From the evaluations of Leader Abdullah Ocalan, April 4 - 1

Searching for the truth about the Kurds

Leader Abdullah Ocalan was born on April 4, 1949 in the village of Amara (Omerli) in the Khalfti district of the city of Roha (Urfa). The leader divides his personal and organizational life in the folder “Defending the People (The Pleading Submitted to the European Court of Human Rights)” into three Stages, and in this file these stages will be dealt with according to what he mentioned in his pleadings and the books he wrote.

The first stage of a leader's life

Leader Ocalan says about the first stage of his life in the volume “Defending a People”: “It begins with me going to primary school, after first expressing my reactions towards the family and the village. Starting to receive primary education is the first important step in the emergence of interest in state system. This is where the personality takes its transitional step from society.” Communities to the state society, and go hand in hand with urbanization. As for the stages of middle school, secondary school, and university, and employment, they are preliminary preparations for the formation of a statesman. The character of the city and the state dominates rigidly in the personalities of everyone in this period of life. As for the fact that a person represents a backward and crushed national condition, it turns to reactions towards the state...”

In the Manifesto of Democratic Civilization ( the Kurdish issue and solution to the democratic nation), Ocalan's Leader explains what he lived in his child, he says," I was interested into choosing my comrades carefully since I was child, and establishment small units of the children, and I worked hard to achieve this goal, as well as I established my special group those who I go with them to primary school, As for the scenes of killing snakes, trips hunting birds, and campaigns to collect saffron, they were always present. I was always inventing pretexts to rush after my friends and cling to them. The families were vigilant. Very serious about this matter and she resorts to ways to protect her children from me... One time, the old village sage had said to me in a somewhat warning tone: “You never calm down, as if you are mercury!” and indeed, I was moving in this direction, so the terms standing, calm and stillness were not created for me...

In other parts of the volume “The Kurdish Issue and the Solution of the Democratic Nation,” Leader Abdullah Ocalan continues his talk about the childhood and study stages of his life, and says: “When I encountered the Turkish education system in the primary school stage of my childhood, the reality of Kurds, which was barely evident, was a fog-filled imagination.” It had raised many questions in my mind and soul. Naturally, I did not like Turkification, and I was beginning to feel in the depths of my soul the effect of humiliation and belittling due to this imposed practice. The first thing that came to my mind was searching for family ties with Turks, distant kinship ties on the part of the mother. With the Turkish language, it did not have much sufficient resolving power. Whatever it was, Kurdish sentiments of a patriarchal nature imposed their presence openly. I could not escape from this reality, and based on this reality as well, I had suffered the first wound with the beginning of primary education, where I developed awareness resulting from the first contact with Kurdish issue as a very problematic fact, while such a feeling had not developed much among my peers . As for the way to bridge the gap between me and the children who adopted the Turkish nation of the Republic in the old Armenian village in which the school in which I received my primary education was located; It used to be that I was popular with the teachers, and it seemed that my constant drive to get the first grade starting from the primary stage was a defensive method towards the negatives that might result from the Kurdish reality. In this way, I wanted to prove my specialness, and I succeeded in that, and I maintained this success until the final year of university study without interruption. In the way I had demonstrated to friend and foe alike how serious, I was and how worthy I was of being a true man, and could now attend to important matters.

In fact, I had also succeeded in the field of religious awareness, which was more classical, by memorizing the Qur’anic surahs by heart. I had memorized thirty-three short surahs, so I achieved an ascension by advancing to the bottom of the pulpit to perform prayer near the village imam. The imam’s answer was as follows: “Oh Abdullah, you will fly if you keep up with this speed!” This bending over me was another way of securing ability and efficiency and opening an outlet for myself. Thus, I gained the status of favored people among the ranks of traditional society as well. At that time, I was satisfied with these two methods, as the other topics did not interest me...

In 1969, I dared to move towards socialist thought, then I moved towards Kurdish issue in 1970, and it was basically to go with both. However, my style of dealing with these two realities, which were fraught with intractable issues, could not initially go beyond the scope of being characterized by characteristics dominated by dogmatism, because that stage was a period called the Slogan Revolution, and I was working hard to make my way based on a few initial slogans. I was always attentive, of course, to the skilled professors, as among the main slogans that I sanctified were: “The Kurds exist,” “The Kurdish issue exists,” and nations have the right to decide. Its destiny is to establish a state,” “The most correct path to resolving the national issue is through socialism,” “It may be necessary to take the war of national liberation into account,” and “establishing a national party is possible in the event that it is impossible to establish a joint party.”

I was full of contradictions when I dealt with the national and social affairs of the Kurds at the beginning of the seventies... At that particular time, I began searching for a solution in the right-wing or left-wing entities conflicting with each other, to get rid of that spiritual state. I remember that I felt the pulse in the ranks of the right first, as a person. Paying attention to his prayers and reverence, as the days in which I held prayers at the Maltepe Mosque in Ankara continued until the year 1969, and the days in which I guided others were not few, and I even had the opportunity to personally listen to “Nacip Fadil Kaysakürk,” who is always remembered by the title “Professor.” When I surreptitiously attended the conference held in the “Turkish Club” building, I was overcome with great enthusiasm at that time, and I barely remember the “Great Orient” magazine as well.... I had also met Suleiman Demirel and Rafik Korkut in the “Anti-Communist Society” building, then I don't know how I found the book "The Alphabet of Socialism" lying under my pillow, so I started reading it automatically...

I had finished my studies in 1970 and was appointed as a state employee in Diyarbakir. There I learned about the monthly salary and bribes.... My interest in Kurdish issue gradually increased, which the atmosphere of the city stimulated and pulled me towards. This is the story of my first deposit on the path of Kurdish issue, and this was an event that reflects He's my character too at the same time.

I enrolled in the Faculty of Law at Istanbul University in 1970. My acquaintance with Istanbul and my work as an employee in an upscale neighborhood like Baqirkoy would become an influential matter, as those days witnessed a remarkable movement for both DDKO and Dev-Genç. I tended to both sides, and even became officially member at ddko...

My last memory in Istanbul relates to a meeting held in the hall of “Istanbul Technical University” in the “Maşka” neighborhood... It was one of the most important and pivotal meetings in the history of Dev-Genç, and suddenly Mahir Jayan and Yusuf Kubli entered the hall...

The initiative of Maher and his companions played an important role in my enrollment in the Faculty of Political Science in Ankara based on a scholarship, and with the average that allowed me to take my place among the top twenty students... Then I became a student at THKP-C in 1972...

Tomorrow: The first shot directed at Blind Destiny.

T/ Satt.

ANHA