DHKC Statement, No: 460, March 5, 2016
A single flick of the people’s justice shook the fortress of oppression.
Two women Cephe (Front) fighters raked the brain of the riot police.
They were two innocent women.
Their innocence came from their righteousness and legitimacy!
On March 3, 2016, two women fighters of the Front launched an attack against the Riot Police Division of Bayrampasa, İstanbul with arms and grenades. Their purpose was to call them to account for Dilek Dogan and Yilmaz Ozturk.
The bourgeois media say that it was “an attack against the brain of the riot police in the middle of the city, in the middle of the day.”
They ask “Where does DHKP-C find this courage?”
The bourgeois media says “Weren’t they innocent?”
They say “Weren’t they demanding free education?”
Yes, they are innocent.
Their innocence comes from their legitimacy and righteousness.
Cigdem and Berna, they are two of the most innocent people in the world.
Yes, they demanded free education. You did not give it. You arrested them. You punished them with prison sentences that could take half of their lives. You expelled them from school.
It was not enough.
This state murdered Dilek Dogan in her family’s house, in a poor slum area of Istanbul and did not even arrest the murderer.
This state murdered Yilmaz, who was on the way to his house.
This state contemptuously demolished the houses of that neighbourhood without any approval, any documentation. The buildings were “illegal”. The biggest illegal building in the country, the Presidential Palace in Ankara, remains untouched but the state demolishes the people’s houses. No one bats an eye.
Berna and Cigdem equip themselves with their weapons and bombs. They shoot directly at the brain of the riot police in the middle of the day.
And they become terrorists, do they?
We discuss the essence, philosophy, purpose, methods and everything of terrorism with everybody.
But we doubt that the mindset that identifies revolutionary action with terrorism understood anything of philosophy, societies, science or history.
Historically, scientifically and politically, who is a terrorist now? Those who kill Dilek in her house and Yilmaz on the way to his house? Or is it Berna and Cigdem who took action to let everybody hear of this massacre and this injustice?
The murders of Dilek and Yilmaz are the massacres committed by the state. Come on, just say “You shall not kill”, just for once… But no, you cannot. And if their parents and comrades are tortured in the courts, dragged on the floor and if the authorities deny their entry into the courts, you would give 30 seconds in the media of the monopolists, that is all. Or… Not at all!
Learn the truth not from the liars but from those who go through it.
Report what happened, not the lies.
At least ask questions. What is the name of the organisation that murdered Dilek and Yilmaz? Its name is “The State”, isn’t it?
The organisation that is called THE STATE is the only organisation that attempts to disorganise the people with accusations of “terror” and “terrorist” and that wants to stand as the one single power.
People should be disorganised so that they can easily impose all pressures, bans and impositions.
If the state murders, the revolutionaries expose this massacre and bring it to account.
This is an inevitable sociological, historical and scientific outcome.
We know that revolutionism is the struggle for democracy.
For decades we are at the forefront of the struggle for rights and freedoms. We are paying the price of it. And we want democracy.
Of course, we want the democracy of the people.
Revolutionism imposes its legitimacy through its own means.
The streets, mountains and the cities of this country were turned into a lake of blood. Not satisfied with the streets and mountains, they turned the PRISONS INTO POOLS OF BLOOD.
You are taught to see the revolutionary actions as terror.
The definition of “terror” that you are using is made by imperialism.
Imperialists called the national and social liberation wars of the people “terrorism”.
They named the struggle against the barbaric capitalist system of exploitation, the revolts against injustice and the struggles against imperialist dependency “terrorism”. You are just parroting them.
If you are ADVOCATING this system, then it is okay. But if you say that it must be changed, then HOW?
How can this system of robbery and massacre change?
Those who know that this is a system of exploitation and mass murder, those who accept this reality have this problem. Those who say that this system should be exposed and changed must answer a second question… How? The answer to this question is “people’s war”. Armed and unarmed, legal and illegal. If there is oppression than there is resistance. Depending on which methods are needed in resistance, armed or unarmed, they must be used.
In this country, are the perpetrators of tortures and massacres punished or not?
This is the question!
The only terrorist that those who are on the side of the people and the righteous should be afraid of is the state.
We are obliged to resist.
Everybody is obliged to resist.
Those who do not resist are crushed.
Revolutionism and the revolutionaries, the struggle for rights and freedoms will ALWAYS be present in this country.
Democrats and revolutionaries, everybody should be sure about that and they should become a part of this belief.
We do and will do whatever is necessary for the sake of it.
If death is one single mouthful of justice, we know how to drink it.
Our history of revolutionary struggle is the history of your tortures, your historical and political injustice and defeat.
Our revolutionary actions and revolutionary violence are the history of your terror.
And we are not going to surrender to injustice. We are not going to hand over our demand for justice.
We are not going to wait for justice.
From which courts are the people supposed to expect justice, in a country where even the President says that he does not recognise the court decisions?
In this country justice is torn from the sun at the price of death. We will tear it off.
An invincible life is born from so many martyrs. We will deliver it.
The future is created with the tradition. We are creating it.
And it is a rule: Those who rise against the oppressors should be ready to lose their heads. We are and will be ready.
THIS ACTION FOUND ITS TARGET.
This is a strong action if two women are firing their weapons at the brain of the riot police in the middle of the day.
AN ACTION WHICH LEAVES THE ESTABLISHMENT UNTOUCHED is not a revolutionary action by itself even if it is armed, even if it created huge destruction with rocket launchers and bombs weighing hundreds of kilograms, leaving dozens of dead behind. Because it is not an action that aims to destroy the system of exploitation. Every single action that does not aim to destroy the system of exploitation is carried out in order to ACHIEVE RECONCILIATION. Neither the police nor the military can be eliminated by shooting alone. The following truth should never be forgotten: The quality and the power of an armed action is in its content.
No liberation can be won by reconciling with imperialism and oligarchy. The liberation lies in not being reconciled to the system.
We, the revolutionaries:
We are fighting against imperialism for independence,
Against fascism for democracy,
Against capitalism for socialism. We are defying death. And we die.
Neither the armed struggle alone, nor the other methods outside the armed struggle can organise the masses permanently.
War emerges as a result of realising many forms of legal-illegal, democratic, ideological and cultural struggle, small or large in scale, in large or small areas and regions, in all the places where there are masses of people, for all popular classes and sections in different forms and for a long period of time.
The main purpose of all kinds of work, lesser or greater, legal or illegal is to organise the masses for an armed war.
THIS ACTION FOUND ITS TARGET.
The Head of National Police in Istanbul asked for the people’s help. He asked the people to stand beside the police forces. When our two women fighters rack the brain of the riot police, the Governor of that city makes a call to the people “to stand by the police”. Because our action is right, because our action is legitimate. The Governor is desperate, the police forces are guilty.
The call of the Head of National Police was not enough. Heads of the Traffic Police made a call to turn off the flashing lights on police cars at night due to terrorist attacks. Because they knew that the children of the people were in ambush to bring them to account. They own streets and the avenues. They own the day and the night.
Two of the bombs did not explode during the action, but the other two when our fighters were under siege did detonate. We do not know why the first two did not explode: We did not manufacture them. But we created the tradition of fighting, resisting, being rightful and legitimate, bringing justice and bringing to account. We did it.
We do not have weapons. We are going to find them.
Nobody is parachuting weapons to us from cargo planes.
Nobody is constructing airfields and lending weapons to us.
And nobody can blind the eyes of history.
These are all lived realities.
OUR MARTYRS: BERNA and CIGDEM
Two comrades,
Two hearts.
Honour saluted them.
They teach about innocence.
They teach about resisting and fighting for justice.
They will become stones in our hands and the stars in our flags.
They buried death and they are next to us.
THEY ARE AS RIGHTFUL AS THE PEOPLE
And once again we say: IF THERE IS NO JUSTICE, THEN THERE ARE THE FIGHTERS OF JUSTICE.
We are paying the price of justice with our lives. The price of our belief is to die but to never turn back. We will not turn back.
We are either going to eliminate injustice or we will be eliminated.
The justice of the establishment depends on its own laws. But, what about these incidents, are they just? There is no answer in their laws. Is it just to kill the poor children of the people on their streets? You have weapons, they do not.
THE LIVES OF OUR PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN POOR NEIGHBOURHOODS ARE SPENT IN FUNERALS OR IN COURTS. BECAUSE YOU ALWAYS KILL THE CHILDREN OF THE PEOPLE.
THAT IS WHY:
We call revolutionism what you call crime.
And we are right to the death. That is why we will win.
In a country where the courts distribute injustice, the only justice is the PEOPLE’S JUSTICE.
THE TRADITION OF DEV GENC IS ALIVE WITH BERNA AND CIGDEM!
Dev Genc (Revolutionary Youth) is the history of struggle.
Dev Genc is a school. Dev Genc is our honour and our confidence for the future.
Oppression, torture and attacks cannot bow the members of Dev Genc into submission. They are the most honoured children of this people.
Hope is nourished in the hands of Dev Genc.
Dev Genc is the vanguard of the revolution.
From Berkin to Dilek… Dev Genc is going to bring justice to all its brothers and sisters whose blood is spilled.
The members of Dev Genc are the most honoured and noble veins of this homeland.
We are members of Dev Genc, we come from the lineage of those who did not surrender.
We are members of Dev Genc and we fight.
We are waging an academic and democratic struggle for a popular, free and scientific education.
We know that democratic universities and high schools are only possible in an INDEPENDENT TURKEY.
And we are at the forefront of the struggle for independence against imperialism and for democracy against fascism.
That is why every single member of Dev-Genc is a FIGHTER OF JUSTICE!
EVERY JUSTICE FIGHTER IS A MEMBER OF DEV GENC!
OUR TWO WOMEN JUSTICE FIGHTERS WERE MEMBERS OF DEV GENC:
Cigdem Yaksi;
Our warrior was born in Eskisehir in 1989. She was the daughter of a housewife and a construction worker. She enrolled in the Archaeology Department of the University of Anatolia but she was expelled because she could not afford the fee. She was arrested many times and imprisoned. She stayed in Sincan Prison for 7 months and in Bakirkoy Women’s Prison for 23 months.
Members of Dev Genc and the people of Armutlu knew her well. They were strengthened by her smiles, dynamism and sincerity but also by her outspokenness and militancy.
She went down in history with her picture in the funeral of Dilek Dogan who was murdered in her mother’s arms. The peoples of Turkey saw her near the coffin. She kept her promise to Dilek and Yilmaz, whom she knew when he was a kid. She asked for justice. She was martyred in a clash to bring justice as a fighter for justice.
In her autobiography she wrote for her Party, she said:
“The Movement is everything I have. All my ties with life are through the Movement. Like a heart… Like a person cannot survive with a stopped heart, I feel like I cannot survive without the Movement. That is why the Movement means life to me. Not only my life, but the lives of all the peoples living in Anatolia depend on the Movement. That is why I consider the Movement as our liberation, freedom and future.”
In another writing, she said, “Our Movement is going to make the revolution in this country. Because we are the only organisation that demonstrates the will, the determination and the persistence necessary.
“The Movement is my family. It is my closest friend when I get sad, happy or angry. The Movement is what leads me, paves my way, makes me bigger and creates a new Cigdem by developing me. I am the Movement!”
Berna Yilmaz;
She was a member of Dev Genc. She was born in Malatya in 1989, a daughter of a night watchman and a housewife. She spent her childhood and youth in Cyprus. She was at the forefront of the academic and democratic university struggle of the university youth in Ankara and Istanbul.
She was first taken into custody in 2007 together with another justice fighter, Bahtiyar Dogruyol during the campaign entitled “Our common enemy is the United States”.
Which means it was a crime to oppose the United States and to defend the brotherhood and sisterhood of the peoples, they were taken into custody.
The peoples of Turkey and the AKP government met this young girl after she audaciously opened a banner that said “We want free education and we will take it!” during the speech of Erdogan, an enemy of the people and a murderer.
She was only released as a result of a campaign that was launched thanks to her comrades’ resolute resistance and the people’s support. She continued her struggle. By maintaining her struggle, she showed that she would never give up her demands for free education even if she were arrested.
In her own words: “Those who feed upon the blood of our children, neither your day nor your face will smile. I swear, I am not going to let you laugh…” And she became a fighter of justice like her friends in the struggle Safak Yayla and Bahtiyar Dogruyol, in order to bring to account the enemies of the people who left our children hungry and who massacred them.
She brought justice for the murdered children of the people, for Berkin, Dilek and Yilmaz…
She fought and was martyred with the enthusiasm, determination and resoluteness of Dev Genc.
The leader of our movement says that “The heart of every Cepheli (Front supporter) is a poetry book ready to be published… Berna revealed her poetic heart with the poems that she wrote:
“What is life? A breath and it is over.”
Hamide Ozturk said so when she was dying
Arab girl,
What is life?
Life is bread,
Life is water,
Life is justice,
Life is the people,
Life is the homeland,
Life is everything that you struggle for.
And if your life is under siege from four directions,
You need to open a breath,
You need to clench your fist,
If your bread and justice is taken away from you.
You need to speed up your steps
If your people and homeland are crying out loud.
We are coming, adding new lives to the lives.
We are coming to be a new breath.
We are walking on the path of the Arab girl.
Contrary to the horde of parasites,
Who claim that “life is sacred”
We are multiplying with new Hamides.
Berna Yilmaz.
We respectfully bow before their memories. Now the accounts of Berna and Cigdem are added to the list.
We are making greater our demands for justice by adding their strength to ours and by adding their fury to ours.
New justice fighters are going to carry the banner of justice.
