Devrimci Halk Kurtulus Cephesi
Date: May 20, 2003| Statement: 302
There is no end of fighters who are prepared to sacrifice themselves!
The Senguls will continue on their path!
We cannot be counted with the finger of a hand.
Killing us does not put an end to us.
Our comrade had not yet reached her target. A technical failure prevented her from reaching her target. But nonetheless those who were quite aware they are “in the target zone” were shaken by this explosion. A cloud of fear has passed over them…
But has it really passed? The only answer we will give to that is that actions like this have become indispensable and necessary.
The sacrificial fighter Sengul Akkurt fell on the morning of May 20 in Ankara’s Kizilay district as a result of an explosion while she was preparing for a sacrificial action.
The sacrificial fighter Sengul Akkurt was on the way to demand a reckoning for the policy of annihilation and repression through (prison) isolation practiced by America and its collaborators and for our 106 martyrs.
The American Empire and its collaborators want Turkey to be a country in which all of America’s demands are carried out on the spot and our entire wealth is confiscated by the American monopolies. The American Empire wants to make Turkey into one of its states. With massacres and their F-Type prisons, Europe and its collaborators tried to turn Turkey into a country in which nobody struggles for his or her national honour, independence, rights and freedoms.
Heroes are standing up to them. Those of us like Fidan and Ahmet Ibili opposed them on December 19 (note: date in 2000 when the Turkish state killed large numbers of political prisoners). Those like Gultekin, Gulsuman, Nail, Sevgi and Ugur opposed them… Our corpses have become mountains and our coffins are barring their way…
Dozens of times we said: “Solve the problem.” We said, end prison isolation. With every subsequent death we shouted that out more loudly.
And just as our heroes know how to die they also know how to demand a reckoning.
Those who do not offer a solution must know that will be confronted by dozens, even hundreds of people like Sengul.
The fact that this action did not hit the target in the practical sense changes nothing. Those like Sengul will continue on their path. The sacrificial units are inexhaustible and this country will produce hundreds of them.
Prison isolation must be lifted. Those who do not do so are responsible for any violence that occurs.
We will continue to give martyrs and demand a reckoning, the responsibility does not lie with us.
HEED THE LAST WORDS OF SENGUL!
Listen to Sengul; she appeals to the conscience of those who have a conscience, she appeals to the mind of those who have a mind and to the intelligence of those who have intelligence:
Our fighter Sengul Akkurt left a message behind for all political forces before she used her action to speak her final words. In these lines our comrade said everything there is to say:
“Up to the present, all those who said ‘don’t die’, ‘don’t carry out armed actions’, ‘conduct a democratic struggle’ have been silent.
They have remained silent and have done nothing. The government has continued to kill.
We were silent… silent for a long time….We continued our resistance struggle for a long time simply by putting our own lives on the line…
Our enemies interpreted our silence as weakness and lack of strength. Those who have no moral and political values left did not want to comprehend our silence while we were risking our lives. But with this attitude they forced us to answer force with force. They thought that our silence would go on in the same way that the government continued its massacres while they continued to shut their eyes to them. We were not the ones who preferred to use violence against violence. It was the AKP (note: Justice and Development Party, “moderate Islamists”) government that chose to do that, with the behaviour it has maintained up to now… For these reasons we are now exercising our right to take revenge. We will meet violence with violence. We are not the ones who preferred this route, it is the collaborationist AKP government, and they will be the ones who have to bear the consequences flowing from that.
To demand a reckoning for our 106 comrades who have been murdered… to abolish prison isolation… to put an end to repression and oppression… I will sacrifice my life and demand a reckoning from the murderous government.
I will sacrifice my life for my country and people so that others may live.
And while sacrificing my life, I will also take life…
Those who think our silence was because we were exhausted or had deviated from our aims should not fool themselves. For we did not in fact fall silent. Those who thought we had did not heed the words we uttered with our deaths.
Those who can die for their beliefs are also ready to kill for them.
The government and the system forces did not comprehend the form of action preferred inside and outside the prisons by the Death Fast fighters, “in which they harmed nobody but themselves”.
Just as they could not comprehend this, and while the oligarchy (which rules Turkey) classified even these actions as “terrorism”, there were also “left-wing” circles who heedlessly called these actions “violent”. But right at the start we said: however heavy the attack may be, we will not give up our beliefs, thoughts and ideals. Even if the F-Type prisons become a cemetery for all prisoners and the American occupiers are right on our borders, we will not give up. Those who think we have simply chosen to “die” should not forget that there are quite different forms of death.
The sacrificial actions are a form of “death” that the peoples have developed in the face of this violence. Sacrificial actions are an action of peoples seeking to live and give life to others.
This war is directed against America and its collaborators. It is so, because America and its collaborators are forcing hunger, exploitation and dependence on the peoples and leaving them no other paths of resistance and struggle, then it is war – in which people both die and kill.
This war is directed at those who talk of “bringing democracy”, while killing and exploiting the people.
This is a war for independence, democracy and socialism.
Those who ignore this “agenda” are also ignoring the struggle for independence and democracy. There are also those who reject the slogan of independence and who spread the deceit that democracy is being introduced by the USA and the European Union.
We cannot accept collaboration with America. We cannot accept being a colony.
The number of our martyrs has risen to 107, but we will not give up even if America becomes really aggressive and the collaborationist government (in Turkey) becomes even more ruthless than it was before.
In such a period, the mission of the revolutionaries and patriots is a clear one.
We will continue the same mission we have had for 33 years. The F-Type prisons are America’s policy of annihilation. We will not accept them. We will not allow hopes and thoughts of independence in this country to be extinguished. We will use all forms of resistance. Everybody should know that.
Together with our comrades on the Death Fast in the F-Type prisons, we will demand a reckoning from America and its collaborators and continue this struggle with our sacrificial fighters and our revolutionary fighters in all areas of life.
NOBODY SHOULD LOOK IN THE WRONG PLACE TO FIND THOSE WHO ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE VIOLENCE!
THOSE LIKE SENGUL ARE PUTTING FORWARD THE MOST BASIC, MOST HUMAN DEMANDS OF THE PEOPLES WHO LIVE IN HUNGER AND OPPRESSION!
THOSE WHO ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR VIOLENCE ARE THE ONES WHO LEAVE THOSE SEEKING BREAD AND JUSTICE NO ALTERNATIVE THAN TO WAGE A STRUGGLE!
As soon as a bomb goes off, the terrorism chorus starts up , followed by the chorus of conspiracy theorists who sing their old songs. But the truth is much more clear and simple. The reasons for violence and the struggle are so clear that they constitute a secret for nobody.
When the sacrificial fighter Sengul Akkurt attached bombs to her body, her reasons were clear and comprehensible; you can see this in how she described her career in the movement:
“For me, the movement means… that nobody has to die of hunger at the doors of hospitals or in the queues formed by pensioners. For me the movement means that all mothers can obtain milk for their infants, that the need to queue for soup kitchens comes to an end, that the children are not exploited through labour, but are able to play and to eat ice cream, meat, eggs and cheese, and nobody has to hunt in rubbish bins for bread, nobody has to shiver with cold in the winter nights, and there are no children addicted to paint thinner and glue-sniffing. It means for me that unemployment comes to an end and our young girls are not being sold; and the newspapers are not filled every day with items about murder, suicide, crime, robbery and perversity. It means that when we go out into the streets we can see people who are lively and have a sparkle in their eye, enjoy life and have confidence in themselves, as opposed to pale, hopeless, helpless, tired, sick and weak people whose glances are expressionless and filled with fear. The movement measn hope. It is the longing for bread, justice, equality, freedom and a free country.
In short, the movement means the future.
Everything is so obvious.
When she was attaching the bombs to her body she thought of nothing other than ending the tyranny of prison isolation.
It is governments that are responsible for violence. They are the ones who commit massacres and use isolation.
Those who say that violence is wrong should come up with a solution. Struggle in the ways that you claim exist that are not “violent” and not the “Death Fast”.
Those who do not do that also have no right to criticise. Those who do not do that have turned their own politics into a continuation of prison isolation and support for destruction.
If those who ignore the resistance and the F-Type problem say “it is not on their agenda” do not use methods of struggle of their own, then it means that they are in agreement with the state’s violence. It means that they agree with the destruction of revolutionaries and revolutionary beliefs.
PEOPLE LIKE SENGUL ARE SAPLINGS PRODUCED BY THE SOIL OF ANATOLIA WHICH WILL NEVER BE EXHAUSTED!
Our comrade Sengul Akkurt was born in Malatya on May 18, 1977. She had just turned 26 at the time of her martyrdom.
Her home area was Adiyaman. She came from Ovi Sipi village (the village name was changed to the Turkish form Aksu) (note: Ovi Sipi is a non-Turkish, probably Kurdish place-name).
She went to Gazi high school in Malatya. Even in those years she was part of the struggle. She was part of the Revolutionary High School Youth. Then she worked for the revolutionary press in Malatya. Later she worked in the head office of the newspaper Kurtulus (Liberation) in Istanbul. She took part in the struggle and organisation of the people in the Istanbul shantytown called Nurtepe. She was frequently arrested, tortured and imprisoned, both in Malatya and Istanbul. She was given an arbitrary sentence by the oligarchy’s courts and put on the “wanted” list. After that she continued the revolutionary struggle in the underground organisation.
She always lived by working, including when she was in middle school and high school. She worked in the fields, in the tobacco industry, picked apricots and worked in restaurants and shops. She showed proletarian patience with the difficulties and deprivations arising from living illegally. Not once did she complain about this life; on the contrary, she took on her tasks with enthusiasm and resolve.
She took on her main duty after the prison massacre of December 19, 2000. For Sengul and those like her, this period had the following significance:
“All feelings assumed their true significance in this period, after December 19, that is, a sense of ties, love for one’s comrades, missing the martyrs, pain, joy, hope, belief, anger, love for humanity. For me, the period after December 19 meant demanding a reckoning for everything. While I thought of completing that demand I longed for that day. Now I believe that I can much better understand the weightiness and greatness of the role that we must play in the future of our land and the world.”
She understood that very well. So she did not hesitate in wanting to be a sacrificial fighter. She had waited for this moment without hesitating even once.
When the moment came she headed towards the enemy with the same resolve. An obstacle prevented her from reaching her target but she carried out her task. Through her, the whole world saw once again the resolve that Sengul and those like her show in going towards their targets.
The resistance to the isolation and destruction policy of America and its collaborators will go on. It will continue.
Up to now, massacres, repression, threats, isolation and censorship and been unsuccessful in the face of the willpower of the resistance, and they are doomed to remain unsuccessful.
Once again we make a call and issue a warning: Put an end to prison isolation!
As long as you do not, you will be responsible for all the consequences that arise from these policies.
Devrimci Halk Kurtulus Cephesi
(Revolutionary People’s Liberation Front)
2003.05.20
