Li Bagoke: A Kurdish liberation song This song commemorates a historical event which took place in Turkey in 1988. The following is an account of the events, taken from the Internet: _________________________ ARGK is the old name for the PKK fighters In April 1988, 20 fighters, members of the Peoples Liberation Army of Kurdistan (ARGK) lost their lives after they put up a big fight against the Turkish army. The battle took place at Bagok mountain. It was the greatest conflict involving the the Turkish military and the ARGK fighters, who found themselves encircled by thousands of soldiers and village guards (korucu). It was perhaps the first great battle of the pro-Ocalan forces. The words of the song say: Çiyayê bagokê bi dar e / Leşker hat ser bi hezar e / Li wir bu bû axir dewran / Li ser serê çend hevalan [Bagok Mountain is forested / soldiers came there in their thousands / to fight against a handful of comrades.] On 31 March thousands of Turkish miliitary personnel were deployed against the guerrillas positioned in the lower part of Bagok mountain, to the north of Nusaybin. Somebody had informed on them. The soldiers had been deployed to the area from Mardin, Nusaybin and Midyat during the day, completing their preparations during the evening hours for the operation that was planned to take place the next day. Thousands of non-military personnel who knew Bagok were brought to the theatre of operations alongside the Turkish soldiers. On the morning of 1 April 1988, Turkish troops, supported by helicopters and fighter aircrafts, sent a patrol into Efse village close to Bagok mountain. The soldiers entered at exactly the point where the ARGK guerrillas were positioned. Caught by surprise by the guerrillas defensive gunfire, they were forced to retreat, sustaining many casualties in the process. After a short period of panic the Turkish commanders surrounded the area from all sides with thousands of soldiers. Their purpose was to annihilate the ARGK guerrillas in a short period of time under intense fire. The commander of the ARGK guerrillas was Veli Yasar (Delil), who had joined PKK while involved in political activity. He was from Halfeti. His family had moved to Antep when he was very young. He had encountered exploitation and labour at a young age, which is also when he met PKK. After the 12th September coup he had left the country, but then became active in the guerrilla groups which returned to the country in 1983 and carried out activities in Cukurca, Pervari, Siirt, Bitlis and Garzan until 1986. He was an experienced guerrilla who had taken part in many battles. At this time he was actually on his way to Garzan, which was his own area of activity. However, he had taken on the task of training newly-recruited ARGK fighters in Mardin before going to Garzan. He trained 30 new recruits in 45 days. The area encircled by the Turkish army was where the recruits had been training with the ARGK. The guerrilla units had just completed the ceremony of the oath of allegiance, and had not yet left the area. Delil was accompanied by Mustafa Kaplan (Kazim) and 18 new ARGK fighters. This was the group encountered by the initial Turkish patrol. The other guerrilla groups took advantage of the panic of the soldiers and fought their way out of the area of operation. In a sense, the group led by Delil sacrificed themselves for the other ARGK fighters. The group also included Ayten Tekin (Rojin) from Bingol-Karliova, who had joined PKK only 23 days previously. https://youtube/watch?v=7LRE2DkgRRQ
Posted on: Wed, 22 Oct 2014 05:09:28 +0000
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