The statement was signed “Executive Committee Co-leadership” and said that the revolutionary spirit of Fidel Castro and his comrades will live on in humanity’s fight for democracy, freedom and socialism.

The KCK statement is as follows:

“We offer our condolences to the people of Cuba, to the progressive community and all revolutionaries in the wake of great revolutionary Fidel Castro losing his life. Fidel Castro who embodied the purest ideals and longings of humanity until his last breath will not be forgotten. His legacy will be carried by revolutionaries and the whole of humanity in the struggle for freedom, democracy and socialism. The Kurdish Freedom Movement will not forget the contributions Fidel Castro made to humanity’s struggle for freedom, democracy and socialism, and will carry his legacy and his aspirations in the Kurdish people’s and the peoples of Middle East’s struggle for freedom.

The Cuban Revolution led by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara has acted as a significant inspiration for the Kurdish Freedom Movement’s struggle. Their revolutionary spirit and their passion for freedom, them challenging tyrants, fascists, dictators and imperialists saying “death come wherever it may” has had important impact in shaping the PKK militancy. Them challenging the imperialist capitalist system as a small country has been a characteristic held as an example by the Kurdish Freedom Movement. Like them, the Kurdish Movement has also proved through practice that no obstacle can stand in the way of the passion for freedom and democracy, and has fought and reached victory, however big the enemy is, and however many obstacles there may be.

Fidel Castro and the people of Cuba have contributed so much to humanity’s history of freedom. In a period where imperialism and fascism ruled the world, the resistance of the Cuban people and the revolution they actualized gave strength to and accelerated the struggles for freedom and democracy for all peoples. And most of all, he has awakened the spirit of freedom for the South American peoples, and turned those lands into a land of revolutionary struggle where the struggle for freedom and democracy never wanes.

The lands he had most impact in after South America has been the Middle East. He has had an important impact in the development of the revolutionary movements in Turkey and Kurdistan. Fidel Castro and Che Guevara’s militancy and the characteristics of the Cuban Revolution has been a source of courage and morale for peoples under strict oppression. The internationalist spirit of the Cuban revolution has impacted Haki Karer’s and Kemal Pir’s joining the Freedom Movement in the internationalist spirit. As the Kurdish Freedom Movement and Leader Apo have never forgotten or shown disloyalty towards any person or movement that gave strength to the development of the struggle for freedom, we will have the same approach for Fidel Castro and the Cuban revolution and will carry on the legacy of this revolutionary and the values he created in our fight for freedom and our revolution.

The revolutionary spirit of Fidel Castro and his comrades will live on in humanity’s struggle for democracy, freedom and socialism and humanity will one day reach the world they yearned for.”