Sakine Cansız (Sara), one of the leading and founding cadre of the PKK, Fidan Doğan (Rojbîn), the KNK Paris Representative, and Leyla Şaylemez (Ronahî), a member of the European Kurdish Youth Movement, were murdered in Paris, on January 9, 2013. Sakine Cansız, one of the three revolutionary women, was born in 1958 in Dêrsim, which is known for the 1938 massacre and is the land of the Besês and Zarifes who armed themselves and threw themselves from the cliffs in order not to be captured by the male-dominated system. Cansız, whose search began in her youth, became interested in the revolutionary youth struggle after the military coup of March 12, 1971. Cansız, who was among the leading cadres of the PKK, which was influential on the student youth in Xarpêt, actively carried out a youth organization until 1978. Cansız continued her struggle with organizational activities in surrounding cities, especially Dêrsim and Çewlîg.

 

Cansız, who attended the 1st Congress where the establishment of the PKK was held on November 27, 1978, was arrested with a group of friends in Xarpêt in 1979. Cansız, who was held in Diyarbakır Prison where torture was intensified during the September 12, 1980 Military Coup, became a symbol with her resistance in prison, despite the torture she suffered. Despite all the torture and pressure, Cansız fought against torturers in Xarpêt, Meletî, Amed, Çanakkale and Bursa prisons. Cansız continued her struggle more actively after she was released from prison in 1991. Cansız, who also stayed in Palestine and Syria, attended the conferences and congresses of the PKK and the Kurdish Women's Movement. Cansız, who played a leading role in the organization of the Kurdish Women's Movement, worked in many areas in Europe before she was murdered on January 9, 2013.

 

Gönül Kaya, who met Sakine Cansız in 1998 and became friends with her for many years, talked about her comrade Sakine Cansız. Kaya said: "She was a woman in love with freedom."

 

Stating that her first met with Cansız at a meeting in 1998, Kaya stated that she was excited to meet a name that was a pioneer in the Kurdish women's resistance. Regarding her first encounter with Cansız, Kaya said: “Friend Sakine was also excited to meet us. Meeting new friends and getting to know them gave her great happiness and excitement. This was evident from her speech, her conversation with us, and the way she listened with great attention to our answers to the questions she asked. From the moment we first met, I saw Sakine's love and care for her all comrades, her effort to share the struggle with them and overcome difficulties together. Her energy, enthusiasm and happiness never ended. In the conversations and discussions she had with people, both she and those around her were experiencing all the emotions to the fullest." 

 

'SHE TAUGHT TO GO OUTSIDE THE DEFINED LIFE'

 

Stating that Cansız is a legend in Kurdistan, Kaya said: “Legends generally express a reality that is 'in the past, experienced and over' but Sakine changed this reality 'as a living legend'. She proved that every woman is a legend-maker in her own life. She managed to show this by always making herself lively, targeted, with great emotions, thoughtfulness and action. She showed that the people who became legendary were the people who created themselves through great fights. She showed us, with her own fight, quest, and revolutionism, the courage to go beyond the boundaries drawn around us and the determined lives, and to seize a time with countless possibilities.” 

 

'SHE WAS IN LOVE WITH FREEDOM'

 

Referring to the modest aspect of Cansız, Kaya stated that it is possible to see the beauty of woman companionship and friendship in Cansız. Kaya said: "She was one of the first woman founders of the Kurdish Freedom Movement, and had her name written in the history of the struggle with her resistance. Her place was different from everyone else, but she never made us feel it. While a friend was telling us how great a resister she was in a conversation, I looked at friend Sakine. Her face quickly turned red. These complimentary words embarrassed her. She lowered her eyes slightly, smiled and said, 'No, let's not exaggerate, the real resisters are the oppressed, the Kemals.' She explained at length how we should approach the resistance. She established a bond of heart and thought with everyone, She left her mark. Her sincere smile, her speaking by looking into the eyes of the other person, her openness when discussing problems, her sincerity in being self-critical as well as being critical, and her love of working very much attracted my attention. I never heard her complain about the difficulties or impossibilities she experienced. She would criticize inadequacies but never complain. This has a connection with freedom. This was one of the most striking aspects of Sakine. She was a woman in love with freedom and the struggle to create a free human being." 

 

Stating that one of the main conclusions she drew from her life and struggle experience with Cansız was the importance she gave to women's self-education and awareness, Kaya added: “Friend Sakine showed the best example of this in Diyarbakır Dungeon. On the one hand, she showed a great resistance, and on the other hand, she defeated her enemy at this point by establishing an organized life with the women prisoners in the dungeon. Therefore, the women's ability to perfect herself from the political field to the field of self-defense, from the ideological field to the cultural field, from economy to diplomacy, from the press to the scientific and technical field, to ensure her physical strength and aesthetics, and to create her own system, not the one created by the system, expresses the reality of her personality.”

 

SHE DID NOT MAKE THE 'I RESISTED, I BECAME FREE’ MISTAKE

 

Kaya stated that Cansız never made the mistake of saying, “I resisted, I became free." Stating that continuity and insistence in the struggle are her basic character, Kaya said: “A woman who truly wants to experience freedom must be conscious, organized and combative. She should love her country, land, history and culture very much. Her stance, style, gait and address must be aesthetically beautiful in accordance with the moral values and principles of freedom. Women must break away from all the standards imposed by the patriarchal-capitalist system in these areas and sign a new life contract with the principles and values of freedom. The women stance, style and understanding that Sakine friend created in people are based on these principles. No man can approach such a women casually, easily or disrespectfully. A free society formed by women together would never allow this." 

 

'SAKINE'S FIGHT'

 

Stating that Cansız's book "My Life Was Always a Fight" expresses the resistance and revolutionary stance against the "force, violence and war" line that has been imposed on women and all the oppressed for 5 thousand years, Kaya said: "Sakine's friend's 'quarrelsomeness' is also based on this 5 thousand-year line of resistance. Comrade Sakine is not only at war with the colonialism that occupies Kurdistan, but also with the colonial personalities created in the Kurdish society. In Sakine friend's belligerence, we see the conflict between the style of fighting that makes women and Kurds lose and the style of fighting that makes them win. On the one hand, it is an emotional-reactive belligerence, on the other hand Sakine friend's life describes reaching a quarrelsomeness that combines emotion and intellectual power, enables emotions to turn into a power of political transformation, does not flare up quickly and fades out quickly, and activates the mind and conscience together... This fight is so strong in Sakine friend that even though she experiences a lot of pain, she says, 'This is my life,' and this creates liberation in her. She says, 'Without this fight, I cannot live.' That's why our friend Sakine is the pioneer of our determination to live, struggle and freedom, she is our monument of beauty, she is our role model." Kaya explains not only Cansız's own individual history; She said that as a woman, a Kurd, an Alevi and a revolutionary, she is a person who represents the history of all women, oppressed peoples and resisting revolutionaries.

 

Reminding that Sakine Cansız grew up in the reality of Dersim, where genocide was imposed, Kaya said: “The Kurds were subjected to a red massacre in their own land with the cruelest military expeditions of the 20th century, and then their memories were erased with a white massacre, their tongues were mutilated, and their souls were dried up. It was engraved in our minds as if there had been no resistance, and as if the Graces and Besê had never existed. The 1st Dersim genocide had achieved results. Or so they thought... At this point, we encounter friend Sakine. It represents the resurrection of a history and society thought to have been lost. It means not forgetting and not letting others forget. She is the proof, friend Sakine, that the massacres against Kurds and other peoples have no results." 

 

‘SHE WAS THE NAME OF ENLIGHTENING WOMEN'S HISTORY'

 

Stating that Sakine Cansız's resistance, stance and combativeness had a decisive impact on the lives of Kurdish women, Kaya said: "She showed us what we should do, how we should live, how we should fight. Çiçek Selcans, Azime Demirtaş, Rahime Kahramanlar, Hanım Yaverkayalar, who made history in the Kurdish freedom struggle. We learned from our friend Sakine how we should be followers of Sultan Yavuz and Bese Anush. She encouraged us and gave us great courage to revolution, sociality, politics, ideological struggle, and creating a philosophical and artistic life." 

 

'THE MASSACRE WAS CARRIED OUT AGAINST THE WOMEN'S LINEAR STANCE'

 

Reminding that the January 9 massacre in Paris took place at a historical turning point, Kaya said: “One of the targets in the murder of Sakine, Fidan and Leyla was the women's commitment to Abdullah Öcalan's line of resistance and peace. This linear stance of women is one of the main sources of power that keeps the Kurdish freedom movement alive. They wanted to be shot the stance of the woman. The message given to Mr. Öcalan through friends Sakine, Fidan and Leyla was 'If you do not come to the line we want, we will do it like this. Do you want a solution, this is my solution'. The language of the state mechanism is based on force and violence. This is the understanding of the 'solution' that it imposes on the Kurds and their representatives, whom it oppresses, exploits, ignores, and keeps in the circle of denial and destruction; To end the issue by slaughtering it, to suppress it by surrendering it. Another message was also deciphered by Mr. Abdullah Öcalan: 'The murder of friend Sakine is the 2nd Dersim massacre.' Dêrsim was treated by the state as the 'last boil' in the Kurdish genocide that needed to be ended. The people were massacred in the rebellion led by Şêx Sêîd in Koçgiri, Agirî and Zilan. They wanted to put an end to the situation with Dersim. But the spirit of Dersim has been resurrected in the person of friend Sakine. It is because of this spirit, this fear of the magnitude of the struggle, that the massacre was put into action."

 

PARTNERSHIP OF INTERNATIONAL FORCES

 

Stating that the massacres carried out in Paris on January 9, 2013 and December 23, 2022 were carried out to leave the Kurdish problem unresolved and to keep the Kurds on the verge of genocide, Kaya said: “One of the most fundamental issues of the Middle East is the Kurdish issue, a depression that pulls the Middle East back against system attacks and the issue that keeps us in crisis is the enslavement of women and society." 

 

Kaya emphasized that one end of these issues, which have turned into a knot, is in the hands of regional colonialist states and the other end is in the hands of international powers and said: “These powers do not want to let go of the ends of the ropes they hold in their hands. Whatever results Kurdistan-centered games get in the Middle East, the powers that will profit from it are the Western capitalism. Now Russia has been added to this. Abdullah Öcalan summarized the policies of these forces as 'run away from the rabbit, follow the hound'. This statement describes keeping the Kurds in a position of rebellion and the Turks in a position of massacre. MİT's carrying out such a massacre in the middle of Paris shows us exactly this policy. Is it possible to think that the intelligence of these countries does not follow or know how MİT acts in France, Belgium, Germany or other countries? Isn't there a dirty partnership of these forces in the fact that this massacre has not been consciously brought to light for 11 years? Of course there is. Its external dimension is more comprehensive. The Third World War is being waged on the basis of this structure. This is a new anti-guerrilla-anti-peoples-anti-women structure of NATO forces. The structural crisis and chaos that capitalism has entered involves such a great uncertainty and destruction that they have put special war institutions into action to ensure that the oppressed, peoples and women do not emerge stronger from this chaos." 

 

'WE WILL GROW THE FIGHT'

 

"Clarifying the Paris massacre and punishing the perpetrators depends on the results that will emerge in the Kurdish issue. In other words, there is a direct connection with the defeat of the World War 3 scenarios put into effect by these dark war forces in Kurdistan, Turkey and the Middle East in. Again, those who will be held accountable for this massacre cannot, of course, be the murderers. For this reason, Sakine is like a friend; As true creators of truth, justice and love, we will become conscious, organize and expand our fight. The social contract of the new life based on women's freedom is accepted and implemented in Northern and Eastern Syria. A new life is being built. International women come to this building and change their name to 'Sara'. They are fighting, they are waging their fight with love. Sakine friend conveyed the history, labors, longings, dreams, love and beauty of the woman who has been left in the dark for thousands of years to us and the new generations after us. The women's freedom perspective of the 21st century is to live, resist and create a free life in the line of Zilans, Beritans and Sakines. It is to make free life more vital and concrete as a system. Women no longer wait for their rights to be granted since a revolution taking place. They become the revolution itself. Society is now joining the women's revolution. On this basis, Sakines, Fidans, Leylas and Emines multiply and devastate the enemies of freedom. And they will continue to curse."

 

MA/ Müjdat Can