I watched the light fade and you walk away. I was angry that the distance was getting longer. I thought you were leaving me. And yet you were smiling. You were always smiling. Then I realized that I’m the one left behind. And you were smiling. Your eyes were full of colors and flowers bloomed in your outstretched hands. Now there’s no more light. “Let them believe that darkness has won” you whispered to me. As much as I am afraid, I envy you that you are now free. We have won…
It is now that the prison wires become a noose around your neck and choke you. It is when every tear that flows, a tear of rage and pride, foreshadows the storms to come. It is the brutality of the hellholes that deprives you even of the right to mourn the loss of your comrades. It is that even words sound with difficulty, for words are poor to describe the immortality of resistance.
On October 30th, revolutionaries Harika Kızılkaya, Burak Ağarmış, Özkan Güzel and Erdoğan Çakır were murdered at the Greek-Turkish border by the uniformed AKP fascists. The four comrades, who honoured their status of revolutionary-communists to the end, fell fighting for the peoples’ justice and the struggle against fascism and imperialism.
Having had the honour of sharing common moments of resistance with comrades Harika and Burak, if there is one thing I remember, it is that every meeting, every common step in the struggle, every gesture full of ethics, consistency and determination was full of smiles that, without any regret, were tearing down the prison. Today, when death harvests like a frontier trying to divide us, whoever carries within themselves the revolutionary duty of the need for resistance, carries within themselves each one of them. In this society of dead spectators, the physical death of our comrades is the pathway to immortality.
We honour the loss of those who dedicated their lives to the struggle against fascism and imperialism, building the anti-imperialist urban warfare in the centres of capital.
With a smile and a raised fist we shout Harika Kızılkaya, Burak Ağarmış, Özkan Güzel and Erdoğan Çakır, IMMORTAL!
Thanos Hatziangelou,
captured member of the Anarchist Action Organization
Third Ward, Larissa Prison
3/11/2023
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Translator’s note: The militants from Turkey, Harika Kızılkaya, Burak Agarmış, Özkan Güzel and Erdoğan Çakır were Kurdish political refugees expelled by the Erdogan regime. Harika and Burak became known from the trial of the 11 Turkish fighters, after they were initially convicted by the Greek judiciary in the first instance for membership of a terrorist organisation, until they were acquitted by the Court of Appeal, a decision which was eventually overturned by the Deputy Prosecutor of the Supreme Court, Achilleas Zisis.
As reported by the Popular Front, the militants were killed on the banks of the Evros River in Turkish territory, with the circumstances of their killing unclear. It is also reported that three days after the murder, their bodies have not been returned to their families. (info sourced and translated from HERE)
The Turkish state have reported that the comrades had entered Turkish-state territories near the Evros border of Greek-state territories with the intention of carrying out a martyrdom mission. According to the Turkish state there was a confrontation with Turkish soldiers at the Evros border that resulted in all four comrades being executed. They also claimed that the comrades were in possession of “vests containing bombs ready for detonation, each weighing 12 kilograms”. Greek state officials have said that there is no supporting evidence for this report.
Note from Abolition Media: In January of 2023, Abolition Media published a report about the liberation of the 11 revolutionaries from Turkey. After being arrested in 2020 and accused of membership in the DHKP-C, active in armed resistance to Erdogan in Turkey, they were initially sentenced to 333 years in prison before being released during the appeal trial in Athens.
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source: https://athens.indymedia.org/post/1627427/
translated by Nae Midion for Abolition Media.