The international conspiracy against PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan is in its 26th year. The conspiracy was launched when Öcalan was taken out of Syria on 9 October 1998 and continued until he was brought to Turkey on 15 February 1999. Öcalan had gone to Syria shortly before the military coup d'état in Turkey. Öcalan crossed into Syria via Kobanê in 1979. Öcalan stayed in the village of El Pelur for a while and then visited many regions, especially Aleppo. Öcalan had a significant impact on the people he came into contact with during this period. Öcalan's ideas inspired Kurds and their friends during the civil war that broke out in 2011. In the cities of North and East Syria, the peoples guided by Öcalan's paradigm achieved a great victory against ISIS, which threatened all humanity, and realised the Rojava Revolution. 

 

Souad Mistefa, 69, is one of the people who met Öcalan and took up the struggle. Souad Mistefe is the mother of Hevrîn Xelef, Secretary of the Syrian Future Party, who was murdered by paramilitary groups on 12 October 2019. Originally from Cizîr (Cizre) district of Şirnex (Şırnak), she is the child of a family who had to migrate to a village in Derik in Northern and Eastern Syria after the Dêrsim Massacre. 

 

Souad Mistefe, who married in North and East Syria and had 6 children, met names who took part in the Kurdish freedom struggle in the 1980s. Among the names she met are Salih Kandal, Egit (Mahsum Korkmaz) and Berivan (Binevş Agal). On the other hand, Reşîd Mihemed, one of the people mentioned by artist Xelîl Xemgin in the song ‘Berxwedana Sasonê’, is the brother of Sûad Mistefe. 

 

Souad Mistefe's acquaintance with Abdullah Öcalan dates back to 1991. She met Öcalan at a programme held in Lebanon to mark the anniversary of the PKK's first armed action. Souad Mistefe described those days as follows: "I took part in the Kurdish freedom struggle for many years. At that time, I received a message from Mr Öcalan. On 15 August 1991, he had called for a celebration in Lebanon. I took my eldest daughter and some of my relatives and went to Lebanon. 50 thousand people took part in those celebrations. That day I thought to myself, ‘This celebration would have been much more meaningful if we had been in our own land’. Mr Öcalan greeted us, and it was during those celebrations that my loyalty to Mr Öcalan and the Kurdish freedom struggle increased. Until that age, I had never seen a Kurdish leader mingle with people and make evaluations, discussions and meetings with them. These speeches pushed me to make a pledge for this struggle. After he finished his speech, he left. No one knew where he went."

 

Explaining that Abdullah Öcalan met with him and 9 families a day later, Souad Mistefe said, "He talked about many things in that meeting. He especially talked about the women's struggle. At that time, I remembered the words that my friend Egit once said. Egit had said, ‘Our revolution is a strange revolution’. I told him that my daughter wanted to take part in party work. My daughter Zozan was an 11th grade student at that time. When Mr Öcalan heard this, he put his hand on my shoulder and said, ‘Let him continue her education’." 

 

‘THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES IN TISHREEN’

 

Stating that she lost 2 daughters, 1 son and many of his relatives in the struggle for freedom, Souad Mistefe said, "Every time I started the day with the same belief and struggled. Part of us has always been betrayal, but part of us has always been resistance. Resistance and struggle have been going on since Diyarbakır dungeons. Today we can bring this to the Tishreen resistance." 

 

Pointing out that Abdullah Öcalan's ideas have come to life in North and East Syria, Souad Mistefe added, "The Rojava Revolution happened in 2012. However, there is also a time before that. Arab and Kurdish people were wanted to be enemies of each other. The revolution made this futile. Someone asks Mr Öcalan how to make a revolution in Rojava. Mr Öcalan says that this will be done in a process and that they will handle the revolution here politically. The resistance that sprouted in Bakur became a forest here. It was women who carried it from Bakur to Rojava. Today, the physical freedom of Mr Abdullah Öcalan and the democratisation of Syria will be the continuation of this revolution." 

 

MA / Ceylan Şahinli