PKK Central Committee Statement - Newroz 1999

     At the Kurdish New Year (Newroz), we march as a nation
united in resistance to defeat the international conspiracy
focused upon the person of our leader as part of the attempt to
crush our struggle for national liberation. Attacks by the
Turkish occupying forces, backed by Israel and the West,
accelerate upon our struggle. They do not hesitate to use
barbarity or violence, but this aggression against our people is
no less than an attack upon humanity and upon our historical
traditions. While this attack is being played out before the eyes
of the world, our people answer in a show of mass resistance. Our
endeavor to protect and preserve our distinct identity, the
fundamental stand we take for our leader, and our dignified
defiance will mount until our goal of national unity is achieved.
     In all four parts of Kurdistan, in the true embodiment of
national unity, we mount this operation as a final word to the
forces of imperialism, Zionism, colonialism, and treachery. For
the first time in our history we celebrate Newroz in its full
meaning as a symbol of unity, resistance, and struggle. We will
not leave our enemies' attacks upon us unanswered. On the basis
of our party's Sixth Congress, we grasp the new order, our
leader's achievement manifest in the very preservation of our
people as a distinct nation, and the war itself which has brought 
us to this day. The Turkish state's unsparing attacks on every
aspect of our existence will be met in full and rendered futile
by our guerilla forces and the unflinching dedication of our
people. No matter to what extent the Turkish colonialist state
seeks to wipe us out through the military force, through
subterfuge, and through the treachery upon which it relies beyond
its alliance with imperialist and Zionist forces, behind our
party leadership our people will fight back with ever greater
tenacity and the war of liberation will enter a new phase of
intensity. Newroz 1999 will mark the developments of the
guerrilla war and popular sacrifice in a new era of national
resistance.
     As the Turkish state stops at nothing in its efforts against
our nation, this new year will be one in which it will confront
disaster, impotence, and defeat despite its stubborn insistence
on new dimensions in its conspiracy. For this reason, today, as
in the past, the aggression directed against our leader has
become manifest as the enemy resorts to using chemical means and
physical and psychological torture against him to achieve its
final results. With one eye shut, abusing their own laws and
defying international concerns, the Turkish state persists in
relying upon barbarity. By this, it hopes to wipe out our
nation's achievements and destroy the progressive road laid down
by our leader. Neither our party nor our self-sacrificing people
will give the ruthless Turkish state the satisfaction of
realizing its murky and dubious goals. Our friends and enemies
alike - everyone should be aware of this.
     The spirit of Newroz will solidify our response to the
calculations of our enemies upon our leader. The spiralling 
conflict, the guerrilla resistance, and the popular uprising
cannot fail in toppling the corrupt colonialist regime in Turkey
and will help to secure the national goals which are sacred to
us. The necessity of this alone marks 1999 as the year of our
leader, Apo, and we publicly declare that Newroz 1999 signifies
its beginning. We call upon our nation and all progressive forces
to make this position clear.
     If there is a party to be brought to judgement in this year
of our leader and at Newroz, then it is the Turkish state. It is
the western imperialist governments, the U.S. foremost amongst
them, the Zionist forces, and the corrupt powers which have
provided the opportunity in this way for the massacre of humanity
embodied by our people. These powers must not evade
responsibility for the role they have played. Our people and all
progressive forces demand that a moral account be given for this.
     As we reject a life without our leader, without struggle, or
the defeat of Kurdistan, we joyfully celebrate the victorious
raising of the Newroz flag with our people, with the other
peoples of our region, and with all progressive nations.

Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) Central Committee
March 15, 1999

(Translation from the Turkish original by STK)