Martyrs have always held a special and distinct place within the Kurdish Freedom Movement. The history of the Kurdish Freedom Movement includes thousands of martyrs. Those martyrs, who played a major role in bringing the resistance against genocidal attacks on the Kurdish people to the present day, serve the public and the organizers of the resistance with lessons through their stories. Some left their poor villages, some left their spouses, some gave up promising positions within the system and chose the struggle in the midst of a hard life. One of them was Karker Masiro.
The story of martyr Karker Masiro
Karker Masiro joined the guerrillas during the period of self-rule resistance in 2005 and fell as a martyr in Mardin (Mêrdîn) in 2019.
In a statement commemorating Karker Masiro (Halil Erdem), the HPG said: “Heval Karker, whose sincerity and love of freedom were reflected in his smile, became a true revolutionary militant. He based himself on training himself 24 hours a day and succeeded in carrying out all the duties incumbent upon him without fail.”
Gurbet Taş, Karker Masiro’s sister, spoke to ANF about her brother’s dream and said that “he could not accept the oppression in our homeland.”
Gurbet Taş said that they are from the village of Selhê in the Midyat district of Mardin. She recalled: “Heval Karker was brave. He was very hardworking. During the trench times, he could not accept it; he said, ‘I do not accept the oppression over our homeland.’ He went and took part in the self-rule trenches. He stayed there with them until his last day. Afterward, he joined up and did not want to return. After being with them for six years, he fell as a martyr in the village of Stevrê in Ömerli.”
We cannot speak our language
Taş said they wanted peace and added: “Our people paid a high price, and we paid as well. We want peace. We want to speak our language. We also want, whatever exists in this country for them, that we have the same. First they say ‘peace, peace.’ Then, not even two days later, they do things as if they don’t want peace. We all want peace. Look at the hardships we endure. When we go somewhere, they do not allow us to speak our own language. We are forced to speak Turkish. We don’t really know how to speak Turkish well. That is hard for us. We have been here for 20 years. If there were jobs or opportunities in our homeland, we would return.”
We want peace and be able to speak Kurdish
Rejecting the commission’s intolerance toward Kurdish, Gurbet Taş said: “We will not give up our language. Everything we did was for our language. No matter what, we will not abandon our language. They did not allow the mothers of peace to speak their own languages, and we were very saddened by that. What can I say? How can I say it? We will not give up our language; we want the government to release the prisoners in jail. To free our leader Öcalan. To free Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ. We want peace and be able to freely speak our language.”
