Today 09.01.2018, it is the fifth anniversary of the deaths of Sehid Sara (Sakine Cansiz), Sehid Ronahi (Leyla Saylemez) and Sehid Rojbin (Fidan Dogan).
Sehid Sara is one of the first women and founding member of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party). At a time when it was even harder for women to organize themselves politically and give the enemy a clear stance, Sara did just that. In Amed Prison, she not only resisted for years, but also organized the women who were with her in jail. So she managed to build a cohesion in the prison cell, which gave way to common resistance. Her radical attitude influenced all the women around her, PKK prisoners as well as other political prisoners. While the brutal torture knew no bounds and cost many lives, Sehid Sara never considered giving up, instead she faced the enemy with determination. It became especially well-known that at the time when torture reached such an extent that the resistance of many was broken, the resistance goddess Sehid Sara even spit in the enemy’s face. This revolutionary spirit of Sehid Saras is due to her roots in Dersim. The Sakine Cansiz family is a family that survived the 1938 Dersim massacre. Just as the torture in Amed Prison knew no bounds, neither did the actions of Turkish soldiers in Dersim, where 30,000 people were massacred. In 1938, Seyid Riza and his wife Bese fought against Turkish fascism. Resistance, especially that of women, has a long history in Dersim. That is why the women from Dersim are known for their strong attitude. The resisting life of Sehid Sara confirms this history of hers, which significantly influenced her later resilience.
Through her tireless struggle, which she pursued before her arrest, in prison, and even after her time in jail, campaigning for the liberation of women in Kurdistan and around the world, she became a resistance line in the PKK. So, true to her life, she said herself that it was a single fight. This fight of Sehid Saras’ was not limited to an anti-colonial struggle of the Kurdish people but was also an antipatriarchal struggle for the liberation of women. Thus, she has become a universal figure of resistance, the revolutionary movements of the world take her as a model.
Therefore, it is not just Kurds who take to the streets by tens of thousands on 9.1.2018 in Paris and demand that the assassination and the accountability of the responsible persons be clarified. Just recently, two high-ranking agents of the Turkish secret service (MIT), who have been in PKK captivity since August, have stated that the order came from Hakan Fidan, also a senior MIT agent. This merely confirms what has been suspected for a long time: behind the killings of the Kurdish activists stands the Turkish state. It is no coincidence that the Turkish state has chosen the three resistance fighters as its target. The action of fascist Turkey is systematically directed against outgoing women. In 2016, when the murders of Paris took place for the third time, another brutal execution of three activists in Kurdistan took place: Nalin, Pakize and Fatma. This is all the extent of an overall misogynist policy that suppresses women in every respect, as seen, for example, in the attempt to legalize child marriages.
Women carry the greatest revolutionary potential, which becomes dangerous for the state. Even the state recognizes this, which is why it has explicitly developed a policy against women whose goal is feminicide. But we will not allow that. On the way Sehid Saras, from Dersim on Amed and the mountains of Kurdistan to Paris, we continue. Her life, her struggle, is a great honor and a responsibility. Because of them, our fight is to continue fighting until the liberation of all women worldwide.
Roza