“There was no life we could write about before the PKK”
No word, no sentence and no tongue could ever express what the pen and paper of a guerrilla's diary bring about.
No word, no sentence and no tongue could ever express what the pen and paper of a guerrilla's diary bring about.
Unmatched are the entries of a guerrilla's diary, put into silent words with a pen, as no sentence and no tongue could ever convey. Guerrillas adorn their precious diaries with pictures of their Leader Apo and their martyred comrades, gracing the pages with their quotes. They hold their diaries in fact very dear. It is safe to say that every guerrilla is in possession of a diary. And as a matter of fact, guerrillas turn out to be the most talented artists of all. For that reason, they long for passing on their stories and their life to the next generation freely.
The diaries of the guerrillas harbour mostly tales of martyrs, anecdotes about the Kurdish People's Leader, poignant memories of the guerrillas and the splendid landscape. As those who are living and seeing with their own eyes all the beauty, hardship and pain in person, they are truly capable of writing it down in all its accuracy. After all, the most truthful and touching sentences can only be produced by those, who are living inside of it and put it into words from the bottom of their hearts, leaving behind all of the truth as their legacy with the ink of their pens. With their pencils and papers the guerrillas are perceiving the very core of many truths.
Within the ranks of the guerrillas are many fighters who were illiterate in their civilian life, but learned to read and write within the PKK, and have started to write down their life on their own enthusiastically. The guerrillas who are filling their diaries use to say the following about their small books: "We have learned everything in fact only within the PKK. First of all we came to love the life and consequently our own lives and future gained importance. To be honest, there was no life to write about before the PKK. And when there is no life, what is there left to write about?"
We have made some photographs of the entries of the guerrillas diaries and how much they care for them. Here some of their handwritings and the emotions they expressed.