A poem written by Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan was shared publicly for the first time during a Mother’s Day event in Diyarbakır (Amed).
The event was organised by the Free Women’s Movement (TJA) and the Peace Mothers Initiative, who gathered at the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party Bağcılar branch office to celebrate Mother’s Day under the banner “The best gift for mothers is peace”. The second Sunday in May is celebrated as Mother’s Day in many countries, including Turkey. Members of the Association of Those Who Lost Their Loved Ones in Anatolia (ANYAKAY-DER) and many other women also attended the event.
The poem, by Öcalan, who has been imprisoned in Turkey since 1999, was inspired by letters sent to him by children, and was shared with the public for the first time. The text is given below:
To all children
I got to know them one morning
When the cold door opened, with its metal bolt,
The guard standing there as usual
With a pile of newspapers in his hand.
“Have any letters come today?” I asked
“There are 195 letters,” he said in a low voice.
A hundred and ninety-five letters. Inside the letters, 195 children
All of them my visitors today
In this tiny, four-square-metre space
Welcome, children
You have brought flowers to my cell,
My big-hearted friends,
You have brought the whole world to my airless cell,
You have come with the breath of spring,
You have scattered all the colours into the sea.
Breathing the children in
I hugged them one by one.
After that, while leafing through the newspapers
I caught sight of part of a page
Pictures of children of Urfa
Lined up in rows
On a black-and-white background
Children, all dressed in white
Tall and short, before the camera lens
Each glance like a word, an action
In the smallest of them, a whole world
My gaze is fixed
For a full half hour
I went to the children, to where the 195 children had gathered
I went with those children
To all the children of the world
Those gazes, nameless novels
Today I walked on little hands
I gave my hand to the children
They took me away, to freedom, to the sky
Freedom begins with them, ends with them
Today I embraced the scent of the sea, of the earth
I was always a child myself
Hidden in the world of children
Lost in conversation with my little friends.
Startled by the sound of that iron bolt
An hour in the open air
Walking step by step
I raised my hand
To the cranes gliding in the sky
And from my heart, said “hello”
Say hello, cranes, say hello to the 195 children…
Tell them,
To learn beauty, to learn science
Tell the mothers and the fathers,
Not to let them go hungry
Tell them, cranes, tell them
Tell the children of Urfa that I send them my kisses
Say hello to all the children
Tell them that the leader will live for them
Tell them that I love them very much
Tell them that I kiss all their eyes.
The leader.
