The HPG Press and Communications Center said in a statement issued to mark the anniversary of 15 August 1984: “We celebrate the 42nd anniversary of the Glorious 15 August Offensive, which tore up the death warrant issued against the Kurds, launched the struggle for existence and freedom and enabled the resurrection of the Kurdish people, and the National Resurrection Holiday, foremost to Rêber Apo [Abdullah Öcalan], the leader and architect of this historic breakthrough; to the precious families of our immortal martyrs who carried our struggle to this day with their sacred blood; to our patriotic Kurdish people; to our friends around the world who have stood alongside our struggle; and to all our comrades who are fighting selflessly everywhere.”

The HPG statement continued: “The Glorious 15 August Offensive took place under conditions in which the Kurdish language, identity and existence were denied, all its values were opened up to exploitation to the fullest extent, and Kurdistan as a whole was under occupation and condemned to pitch darkness. Rêber Apo’s historic breakthrough, the founding of the PKK, Comrade Mazlum Doğan lighting the fire of resistance with three matches in Amed Prison, and the intensification of this resistance through the Four and the 14 July Resistance fighters formed the foundation of the 15 August 1984 Offensive. With the ‘First Bullet’ fired on 15 August under the leadership of Comrade Mahsum Korkmaz in order to shatter the multifaceted colonialism imposed on the Kurdish people, our struggle for existence and freedom began, marking a turning point for the Kurds and Kurdistan. At a time when people could not even imagine firing a bullet at the occupiers, the colonialists or the fascist junta of 12 September, launching such a heroic action and beginning the guerrilla struggle led to a resurrection and uprising of the Kurdish people in every sense. Our people, who recreated themselves from their ashes through the Apoist will, broke the chains of slavery through their just and legitimate struggle, overcame their backwardness and became the bearers of an uninterrupted march of heroism. In this sense, we respectfully and gratefully commemorate all our martyrs, embodied in Commander Egîd, the pioneering commander and symbol of the 15 August Offensive, and we renew our pledge to achieve victory by fulfilling the dreams of our martyrs.”

The 15 August offensive was an historic initiative

The HPG Press and Communications Center statement also said: “The 15 August Offensive was not merely a military action or a temporary defensive initiative. The 15 August Offensive was a historic intervention against the downward spiral of a people that had been brought to the brink of extinction. This offensive, whose national, ideological, political, social and cultural dimensions were at least as significant as its military dimension, was above all a revolt against the chains of slavery and submission in the Kurdish mind. It destroyed the outposts that colonialism had built in the minds of Kurdish people and demonstrated that the Kurds and Kurdistan were undeniable realities.

The Resurrection Revolution developed a revolutionary process intellectually, socially and democratically wherever Kurds lived. So much so, that the free Kurdish woman who rose up through the Resurrection Revolution has today become a pioneer of free life, inspiring women around the world, who look to her with admiration and follow her with interest. These developments, which Rêber Apo described as a ‘revolution within the revolution’, gave rise to an entirely new Kurdishness, a free Kurdish person, an unconquerable Apoist spirit, Apoist consciousness and its lofty values, which everyone now embraces with pride. If it is possible today to speak of the Kurds, Kurdishness, Kurdistan and Kurdistani values, and of the greatness of these values, there is no doubt that the 15 August Offensive and the struggle subsequently waged by the guerrillas, at the cost of thousands of martyrs, have played a decisive role in this.”

The HPG added: “The guerrilla has never been merely an ordinary fighter or a defensive army; it has become the expression of a free and new Kurdish person for the Kurdish people and Kurdistan. Through the high human qualities it has cultivated within itself, its great spirit of self-sacrifice, its devotion to the country and the people, its struggle at the level of heroism, its unconquerable will, its unparalleled …