A new documentary series ‘From Genocide to a Free Life – The Kurdish Resurrection’ is set to premiere on Wednesday, 2 April, promising a comprehensive look at the history of the Kurdish freedom movement and fresh insights into the origins of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and its imprisoned founder, Abdullah Öcalan.
The 90-episode docuseries is produced by the Martyr Gulistan Tara Documentary Commune, which is named in remembrance of Gulistan Tara, a Kurdish journalist killed by a targeted Turkish drone strike last August in Sulaymaniyah (Silêmanî), Iraqi Kurdistan.
The documentary will air in Kurmanji on Sterk TV every Wednesday starting 2 April, and in Turkish on Medya Haber every Friday starting 4 April. Following the TV broadcasts, full episodes will also be available on the commune’s YouTube channel, with an English subtitle option.
The promotional trailer for ‘In the Grip of Genocide’, the first episode covering the history of the PKK, was released on 28 March. The episode will feature insights from historians and PKK members, offering a comprehensive summary of Kurdish history and examining the emergence of the armed political movement.
The documentary series spans three seasons. The first follows Kurdish leader Öcalan’s early life up to the start of the armed struggle in 1984. The second covers the conflict from 1984 to Öcalan’s abduction and incarceration as leader of the PKK in 1999. The third explores the Kurdish struggle from 1999 to the collapse of the Dolmabahçe Agreement in 2015, a failed peace initiative between the PKK and the Turkish state.
The project is the result of over eight years of intensive work involving teams from Kurdish regions in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran, and the diaspora. It is based on conversations with thousands of witnesses, around 400 interviews and a multitude of written and visual documents. In addition, the documentation includes a musical accompaniment composed for the 50th anniversary of the PKK’s founding, due in 2028, which was recorded by an orchestra put together especially for the occasion.
