PKK: Our struggle will continuously grow by making every day Newroz

The PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) Central Committee has published a statement on the occasion of the Newroz festival on March 21.

The statement released by the PKK Central Committee on Monday includes the following:

“As the freedom movement of Kurdistan and the Kurdish people, we are facing a new Newroz festival. Newroz is our festival of unity, resistance and freedom. It is one of the oldest freedom festivals of humanity. With the departure of Rêber Apo [Abdullah Öcalan] and the PKK, the Newroz festivals have become even more beautiful, meaningful and true to their original essence. Just as nature opens its flowers in spring, we also renew ourselves at every Newroz festival; we are filled with the spirit and consciousness of unity, resistance and freedom.

“We will make every day Newroz”

As one people and one movement, we celebrate Newroz with our friends with this intensity and with these feelings and thoughts. In this spirit, we welcome the new Newroz year. There will be enthusiastic Newroz celebrations in all parts of Kurdistan and around the world. Wherever there are patriotic Kurds, Newroz will be celebrated. We believe that the feeling of celebration will continue throughout the year and our struggle for freedom and democracy will continuously grow by making every day Newroz. In this sense, we congratulate Rêber Apo, all our party comrades, our patriotic people and our revolutionary-democratic friends on Newroz and wish them the greatest success in the new year. We salute the freedom struggle that was initiated at Imrali and continues for the physical freedom of Rêber Apo in the mountains, the cities and the dungeons. We remember our Newroz martyrs Mazlum Doğan and Zekiye Alkan and all our brave martyrs with respect, love and gratitude. We call on our people and our friends to celebrate every day of this year in resistance as if it were Newroz.

“Beginning of the Apoist March to Freedom”

Newroz 2022, as we know, marks the beginning of the fiftieth year of the awakening and march to freedom initiated with the beginning of the founding process of the PKK. The Apoist awakening began at Newroz 1973. The group of Apoists, which formed the historical origin of the PKK, was founded at Newroz 1973 at a meeting in the area of Çubuk Dam near Ankara. Thus, the Apoist Freedom Movement brought forth a light of resistance in the darkness of the fascist military coup of March 12, 1971. This Apoist march of truth is now entering its fiftieth year. Newroz thus also stands for the reality of Apoism. The PKK was born as a Newroz party and has developed on this basis. Under the vanguard of Rêber Apo and the PKK, the Kurdish people have become a Newroz people with a freedom struggle that has been waged for 49 years. It is the first time in the history of Kurdistan that a freedom movement and party has managed to fight for fifty years without interruption and accumulate historical successes.

“We will achieve the goals of the martyrs”

On this basis, we welcome the fiftieth year of the awakening of the Apoist movement and the birth of the freedom movement. We congratulate the Kurdish people, women and youth for succeeding in creating a reality of leadership and a party that are tirelessly going into the fiftieth year of struggle under incredibly difficult conditions. We commemorate the heroic martyrs of this freedom march with respect and gratitude and honor the martyrs in the person of comrades Haki Karer, Mazlum Doğan, Hayri Durmuş, Kemal Pir, Sakine Cansız, Mehmet Karasungur, Agît, Berîtan and Zîlan. We repeat here again our promise to achieve their goals.

“Rêber Apo has liberated us from the backward system”

The one who has worked the hardest for this half-century-long, infinitely significant march for freedom is undoubtedly Rêber Apo. He started this great struggle, carried the heaviest burden and accomplished the most difficult tasks. He is the one who liberated us as fighters, party and people from a backward genocidal system and opened the way for us to live freely. He has made this path to freedom an irreversible process and has continued to enlighten it. Therefore, from the bottom of our hearts, we can express our respect, love and appreciation to him for these great works and dedication. It is necessary to deeply understand the truth of Rêber Apo and to apply it with success. We know this and declare that in the fiftieth year of the struggle, we will act accordingly every moment.

“The martyrs created our perseverance and determination to succeed”

Our brave martyrs carried the freedom march of Rêber Apo for the past half century. They were the ones who made the struggle irreversible and are the guarantors of victory. Along with Rêber Apo, it was these martyrs from whom we learned and who organized, united and guided us. The martyrs created our perseverance and determination to succeed. Without them, we would not be able to take a single step. We as a movement and a people have become what we are today in the footsteps of the martyrs. Therefore, it is important to understand the reality of the martyrs and to bring it successfully and together with the Apoist reality into our practice. We will always remember our martyrs with respect and gratitude. Our Freedom March in the fiftieth year will be on this line.  

“Thanks to all who contributed to the freedom march”

Our most important resistance is undoubtedly that of our brave guerrillas who fight sacrificially on the front lines. The Kurdish women, youth and people have received their courage from the guerrillas’ sacrifice and created a fifty-year march to freedom. All the oppressed peoples, especially the peoples of Turkey, the Palestinian and Arab, Armenian and Syriac peoples, the oppressed classes and the democratic humanity provided valuable support and contributions on this momentous path. On this occasion, we greet all those who contributed to this freedom march with respect and love.”