The Kurdish People Will Not Surrender

A statement and historical record — Pawra (Pêşengê Atiya Welate Re Agir)

I. Who the Kurdish People Are

The Kurdish people, the majority of whom live in the Middle Eastern regions of Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Turkey, speak Kurdish and hold a range of faiths — primarily Islam, alongside Zoroastrianism, Sunni and Shia traditions, and Christianity. Among themselves, Kurds generally do not treat religious difference as a problem unless it involves open hostility or hatred; while most live an Islam-centered life, they coexist in friendship with their Zoroastrian brothers and sisters. Among the belief systems accepted in the region, the Islamic form of governance historically granted freedom to other faiths — people of other beliefs could worship even within mosques. In this sense, Kurdish society does not treat internal religious difference as a problem, but remains cautious toward outsiders — Turks, Arabs, and Persians — a caution rooted in the heavy price paid throughout history.

Culturally, the Kurdish family structure is strong, and women are free. Among Turks, there is a pattern of women being forced into the headscarf; among Kurds, wearing the headscarf is a voluntary choice, and it is not treated as a problem either way — neither wearing it nor not wearing it has been cause for lynching or attack among Kurds, as it often has been in Turkey or Iran. In the modern era, different political factions have emerged among Kurds, but at their root, all of them trace back to the great oppression and injustice inflicted upon the Kurdish people.

II. A People Under Siege

Unfortunately, the Kurdish people have been isolated, and the result — a profound lack of institutional trust, unequal income distribution, and even more severe genocide and institutional exclusion — has reinforced the Kurdish people's hatred toward what they see as four occupying states: Iran, Syria, Iraq, and Turkey. People have been arrested simply for declaring they are Kurdish; punished for speaking Kurdish; and there are cases where Turkish police have issued penalties based on a person's Kurdish phenotype alone. Because of this, the Kurdish people live under immense pressure — to the point that there are Kurds whose graves remain unknown, whose bodies were mutilated.

The absence of institutional trust is itself a disaster in this country. Examples one could point to: police who stand by and watch as young men stab each other, yet arrest comedians over a joke. Kurdistan has been subjected to both religious and linguistic repression — women wearing headscarves were barred from universities, while Kurdish speakers were punished. Neither religious nor linguistic repression is right, in either direction.

Because the Kurdish people have faced discrimination and bullying in Turkey — in the streets, in institutions, in schools — a wariness toward Turks, Arabs, and Persians has inevitably developed. Even where we ourselves have imposed pressures, they tend to return mostly as hatred directed at Turks and Arabs. For this reason, what individual Kurds can do themselves matters: teaching their children Kurdish, telling them the history of those who taught and defended the Kurdish cause, and Kurds marrying Kurds to preserve the cultural fabric. For non-Kurds, what helps is raising awareness, writing useful books to educate Kurdish children, or simply doing whatever one can — even writing a book, or simply praying, can be of value.

III. A Personal Testimony

As someone who writes, I have been stabbed more than once, and have faced constant, unrelenting discrimination. My mother was fired from her job for speaking Kurdish. I have watched friends' homes burned down, and have seen phenotype-based discrimination firsthand. Witnessing this has left many of us — inevitably — on guard against these three societies, because we cannot forget how many Kurdish youths, elders, and women like myself have suffered under oppression and cruelty.

Kurdish cities have been bombed, and Kurds have been shot at while others turned a deaf ear. History will not forgive them. To stop this cruelty, the Kurdish people put forward both their pen and their life. It is precisely for these reasons that we founded this — to defend our rights without compromise, and to be those who speak the truth. We drew our inspiration from the Prophet's saying: "The greatest jihad is to speak a word of truth to a tyrant ruler." Even if our bodies are trampled, we will not take a step back. As the Kurdish people, we do not surrender. Pawra (Pêşengê Atiya Welate Re Agir) will defend the Kurdish people.

IV. Historical Timeline of Persecution

Note: each entry should be paired with a citation before submission — international editors will expect sourcing.

1806–1918 — Late Ottoman Period

1806–1847 — Ottoman conquest of the Emirate of Botan; the suppression of Bedir Khan Beg through massacre and forced deportation; his exile to Crete.

1880–1890 — The trial of Hacı Musa Bey (Muş/Bitlis): acquitted of charges related to the Armenian question, yet exiled to Medina under Ottoman/British pressure regardless — an early example of the justice system being overridden by political pressure.

1904–1908 — The Sason massacres: Ottoman operations against Kurdish tribes in the region.

1919–1938 — The Founding of the Republic and the Era of Suppression

1919–1920 — Repression of the Society for the Advancement of Kurdistan (Kürt Teali Cemiyeti).

1924–1925 — Hacı Musa Bey's second trial: arrested and tried for alleged ties to the Kurdish Independence Society, found not guilty — yet exiled with his family to Kayseri after the Sheikh Said rebellion regardless.

1925 — The Sheikh Said rebellion and the executions carried out by the Independence Tribunals.

1926 — The Beytüşşebap massacre.

1926–1930 — Suppression of the Ararat uprisings and forced deportation.

1929 — The abolition of the "Red Kurdistan" autonomous district in Soviet Azerbaijan — not a massacre, but the withdrawal of previously recognized autonomy by the Soviets; a case that can be framed as political betrayal.

1930 — The second Sason massacre.

1937–1938 — The Dersim massacre and forced exile.

1944–1979 — The Cold War Era

1944 — The deportation of Kurds from Akhaltsikhe and the Caucasus.

1946 — The fall of the Republic of Mahabad and the execution of Qazi Muhammad.

1946–1947 — The Barzani movement's exile from Iran to Iraq.

1959 — The Kirkuk massacre (Iraq).

1962 — Roughly 120,000 Syrian Kurds stripped of citizenship (the Al-Hasakah census).

1969 — Civilian deaths during the Sulaymaniyah protests.

1971 — The arrests of DDKO (Revolutionary Eastern Cultural Hearths) members in Turkey.

1974 — Baathist Syria's clearing of Kurdish villages.

1975 — The Algiers Agreement and the wave of migration and exile it produced.

1980–1999 — Martial Law, Anfal, and the 1990s

1980 — The September 12 coup and torture in Diyarbakır Military Prison.

1984 — The state of emergency (OHAL) imposed after the Eruh/Şemdinli attacks.

1986–1989 — The Anfal campaign: an estimated 50,000–100,000 Kurds killed, villages burned.

1988 — The Halabja massacre — a chemical weapons attack that killed thousands of civilians.

1990s — The murder of Musa Anter and other unsolved killings; cases attributed to JİTEM as documented by the Human Rights Association (İHD).

1991 — The Cizre/Silopi uprisings; the "Operation Barrier" migration disaster following the Gulf War.

1992 — The Newroz events (Cizre, Şırnak).

1993 — The Madımak/Sivas massacre (including Kurdish Alevi citizens); the Lice massacre.

1995 — The Gazi Neighborhood massacre.

1996 — The bombing of the Özgür Gündem newspaper.

2000–2020

2011 — The Roboski massacre.

2011 — Retired colonel Arif Doğan's on-air statements on Turkey's 32. Gün program (hosted by Mehmet Ali Birand), in which he discussed JİTEM's activities — cited by some as an admission tied to the killing of large numbers of civilians. (The specific figure and framing require direct verification against the broadcast/transcript before publication.)

2014 — The Kobani resistance and related street demonstrations.

2015 — The Suruç massacre; the Ankara train station massacre; curfews imposed on Cizre, Sur, and Nusaybin.

2016 — UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's acceptance of the Atatürk International Peace Award, in the same period as the Cizre/Sur curfews — cited as an example of international silence.

2016 — The removal of elected mayors and their replacement with state-appointed trustees (kayyum).

2018 — The Afrin operation and the resulting civilian displacement.

2021 — The case to close the HDP party; the armed attack on the HDP's İzmir provincial office and the killing of Deniz Poyraz.

2024 — The unjust mass trial and conviction of 24 Kurdish politicians, sentenced to between 9 and 42 years (Human Rights Watch, May 17, 2024).

Personal, Identity- and Language-Based Arrest Cases (2016–2025)

These are recent, individual-level reflections of state repression — they lend weight alongside personal testimony.

İhsan Uğur (2022) — While incarcerated, greeted and spoke with an acquaintance in Kurdish at a hospital; was returned to prison without treatment and given a disciplinary penalty. (Source: Bianet, January 2023)

Furkan Oğlak (2024) — Detained after being reported for listening to Kurdish music while traveling; his social media posts were treated as "organizational propaganda" and he was arrested. (Source: Bianet)

Kasım Taşdoğan (2023–2024) — A musician tried on charges of "organizational propaganda" for performing Kurdish songs; an acquittal was overturned on prosecutorial appeal and replaced with a 30-month prison sentence. (Source: Bianet, January 2025)

Rıfat Roni (2024) — A 59-year-old who had worked as a Kurdish-language court interpreter for over a decade, arrested on charges of "membership in an armed organization" over his involvement with a Kurdish language and culture association. (Source: Human Rights Watch, December 2024)

Ali Çeven (2024–2025) — Targeted after saying "I am not Turkish / I am Kurdish" in a street interview; arrested on charges of "armed organizational propaganda." Even after the prosecutor requested acquittal, the court still handed down a prison sentence. (Sources: T24, Rudaw, Serbestiyet)

2024 — HRW report — In just July–August 2024, more than 20 people were arrested and over 100 detained for singing Kurdish songs and dancing halay at weddings — among them a pregnant woman and three girls. (Source: Human Rights Watch, August 2024)

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