Dear brothers:
I greet you...
I am very proud of the Kurdish youth who, from the beginning of our revolution throughout this long period until our present day, have accepted all pain and suffering: heat, cold, imprisonment, killing, wounding; this bravery, perseverance, and guidance is a source of pride for all of us and for the history of the Kurdish nation, both now and in the future. Everything that has been done so far is worthy of pride and makes one happy and proud. That manhood, courage, and bravery that the Kurdish nation has shown: this heroism and honor that the Kurdish son has demonstrated in this revolution, enduring all difficulties in the face of all the injustice and oppression that has been done to him, has not happened to any nation or in any place other than Kurdistan. What has happened to the Kurdish nation, four percent of foreigners have not heard of, but in foreign countries, if there is a revolution and heroism, if there are four, it has been shown by the hundred, because they were helped by people and had propaganda tools and were responded to, but what happened in Kurdistan, without anyone's help and with these few weapons, we have resisted, been patient, and endured against a treacherous and oppressive force for several years; it did not happen to anyone. This is why we must be proud of this people, because what he has suffered has exceeded human strength. As I have said a thousand times, this pride is not only for those who have weapons on their shoulders, but every Kurdish farmer, every Kurdish woman, old and young, and Kurdish children are all participants in this heroism, and everyone has suffered a lot and torture has been inflicted upon them.
Dear brothers:
Every revolution and every movement in the world that is carried out for the service of the people needs those who have the work of the people in their hands, who must only keep the interests of the people in mind and put all their personal interests aside and do whatever they can and not follow their own desires. For this reason, I want to remind you of a few things here, do not think that I am openly criticizing anyone... You should not think that I am not criticizing anyone either... In these points that I am saying, I also criticize myself if I do something like this that is harmful to the revolution and the nation... We must know our duty well; if every official of the revolution does not work for the interests of the revolution and neglects his duty, we will see them as our enemies and we are serving the enemy of our nation... We must understand what the people mean? What does a covenant mean? What does Kurdishness or nationalism mean? That official who abandons the interests of the revolution for personal goals... Or for his pocket to get money... Or to strive for pride and manhood... or does not listen to orders and abandons the system... He is not a Kurd and does not serve the revolution.
Example: If a local committee is established here, a local committee is established on the other side... The previous local committee wants this committee not to succeed just so they can say they are good and this one is bad... If the commander of a force wants the commander of another force not to be more successful, just so they can say the commander of that force is good, this is neither wisdom nor nationalism. It is neither party-membership nor revolutionary. Nationalism, party-membership, and revolutionary spirit mean that everyone cooperates together, for the public interest, for our people. Yes, as if two thousand of us have made sacrifices. Perhaps more than them are those who have sacrificed their lives for the sake of this people and this country, for the sake of this right, this right that I have said a thousand times: With the passage of time, we will emerge from the oppression that has been done to us, we will become the owners of our rights and say two things about everything: wisdom, knowledge, management, and education, everything that is related to our country. We must have the right to decide; we must have the right to refuse and be able to live like humans, there must be no oppression. If oppression is done to us, we must have a hand to prevent them from grabbing our necks and strangling us... My request is that you all cooperate with each other with sincerity and do not do anything that makes our actions a great enemy among us... If we all work with brotherhood and sincere cooperation for the common interest, everyone sees the interest of Kurdistan and the revolution more than their personal interests, no force can deny our rights and no one can oppress our nation... My brother, the wealth of the world is not worth so much that we abandon our national honor for the sake of a delicious meal or a soft place and forget our country and the interests of our nation... think of the Kurdish millionaires who are very rich and have not helped the revolution of their people, how disgraceful and dirty they appear in everyone's eyes... Wealth does not bring honor, money and wealth if not spent for the interest of the nation will become a source of shame and disgrace... in history, we have never heard that someone is praised for eating delicious food or sleeping on a soft bed! Only the names of those people will be spoken with honor who have suffered pain and torment for the public interest and for the country and the nation and have been useful to their oppressed people.
Yes, every honor, chastity, covenant, brotherhood, and helping each other will be a source of pride for all of us... I have told you a thousand times, I will serve the smallest one. I am not anyone's leader, I do not want to lead anyone... But I want to be your brother, to serve you, you also become my brothers and help me, let us together become sons of the nation and serve our nation. Let us keep ourselves away from selfishness and the meaningless greed of the world... be smart and ready for the enemy, with a paper, with a word, with a lie... do not forget the truth and do not be deceived.
Progress means working for knowledge, wisdom, manhood, purity, and cleanliness and truth for the service of one's nation... The person who does not work for these things, whoever he may be, I do not consider that person progressive, the one who seeks wealth and property, the honor of others and oppression and makes God and people dissatisfied with himself, is not considered a human at all.
Dear brothers:
My request to you, sons of the nation, is that you strive to make your Party stronger and more organized day by day and that everyone cooperates with it... If the Party is well-ordered and its orders are carried out very well, this means that the army and the nation will become stronger and better.
The Party means the organization of the entire nation, the army and every other class is a part of that nation. No revolution succeeds without the leadership of a united party, and if I say party, it means a party that is sincere to the nation and the nation's interest, not like those people who were in Mawet and oppressed the nation and called themselves a party... Now if we want our revolution to succeed, we must strengthen this party and we all, whether I, the army, or the nation, must help our party with heart and soul... No one among us should have their eyes on leadership and greatness... Everyone can, in exchange for their ability, possess greater ability and serve the people. The nation considers itself with its leader.
If I have the ability to lead ten Peshmerga... but I want to become a platoon leader or a company commander just to make my name great... That leadership is like the branch of a dry tree that I climb onto and it breaks and falls and breaks my neck. True manhood and service is to do everything one is tasked with sincerely and keep one's eyes on serving the people. Sincerity and agreement with one another are conditions for the success of the revolution. If selfishness and hypocrisy exist among us, we are serving the enemy and are hostile to ourselves and our nation.
The person who has work and is responsible for several people must suffer more than those under his command, if one of his friends is hungry... he must give him his bread and accept hunger himself, because the elder must be more patient than the younger... If I call myself an elder and fill myself and the younger one is hungry before my eyes, I consider this a great dishonor. But if I die of hunger and save a poor person from hunger, I consider this a great honor... Humanity is for one to sacrifice one's own happiness for the interest of the weak and the destitute... Without this cooperation and this spirit of sacrifice, we cannot seriously serve our people... We must know that we will not succeed only with weapons... We will not succeed by taking money... We will not succeed with looting and insults, we will not succeed with killing and violating human rights... We will succeed when all our hearts are pure together and the elder and the younger respect one another and every Kurd considers the achievements and losses of every Kurdish brother as their own achievements and losses... Truly we are all brothers... If you fall, I will help you, if I am hungry, you will give me your bread... If you needed my help, I also needed your help... Let us help one another. There must be no selfishness in the service of the nation... You are a Kurdish youth, and I am a Kurdish youth. I work for the nation and you also work for the nation... We must spend our wealth, life, mind, knowledge, and everything we have for our nation... To gain its freedom and remove the hand of the treacherous and oppressive enemy from it... If we do not strive for our nation so sincerely and with love, we must know that we are serving the enemy and we will be responsible before God, history, and the nation...
I have told that story many times. You have also heard it: like a father or mother who has two sons and one of them has a paralytic disease and is bedridden... Every day, father, mother, wash me, hold me, see me, take me. A year, two years... His parents will say with compassion: God has brought a disaster upon me... Oh God, in your mercy take him from me! Because it becomes difficult for him, there is no hope of goodness left for him, but the other son who is healthy, if his parents can provide for themselves, they spend money or clothes on him. Because if the son is a prince, he says he will be a crown-bearer, if he is a shepherd, he will say I will grow old tomorrow, he takes the cow out and brings me bread. He has hopes that he will benefit from his children... If you think that someone can help us... If we are the boy with the paralytic disease, no one welcomes us... But if we are men for ourselves, everyone will help us... Even if we are not men, even if we are parents, they will always help us. They do not greet us a second time. If we are men and have a skill, all our demands will be met... Manhood and strength are obtained through wisdom and action, with words we cannot do anything, we keep saying I did, I will do, but without action, what is the use of it?
If I have selfishness, arrogance, and envy toward my nation, how can I serve it? If we do not help each other with heart and soul... even if we are mountains, we will collapse... My help to you is for me, and your help to me is for you; we should not thank one another. Because we are working for the nation and for ourselves, and we are all helping the nation because we are the sons of this nation. You and I are brothers and people of one country, and our fate is tied together. For this reason, let us all give our hands to each other with sincerity and pure brotherhood, and this is the Kurdistan revolution; as I said, it is a source of pride, and what the Kurdish nation has done, no one else has done, so let it not slip from our hands, and let us gain competence from all our difficulties and exhaustion... I have lived with my friends in my life until now and done my work: political or military, may God have mercy on me, and if I have remained until now, whether it be with pride or shame, God knows everything. My friends know that I have never betrayed my friend, I have never been greedy, I have not been selfish at the expense of my friend. I gave him bread from my own pocket, endured hunger, gave clothes to my friend, I endured the cold. I was also able to go to the front with my friends. I was the first person, ask. The place where cannons and planes struck, the place where no one lives, I went there... If our army was attacked from the front, I was the first person to do so once, twice, ten times, until I reached this situation. After I returned to Iraq, I lost my strength if there was fear behind me, I would have been the last person, until the last breath... Why? Because I do not see myself as dearer than anyone else, they are all human beings like me, we are all brothers to each other, if we can serve, the service that is called service for us is better than all the names of leadership and greatness, and it is a source of pride for a person to be a servant of his nation.
Dear brothers:As I told you before, if we want to succeed, we must all be very followers of the system; no revolution succeeds without respecting the system. If an order comes from the party leadership, those who receive the order do not listen... It means chaos will be created when everyone does what they want and does not respond to the order... Instead of serving the nation, it becomes an enemy of the nation and is much dirtier than traitors... If there is no rule and system within a family, no one carries out orders from those older than them. Everyone who earns something, money, puts it in their pocket and does not give it to the rest and does not work together for the happiness of the whole family... There will be chaos in the house and the house will be destroyed!
We are a big family in this revolution, everyone must listen to the orders that are higher than them and carry them out very obediently... Whatever he earns, he must spend it on the whole revolution. He should not make bad profit for himself... everyone who is investigated should not be upset... Whoever is pure does not fear investigation... If someone is invited to court, he should not say I will not go... Rights must be revealed. Whoever says I will not go to court proves the crime against himself. If someone says to me, come to court, I will go... whatever the judge wants, I will answer, I will not be upset, if I have not committed any sin... Everyone will know that I am innocent and proud.
A person becomes beautiful by obeying laws and orders... We must not move away from the laws we have set for ourselves... so that chaos does not occur. If a responsible person... is transferred from one place to another. He should not say that they do not trust me, that is why they are transferring me... No, it is not like that. This is the interest of the revolution. Maybe tomorrow someone else will take his place and he will go somewhere else. We must be obedient and work for the public interest.
Everyone working in this revolution must be first, we are all responsible. From a Peshmerga to a party member, let us not forget: If we upset a villager, a shepherd, a shopkeeper, a woman, a child, if we insult members of the nation and say bad things, if we take an egg, a chicken, or whatever it is called, harming our nation with treason and oppression, they must know that we will become enemies of the people and enemies of ourselves. If the heart of the nation is with us, even if the enemy is a thousand times stronger... he cannot break us. If the heart of the nation is not with us... By God, even if we are a thousand times stronger than now... We will break and we will not succeed... If we do not act together for the common interest and there is selfishness and love for ourselves, we will serve the enemy for our own destruction.
Dear brothers, just as I have always said in the years 1945 and 1960, I say now: we are not fighting Arabs and Kurds. Not only do I say I will not fight with Arabs... I will not fight any nation. In the name of, I will not fight with any nation: this is yellow, this is red, this is black, this is blue, this is white... Kurds and Arabs are brothers and can live together, in brotherhood, happiness, and peace. Yes, Arabs are our big brothers and we are the little brothers, we say it is not justice for the little brothers to be hungry and naked and unable to study and learn something for themselves and not be able to express their opinion in the management of their common house, and the big brother takes everything in the house for himself!! Justice must be done, the little brother should not see himself oppressed and injustice should not be done to him.
We are not against the government if the government does not fall into the hands of thieves and crooks! Those who serve the enemy of the Kurds and Arabs. We want the interest of Iraq in our revolution... First for the Arabs, second for the Kurds, and for all Iraqis. Turkmen, Assyrians, Armenians, everyone. We want a fair, democratic government with free elections and without pressure, coercion, oppression, and tyranny in Iraq. There must be a just law that the Iraqi nation sets for itself... Every day a soldier does not say: (We made this decision) and manage the Iraqi nation according to his own desires and selfishness, and the nation cannot and dares not hold him accountable.
We have not attacked anyone and we will not attack anyone. We will defend the legitimate rights, property, honor, and lives of the Kurdish people. We never want blood to be shed between two brothers, Arab and Kurd. Because war and the killing of us, Kurds and Arabs, serves the enemies of Iraq. I hope that God gives wisdom and understanding to those who want to fight us... Let them have mercy on the people of Iraq and not look at the oppression of the Kurdish people... So that we, all the peoples of Iraq, may live together in happiness, brotherhood, peace, and justice.
Dear brothers: We must know that the world belongs to no one, and even if we had a thousand golden palaces, we would leave them behind and go under the earth. God says in the Quran: (We created you from it and we will return you to it and we will bring you out of it once again). Only honor, dignity, and humanity have value in human existence. A person must fear God and serve their people with truth and sincerity, stand side by side against oppression, and be a follower of justice and equality among the people. If we do good deeds... it will not be lost to God and people, and if we do bad things, it will not be lost either. God says in the Quran: (Whoever does an atom's weight of good will see it, and whoever does an atom's weight of evil will see it.)
My hope is that you accept criticism, carry out orders, cast personal interests out of your hearts, keep the public interest and common good in your minds, and cooperate with one another... I can do this much... I entrust you to God... May God be our helper.
Source:Masoud Barzani, Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement, Volume III. Part I 1961-1975, September Revolution.