PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) Executive Council Member Murat Karayılan spoke on the current affairs in a special programme he attended in Stêrk TV.

Murat Karayılan expressed the following:

"APRIL 4 IS THE BIRTHDAY FOR NOT AN INDIVIDUAL BUT FOR A PEOPLE"

“I celebrate Leader Apo’s birthday April 4 in the name of the Kurdistan Freedom Guerrillas for Leader Apo, all our comrades, the people of Kurdistan and the allies of our people. April 4 is not the birthday for an individual. They say leaders are born, not elected. On April 4, a Leader was born. The struggle waged by the Leader that developed in Kurdistan and the philosophy he developed started a new era in Kurdistan in the person of Leader Apo, and caused fundamental transformations in the Kurdish society. Those least aware have gained awareness, those weakest have gained strength. Hope has been created out of despair, and this hope has been nurtured. The philosophy Leader Apo developed in Kurdistan has created such fundamental transformations in the people and has stood this strong against the policies of assimilation and genocide.

Because colonialist politics had spread despair among the Kurdish people. But in the face of this despair, hope, determination, insistence, awareness and will have been developed. The struggle that started with the Apoist philosophy has created such a fundamental transformation in Kurdistan. The enemy wanted to turn our country into a country of regressive and unaware masses, but the struggle that developed with the emergence of Leader Apo has turned Kurdistan into the country of awareness, progress and the fight for freedom and democracy. The Kurdish people today are the people who raise the flag of freedom of democracy highest in the Middle East. Most importantly, Kurdish women have gotten stronger with this philosophy and the emancipatory emergence of women have come to pass. The paradigm developed by Leader Apo stood against assimilation and genocide, and has created a new alternative to capitalist modernity. It has pointed towards a new outlet for Kurdistan and the peoples of the region and the world. This of course has been created on the foundations of Leader Apo’s efforts and thousands of martyrs who sacrificed themselves heroically.

"THE ENEMY IS AFRAID OF LEADER APO’S MESSAGES"

Leader Apo isn’t just a leader who wages a political and social struggle. He is also a philosopher. He has over 200 books based on deep analyses that have made the society conscious. The struggle waged in not one, but multiple facets has veritably recreated the Kurdish society. This is why our people are so devoted to the Leader. Sometimes some people and the enemy can’t make sense of this fact. Of course, we are talking about the leader that has created this struggle, this conviction, this strength and the will. This is why the society of course protects their Leader under any and all circumstances. That is why the enemy has implemented a system of isolation and torture in Imralı with an unprecedented method. We have never heard of another system like this. The leader of a people is arrested, and for years nobody can hear one word from him. Why does the enemy do this? Because they are afraid his messages will reach the people. When they reach the people, the people draw strength from them. That is why they want to shut him up. But the one isolated there isn’t just an individual, they have isolated the future of this people. The isolation in Imralı is an isolation imposed upon the people. The torture in Imralı is implemented against the future of the peoples of Kurdistan.

“APOIST RESISTANCE WILL CERTAINLY ACHIEVE VICTORY”

Comrades in Şakran Prison and other dungeons have been on a hunger strike for the last 49 days. These comrades have of course taken this decision of their own volition, so we can’t say anything, but the goal they have put forth for themselves is sacred and precious. This hunger strike is going on to the 50th day, and with every day the risk to life approaches more. This is an important voice. Our people should of course not remain silent in the face of this scream rising from the dungeons. Our people celebrating April 4 in Amara and everywhere else will thus embrace the freedom of Leader Apo and this scream rising from the dungeons. This call rising from the dungeons through the hunger strikes is a significant and serious call. With this in mind, I celebrate the birth day of all comrades in the hunger strikes and I salute them. We believe that our people and our struggle will rise with the Apoist resistance and will certainly achieve victory. We will prevail. With this hope and conviction, celebrate the birth day for Leader Apo, all comrades and all our people.”