We Extend Our Condolences To The Cansiz Family
In a statement issued by the Coordination of the KJK, the organization extended its condolences to the Cansiz family, after the passing of Zeynep Cansiz.
It is with deep sorrow that we have been informed of the passing of Zeynep Cansız, the mother of our martyred comrade Sakine Cansız—a founding member of the PKK, a great prison resistance fighter, and an unwavering pioneer of our women’s freedom movement. We extend our condolences to the Cansız family, as well as to all our patriotic people and friends. We wish to state that we will crown the sacred efforts of our mothers—who have been firsthand witnesses, comrades, unwavering supporters, and protectors of the great struggle we have waged for the Kurdish people and women’s quest for a free identity and a free life—with absolute success. Great struggles are waged for great victories. And for great victories, immense suffering is endured. Comrade Sakine Cansız waged the great struggle for great victories and endured great suffering in this endeavor. Our mother Zeynep will forever live on as the sacred laborer of our women’s struggle—as the mother, witness, and comrade of this noble struggle.
It is no coincidence that the most striking contradiction, conflict, and principle of development in our revolution have unfolded on the foundation of women’s freedom and the labor and sacrifices of mothers. We experienced a historical awakening alongside our mothers, and the reality of the women’s revolution was born. For in Kurdistan—the birthplace and cradle of a matriarchal society—the systems of occupation and exploitation could only be overcome as women’s freedom and a life of dignity were established. This is the sacred truth dictated to us by the history of Kurdish women—those who threw themselves off cliffs, resisted in castles, were slaughtered with bayonets, and yet never surrendered.
Freedom has reminded us in the most forceful way one of its most fundamental truths: that to achieve freedom, we must first create a free people and a free country. Rebuilding the matriarchal society which was devastated, along with that society’s moral and aesthetic principles, its free and democratic relationships, and its historical community—this will be the only fitting response we can give to our mothers. Their hearts, filled with suffering, carried heads that never bowed. Their hearts, filled with pain, and their unbowed heads are our trust. We will protect and keep alive our mothers in our struggle, as a trust entrusted to us by a free society.