The Kurdish guerrillas
Marcus, Aliza
Beritan was a seventeen-year-old Kurdish girl with a wide grin and a big gun. It wasn't the gun that worried me so much as the grenades—two strapped to a cartridge belt around her waist. I...
...They worried that I wasn't eating much, and gave up their blankets so I would be warm at night...
...Didn't they ever think of marriage, children, sex, their families...
...Stalinists with guns, I realized, make me nervous, no matter how cute some of them look...
...I was in the mountains of southeast Turkey to find out...
...When I asked her whether she missed her family, she gave me what was becoming a regular history lesson—past and future...
...Trembling, in fact...
...Comforting words, except that the sounds of a Turkish bombing raid from somewhere in the distance were reverberating between the narrow walls of the valley...
...In any case, sex was forbidden between guerrillas...
...Without the fight there is nothing...
...Afraid, why should I be afraid...
...For light reading, they had books in Turkish by Russian writers, including Dostoyevski, Gorky, Tolstoy and Turgenev...
...She was a little vague about the specifics...
...He is so brave...
...Ask your leaders why they have killed our people...
...All of us dream of meeting him," said Ronahi...
...We will all share and no one will be oppressed...
...He and I had a long discussion about the PKK's ideological heroes...
...All around me were armed guerrillas from the Kurdistan Workers party (PKK), the separatist group battling the Turkish army for control of the largely Kurdish southeast...
...government did not support the PKK...
...Capitalism is bad," she explained, when I asked about the group's ideology...
...a Kurdish villager miles away later asked me...
...I was soon turned over to Ronahi (the Kurdish word for intellectual), the university dropout who was to be my guide during my stay...
...Under the charge of "separatist propaganda," Turkey has prosecuted authors of books on Kurdish history, journalists who write about the Kurds, and almost anyone who dares speak up...
...By all accounts (except Ankara's), the PKK has emerged as the dominant fighting force of the Kurds, who have long chafed under Turkey's policy of forced assimilation...
...It didn't seem like a good time to ask him about PKK killings of "collaborators," a wide category that has included the wives and children of Kurds who are in the government-funded anti-PKK militia, schoolteachers, municipal workers, and outspoken dissenters...
...Religion might be an opiate of the masses, but it could be a useful drug if its leaders promoted Kurdish nationalism...
...All political paths are closed and we have no choice but to fight...
...Their only regret was that new recruits were no longer being trained at the camp near Ocalan's base...
...Many of the guerrillas were no older than high school students—boys and girls toting AK-47s, knives, pistols, and those grenades...
...Socialism is our target, we will never give it up...
...What with the bombing and the grenades and the rhetoric, I was relieved finally to leave after three days...
...You don't know the history, you only know the propaganda...
...SPRING • 1994 • 181...
...I sighed appreciatively with the rest of the women, who began pulling out their own photos of Apo...
...The gathering depressed me...
...I knew that in a few months, many of these guerrillas would probably be dead, either from a poorly treated wound, the upcoming bitter cold, or a Turkish bullet...
...In some cities, 178 • DISSENT Politics Abroad pockmarked buildings and shattered glass mark the soldiers' random shootings...
...Much blood wilt have to flow before we get what we want," he told me...
...scoffed Melsa, a fifteen-year-old whose name stood for the ideological saints of the PKK: Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Apo...
...I was particularly interested in the role of Stalin...
...I was afraid...
...Four of the seventeen activist Kurdish deputies in parliament may be charged with treason for statements they have made calling for greater Kurdish freedom...
...The PKK's Leninist rhetoric may be absurd, its methods often brutal, but its struggle has invigorated a long-oppressed Kurdish identity and made this a fight that Ankara will not win by force alone...
...Isn't he handsome...
...Don't worry," said Beritan, who looked quite sweet in baggy green military wear...
...Kurds who speak out against this turn up dead...
...It was evening, and it was time for a swearing-allegiance-to Politics Abroad the-cause ceremony...
...It all seemed very clear-cut—to her, at least—and I asked how the guerrillas learned of these upcoming events...
...The U.S...
...There is only one thing, revolution...
...I tried again...
...We were beaten then, but we will not be beaten now," she said...
...Melsa knew her history as well as she did her rhetoric, and she reeled off the dates of Kurdish rebellions—harshly put down—in the early years of the Turkish republic...
...Abdullah Oclan, the Syrian-based leader of the PKK, has started referring to a federative solution—rather than outright independence—for the Kurds in Turkey...
...Her parents and friends disagreed, but she left nonetheless, trading in trendy clothes and a busy social life for fatigues and a gun...
...And what about all those people who died in the process...
...Maybe if the big nations—your country, for example—realize we are serious, they will help us...
...It was my second day in the camp and I was eager to leave, but the bombing wouldn't stop...
...The guerrillas were amused by my fear...
...Socialism means everything for the people...
...He takes such an interest in all of us...
...The camp was apparently well stocked with teaching materials: many guerrillas carried tracts written by the PKK's leader—dense paperbacks about the low position of women under capitalism, the inhumanity of capitalism, the poverty generated by capitalism, and the necessity of revolution...
...There would be "free elections," but of course everyone would vote for the PKK— "because we will free the people from capitalism, and they will want socialism...
...Although restrictions on the use of the Kurdish language were eased in 1991, it remains essentially illegal to use Kurdish on television or radio, and in schools...
...All I know is that the PKK is fighting for our rights...
...I had visions of an accidental explosion, and I kept inching away each time she plopped down next to me for a chat...
...Perhaps if you were to change your ideology, you know, give up the Leninism, you might get a better reception in the West," I suggested...
...I am not afraid to die," said twenty-one-year-old Ronahi, a former IN THE CUDI MOUNTAINS, TURKEY university student...
...Beritan was a seventeen-year-old Kurdish girl with a wide grin and a big gun...
...If I die, at least I die knowing I have fought for my people...
...The men and woman were separated, and platoons of about six people each had their own spots of dirt for sleeping, eating, and the nightly self-criticism sessions...
...What does that mean...
...The Turkish republic refuses to accept Kurdish identity and nationalism...
...said Ronahi, "He reads everything...
...So was marriage...
...Lately, the PKK has been using the language of democracy...
...If we die, at least we die knowing that we have given our lives for the struggle for Kurdish freedom...
...Ronahi apparently had a perfect day, because she spent the whole time talking to me...
...He wanted to know why the U.S...
...Were they ever afraid...
...It oppresses women, and keeps people poor...
...I kept scanning the area for places to hide...
...Our enemies have split us into four parts [Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria—Ens.], and the PKK brought us back together," said Ronahi...
...She was plump, cheerful, and very patient...
...The commander was not so sweet...
...Death lurks just over the mountains...
...But there really wasn't anywhere else to go...
...When it first took up arms, it called for "socialist" revolution and a united Kurdistan spanning the Kurdish regions in Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran...
...She was studying philosophy in the university when she met the PKK...
...Another briefly mentioned that she missed her family...
...What did their families think...
...Can you imagine...
...The PKK is the people and the people are the PKK," is a common refrain in the region...
...Stalin fought against imperialism and supported national rights," the commander said...
...And there I was, with them...
...The girls carried little pocket mirrors, and each morning they had urged me to comb my hair and wash my face, holding up the mirrors so I could see myself...
...Soon, she learned exactly what Ankara had hoped assimilated Kurds would forever forget: "That I am a Kurd, that I have a language, and that Turkey is trying to wipe out my identity...
...And that was before I got off the horse...
...No...
...First the Turkish army would be driven out of the region...
...We haven't lost anyone yet from this camp...
...For many Kurds in the downtrodden southeast— where the economy is in tatters and social services are minimal—the PKK is seen as the only force standing up for the Kurds...
...The PKK's approach to Islam also changed...
...Guerrillas were running here and there, trying to find out what was being bombed and whether we were going to be the next target...
...This past year, the PKK lobbed bombs at tourist resorts on Turkey's western coast and attacked Turkish businesses and missions in Europe...
...All other paths have been closed to us...
...Then, when the PKK had control, the guerrillas would set up a "Marxist-Leninist state...
...A cave on one side of the valley looked good, but a group of rocks was a lot closer...
...In the southeast, the state is the military, and the military wields its power harshly and indiscriminately...
...Only in socialism is there freedom...
...Human rights officials think the military is behind many of the killings...
...Welcome to the Marxist-Leninist PKK, a ten-thousand-strong guerrilla group waging a war for control of southeast Turkey, home to about half of the country's estimated twelve to fifteen million Kurds...
...Ronahi's platoon was examining its faults, and we joined the other women around a fire...
...Even if they throw all of us out of the southeast, we will take up arms in the West...
...She tried to explain the basics of the PKK's SPRING • 1994 • 179 Politics Abroad "revolution...
...They were so young, and so sweet, really...
...The Kurds are tired of being killed and oppressed by Turkey...
...The women looked very serious and stared at the ground...
...But I wanted to talk about their lives...
...The PKK's battle is not the first Kurds have waged since the founding of the Turkish republic in 1923, but it is certainly the strongest...
...Sure, he made some mistakes, but so have all political leaders...
...Since fighting broke out in 1984, more than 10,500 people have been killed, and the war has now spread beyond the confines of the southeast...
...One recounted her fears during an assault on a Turkish military post...
...Here they were, in this isolated camp...
...We are very well trained...
...He looked at me with very faint amusement...
...asked a seventeen-year-old 180 • DISSENT girl, pulling out a photo of the leader that she carried right next to a picture of her brother's wedding...
...The sun had set and the air was quiet...
...Apo may be brave, but these girls were not so bad themselves...
...It was the daily political training, she explained, which was held between lessons on how to shoot a gun and attack the Turkish military...
...If Turkey does not put a stop to human rights abuses by the military against Kurdish civilians in southeast Turkey and lift restrictions on Kurdish political and cultural rights, guns are going to be grasped by a lot more Kurds...
...The commander was an imposing man with a droopy mustache, a fierce look, and a rather direct approach...
...PKK statements from front organizations in Europe and the United States call for full democratic and human rights in Turkey...
...They could be fighting for years...
...There is only one thing, revolution against imperialism and for a socialist Kurdish state...
...Ronahi and I wandered through the camp, a rocky valley half-hidden by shrubby trees and overhanging rocks...
...First we will liberate this part of Kurdistan, then we will fight for the other parts...
...With our blood and souls, we are with you Apo," shouted the guerrillas...
...It is the will of our people that we fight...
...Socialism...
...Once a month, she said, the camp would gather for a group-wide confession...
...Ronahi came from an assimilated middleclass Kurdish family in Bursa, a pleasant city in western Turkey better known for being the first capital of the Ottoman Empire than for revolutionary fervor...
...Although the PKK's message of Marxist-Leninist revolution may not have spread much out of the mountains, its message of Kurdish freedom has...
...It's no surprise that many Kurds think this way...
...The only way out of the camp—a three-hour hike over seemingly unmarked paths—was closed for now...
...Abdullah Ocalan—or "Apo," as he is called—was a favorite topic of conversation, especially among the female guerrillas...
...But if the reasons why so many Kurds support the PKK are clear, what the PKK hopes to accomplish is somewhat more difficult to discern...
...Turkish soldiers were sweeping the area, looking for the guerrillas...
...I sat on a rock and watched some twenty-five men and women— the youngest was thirteen years old—march in place and swing their guns...
...They leave us no choice but to fight...
...It isn't our pleasure to kill people, but it is because of their pressure...
...I arrived in the PKK camp following a long, bumpy trek on horseback, guided by two gum-chewing guerrillas who met me in a pro-PKK village...
...It is you who must change...
...The Turkish government might do well to be a little nervous itself...
...So what do the guerrillas really want...
...It wasn't the gun that worried me so much as the grenades—two strapped to a cartridge belt around her waist...
...In the process, she also learned that a Marxist-Leninist struggle was a necessary part of the nationalist fight...
...The statements were written up and sent to PKK leader Ocalan...
...As years passed, "socialism" was de-emphasized and the talk was of freedom for Kurds in Turkey...
...Over five hundred Kurdish activists have been mysteriously murdered in the past two years...
...Since 1991, the army has forcibly evacuated over 730 villages in the region— usually by threatening to burn down houses if their inhabitants do not leave...
...is an imperialist country which is trying to crush movements for freedom...
...Questions about children were superfluous...
...This is a people's war...
...After all, we are fighting for our rights...
...Although I am not privy to Washington's internal decisionmaking processes, I knew enough to point out that the United States does not have a history of aiding Marxist-Leninist organizations...
Vol. 41 • April 1994 • No. 2
