Kemal Pir

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Kemal Pir (* 1952 in Güzeloluk, Torul , Turkey ; † September 7, 1982 in Diyarbakır ) is one of the founders of the underground organization Workers' Party of Kurdistan (PKK) and a key figure in the organization. He is venerated as a martyr by supporters of the PKK.

Life

Kemal Pir came from a rural background. He was born in 1952 in Güzeloluk Village, Torul County, Gümüşhane Province .

Kemal Pir studied in Ankara during the turbulent and violent unrest of the 1970s. In 1974 in the university club ( Ankara Yüksek Öğrenim Kültür Derneği ) he met Abdullah Öcalan and joined the then Marxist-Leninist group around Öcalan. Kemal Pir was one of the non-Kurdish founding cadres of the PKK.

On June 3, 1977, Kemal Pir was caught with a gun in Ankara. He was placed in Ankara Prison and later in Ordu. From there he fled. On December 8, 1978, he was caught again in Pazarcık and was able to flee again. He was commissioned by the party to recruit new cadres, and in 1979 he also spent a while in a Palestinian training camp in Lebanon. He was caught again in the fall of 1980.

death

On July 14, 1982, he and Mehmet Hayri Durmuş announced the beginning of the “death fast” in the courtroom in protest of their prison conditions. This date has since been referred to by the PKK as “the death fast of July 14th” or “the resistance of July 14th” and is commemorated annually. Kemal Pir dies in Diyarbakır prison 55 days after the action began . Mehmet Hayri Durmuş, Ali Çiçek and Akif Yılmaz also died during this hunger strike. Kemal Pir has since been venerated by the organization as the “first internationalist martyr”.

The words are ascribed to him: “Your strength is not enough to let me live.” Kemal Pir's following saying has become the PKK's leitmotif for suicide bombings and actions and for the willingness to sacrifice one's life for the cause:

"We love life so much that we are ready to die for it."

This attitude is referred to within the organization as “the spirit of July 14th” and is conjured up when it is a matter of conjuring up a special willingness to make sacrifices and party ties.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lothar A. Heinrich: The Kurdish national movement in Turkey. German Orient Institute, Hamburg 1989, p. 42f.
  2. ↑ The PKK's worship of martyrs  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.ciwanenazad.org  
  3. ↑ Leitmotif on a PKK organ  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.ciwanenazad.org  

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Pir, Kemal
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Turkish PKK co-founder
DATE OF BIRTH 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH Güzeloluk, Torul , Turkey
DATE OF DEATH September 7, 1982
Place of death Diyarbakır