Your Eyes Smile To Our Liberation

By Hatip Dicle

Wednesday, September 4, 1996 Ozgur Politika

Dear Mehmet,

I am writing this letter to you from Closed Prison in Ankara. It is the third anniversary of your rise to martyrdom. Frankly, I am a bit stressed; my heart is sprained and filled with rage.

We have lived through some important developments ever since your untimely murder three years ago. The Turkish State still insists on it's old policies. The crimes against humanity perpetrated on our people have multiplied from that day onward. They have kept up with the destruction of our villages. They have been bombing our hills and mountains. They have burned our forests, our vineyards and our orchards. These oppressors have expelled millions of our people from their lands. They have murdered hundreds of our unarmed and defenseless people on the streets, in torture chambers and in the rural settings. They have martyred hundreds of our youth each representing the brightest hopes of the Kurdish society for standing up against the unbridled oppression. They have continued putting to chains the writers with conscience. They have attacked our party and party buildings, but despite all that, having failed to silence it, they decided to close it down and put an end to its legal existence. Trampling on the universal law and democratic traditions, they have lifted our parliamentary immunity sending some of us to forced exile and others to the prisons. Today, they have been suppressing and encircling the HADEP (People's Democracy Party) the successor to the DEP (Democracy Party). And who knows what else will follow...

But do not let this news distress you... All of these savage aggressions have failed to deter our people. Their love of freedom remains strong and no one has succeeded to declare a victory over it. Because our people must resist and win despite the dire conditions that surround them. Because they have paid a heavy price and are still paying it. Most important of all, because our people are right.

The state with its unlawful policies is with every passing day a bit more exposed and isolated in the international arena. Even her old loyal friends shy away from the 'ally' whose crime dossiers are adding new chapters to the annals of barbarous history. On the other hand, the Kurdish movement is winning new positions and friends in the international diplomatic arena.

You might remember, we met for the first time at the Human Rights Association (HRA/IHD) in Diyarbakir where you had come to seek help in order to fetch the body of your brother who had fallen in the line of duty with the Turkish soldiers. I was then the head of the Diyarbakir Human Rights Association. How could I have known then, that later on, I would work with you as a duly elected parliamentarian and also be present at the time of your martyrdom! Who could forget the direct, brief and clear manner in which you would express your thoughts at party meetings when you took your turns to talk on the decisions that effected all of us? Who could forget your willingness and enthusiasm with which you shouldered the tasks that were assigned to you, that meticulous striving while on duty? Who could forget your sincere loyalty to the people and the struggle based on decisiveness, your trust in organized struggle and your courage against the oppressors, and that warm smile and humor-filled style amongst your friends? Don't worry, I am not writing these lines to praise you; I know that you do not need praise.

You will remember we did many things together. We were also together during what turned out to be your last assignment in Batman. On September 2, 1993, Batman was once again smeared in blood, one of the DEP officials, Habip Kilic was martyred in an attack by the so called "unknown assailants.Ó As a result of this event, the Executive Council of the DEP met and decided to send a fact finding mission to Batman. The committeeÕs task was to pay a visit to the victimÕs loved ones and also undertake contacts with the local people and to tell them that their party DEP stood by them in these difficult times. Kemal Bilget, Nesimi Kilic, Leyla Zana, Remzi Kartal, Ali Yigit, Nizamettin Toguc and myself towards the end of the day flew to Diyarbakir. As soon as we landed at the airport, the police surrounded us and detained Mr. Kilic. When they put him into the police car, you were there and told us that you recognized the person with sun glasses and dark complexion, the infamous informer Aladdin Kanat who was in the police car. When we went to Police headquarters to see to it that our friend Mr. Kilic was released, we were told that Mr. Kilic was detained by orders from the Police Chief in Batman the city of our destination. We insisted that he be released and he was and we later surmised that his detention was ploy to delay our mission to the city. We stayed in Diyarbakir that night and left for Batman early in the morning.

The first thing we did when we arrived in Batman was to send Mr. Kartal and Mr. Toguc to meet with the Police Chief in Batman. After they returned, we paid a visit to the family of the Mr. Habip Kilic and held a meeting with the party rank and file. In the afternoon, we began our visits to local businesses, and addressed the assembled crowds. Throughout the visit, we noticed that we were being followed or some might say ÒprotectedÓ by the police. However, on September 4, our usual unofficial company of police officers were no where to be found. We assessed the situation with local party officials and concluded that we needed to be more careful. We visited the people of Batman; the Kurdish people came out in large numbers to greet us. We established a very warm dialog especially with local businessmen who were considered to be the base of the Hizbullah Party. There was a lot of anxiety about the bloodshed in the city. All wanted the killing "by unknown assailants" come to a halt and all were right.

When the group that had Mr. Kartal, Mr. Yigit and I concluded our work and came back to the party building around 6 p.m., we received a telephone call about the attack on you from behind by an armed person who the eyewitnesses later told us was short, stocky and dark complexioned. We ran immediately to the scene. Even though less than five minutes had passed over the event, the police milled everywhere and were busy with checking the identity cards of our party members who were part of the group that was attacked. Our friend Kemal Bilget who survived the attack unhurt told us that you, Mr. Toguc and the chief provincial official of our party Metin Ozdemir were wounded. He also said he thought you and Mr. Toguc were critical condition and that all of you were taken to the hospital right away.

Dear Mehmet, we both witnessed the events that I have just narrated so far, but what about what followed thereafter? With your permission, I would also like to tell you about them. When we arrived at the hospital, we learned that you had already reached martyrdom and so had Mr. Ozdemir, but that Mr. TogucÕs wound was light. In less than fifteen minutes following the event, with a faint smile and open eyes, you were listening to the police announcements over the laud speakers that declared the beginning of a martial law starting at 6:30 p.m.. You were aware of the entire plan, weren't you? How ready and present was the State? Within ten minutes, how quickly they had brought the entire city under their control. Neither in Batman nor in Ankara, did any state official felt the need to call us and ask us anything related to the event. Ahmet Cem Ersever, the Turkish colonel who founded and worked for JITEM, an army intelligence group with shadowy links, later confessed to your murder and perhaps in so doing he himself became a victim of murder Òby unknown assailants.Ó Let me quote you what he said about you, "Alaattin Kanat and Adem Yakin of Batman were involved in the event (assassination) of Mehmet Sincar. Let me say this also, Aladdin Kanat will never pull the trigger. He is the brain of the team. Adem Yakin was in on this with Mr. Kanat. Mr. Yakin rose to the level of a commander within the PKK. He then became a turncoat. He and others are residing, since 1986, in the housing complex of the OHAL (OHAL is a Turkish acronym of "Olaganustu Hal" which literally means Administration for Extra-Ordinary Times in Turkish Kurdistan). The State is nurturing these turncoats. Go and ask Unal Erkan (the Governor of OHAL) do these turncoats have any official titles? Then, why are they residing in (OHAL's) housing complex? Adem Yakin has been living in the complex since 1986. The assassin of this team is Adem Yakin. He is short, dark in complexion and stocky."

This is how it is my dear friend... The script of the events that rolled after we arrived at Diyarbakir is thus crystal clear and the aggressors of this attack are well known. I would dare say that this script might have been written even at the moment you did not rise to your feet for the President (of Turkey) at the opening ceremony of the national Assembly... As you will remember very well that President Suleyman Demirel clearly made all of us a target in his opening speech that day, and almost all of the representatives at the Assembly applauded his words approvingly.

Under these circumstances, how could we take your body to the Turkish Grand National Assembly when there was such a clear encouragement and approval by the Assembly to target us for their hatred? How could we ignore the fact that the bullets that were emptied on you came from the same source that empties bullets daily on our (Kurdish) people? I am absolutely sure that should you have been alive you would have understood us and concurred with us in refusing to give in to the demands that we should hold a ceremony for you in the Turkish parliament.

At the DEP offices, we decided to pick your body up from the hospital morgue for a civil ceremony at our headquarters. Then we were going to take you to the Maltepe Mosque for a religious ceremony. Then we were going to fly you to Kiziltepe, your birthplace in Kurdish province of Mardin. However, the powers that be afraid of the demonstrations of the tens of thousands of people decided to stop our program. They did not even allow us to pick you from the hospital. They prevented hundreds of busses carrying thousands of people to even enter the city of Ankara. They closed Necatibey street where the headquarters of our party office is located to all traffic. They surrounded the party building with a wall of police. They prevented even the senior officials of the party from reaching the building. These partners of the crime against you would not let us perform a burial ceremony, to achieve this end they unleashed with no sense of concern, a great terror.

They openly told us: "We won't return (the body of) your representative. We will take him from the hospital to the party building in a vehicle. We will allow only the party officials and representatives to participate in the civil ceremony. Also, we will take him from the party building to the mosque with a vehicle without the participation of the masses." Tell me please, could we accept a condition that forced on us such a humiliating imposition? Was not unleashing of such a terror at the last journey of a Kurdish representative an admission of guilt, while encouraging tens and thousands people to participate at the ceremony of Ugur Mumcu?

That is how things were, dear Mehmet....Do you understand now why we were not with you when the State took you to Kiziltepe for burial? Did I make myself clear? They murdered you and they buried you, allowing only eight people to be present. Both at the time of the killing and at the time of burial, they were guilt-ridden, scared and cursed. Whereas your chin was up and you had nothing to be ashamed of. You have became immortal and established your throne in the hearts of millions of people. How fortunate you are!... You should be proud of your entire family, especially of your dear father Tevfik, our beloved Uncle, now the father of three martyred sons and of your wife Mrs. Cihan Sincar. They have displayed tenacity, loyalty and decisiveness worthy of the greatest pens. I have learned once again that the Kurdish people has earned the right to be proud of its martyrs and of the honorable families of their martyrs. Let me repeat it also that do not worry about your children.... They are in the care of the Kurdish people and the Kurdish movement. They are the owners of a glistening treasury that they inherited from their father and from their two uncles.

Dear Mehmet, as I part company from you, please convey my respects and admiration to the memories of our other martyrs, Ape Musa, Vedat Aydin, Muhsin Melik and to all of the known and unknown fighters of the Kurdish liberation. I am kissing your eyes that smile to our freedom.