Continue reading “PIK: Remembering 15th August 1984 as a landmark date in modern Kurdish history”
Peace in Kurdistan Statement on 41st Anniversary of Founding of Kurdistan Workers’ Party
Celebrating 27 November 1978
For the Kurdish people, today is the 41st anniversary of the founding of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). It was a landmark in Kurdish history because this was the first time there appeared a modern, secular movement for Kurdish freedom uniting the Kurdish workers in political struggle.
CELEBRATING 15 AUGUST 1984
PEACE IN KURDISTAN
Statement, 15 August 2019
For Kurdish people the 15 August is celebrated as the Day of Resurgence and Resistance. On 15 August 1984, Liberation Units of Kurdistan, led by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), with its guerrilla commander Mahsum Korkmaz, launched the armed struggle for freedom. This was six years after the founding of the PKK.
In the circumstances there was no option for the PKK but to resort to armed struggle if any manifestation of the Kurdish desire for identity and recognition was to be maintained and fulfilled. On 12 September 1980, the Turkish armed forces, led by General Kenan Evren, seized power in Turkey in a military coup. One of the chief aims of the coup was to crush the Kurdish movement. The constitution was suspended, parliament was abolished, all political parties and trade unions were banned and martial law was imposed throughout Turkey. Hundreds of thousands of people were tortured, thousands disappeared, up to 650,000 people were arrested, films were banned, journalists imprisoned and killed and newspapers prevented from publishing. Many death sentences were passed; the PKK had 122 death sentences passed against its members. The PKK withdrew some of its members from Turkey to Lebanon and Syria and began political and military preparations, which culminated in the 15 August actions. Kurdish resistance has gathered and spread since. Continue reading “CELEBRATING 15 AUGUST 1984”
Discussion with UK Delegation to Suruc, Turkey, on the Syrian border
The Kurdish Community Centre is hosting an afternoon of events this Saturday, starting with a discussion with Peace in Kurdistan Campaign’s recent delegates to the border region. All welcome!
Venue: Kurdish Community Centre, Fairfax Hall, 11 Portland Gardens, London N4 1HU
At 4:30pm on Saturday, 29th November 2014
Kobane is still under severe attack by ISIS. Over 50,000 people have been forced to flee Kobane as refugees to Suruc, in the Kurdish province of Urfa city of Turkey. Suruc sits just across the border from Kobane, separated by an arbitrary line that divides Kurdistan into four. Kobane refugees in Suruc have limited food and unsuitable shelter, and are patiently waiting for the end of this brutal war in order to go back to their homeland. Continue reading “Discussion with UK Delegation to Suruc, Turkey, on the Syrian border”