The 41st anniversary of the Guerrilla Offensive launched by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on August 15, 1984, in response to the fascist military coup of September 12, 1980, is being marked as the Kurdish Resurrection Revolution enters its 42nd year. Kurdish people and their allies are celebrating the 42nd Resurrection Day in all spheres of life. The outcomes of the historic August 15 Initiative, which have been widely debated for over four decades, are expected to become even more deeply embedded in society and more enduring this year.
With the results of the offensive now being intensely discussed, a calmer, more objective assessment, free from agitation can be made. Foremost among the points to consider is the transformation it triggered within Kurdish individuals and society. To fully understand this, it is essential to recall the conditions leading up to the initiative and the context in which it was carried out.
As the PKK initiated the Revolutionary Offensive of August 15, 1984, it was rooted in the ideas of Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan and the 1982 Diyarbakır (Amed) Prison Resistance. It is well known that the PKK was founded and developed under the leadership of President Öcalan, in direct opposition to the Turkish state’s policy and mentality of denying and eradicating the Kurdish people’s existence. The resistance launched by the August 15 Initiative was essentially aimed at asserting and securing recognition of Kurdish existence.
The first decision to resist with this goal was, in fact, taken in Diyarbakır Prison against the oppression of the September 12 junta. It bore the signature of the Great Death Fast Resistance of July 14, which had been preceded and prepared by Mazlum Doğan’s Newroz action and the May 17 self-immolation by the Four. The August 15 Guerrilla Offensive carried the PKK’s line and the legacy of the 1982 Great Prison Resistance, one of the most just and significant actions in history, into the mountains and to the guerrilla front.
The fact that the August 15 Initiative was embraced and celebrated with great enthusiasm by the Kurdish people from the very first day is just as significant as all of its other historical aspects. Let us consider this: if the Eruh (Siirt) and Şemdinli actions, carried out by guerrilla units under the command of Mahsum Korkmaz and Abdullah Ekinci, had not expressed the aspirations and longings of the Kurdish people, their youth, and their women, would they ever have been embraced in such a way?
Despite knowing this truth better than anyone, the Turkish state has always tried to portray the existence resistance sparked by this initiative as an “attack by foreign forces.” In reality, it was Kurdish youth who launched and sustained the initiative. The Kurdish peasantry, recognizing in this resistance the defense of its very existence and freedom against the denial and annihilation imposed upon it, embraced it with all its strength. Thus, the August 15 Initiative became a turning point for the Kurds; it put a stop to the extinction of Kurdish identity under colonialism and assimilation, initiating a new era of free Kurdish history through resistance. It revived a Kurdish identity that was meant to be destroyed, solidified the existence of the Kurdish people, and advanced their democratic nation-building. In doing so, it launched the Kurdish national revival revolution.
Under the colonial and genocidal domination of occupying powers, the Kurds regained everything they had lost on the basis of the forty-one-year August 15 Initiative. Kurdish consciousness, organization, and activism developed in this process. Kurdish identity was transformed from something degraded and avoided into a deeply valued source of pride. The Kurdish people regained their honor and dignity on the foundation of this resistance.
When the PKK was born and shaped in the mid-1970s with the dream of such a resistance, the people of Vietnam were carrying out the world’s longest armed struggle against colonialism. The historic resistance of the Vietnamese people, lasting nearly twenty years, had become a legend across the world and served as an inspiration for the PKK’s emergence. The Kurdish people, however, extended a similar resistance to forty-one years, doubling that record and became the people leading the longest armed freedom struggle in the world. The Kurdish resistance has inspired peoples and the oppressed across the globe, and Kurdish youth have joined their peers around the world with pride.
Undoubtedly, one of the most important and meaningful results of this forty-one-year resistance has been the Kurdish Women’s Freedom Revolution, which emerged on the stage of history with the slogan “Jin, Jiyan, Azadî” (“Woman, Life, Freedom”). The Kurdish woman experienced the awakening and revival of Kurdish society in the clearest and most tangible way. Under the framework of Jineology developed by President Öcalan, Kurdish women became conscious, rose to action, and, by advancing the social change and transformation on the path of free women, brought forth a new life in Kurdistan.
Undoubtedly, the entire spectrum of developments in Kurdistan has been represented by the Apoist Freedom Line, which has shaped itself on the foundation of forty-one years of resistance. The ecological and women’s liberationist democratic society paradigm developed by President Öcalan has broken through the Imralı isolation and torture system, spreading across the world to become a beacon of hope for the liberation of the oppressed. In this way, the Kurdish revival emerged like a shining star for the entire world, leading the struggle for the emancipation of all oppressed peoples.
In fact, the enlightening impact of the forty-one-year 15 August Offensive on Turkey has been just as significant as it has been for the Kurdish people. By tearing down the veils and shattering the lies cultivated since 1924, it has prompted deep moral and intellectual reckoning within Turkish individuals and society. Today, apart from a small handful of racist-chauvinists who are enemies of the Kurdish people, no one can deny the enlightening effect and legitimacy of the Diyarbakır Prison Resistance and the 15 August Offensive in Turkey. These resistances tore apart the darkness created by the 12 September 1980 fascist-military coup and ushered in an era of enlightenment for Turkey.
Everyone with a sound mind and genuine love for Turkey can now see where the forty-five-year-old 12 September regime has brought the country. Across Turkey, there is a collective desire to rid the nation of the constitution imposed by this regime, a constitution like a straitjacket forced onto the country. It was the 15 August Offensive that revealed this truth and determination. The regime that once even banned the Kurdish language and identity has lost nearly all defenders, even within Turkey. The legitimacy of the 15 August Offensive, which stood against the unparalleled oppression of the 12 September era in defense of humanity’s free and democratic existence, is now widely acknowledged.