20th Anniversary of PKK assassination of Kani Yilmaz

The 20th Anniversary Of The PKK’s Assassination Of Kani Yilmaz (Faysal Dunlayici) 11.02.2006- 11.02.2026

Tens of thousands of lives sacrificed inside the PKK – for nothing?

Sheri Laizer | Exclusive to iKurd.net

The Dunayici family came from Ceylanpinar, right on the Turkish border with Syria, in a Kurdish majority area that straddled both sides. The border itself followed the now disused railway line and Ceylanpinar station.

Kani was working as an agricultural engineer during the period that a group of young rebels began to set up the Kurdistan Workers Party – virtually an adjunct of the Turkish Great Left and became an early activist. Along with thousands of other Kurds and left-wing rebels he was arrested during the Turkish military coup of 1980 and spent the next decade in prison. He emerged into the light of the more hopeful 1990s after surviving heavy torture. Many political prisoners perished in Turkish prisons in the inter-coup years.

After his release, following a period of recuperation in Lebanon he obtained political asylum in Germany. In Europe, Kani enjoyed an entirely political role, mainly in the media, often speaking at political events as the spokesman for the ERNK – the political wing of the PKK.

The PKK leader, Abdullah Ocalan, still enjoying his seat in Damascus meanwhile was made aware by jealous cadres of Kani’s easy going popularity. Kani freely demonstrated his feeling for his people. He knew their suffering and their needs at first hand. Internal backbiting and scheming were rife and Ocalan – paranoid about infidelity – sought to demote anyone who became well known outside his immediate control.

The British and German governments sought to undermine the PKK for the sake of their business interests with Turkey

On one tour as a political addressee to the UK, Kani Yilmaz had been invited by John Austin MP and several pro-Kurdish Lords to address a meeting in the House of Commons. After several days in London meeting the Kurdish community and solidarity campaigners Kani was cynically arrested on the steps of Parliament and was then imprisoned in the UK’s maximum security Belmarsh Prison. He remained in solitary there, deprived of books and with every visitor especially approved. His legal team, the highly regarded Michael Mansfield QC, a young and upcoming barrister, Mark Muller and London lawyers worked for his release between 1994-the summer of 1998 when he accepted a deal made with the German government to return there on the pledge they would not send him back to Turkey. Other fine details were inserted of what he could and could not do.

The threat of being refouled to Turkey despite his asylum status had always been an active one.

The Rome Catastrophe

Kani moved around Europe amongst a select group of cadres active in the diplomatic arena. He was present in 1998 when Ocalan arrived in Rome, Ocalan did not heed his advice or that of another wise counsellor, Akif Hassan, to stay in Rome until his claim for political asylum was decided. Instead, the leader, out of his Damascus comfort zone, made the grave mistake of listening to the wrong people. His own poor choice put him where he is today – enmeshed in the manipulative clutches of the right-wing Islamist Turkish enemy.

Brakuji – The fratricidal murderer

By the time Ocalan began pushing for the ‘peace’ sacrifices from Imrali Island, sending groups to surrender and be captured with nothing to show for it in return, increasing numbers of PKK activists began to break free, some to abandon politics all together, others to try to set up new political vehicles rejecting the Imrali dictates filtered out through Ocalan’s lawyers and by the prison custodians.

The Patriotic Democratic Party of Kurdistan – the PWD-K, was formed in Sulaimani in 2004. Even Ocalan’s younger brother, Osman, was on board for a time. The new party rejected armed struggle, but it did not beg for brotherhood with the Turkish foe as the PKK was doing. As it swiftly came to be viewed as a threat by the PKK, the PWD’K’s top thinkers were targeted with assassination – one by one they fell by fratricidal hands – brakujji in Kurdish.

On 11 February 2006, the menace came around to Kani. On a chill Saturday morning after Kani had gone to speak to the breakaways in their camp south of Sulaimani city warning them prior to the anniversary of Ocalan’s capture of death threats afoot, a bomb was planted under the seat of his car as he drove into town. The bomber asked to be dropped off. Moments later the car went up in flames. Kani and his young friend, Sabri Tori, were killed instantly.

Their deaths served absolutely nothing like the tens of thousands of others that had believed in the justice of a liberation struggle for the homeland of 35,000,000 Kurdish people.

At the time he was wiped from the face of the earth, Kani Yilmaz had been writing a political book.

Friends, including myself helped to finish the ms. after the assassination. I also found the physical evidence that C4 explosive had been used in the car bomb by finding the car and taking samples. 1

Consequences

The PKK killed off one of their best minds – one of their most selfless politicians. Kani and the PWD-K needed no Murray Bookchin [2] to tell them what to think. They had dedicated their lives and work to the Kurdish issue.

A second edition of Kani’s book with additional anecdotal material is in the additional document gathering stage.

Has the PKK moved on? No, not in my view, because there is no real ‘peace process’.

The PKK is still giving up everything that tens of thousands of people died for – to beg instead for brotherhood with an enemy that despises them, labelling them – as ever in the past – “terrorists.”

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