, we ask and expect you to draw somewhat closer to the values we have described at length and to increase your ability to represent them. We say that, in order to put an end to the erroneous and deficient life of which we have spoken so often, these values must absolutely be taken as the basis. We emphasize that this is also the greatest transforming, guiding, and strengthening force.

If we become the relentless defenders of these valuable beings and, without ever tiring, keep them broadly alive at every level in the coming period in a manner worthy of our past, then development is certainly assured and will continue in this way until victory. The number of our most recent martyrs has grown so great that it is not especially necessary to commemorate each one individually. On the contrary, it is most correct to commemorate their greatness by properly situating their roles within the developed characteristics of our entire struggle. These assessments are also the truths that have brought us to this conclusion. In the near future, we will undoubtedly have still more martyrs. As we transform them into such a force, let us state at once that our masses will participate in this event to an even greater extent. And we will see that, rather than becoming factors that strain us, as has often been seen in some of you and even, in certain periods, in all of you, they will become factors that strengthen us. Thus, in commemorating these latest martyrs, we reached the conclusion that they must be made into factors that strengthen us. Our latest martyrs displayed both fearless struggle and resistance worthy of great heroism without showing the slightest sign of surrender. Indeed, in the fact that some, even while wounded, used their final bullets to immortalize their own lives rather than surrender in that condition, one must see the level reached by the PKK's spirit of resistance. More than ever, they are also the most striking examples of how we must win freedom. Only if we understand these examples in this way and remain constantly loyal to them in this way will we clearly have given the most meaningful response to these memories.

Martyrdom may be a reality that we, too, will reach just two steps away. It may also come after a long period. But the meaning of all of it is the same. Here, instead of seeing our own inadequacies and trivialities, bowing down, shedding tears, and thereby doing ourselves harm, we must now view our great values—that is, our martyrs—in this way. They are calls to struggle; they are the truths themselves. They are also the true values in which everyone must participate and which everyone must attain.

This is our state of thought and practice as we evaluate all our martyrs, and especially the martyrs of the last year. It is also the final report of these martyrs. An important part of this report consists of the tasks concerning the future. Although there were some repetitions, we tried to set out these tasks here in lengthy speeches. Through these speeches, we made a collective assessment as a requirement of loyalty to the memories of our martyrs. You stand foremost among the closest comrades of these martyrs. Our commemorating them in this way undoubtedly sharpens the strength of our loyalty, the strength of our struggle, and our advance toward the tasks before us.

Fulfilling the requirements of the solutions directed toward the future is a contribution and support for our entire party, above all for this party community of ours. For all of us, this is also a duty that truly must be fulfilled to a degree that no command can explain. Creative work can be carried out only with a superior responsibility that will ensure growth and strengthening. These are our tasks that must be understood. To fulfill these tasks, to commemorate and keep alive together our party's tenth year and all the martyrs up to this tenth year, no response more meaningful than this can be given. From this point onward, by keeping them alive in our developed struggles, we will honor the promise we have always made through still greater development. Embracing and carrying out our duties in this way before the memories of our martyrs gives us peace. It is clear that by fulfilling this still more broadly in the coming period, we will all at the same time express our respect for ourselves. We will also prove this characteristic by certainly accomplishing the important tasks placed before us by these supports, which we need more than ever. We must accept no proof other than this under any pretext.

When we have competently created our guerrilla army and realized its continuous, intense struggle, and when we have built our people's political front to a considerable degree, we can say that the tasks have been fulfilled. It may likewise be said that loyalty to the memories has thereby been maintained. We will say that those who own this, whether they become martyrs or remain alive, are the true living values of our party. We will also say that our party can in no way be embraced outside this. And we state once again that no one can approach otherwise and possess the power to play with our values. If this is so, then we can say that all the work we have done and the meaning of the blood shed have been correctly defined, correctly understood, and correctly fulfilled.

These are the values that prevail throughout our entire party. For our part, we have done everything so that all values find meaning in this way, and it is certain that we will continue to do so with all our strength. All comrades must not approach us in any other way; if they wish to add strength to us through their approach, they must approach in this manner and must never mislead themselves on this matter or enter into a position of wanting to mislead us. For, relying on great experience in this matter, we have attained a sharpness and power of implementation sufficient to bind our revolutionary truths, in every respect, to this foundation. Today the Party Leadership is in a position to carry this out. And it presents this in the form of correctly understanding and implementing it in all its aspects. Whatever the level currently attained, we set forth that this is indispensable. We also emphasize that participation outside this would not be realistic, and state that it will ensure that the struggle is maintained as a greater force of transformation than ever before. Naturally, what falls to all of us is to succeed in participating in it correctly. We state the importance of not neglecting this correct achievement under any pretext through erroneous and deficient approaches, and once again emphasize that if such attitudes are adopted, all our efforts will be rendered meaningless.

Then let us participate well in the call that has been made. We are in a period of the strongest determination in terms of fulfilling the requirements of this call, and we firmly believe that we will accomplish these tasks. It is utterly clear and true that no force can deter us from this path.

In this period when we celebrate our party's entry into its tenth year, this is also the call made to us by the assessment we developed on the basis of the memories of our martyrs of 1987. Then let us emphasize once again: let us powerfully give the necessary meaning to the memories of our martyrs and to our party's tenth year, and let us fulfill with great success the tasks this meaning places upon us!