From the outset, the Turkish Republic was founded on the denial, assimilation, and extermination of the Kurdish people. Tens of thousands of Kurds were murdered with poison gas in Dersim in 1938, and countless children were resettled and forcibly assimilated. The uprisings of Şêx Seîd, Agirî, and Koçgiri were also drowned in blood. After that, a deathly silence reigned in Turkish-occupied northern Kurdistan for a long time. By the middle of the 20th century, the colonial powers were certain that Kurdistan would never rise again.

However, in the early 1970s, a group of young people led by Abdullah Öcalan entered the stage of history and revived the Kurdish people's hope for freedom. On November 27, 1978, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) was founded in the village of Fis near Lice. Due to attacks by fascists and large landowners, the founding members already had experience in armed self-defense. On May 18, 1977, members of the group resorted to armed struggle for the first time to avenge the murder of Haki Karer, one of the group's leading cadres. Armed struggle became an indispensable method in anti-fascist actions against the fascists, large landowners, and the colonial state that emerged between 1978 and 1980 in the districts of Hilvan and Siverek in Urfa.

In order to transform the armed resistance into a professional guerrilla war and a liberation army, PKK cadres and militants went to the Palestine-Lebanon region in the summer of 1979, where they received ideological, military, and political training under the leadership of Abdullah Öcalan. Kemal Pir, who had taken over the military leadership of the movement, returned to Northern Kurdistan after his guerrilla training. However, he was captured by the Turkish state in the fall of 1980. His arrest and the military coup of September 12, 1980, in Turkey led to a delay in the start of the actual armed struggle.

New phase begins with second party congress

During this period, PKK cadres and fighters in Lebanon continued their ideological, political, and military training. After the second PKK congress in the summer of 1982, the groups that were to take up armed struggle set out in September to settle in prepared camps on the borders of South and East Kurdistan (Iraq and Iran).

However, the “return to the country” proved to be very difficult and arduous. On November 24, 1982, on their way back to Kurdistan, eight fighters from the group led by Şahin Kılavuz died in the Hêzil River. The other guerrilla groups reached their positions after a difficult journey at the end of 1982, and in early 1983, camps were set up on the steep cliffs on both sides of the Zap.

Mehmet Karasungur murdered

In April 1983, the PKK field command met in Lolan to discuss the organization of military and social resistance against the coup regime of September 12. The most important question was: How, when, and where should the armed struggle begin? The plan was to set up a preparatory unit in the area stretching to the borderline of Zagros, Botan, and Serhat. The unit began its work in the vast area. According to the guerrilla command, the priority was to establish a front stretching from Şırnak via Eruh, Baykan, Kozluk to Sason.

At that time, as the days were being counted down to the start of the guerrilla war and the guerrillas were making their preparations with very limited resources and under difficult conditions, the PKK was shaken by another tragic event. Mehmet Karasungur, a member of the PKK Central Committee and the Central Military Committee, was killed along with his comrade Ibrahim Bilgin in a camp of the Communist Party of Iraq in Qandil, where he had gone to meet with organizations from South Kurdistan. This event further delayed the start of the armed struggle, which had been planned for the summer of 1983.

Foundation of the HRK

The Central Committee elected by the 2nd PKK Congress in early 1984 was transformed into a “Central Preparatory Committee” for one year. It held its second meeting in Damascus. At this meeting, attended by Abdullah Öcalan and seven members of the Central Committee, it was decided to expand the struggle for freedom and to take up guerrilla warfare as soon as possible.

In April of the same year, a large gathering was organized in the Çiyayê Reş area of Zap, attended by around 150 PKK cadres. At this conference, where the results of the Central Committee meeting were announced, it was decided to prepare for armed struggle in Uludere and …