Guerrillas from HPG (People's Defense Forces) and YJA-Star (Free Women's Troops) spoke to ANF about the meaning of today, 37th anniversary of founding of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party).

JİNDA BERİTAN: In the first place, I attribute this day to Kurdish people's leader Abdullah Öcalan, all the freedom fighters giving a struggle in the mountains and cities, and all internationalists. I mark this day as the revival feast of guerrillas. PKK is a movement of resistance and struggle standing for 37 years, and this is the reason why we are in the mountains now. To me, PKK means a seek, which is for freedom and honorable life, and for which we resist here. PKK is an internationalist movement and this is what influences me most.

HARUN MUNZUR: I wish a happy 37th anniversary to Leader Apo (Öcalan), Kurdish people and all the youths resisting in the streets of Cizre, Nusaybin and Silvan.

To make an evaluation of the Kurdish people's life before the PKK, the existence of Kurds in four parts of Kurdistan suffered a major delusion. The states of Iran, Syria, Turkey and Iraq were all after assimilating and exploiting Kurds. The history of Kurdistan witnessed rebellions against policies of denial but they were all suppressed very brutally.

However, the resistance sparked by PKK has today proved to be invincible despite all the attacks going on for 37 years. The founding of the PKK also enabled a recognition of the reality of women and their position in society. This has been achieved thanks to Leader Apo, martyrs and the PKK struggle.

BARAN HİNDES: The Kurdish people's will to live in their own land and with their own identity and culture has been made real thanks to the PKK struggle. Leader Apo has the greatest part in bringing the struggle up to this point today. He had a determining stance and role in this process. Today, at the 37th anniversary of PKK's foundation, Leader Apo's freedom is the greatest present we can give to him. As guerrillas, people and humans, we need to attain this freedom.

HİVA AZAD: I attribute the 37th anniversary of PKK's foundation to Leader Apo, Kurdish people and all humanity. PKK's fight has been a hope for the struggle of oppressed societies. The Iranian regime should know very well that the Kurdish people cannot be held in captivity anymore. Together with Leader Apo, they are all getting closer to freedom every day. The youths of East Kurdistan should also see this truth, join the ranks of PKK and step up the struggle. It is time we liberated our Leader and land.

SARYA BARAN: With the PKK, the Kurdish people have re-existed. PKK has played a very important role on Kurdish women and women's struggle. As Kurdish women, we consider PKK's foundation as a blessed birth and we owe these days to the martyrs of Kurdistan.

AGİT: What the North Kurdistan territory went through after the founding of Turkish Republic was inhumane executions aiming to intimidate the people. The revolutionary movements in Turkey gave hope to the peoples of Kurdistan, but couldn't manage to answer them precisely. The founding of PKK movement during that very period raised hopes among the peoples of Kurdistan and the Middle East.

ZOZAN ÇERKEZ: PKK is a movement that arose to reclaim the land, destiny, rights and mother-tongue of the Kurdish people. Yet, PKK never restricted itself with these missions and it became a movement seeking to surpass itself.

PKK has also undertaken the duty of attaining people's right to self-determination, in which the leftist forces of Turkey have failed. As is always said, PKK is a movement of revenge, but this revenge is not a bloody but an ideological one.

HÜSEYİN KÜRECİK: PKK's existence has led up to significant changes throughout the world after its emergence into a Kurdistan territory dominated by colonialism, occupation, denial of the Kurdish identity and existence of the Kurds. PKK arose in an atmosphere dominated by the identity of ruling nations in four parts of Kurdistan. This situation has changed after PKK's formation.