Rustem Cudi.. 15 years since the martyrdom of a leader who combined struggle and thought

On 10 October 2011, the Kurdish Freedom Movement announced the martyrdom of Rustem Cudi, a member of the leadership committee of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) and a member of the Central Committee and Military Council of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), along with members of the People’s Defence Forces (HPG) military committee Çiçek Kiçê (Kovar Cakirka) and Ali Sher Koçeri (Yucel Halis), as well as four other guerrillas — dr. Amara, Amara Roj, Ashraf, and Nazlican — in a Turkish airstrike on the areas of Khenire and Hakurk in South Kurdistan on 27 September 2011.

The revolutionary Rustem Cudi, whose real name was Rustem Yusuf Osman, was born in 1965 in the village of Khirbet Dabs, affiliated with the city of Serekaniye. He grew up in a Kurdish family known for its interest in the Kurdish national cause.

Cudi completed his primary, preparatory, and secondary education in Serekaniye, before moving to Damascus to study agricultural sciences, where he was a member of the ranks of the Kurdish Left Party.

In 1987, he attended a seminar by leader Abdullah Ocalan in Damascus, after which he joined the Kurdish Freedom Movement and received training at the Martyr Mahsum Korkmaz Academy, before beginning his political and organisational activities.

Cudi later moved between several areas in the Kurdistan Mountains and assumed leadership responsibilities in the Botan, Qandil, and Bashiri areas. In 1998, he was also assigned organisational duties among Kurds living in the republics of the former Soviet Union.

In 2003, revolutionary Rustem Cudi was elected as a member of the leadership of the Kurdistan People’s Congress and took part in a number of political and organisational activities.

In January 2004, he also attended the mourning ceremony for martyr Maysaa Baqi (Shilan Kobani), one of the founders of the Democratic Union Party, and her comrades who were assassinated in the Iraqi city of Mosul. He delivered a speech calling for the continuation of the struggle.

Alongside his political activities, Rustem Cudi was known for his intellectual and cultural interests and left behind a number of studies and writings, most notably the books “Ideology” and “The Middle East”, as well as dozens of articles and studies.

In his book “The Middle East”, Rustem Cudi revisits the region’s historical events from a new perspective, away from the official narrative taught and instilled in state schools. In recounting these events, he relies on scientific analysis and facts without excluding any narrative; even myths and folk songs are given a place in the book in service of research.

In his book, Cudi raises thousands of questions that come to the reader’s mind and provides corresponding answers. The work opens up new horizons and ideas for the reader in the search for the truth that Rustem Cudi himself sought.

In his book “The Middle East”, martyr Rustem Cudi examined the history of the region and its transformations from an analytical perspective, drawing on diverse historical, philosophical, and social readings.

Cudi was known for his passion for reading and his interest in thought, history, and politics, which was reflected in his writings and research, through which he sought to raise new questions about the history of the region and the issues facing its peoples.

In response to his martyrdom, guerrilla forces carried out a retaliatory operation against the Turkish army on 19 October 2011, in which a large number of Turkish army personnel were killed.

On the anniversary of his martyrdom, Kurdish political and cultural circles commemorate Rustem Cudi’s life and legacy as one of the figures who combined political work, intellectual activity, and research, leaving an impact on the course of the Kurdish movement over the past decades.

Sh-S

ANHA