The Co-Presidency of the KCK Executive Council released a statement paying tribute to the martyrs who fell in the month of May.

The KCK statement on Saturday reads as follows:

“May is a month in which important figures of both the Kurdish freedom struggle and the socialist movement in Turkey have given their lives. It is a month of martyrs. Many great revolutionaries gave their lives this month, including Haki Karer, who was the first to join the people’s leader, Abdullah Öcalan, and who is the first martyr of the Kurdish struggle for freedom, and also the great pioneer Halil Çavgun, who emerged from within the people, and then again the comrades Ferhat Kurtay, Necmi Öner, Eşref Anyık, and Mahmut Zengin, who set their bodies on fire as an act of resistance against the oppression in the prison of Amed. By mentioning them, we commemorate all the martyrs of the month of May and all the martyrs of the revolution and struggle for democracy with great respect and gratitude. We bow respectfully in front of the precious legacy that they created.

Recently the martyrdom of comrades Ali Haydar Kaytan (Fuat) and Rıza Altun was publicly announced. They were also, like comrade Haki Karer, among the first to set out alongside people’s leader Abdullah Öcalan. The fact that their martyrdom was announced in May makes this year’s commemoration of all the martyrs even more meaningful. The widespread and massive commemoration of comrades Fuat and Rıza by our people in the four parts of Kurdistan and abroad is extremely meaningful and valuable.

As mentioned above, May is also a month in which important leading cadres from the socialist movement in Turkey were martyred. There are, for example, Deniz Gezmiş, Hüseyin İnan, and Yusuf Arslan, who were executed by the fascist junta, and İbrahim Kaypakkaya, who was murdered under torture. These valuable comrades, who pioneered the socialist movement in Turkey, also pioneered and fought for the common struggle and coexistence of the Turkish and Kurdish people. People’s leader Abdullah Öcalan assessed this attitude of theirs as very valuable and continued and further expanded it in the struggle he developed himself.

It is the martyrs that pioneer and pave the way for our struggle; it is they who created everything this movement is standing for. Based on this reality, it is necessary to elaborate the reality of the martyrs more deeply, to embrace their legacy more strongly, and to make more efforts to develop the struggle for freedom and democratic society on this basis. For this purpose, everyone should unite around the martyrs and, on this basis, take responsibility for the memory of the martyrs in a stronger way. It is the martyrs who represent our struggle, and they are immortal.”