Mahsum Korkmaz Academy
The Mahsum Korkmaz Academy is a training camp of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). It was established in 1986 in Helve, a village in the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon. It is named after Mahsum Korkmaz, a former commander of the armed wing of the PKK.[1] Today the camp is situated in Qandil Mountains, Iraq.
Foundation and locations
[edit]To establish the Mahsum Korkmaz Academy was decided at the Third Party Congress of the PKK in October 1986.[2] Its first location was in the Beqaa valley in Lebanon,[3] which at the time was under Syrian control.[4] It had to leave Lebanon due to Turkish pressure in 1992, following which it settled to Damascus, the Syrian capital.[3] After the expulsion of the PKK from Syria in 1998, the academy moved to Iraqi Kurdistan.[3]
Training
[edit]It is estimated that about 10'000 militants underwent training in the years between 1986 and 1998 when the academy had to leave Syria and settled in Iraq.[3] In 1991, the education consisted of two months of ideological and one-month military training.[3] After the arrival of new students, they took on a new Kurdish name and delivered an oath to remain loyal to the party line, the martyrs and the leader.[3] The new name was intended to avoid repression and as a sign for the beginning of a new life.[3]
Until 1998, Abdullah Öcalan gave lectures of several hours every week at the academy, which were called Çözümlemeler (Analyses).[3] They consisted of experiences of his own life and followed by the challenge to engage in self-criticism.[3] The students were often reminded that the main battlefield was oneself, who was to become a new human and only to a lesser extent the fight was against an external enemy.[3] Sometimes an attack by the Turkish army was simulated.[3]
Free time
[edit]In some evenings, the students would gather to play football games (in which Öcalan would often also participate).[3] Other activities would be dancing Govend or play volleyball.[3]
Turkish opposition to the academy
[edit]In April 1992 the Interior Minister of Turkey Ismet Sezgin pressured the Syrian president Hafez al-Assad to close the camp in Lebanon, following which the PKK then closed it down and speculations arose if the camp would be re-established in either Iran or Cyprus.[4] Ünal Erkan, the Governor of the State of Emergency region in Turkish Kurdistan and the Turkish defense minister Nevzat Ayaz both welcomed its closure at the time.[4]
References
[edit]- ^ "Nimm sie, Apo". Der Spiegel (in German). 1991-09-01. ISSN 2195-1349. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
- ^ Casier, Marlies; Jongerden, Joost (2010-09-13). Nationalisms and Politics in Turkey: Political Islam, Kemalism and the Kurdish Issue. Routledge. p. 137. ISBN 978-1-136-93867-2.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Grojean, Olivier (2014-07-09). "The Production of the New Man Within the PKK". European Journal of Turkish Studies. Social Sciences on Contemporary Turkey. doi:10.4000/ejts.4925. ISSN 1773-0546.
- ^ a b c Erzeren, Ömer (1992-05-09). "PKK verläßt ihr Camp im Libanon". Taz - Die Tageszeitung (in German). p. 10. ISSN 0931-9085. Retrieved 2022-03-16.