Revolutionaries Haki Karer and Ibrahim Kaypakkaya were assassinated on May 18. Kaypakkaya in 1973 and Karer in 1977. Haki Karer was of Turkish origin and became one of the leading figures of the Kurdish freedom movement as an internationalist revolutionary. Kaypakkaya was a leader of the revolution in Turkey, founder of the TKP/ML and freedom fighter of the guerrilla of the TKP/ML - TIKKO - in the mountains.

The PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) Central Committee released the following statement today on the occasion of May 18:

"Rêber Apo [Abdullah Öcalan] had characterized comrade Haki Karer with the words: 'He was like my hidden spirit'. It has now been 45 years since his assassination on May 18, 1977 in Antep. With his death, May became the month of the martyrs and the day of his death the day of the martyrs. We as the Kurdistan Freedom Movement thus begin the 46th year of the martyrs. And we continue to live and fight in this 46th year in the footsteps of Haki Karer, in the line of the martyrs. In our historic struggle for freedom, led today by the resistance in Zap and Avaşîn, we continue to have martyrs.

In this spirit, on the 45th anniversary of the martyrdom of the great revolutionary Haki Karer, starting with him, we remember the line of our fallen heroines, which today extends to Mizgîn Ronahî and Aysel Doğan. We remember them with respect and gratitude. We reaffirm our pledge to fight for the goals of our martyrs and to keep their memories alive. In the 46th year, we declare that we will fight even harder and achieve greater successes on the battle line of the martyrs led by Haki Karer. On this basis, we call upon all our people and our friends, especially the comrades in our party, to better understand and successfully implement the path shown by the martyrs!

Rêber Apo said, "The PKK is the party of the martyrs." He stated that our martyrs live on in the form of the PKK and that the truth that guides us is the reality of the martyrs. He referred to the martyrs as our most basic living values and greatest source of strength and underlined that we should never detach ourselves from the line of the martyrs and move away from this reality. As long as we properly understand our martyrs and vehemently stand up for them, we will always win great victories.

45 years of struggle on the Line of Haki Karer

As the Kurdistan Freedom Movement and the Kurdish people, we have been living and fighting in the line of Haki Karer and the martyrs for 45 years. We have won everything in this great struggle on the line of Apoism and the martyrs. On this basis, we have understood the reality and gained the correct historical consciousness. On this basis, we have acquired our country, nation, people and characteristics. We have developed the vanguard role of the Party, the reality of guerrilla and self-defense, the system of democratic national and free life on this basis. On this basis, we have created all kinds of revolutionary developments, especially the revival of Kurdish identity and women's liberation revolution. Everywhere we have organized, united and fought on this basis. On this basis, we have fought against the global capitalist system, the colonial fascist mentality and policies, all kinds of weaknesses, collaboration and betrayals with which the Kurdish identity is to be erased and destroyed. At all times and places, the army of the martyrs led us, showed us the right way and gave us strength. We have won, protected and developed everything thanks to our brave martyrs.

We have taken every step in the history of our party's struggle with the strength of the martyrs, overcoming every obstacle and difficulty in this way. The correct understanding of the reality of the martyrs has led us into permanent active practice and forged the current achievements, like links in a chain.

In memory of comrade Haki Karer, we started the process of party building and armed resistance. On the very first anniversary of his death, comrade Halil Çavgun fell. The struggle waged in his memory led to the victorious Hilvan Resistance. The ideological defeat of the fascist military coup system of September 12 (1980) came from the Great Prison Resistance in which, under the leadership of Mazlum Doğan and Ferhat Kurtay, the group of four fell in the Great Death Fast Resistance that started on July 14. The works abroad between 1980 and 82 were successful because of the more than ten martyrs, starting with Abdulkadir Çubukçu. The historic revolutionary awakening of the August 15 guerrilla took place on the line of the martyrs, and this path was further led to success by martyrs such as Mehmet Karasungur, Egîd, Bêrîtan and Zîlan. The 24-year struggle against the international conspiracy is also carried out on the line of sacrifice started by friends like Halit Oral and Aynur Artan under the slogan 'You cannot darken our sun'.

Against the historical wound of the Kurds, the betrayal, we have brought forth the right attitude of struggle with the strength of our martyrs. This fact is still made painfully clear by the massacre in Hêwler on May 16, 1997. Today it is 25 years since the massacre. There are dozens, hundreds of such plots, provocations and massacres. Considering all this, one must realize the true face of the KDP. The KDP represents the worst example of betrayal. In this sense, we remember the dozens of martyrs who died.

"The new guerrilla redefines sacrifice"

As a people and as a movement, we are living and fighting on the line of the martyrs as we did 45 years ago. In May this year, under the leadership of Zap and Avaşîn resistance, we are carrying out an struggle against AKP/MHP fascism in all four parts of Kurdistan, in Turkey and abroad. Our aim is to lead our campaign 'Time for Freedom', which aims at the physical freedom of Rêber Apo (Abdullah Öcalan), to victory in the fiftieth year of struggle. Our brave guerrillas deal deadly blows to the mercenaries of the fascist AKP/MHP regime every day. Avaşîn and Zap are the grave of Turkish fascism. The new type of guerrilla warfare of democratic modernity redefines the concept of sacrifice. On this occasion, we salute the guerrilla and popular resistance that is advancing under the leadership of the struggle in Zap and Avaşîn, celebrate their successes and wish them further victories. We remember all the martyrs of our struggle with respect and gratitude in the persons of comrades Aysel Doğan and Mizgîn Ronahî.

"May is also the month of the martyrs for the revolutionary movements in Turkey"

May 18 marks the day that revolutionary leader Ibrahim Kaypakkaya was tortured to death in Amed in 1973. It has been 50 years since the execution of leading revolutionaries Deniz Gezmiş, Yusuf Aslan and Hüseyin Inan, who resisted the March 12, 1971 military coup and were executed on May 6, 1972. The assassination of Mahir Çayan and his friends in Kızıldere on March 30, 1972 and of Sinan Cemgil and his friends in Nurhak, on May 31, 1972, are also entering their fiftieth year. It is obvious that the month of May is also the month of the martyr revolutionaries in Turkey. For fifty years, the peoples of Turkey and Kurdistan have been waging a struggle for freedom and democracy in the footsteps of these revolutionary leaders. They are fighting heroically for a free Kurdistan and a democratic Turkey and there are new martyrs. Today, this historic struggle is led by the HBDH (People's United Revolutionary Movement). In this sense, we commemorate with respect and gratitude the brave martyrs of these 50 years of great struggle, starting from Mahir Çayan, Deniz Gezmiş and Ibrahim Kaypakkaya to Ulaş Bayraktaroğlu and the martyrs of the resistance of Avaşîn and Zap. We call on the youth and workers of Turkey to consider these martyrs as vanguard and to extend the struggle for a democratic Turkey and a free Kurdistan against AKP/MHP fascism.

"No revolution without anti-fascism"

It is clear that the personality of Haki Karer is the clearest and most respected example of what it means to be a revolutionary, socialist and democrat in Turkey. It becomes clear that if one wants to meet this definition, it is a prerequisite to fight against the fascist system. Furthermore, it becomes clear that this definition in Turkey makes a fraternal struggle with the Kurdish people and their freedom movement imperative. The anti-fascism and revolutionary democracy of those who do not stand together with the Kurdish freedom movement and on the basis of the united revolutionary struggle against the AKP/MHP resistance are mendacious. Therefore, all anti-fascist, revolutionary-democratic forces of Turkey, the workers, the women and youth, must develop a corresponding practice.

The reality of Haki Karer shows in the clearest way what the value standards are to live freely in Kurdistan and to be a true patriot and revolutionary. Besides this, there is no other standard. One cannot be a revolutionary and patriot in Kurdistan without giving an active struggle against the patriarchal, fascist, colonialist and genocidal mentality and policies. Such a struggle cannot be successful without uniting it with the struggle for democracy of the peoples of Turkey, the Middle East and the world. In this sense, we should consider and celebrate May 18, the Day of the Martyrs.

"Understanding the reality of the martyrs correctly"

It is obvious, the right life manifests itself in the fallen ones. Therefore, we must make great efforts every day of this month of the martyrs to connect ourselves with this truth. We must question ourselves on the line of Apoism and the martyrs, and we must wage a correct and more successful struggle against AKP/MHP fascism by renewing ourselves through profound criticism and self-criticism. We must visit the martyrs' cemeteries, organize memorial and discussion events for the martyrs, draw lessons from the practice of the martyrs and develop the struggle to achieve the goals of the martyrs. By expanding the revolutionary people's war against the AKP/MHP regime's fascist aggression to the whole Kurdistan and Turkey and being more creative in the struggle and developing new tactics, forms and methods, we have to break the isolation of Imrali, smash the  AKP/MHP fascism, liberate Kurdistan and democratize Turkey and the Middle East.

On this basis, on the anniversary of the deaths of Haki Karer and Ibrahim Kaypakkaya, we once again commemorate with respect, love and gratitude all the martyrs of the great 50-year struggle that began with Kızıldere and continues to this day to the resistance of Zap and Avaşîn. We call upon all comrades, our patriotic people and friends, all revolutionary-democratic forces of Turkey to understand and internalize the reality of the fallen correctly and to advance the struggle for the overthrow of AKP/MHP fascism on this basis in all fields!"