One of the key figures who has shaped the recent history of the Kurdish political struggle, Eyşe Efendi carries the collective memory both as a politician and as a mother. The anniversary of 27 November, the founding date of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), represents a historic turning point for Kurdish politics.
On this occasion, ANF conducted an extensive interview with Eyşe Efendi, a member of the Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan Initiative Committee in Syria.
Throughout the interview, Eyşe Efendi spoke with remarkable clarity about the political climate of the 1970s, assimilation policies, the rise of women’s political consciousness, the role of the people in the founding of the PKK and her reflections on the future.
Eyşe Efendi expressed her feelings about the anniversary of the PKK’s founding with the following words: “We congratulate the founding anniversary of the PKK, the Apoist Movement, first and foremost to the architect of freedom, Abdullah Öcalan, and to all Kurdish people. When the Apoist Movement began, the people were in a process of annihilation. Especially in Damascus, Hama and other scattered regions, the Kurdish people were slowly being driven toward death. Because in the past century, they divided Kurdistan into four parts and handed each part over to the enemy, saying, ‘You are free to eliminate this people.’
Eyşe Efendi also said: “For this reason, in every part of Kurdistan, the Kurdish people were fragmented through assimilation in language, identity, existence and thought. Some emigrated, some were wiped out, some dissolved into Arab culture, and some lost their language. The people were fragmented politically, spiritually and economically. They could not protect their own security. Existing political parties had dissolved within the system.
But after Abdullah Öcalan arrived under the name of the PKK, since the 1970s the people were reborn, like a dead body coming back to life. Still, because of security fears, the people could not openly reveal the existence of what they called the ‘Vejîn Movement’, meaning the PKK. They were pressured by the state, by tribes and by agents. Yet there was a hidden truth within the people: they longed for a renewal of mind and spirit.
Since the existing parties were dissolved within the system, they could not do anything for the people. It was the people themselves who built the Apoist Movement, which has resisted for fifty years. The movement depended on the people, economically, spiritually and in terms of education.”
1970s Syria and the Kurdish community
Eyşe Efendi described the assimilation policies enforced in Syria during that period and the situation faced by the Kurdish population: “The Apoist Movement, which became known through the PKK, was kept very secret within society. The state system monitored the people covertly and frightened them. There were no massive waves of migration, but assimilation policies were heavily imposed. A profound sense of fear had been instilled among the Kurdish people regarding their security. The Arab population was also afraid, but the fear felt by Kurds was much deeper, because the Kurdish people had nothing. The Arab community had its language, its schools and its teachers, but we had nothing. Only a great fear. And it was against this reality that the Apoist Movement emerged.”
Women’s clandestine organising and early activities
Eyşe Efendi also recounted how women carried out underground organising in the 1980s, the conditions of secrecy and the social pressures they faced: “I became familiar with the Apoist Movement in the 1980s. In Kobanê, we held community meetings and collected weekly or monthly contributions. Because the state system still dominated that period, all of our work had to be conducted in secrecy. Women, in particular, had to hide even more carefully. The movement had no vehicles of its own; to travel from one subdistrict to another, we used the cars of our friends and comrades. We supported one another.
The co-chair system did not yet exist. The work was carried out mostly by women. At first there were mainly older women involved, but over time young women began to enter society more freely and take part in the work. When a guerrilla action or activity took place somewhere, a recording would be made; we would listen to these recordings together with the people during community meetings. When a statement was issued, we organised meetings around that statement. For Newroz, badges would arrive and we would distribute them.”
We created existence out of nothingness
Eyşe Efendi described the Kurdish community’s spiritual and political renewal in the following words: “In many of our conversations we say, ‘We created existence out of nothingness,’ and this is the truth. For centuries, there has been a truth you carry inside yourself, a longing. This prepares your spirit and consciousness for patriotism, for the land, for your commitment to Öcalan. The presence of the Leader, seeing him, strengthened this bond.
Thousands of people saw Öcalan here; there were meetings that lasted two or three hours, almost like lessons. We can say that the people who were able to stand on their own feet never forgot their consciousness, their loyalty, their centuries-old hopes and dreams, their lost history, the dark destiny that was imposed on them, the revolutionary spirit people followed, their stance against betrayal, and the oppressed patriotic soul within them. People had studied this history; the Apoist revolution of rebirth was able to stand on this foundation.
When Martyr Bêrîtan threw herself off the cliff, she broke the cycle of betrayal and surrender, and shattered the betrayal within us. After various revolutions, some loyalists tied themselves to Russia, some to Iran, some to the United States. But our loyalty, whether spiritual, economic or military, was to our people. Perhaps for the first time in Kurdish history, our memory and our belief were anchored in our children, our people and Öcalan.”
She continued: “The vengeance for what happened in Diyarbakır (Amed) Prison, in Newala Qesaba, in Halabja, during the Anfal campaign, in all the uprisings and across the four parts of Kurdistan was taken in Kobanê. This is a difficult truth, but a truth nonetheless. The history of Kurdishness taught by Abdullah Öcalan, the dark destiny and the hope of peoples are being learned. For this reason, everyone who had been detached from truth and deprived of belief was reborn with this consciousness.”