Kurdish writer Mizgîn Ronak, freed in 2022 after spending 30 years in prison in Turkey, made her first international journey to Croatia and Spain this month, where she visited the Basque Country and honoured symbols of universal resistance and cultural survival.
Ronak was formally welcomed by the President of the Bizkaia Parliament, Ana Otadui Biteri, and two deputies at the historic Gernika Assembly House — a site long regarded as a symbol of peace, democracy and autonomy. Standing before the revered Gernika Tree, Ronak left a message in the guestbook: “Gernika, tree of life, I leave my heart here like one of your seeds, so it may grow.”
Her emotional journey began in Croatia, where she participated in a literary programme hosted by Zagreb PEN. She then travelled to Andalusia to visit the home of Spanish poet Federico García Lorca in Valderrubio, accompanied by filmmaker Mariano Agudo. There, she inscribed a tribute in Kurdish: “Our white shirt is soaked in blood like yours, dear Lorca. You are not alone.”
Ronak continued her trip to the Basque Country on invitation from several local institutions. At Mondragon University — renowned for its cooperative model and language revitalisation efforts — she gave a lecture titled “What Our Language Means to Us” to over a hundred literature students. Her talk marked the launch of the region’s annual Basque language celebration, which featured a Kurdish writer for the first time.
She also delivered a conference at the University of the Basque Country on the challenges facing Kurdish literature. Ronak later visited Euskaltzaindia, the Basque Language Academy that standardised the once-suppressed language.
For Ronak, the journey was more than academic. It was the realisation of a dream nurtured during decades of imprisonment — to greet Lorca’s memory and the Gernika Tree. As Otadui said during the farewell, “Mizgîn Ronak is one of the most meaningful and honoured guests Gernika has ever received.”
