The KCK (Kurdistan Communities Union) Committee for Peoples and Beliefs released a statement expressing its conviction that this year’s Eid al-Adha will help to further spread this understanding and rapprochement among the people.

The KCK statement released on Sunday includes the following:

“All holy days in Muslim society are welcomed as days of peace, solidarity, and sharing. At the same time, these holy days represent a culture of resistance against today’s oppressors, hypocrites, colonizers, usurpers who do not recognize will, and those who disregard rights and laws. As the Kurdish freedom movement, we are convinced that this year’s Eid al-Adha will help to further spread this understanding and rapprochement among our people.

As has happened many times in history, the Muslim people and the Kurdish people are celebrating this holy festival at a time when they are facing widespread attacks. Kurds are an Islamic community that, for centuries, has been subjected to practices contrary to the principles and morals of democratic Islam and the brotherhood of the Ummah. The Turkish state’s approach to the Kurdish people has been as hostile in the past as it is today. They have shown the greatest hostility by voicing Islamic values and abusing them for their own interests. The struggle for Kurds becomes a religious obligation. It is necessary to act with the awareness that faith, courage, and unity have always made the people’s struggle against cruel colonization successful.

The Kurdish people and real Muslim circles should bring forward the solidarity of the peoples in the face of the attacks of the genocidal colonialist Turkish state and should fight against the colonialist, usurper mentality. It is a just and legitimate right to take all kinds of actions against the Turkish state, which denies the Kurds, does not recognize their will, and sees them as a weak society that it can exploit. What Muhammad’s Islam obliges Kurdish Muslims to do is increase the struggle against the hypocrites’ and oppressors’ usurpation of their will, unlawfulness, isolation, and torture. It is to wage the strongest democratic struggle without fear against the mentality that does not recognize their will, against Turkish colonialism, and without stopping until they obtain their rights. In fact, today, worship without a struggle against isolation and torture, trusteeship, plunder, and extortion cannot be considered sacred. It is the most natural right of societies to live on their own lands with their own identities, languages, and cultures and to govern themselves. But the Turkish state is taking this away from Kurdish society. Usurping the rights of the Kurds, not recognizing their will, and treating them as a colony is a denial of Islam.

The Kurds, whose leader is kept under severe conditions of isolation and torture, whose will is usurped, whose rights are denied, and who are being colonized, must carry out the struggle to defend themselves, to obtain their rights, and to claim their will as if they were worshipping. Let us not forget that the Eid al-Adha was the result of the victory of the Abrahamic tradition against oppressors such as Nimrod and Pharaoh, who had taken themselves for gods. The issue that Kurds should think about the most on this holy day should be how to respond to this sacred tradition of struggle today and how to be worthy of it. In this sense, as Kurdish people, we say that there is no worship as sacred as protecting our will by resisting the Turkish state in every way. We would like to remind once again that it is the duty of Muslims before anyone else to take this holy day as an occasion for such a struggle.

In this sense, Muslims who believe in the line of Muhammad should act with the knowledge that no worship will have a sacred meaning unless they struggle against the will usurper of the ruling Islam, the trustee mentality of Turkish colonialism. Muslims in Turkey should know that their struggle against the AKP-MHP colonialist mentality, the trustee policies, and the will of usurpation will be as rewarding as worship. The success of this struggle depends on the unity of Muslim peoples, especially Middle Eastern Muslims, in terms of equality, rights, and justice. In this sense, we call on all Muslims who respect and adhere to the democratic values of Islam to take part in the common struggle.

Dear Muslims of Kurdistan,

We would like to remind the Kurdish people of the importance of visiting the martyrs’ cemeteries, as well as of the significance of visiting the sick, the elderly, and the needy, especially the families of martyrs and the families of prisoners. We call on the Kurdish people to put aside resentments as a matter of patriotic morality and consciousness, religious obligation, and to increase unity and solidarity by increasing internal peace. Considering the actions of the cruel Turkish state, we would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that these days, more than ever, everyone should take part in the common front of struggle in solidarity, unity, love, and respect.

We would like to remind our people who want to donate that they should offer their support through democratic patriotic organizations so that their aid reaches the people of Kurdistan in need. We also call on Kurdish Imams and Seydas to perform all religious obligations, including worship, in Kurdish, no matter how much oppression they may face for it, and we call on all Kurds and conscientious Muslims of Turkish and other peoples not to go to mosques where Diyanet sermons are read. We remind that this would be a Mohammedan attitude, and we want to underline that denying the Kurds and usurping their will is the denial of one of the signs of Allah.

As the Kurdish freedom movement, with these feelings and thoughts, we once again celebrate this holy day of the Muslim peoples, especially the Muslims of Kurdistan. We call on everyone to fight against the tyrannical, will-denying, trustee usurping, denialist, colonialist and genocidal Turkish state in a common front. We once again commemorate all our martyrs who gave their lives for the cause of morality, conscience and freedom of humanity. We also celebrate this holy day of our martyr families.”