Anfal Bahdinan and the 1988 Chemical Bombing: The Turning Point That Ended My Relationship with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party

By: Kuhdarz Tamr

The events of “Anfal Bahdinan” and the chemical bombing in 1988 marked a major turning point in my life and were the dividing line that brought my relationship with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) to an end.

I became involved in politics at a young age, consumed by the dream of Kurdistan’s independence and martyrdom for its soil. I was introduced to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party through fellow students, worked as a “supporter” for the party for ten months, and was on the verge of joining the guerrilla fighters in the mountains.

However, questions began to eat away at my convictions. Every statement that reached me, every newspaper, magazine, or cassette I read or listened to, and even every PKK cadre who visited me seemed to contain nothing but hatred and attacks against President Masoud Barzani and the Kurdistan Democratic Party. The hostility toward them, and the focus on distorting their image, far exceeded the hostility directed at the occupying Turkish state. The systematic spread of hatred and accusations of treason angered me every time, until the “final turning point” came.

The party issued a statement concerning Kurdish refugees who had fled the hell of the “Anfal Bahdinan” campaign and sought refuge in Northern Kurdistan (Turkey), where they were staying in camps in “Amed” and “Mardin.” At the time, radio stations in London, Monte Carlo, and elsewhere were broadcasting daily reports that dozens of them had been poisoned and taken to hospitals and that some had died.

The party’s four-page statement was filled with accusations of treason directed at “Barzani” and the refugees themselves, describing them as “agents and spies of the Ankara regime.” I was outraged, and my doubts about the party’s identity and its true agenda grew. I made a clear decision to end this relationship and refused to return the statement to the party. I also publicly denounced the Workers’ Party’s policy and its unjustified hostility toward Barzani and the Democratic Party, and even toward the devastated Kurds of Southern Kurdistan, who were suffering under the weight of bombardment, displacement, and genocide.

A PKK cadre visited me, and I confronted him sharply at my doorstep. I declared that I was completely breaking ties with him and asked him never to knock on my door again, as I was no longer willing to attend their seminars or read their poisonous propaganda and nonsense. When he asked me to return the statement, I told him, "This statement will reach Barzani’s hands.”

The meeting ended with mutual threats. I told him plainly, "You are the enemies of Kurdistan and Barzani, not the enemies of the occupiers. You have nothing to do with independence or the Kurdish cause.”

From that point on, I began my journey of confronting this party and exposing its methods of deceiving ordinary people with false, grandiose slogans. Since 1995, I have written articles under the pen name “Kuhdarz Tamr” to expose their true nature, despite being repeatedly subjected to threats.

Distinguishing truth from falsehood does not require genius. Even at the age of eighteen, I recognized this deception, and thank God I did not waste years of my life sacrificing myself for a “democratic Turkey,” as many others did. The party’s hatred toward the “Barzani supporters” as they resisted genocide and the Anfal campaign, and its gloating over their suffering, was a strategic mission for the party—a fact later confirmed by “Yalchın Kuchuk” (a figure associated with the deep state and a friend of Ocalan).

Today, decades later, everything has become clear. The party’s leadership now openly declares its rejection of the idea of a Kurdish state, describing it as “backward” and “out of step with the spirit of the times,” and instead calling for a democratic Turkey. This amounts to a grave betrayal of the blood of the martyrs who were misled by slogans calling for a liberated Kurdistan.

Eternal glory to the martyrs of Anfal and to the righteous martyrs of Kurdistan.