From the outset, the Turkish Republic was founded on the denial, assimilation, and extermination of the Kurdish people. Tens of thousands of Kurds were murdered with poison gas in Dersim in 1938, and countless children were resettled and forcibly assimilated. The uprisings of Şêx Seîd, Agirî, and Koçgiri were also drowned in blood. After that, a deathly silence reigned in Turkish-occupied northern Kurdistan for a long time. By the middle of the 20th century, the colonial powers were certain that Kurdistan would never rise again.
However, in the early 1970s, a group of young people led by Abdullah Öcalan entered the stage of history and revived the Kurdish people’s hope for freedom. On November 27, 1978, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) was founded in the village of Fis near Lice. Due to attacks by fascists and large landowners, the founding members already had experience in armed self-defense. On May 18, 1977, members of the group resorted to armed struggle for the first time to avenge the murder of Haki Karer, one of the group’s leading cadres. Armed struggle became an indispensable method in anti-fascist actions against the fascists, large landowners, and the colonial state that emerged between 1978 and 1980 in the districts of Hilvan and Siverek in Urfa.
In order to transform the armed resistance into a professional guerrilla war and a liberation army, PKK cadres and militants went to the Palestine-Lebanon region in the summer of 1979, where they received ideological, military, and political training under the leadership of Abdullah Öcalan. Kemal Pir, who had taken over the military leadership of the movement, returned to Northern Kurdistan after his guerrilla training. However, he was captured by the Turkish state in the fall of 1980. His arrest and the military coup of September 12, 1980, in Turkey led to a delay in the start of the actual armed struggle.
New phase begins with second party congress
During this period, PKK cadres and fighters in Lebanon continued their ideological, political, and military training. After the second PKK congress in the summer of 1982, the groups that were to take up armed struggle set out in September to settle in prepared camps on the borders of South and East Kurdistan (Iraq and Iran).
However, the “return to the country” proved to be very difficult and arduous. On November 24, 1982, on their way back to Kurdistan, eight fighters from the group led by Şahin Kılavuz died in the Hêzil River. The other guerrilla groups reached their positions after a difficult journey at the end of 1982, and in early 1983, camps were set up on the steep cliffs on both sides of the Zap.
Mehmet Karasungur murdered
In April 1983, the PKK field command met in Lolan to discuss the organization of military and social resistance against the coup regime of September 12. The most important question was: How, when, and where should the armed struggle begin? The plan was to set up a preparatory unit in the area stretching to the borderline of Zagros, Botan, and Serhat. The unit began its work in the vast area. According to the guerrilla command, the priority was to establish a front stretching from Şırnak via Eruh, Baykan, Kozluk to Sason.
At that time, as the days were being counted down to the start of the guerrilla war and the guerrillas were making their preparations with very limited resources and under difficult conditions, the PKK was shaken by another tragic event. Mehmet Karasungur, a member of the PKK Central Committee and the Central Military Committee, was killed along with his comrade Ibrahim Bilgin in a camp of the Communist Party of Iraq in Qandil, where he had gone to meet with organizations from South Kurdistan. This event further delayed the start of the armed struggle, which had been planned for the summer of 1983.
Foundation of the HRK
The Central Committee elected by the 2nd PKK Congress in early 1984 was transformed into a “Central Preparatory Committee” for one year. It held its second meeting in Damascus. At this meeting, attended by Abdullah Öcalan and seven members of the Central Committee, it was decided to expand the struggle for freedom and to take up guerrilla warfare as soon as possible.
In April of the same year, a large gathering was organized in the Çiyayê Reş area of Zap, attended by around 150 PKK cadres. At this conference, where the results of the Central Committee meeting were announced, it was decided to prepare for armed struggle in Uludere and Çukurca, and tasks were assigned accordingly. However, the efforts made in Çukurca were insufficient. Abdullah Öcalan then shared a draft plan for further action.
Based on the perspective outlined by Abdullah Öcalan, six members of the PKK Central Committee met in the Xinêre area from June 16 to 18, 1984. At this meeting, it was decided to establish the Kurdistan Liberation Forces (Hêzên Rizgariya Kurdistan, HRK) to organize the guerrilla struggle. The decisions of the six leading cadres of the PKK, who were in the mountains of Kurdistan at the time, were communicated to the expanded group of cadres in the Şikefta Birîndara area in mid-July.
At this historic meeting in Şikefta Birîndara, the founding declaration of the HRK was prepared, and the locations and dates of the actions were determined. According to this, the guerrillas were to march into Eruh, Şemdinli and Çatak simultaneously on August 15, 1984: The armed propaganda unit under the command of Mahsum Korkmaz (Egîd) in Eruh and the unit under the command of Abdullah Ekinci (Gözlüklü Ali) in Şemdinli. A guerrilla unit under the command of Egîd was to complete the unfinished action in Çatak one year later, on the anniversary of the prison uprising of July 14, 1982.
Action in Eruh makes history
In mid-July 1984, guerrilla groups set out for the regions of Northern Kurdistan. The most difficult task fell to the group in Eruh. Egîd, the group’s commander, described the difficulties in his report as follows: “We couldn’t find a single person in the city center from whom we could obtain information. Many of the villages are deeply alienated from our struggle.” In addition, Egîd had serious problems walking long distances due to congenital difficulties. In his diaries, which were later published, Egîd described this situation in a single sentence: “The pain in my knee prevents me from walking.” He hid these complaints from many of his companions. Historians later compared Egîd’s disability during mountain hikes to Che Guevara’s asthma.
Egîd practiced with the guerrilla group on a model of Eruh and carried out the final reconnaissance before the attack on August 13. Even hours before the operation, many in the group did not know exactly where they would strike. At dawn on August 15, the group reached the designated point. At dawn, the region was still shrouded in deep silence. As dawn broke, Egîd pointed to the target, which looked like a dot in the distance. The whole group observed the town with binoculars. Eruh was three kilometers away.
Everything for the operation had been calculated down to the smallest detail, and even a “Plan B” had been prepared. If the plan failed, the members of the group would try to reach a meeting point at the foot of Çirav Mountain. Those who arrived there would wait for their companions for no more than an hour and a half before retreating to their bases. During the operation, which involved four militiamen and 25 fighters, Egîd distributed the tasks as follows:
Attack unit: Erdal, Selim, Şiyar, Fikret, Musa, Haydar, Azad, Ferhan
Rocket launcher unit: Haşim, Baran, Keleş (militia)
Defense group: Kazım, Ibrahim (militia)
Command: Egîd and Serdar (Degtyaryov)
The group that storms the casern and the commander’s quarters in the barracks courtyard: Bedran, Bijî, Kerim
Propaganda group in the mosque: Tevfik, Ömer Şoreş
Poster and recruitment unit: Botan, Cengo, Bozan
Unit for blocking the road from Eruh to Siirt: Hacı, Xalil, Salih
Unit for blocking the road from Eruh to Şırnak: Ali, Cuma, Halil (militiamen)
At dusk on August 15, 1984, the group set off at around 7:30 p.m. At around 9 p.m., they reached Eruh and quickly split into three units. A few minutes later, the first shot rang out, fired at the guard post of the gendarmerie station. A rocket struck the upper floor of the barracks, and a few minutes later, the two-story military building fell into the hands of the group. The soldiers panicked. Meanwhile, the “main attack column” stormed the officers’ mess.
While the founding of the HRK was announced over the mosque loudspeakers, guerrilla fighters controlled the city and destroyed symbols of the Turkish state. The post office and bank buildings were destroyed, and the commander’s vehicle was set on fire.
The guerrilla group left Eruh around midnight with a truckload of confiscated material. At a bridge on the outskirts of the city, everything was loaded onto mules, and on August 18, the guerrilla unit safely returned to its base.
The action in Şemdinli under the command of Gözlüklü Ali
At the same time as the action in Eruh, the guerrillas also marched into Şemdinli. Unlike in Eruh, there were violent clashes with the Turkish army in Şemdinli. Here, guerrilla fighters under the command of Gözlüklü Ali attacked police stations and military barracks. The Turkish army suffered heavy losses. Despite the fierce fighting, the founding of the HRK was also announced on leaflets in Şemdinli.
In an interview with the Yeni Özgür Politika newspaper in 2018, Duran Kalkan, a member of the PKK’s executive committee, explained the differences between the actions in Eruh and Şemdinli as follows: “The action in Şemdinli was in no way inferior to the action in Eruh. In practice, the actions were very similar. The focus on Eruh is partly due to the command of the unit that carried out the action. Comrade Egîd, who led the action in Eruh, fell on March 28, 1986, during a battle in Gabar. This and his further activities led to a focus on the action in Eruh. The commander of the action in Şemdinli, Comrade Gözlüklü Ali (Abdullah Ekinci), also continued to fight courageously in the following period. He was commander of a guerrilla unit that fought in Hakkari in 1984 and advanced to Garzan in 1985, carrying out numerous actions.
In the same interview, Duran Kalkan explains that Gözlüklü Ali’s suicide, against the backdrop of forces seeking to liquidate the movement, caused the Şemdinli action to recede somewhat into the background. Kalkan says of Gözlüklü Ali: “He was a very sensitive and emotional person. He couldn’t withstand the discussions and disputes aimed at dissolving the movement.”
An awakening that gave rise to a guerrilla army
The PKK’s breakthrough on August 15 triggered an earthquake in Ankara. Although the Turkish state tried to cover up the actions in Eruh and Şemdinli, they made headlines around the world from the very first moment. The BBC, Voice of America, and Iranian radio were the first organizations to report the news of August 15. The European media reported: “They adopted the strategy and tactics of South American guerrillas,” “The Turkish press is not allowed to report on this,” “The surprise attacks could be the work of PKK fighters known as Apoists,” “Their intention is to establish an independent socialist state with Diyarbakir as its capital,” and “They choose mountainous areas that are ideal for guerrilla warfare.”
It was not until August 18, 1984, that August 15 reached the Turkish media. While the newspaper Milliyet published a short article on its inside pages with the headline “Separatists attacked two gendarmerie posts and an officers’ mess,” Hürriyet censored the events of August 15 with the headline “Terrorists who carried out an attack in Eruh and Şemdinli are being sought.” In the days that followed, the Turkish media attempted to regain the initiative lost on August 15 with headlines such as “The soldiers are breathing down their necks,” “The attackers are surrounded,” and “The gendarmerie are on the prowl in Eruh.”
While these reports appeared in the Turkish media as if they had been centrally coordinated, the head of the military junta, Kenan Evren, announced: “Terrorists who dare to take up arms against the state must be apprehended immediately and handed over to the iron fist of Turkish justice.” Evren set a deadline of 72 hours and said: “The looters will learn their lesson.” The coup general believed that the “29th Kurdish uprising in the history of the republic” would meet the same end as the 28 before it.
However, the bullets fired on August 15 led to an awakening throughout Kurdistan. Within a few years, this awakening gave rise to a guerrilla army made up of men and women from almost all towns and villages, denominations, and religious communities.
The 72 hours that Kenan Evren predicted the guerrilla movement would last have now turned into 40 years. As the American philosopher Dale Carnegie said, “Most of the world’s achievements have been made by people who have kept on looking hard for success even when it seemed there was none.” In 1984, one of the darkest years in the history of Kurdistan, a group of freedom fighters lit a fire of hope and success where there seemed to be no hope.
Source: ANF News
