In the third part of this in-depth interview, Mustafa Karasu, member of the KCK Executive Council, spoke about the death of guerrillas and journalists in South Kurdistan, as well as the consequences of the Ankara, Baghdad and Hewler agreement.

The first part of the interview can be read here, and the second part here. 

HPG has recently announced the martyrdom of Orhan Cihat Bingol, Tekin Goyi, Nujiyan Amed and Rosida Merdin. In addition, two very valuable friends, comrades and colleagues, Gulistan Tara and Hero Bahadin, were murdered in an attack by the fascist Turkish state, which was made possible by the collaboration of the KDP. What would you like to say about these martyrdoms?

Almost all of these martyred friends are friends I knew personally. At the same time, this is also the first anniversary of the “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi” revolution, the women’s uprising. I commemorate both Jina Amini and those who were martyred in this resistance with respect and gratitude. Orhan Bingol was one of the first friends I got to know the guerrillas. When I joined the guerrillas in 1994, one of my first commanders in 1995 was him. He has a great legacy of resistance and struggle. He went to northern Kurdistan many times, particularly to Erzirom (tr. Erzurum), Cewlig (tr. Bingol), and carried out great work there. He is a friend who has been in this struggle for more than 30 years. The lives of these friends are meaningful lives. They made it so. They contributed to the freedom of the Kurdish people and the freedom of humanity. I remember comrade Orhan with gratitude and respect.

Again, comrade Tekin Goyi and particularly Nujiyan Amed… She also made great contributions to the Kurdish people’s struggle for freedom. Our female comrades have contributed a lot to the women’s liberation struggle. If the women’s liberation struggle has developed in Kurdistan today, if the democratic revolution in Kurdistan has deepened, the women’s liberation struggle and our martyred women comrades have a very important contribution and value in this. Both Kurdish society and all Kurdish women should know this. These friends wrote a new history with their lives and created a new life. They created a new understanding of life. This is very important, very valuable. I also remember these women comrades with gratitude and respect.

Then there are our very valuable friends of the free press. Rosida Merdin had been in charge of the Azadiya Welat newspaper in northern Kurdistan. She worked there for years with her very fluent Kurdish. They wanted to send her to prison when she was Editor-in-Chief, so she immediately went to the mountains. There again, she worked in the press for years and made important contributions in this field. As soon as she arrived here, she always wanted to join the guerrillas, but she was given press work. Still, she always insisted on taking part in the guerrilla struggle, and finally her desire was accepted. She stayed in several areas of the guerrillas; lately she was in the Medya Defense Areas, in the areas of Avashin, Zap, and Metina. She took part in the resistance that had been going on for years in these areas; she became a fighter and a commander of this resistance despite all the very difficult conditions. I also remember my friend Rosida with respect and gratitude because I knew her closely.

Our friend Gulistan was a very important member of the free press. The Turkish state is hostile to all Kurds who live and stand up for their freedom. Who created the Kurd who strives for freedom? The PKK did. So the Turkish state is hostile to everyone affected by our struggle. It is hostile to the cadres of this movement; it is hostile to artists, everybody doing cultural works, journalists… They are enemies to everyone. Gulistan was a friend who participated in this struggle with great consciousness. She worked in the press in southern Kurdistan for many years, and she also worked in Shengal (Sinjar) and in Rojava. From time to time, she also came to the mountains and made programs and conducted interviews there as well. She was a very valuable comrade who made a significant contribution to our freedom struggle. I did not have the opportunity to meet Hero Bahadin in person, but she was also a member of the free press. The Turkish state is deliberately targeting and attacking everyone who contributes to the freedom struggle, whether they are journalists or artists or whatever.

I commemorate all these comrades with great respect and gratitude. The contribution they made to the freedom struggle is immense. They carried out their sacrificial struggle under the most difficult conditions by overcoming all kinds of difficulties, and they endeavored to lead this struggle to success until their last breath. In this respect, the values created by them within our freedom struggle are of great importance. The guerrilla and this striving for freedom, created by the struggle waged and developed by the ideas of Rêber Apo, are of great value. It is about patriotism, freedom, democracy, and serving humanity. Yes, they were fighting for the freedom of the Kurdish people, but they were also contributing to all of humanity with their thoughts and struggles. Their struggle was universal. In this respect, once again I commemorate these friends with great gratitude and respect.

The occupation attacks by the fascist Turkish state in Kurdistan continue, as does the resistance of the freedom fighters against it. In northern Kurdistan, the AKP-MHP fascism had claimed that there would not be a single guerrilla left on the anniversary of the founding of the Turkish Republic. However, for the last year, the 101st anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Turkey, everywhere from Botan to Serhat, from Dersim (tr. Tunceli) to Garzan, actions of the guerrillas took place. Despite all collaborators, the historical resistance Zap could not be broken. What is the current situation of the guerrilla resistance against the fascist Turkish army?

A great struggle has been going on since their attack on Gare on February 9th, 2021. It is a truly historic struggle that will go down in the history of warfare. The fascist Turkish army had already suffered a defeat in Gare in their first attack. Since the current government has built its existence and life on Kurdish enmity and the destruction of Kurds, it persistently pursues the policy of attacking the Medya Defense Zones and attacking the guerrillas in northern Kurdistan. Against this, the guerrillas are resisting as a whole. It is waging a great resistance.

This is the Kurdish struggle over existence or extinction. Rêber Apo used to say that this struggle for existence might last 50 years, maybe even 100 years if necessary, because the enemy is determined to destroy the Kurdish people. It wants to conduct a genocide. No Kurd should be mistaken in this point. The policy of the Turkish state is genocide. A Kurd who is not aware of this, doesn’t think about it, doesn’t understand it, is a Kurd in dangerous heedlessness. This state wants to genocide the Kurds. This is the state policy after the Treaty of Lausanne. The Treaty of Lausanne itself is also a genocidal treaty. International powers, especially Britain and France, allowed and approved the policy of genocide of the Kurds in exchange for Mosul and Kirkuk being left to Iraq. This policy is still continued today; they still do not pursue a Kurdish policy outside of this policy. And the Turkish state, with the support it receives from this policy and based on it, persistently continues its policy of genocide of the Kurds.

This genocide of a nation consisting of tens of millions of people is, of course, multifaceted. There is cultural genocide, ecocide, sociocide, killings through physical attacks, oppression, imprisonment, and torture, and they are all aimed at realizing this genocide. Being aware of this sinister and inhuman reality, the guerrilla is resisting. When this is the consciousness, of course the war will be continued sacrificially until the end. It is unthinkable for Kurds to give up this war. It is unthinkable for the guerrillas to give up this struggle. Everybody should be aware of this. Our struggle for freedom has historical, social, and cultural depth. It is deeply rooted in the consciousness of the people and is growing on the understanding of the democratic nation. There are also previous historical resistances in Kurdish society, but this 50-year struggle has gained a historical, social, cultural, democratic, and national depth that enables it to be continued. It is unthinkable to prevent this struggle by attacking the guerrillas. This struggle will continue until the policy of genocide is defeated. This is the decision and will of the Kurdish people. There is no turning back from this. 50 years of struggle have created a new idea, struggle, and understanding of freedom and the reality of a society inextricably linked in its strive for freedom.

The enemy speaks about a lock, locking down the areas of the guerrillas, etc. These are empty sayings. It is the KDP they have locked. The KDP is currently in its weakest period and solely survives by force, relying totally on the Turkish Republic and on some foreign powers, because the legitimacy of the KDP among Kurds is gone. It can propagate whatever it wants, but it has no legitimacy. Without our 50 years of struggle, the achievements in southern Kurdistan would not have emerged. Yes, the people in southern Kurdistan struggled; they were tortured and persecuted, but if we had not waged and developed this struggle, these results would not have emerged.

The Turkish state failed to achieve results despite all the attacks. Using all kinds of means and all kinds of dirty warfare, it still failed to achieve results. The war continues in the Medya Defense Areas. It continues in Zap, it continues in Metina, it continues in Avashin, it continues in Gare, and it continues in northern Kurdistan. Our freedom struggle has a wide field of action. And we will turn all the Medya Defense Zones and even the whole of southern Kurdistan into an area of resistance against the Turkish state. In this respect, they can propagate whatever they want, but at end it still remains what it truly is: empty words. If it was up to Suleyman Soylu, their occupation would have been completed three or four years ago. But as can be seen, this was not the case. Our guerrilla struggle will continue to decipher their propaganda for what it is: empty words.

After the signed agreements between Ankara, Baghdad and Hewler (Erbil) and their deepened collaboration, the fascist Turkish state’s attacks on civilians increased. What can you share about the current stage of the agreement that brings nothing but harm to the Kurds and the Iraqi peoples?

This agreement is a blunder for Iraq. With the pressure of the KDP and the Turkish Republic, Iraq has really entered into an agreement of blunder. Iraq certainly has problems on an economic and social level, but it is mistaken if it thinks that it can achieve solutions through agreements with the Turkish government, if it thinks it will get rid of its problems by agreeing to liquidate the PKK. I guess that’s what it is hoping, but it is mistaken. This is a blunder. On the contrary, this agreement will increase Iraq’s political problems and troubles in the future. They were working on expelling Turkey from Bashiqa for years. Now they have made it official. With that agreement, Turkey has actually paved the way to reach its dreams of Mosul and Kirkuk; it has become official. Iraq offered the Turkish state this opportunity, this possibility, this ground. They can label their agreement whatever they want; at the end, it is a first step of a formalization of the occupation of Iraqi land through Turkey. The Turkish government expresses this openly. They say Mosul and Kirkuk are now theirs. How does the Iraqi government search to prevent this? Will the EU prevent it? They must really be in a state of ignorance.

The result of this agreement is of course massacre. Civilians have been murdered, and they are again attacking Makhmour. They are already attacking Shengal at every opportunity and they are openly attacking Rojava based on this agreement. As a pretext they say that they are attacking the guerrilla, attacking the PKK. But they are killing people everywhere. They are killing civilians, massacring them. Does the Turkish state have a right to do so? If that is the case, then one should expect that the Turkish state will also attack media representatives and journalists in Europe. Wherever there is a Kurd striving for freedom, they will target him. Those who started the struggle for freedom against the oppression of the Turkish state were the PKK, was Rêber Apo. How can the Turkish state be allowed to attack the pursuit of freedom? How can this be justified? How can the Iraqi government justify this? Once again, we condemn this policy in the strongest possible terms. If you look at the reality, you can also clearly see that this agreement is not accepted in Iraq. It is a very damaging agreement. As if a war has broken out and the government has signed its capitulation letter. That’s what it looks like when you take a closer look at the agreement. An agreement that follows a decline. From now on, the Turkish state will rely on this agreement and justify every further shameful step it takes in southern Kurdistan and Iraq with it. Who is opposing it? It is the guerrillas who are resisting; it is they who will let this policy of the Turkish state come to nothing.