Hüseyin Velioğlu

Hüseyin Velioğlu (born Hüseyin Durmaz; 1 January 1952 – 17 January 2000) was the leader of the Kurdish Hezbollah, a militant extremist organization in the early 1990s. He was killed in the Beykoz Operation.

Velioğlu was born in Bağözü, Gercüş on 1 January 1952, to a Kurdish family which spoke Kurmanji, from the Habezbenî tribe.^[1][2][3] He was born to Osman and Fatime Durmaz as the youngest of 5 children.^[4] He did not view Durmaz as his legitimate surname, but as an imprint of Turkification during the Turkish Surname Law, and in 1978 he legally changed his surname to Velioğlu (meaning "son of Veli"). His family was known among Kurds as "Mala Welî" ("House of Welî"). Welî was his paternal grandfather.^[3]

He grew more nationalistic and began studying Kurdish history as much as he could. He gained much knowledge, especially in geography, and was described as knowing every "mountain, stream, forest, road, village, and historical place" in Kurdistan as well as the Kurdish tribes and where they live.^[5] He even studied Kurdish linguistics, and knew much about the various Kurdish dialects, where they are spoken, and their history.^[6]

Velioğlu and Abdullah Öcalan were classmates at the Faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Ankara.^[2] In 1978, while still a university student, he got married, and he had 7 sons and 4 daughters.^[7] While Velioğlu was in university, he joined the Turkish National Student Union (MTTB) in 1978, and left it in 1980.^[8][9] The MTTB was a Turkish nationalist organization from its 1946 foundation until 1960, Turkish Islamic nationalist during the 1960s, and fully Islamist from 1970 until its closure after the 1980 coup.^[10][11]

Velioğlu claimed that Kurdish separatism was a complete right, and not an unjust and unprovoked nationalist movement like Turkish or Arab nationalism. While supporting Kurdish separatist movements in all four countries, he mainly focused on Turkey. He claimed that Kurds need to be nationalist and prioritise separatism, as the enemies of Kurds will never abandon their nationalism, and will continue wronging Kurds. Velioğlu called for Kurds to not be subordinate to Turks, to not speak in Turkish, to not be loyal to Turkey, and to not believe anything Turks say. He also claimed that the enemies of Kurds being Muslim as well was not a reason for Kurds to surrender and accept their situation. He also called for the independent Kurdistan to establish good relations with Muslim states first, and then focus on non-Muslim countries.^[12][13][14]

During his leadership of the Kurdish Hezbollah, he had attempted various times to form a united front with the PKK against Turkey, although he had failed, mostly due to the reluctance of the PKK.^{[15][16][17][18]} Despite his refusal to fight the PKK, after repetitive PKK attacks against Hezbollah, the conflict began.^[19] He hated the enmity between the PKK and Hezbollah, and he made many efforts to end the conflict, such as commanding Hezbollah to only fight the PKK in self-defense, and to not seek retaliation after PKK attacks. He claimed that the conflict only benefitted Turkey and that it should have been avoided.^[20] According to a retired JITEM agent, Turkey had offered to assist Hezbollah against the PKK, although Velioğlu rejected it, reiterating his hatred for Turkey and his optimism for peace between Hezbollah and the PKK.^[21] The clashes between Hezbollah and the PKK ended in 1995, although there was no official ceasefire until 1998.^[20][22]

Velioğlu was the most wanted man in Turkey after the arrest of Abdullah Öcalan.^[17][18] Velioğlu was a Kurdish ethnonationalist and sought an independent Kurdish state, while Öcalan opposed nationalism and advocated for democratic confederalism, multiculturalism, internationalism, and sought autonomy within Turkey.^{[23][24][25][26][27][28]} The main reason for the conflict between Velioğlu and Öcalan was the dispute over who was the leader of the Kurdish movement in Turkey.^[29] Velioğlu and Öcalan began to reconcile, and near the end of both of their careers, they were on good terms with each other.^[16]

Velioğlu founded the Kurdish Hezbollah in 1987, moving forward with the goal of forming Kurdistan as an independent country.^[9][30] Velioğlu emphasised the importance of speaking in Kurdish to his followers, as well as referring to their region as "North Kurdistan" instead of "Southeast Anatolia".^[31] Velioğlu spoke Kurmanji Kurdish in his daily life, and would even reply in Kurdish when his comrades spoke Turkish to him.^[32][33] Velioğlu was very extreme in achieving his goals, and even banned women from speaking Turkish as a way to raise an entirely Kurdish-speaking generation.^[34]

Velioğlu was known for being very competent. Despite being the most wanted man in Turkey, he successfully evaded authorities, and he was never caught when he travelled to other countries.^[35][36]

Velioğlu also frequently travelled to Iran.^[37][38] Velioğlu and Iran broke ties in 1996, when he got into a debate with Ali Khamenei over religion. Velioğlu claimed that Khamenei was very insistent in trying to get him to convert to Shia Islam, which Velioğlu refused and reiterated that he was a Shafi'i.^[39][40] Velioğlu avoided sectarianism between Sunnis and Shias, and stated "we recognise Shias as Muslims and brothers."^[41]

In 1998, Velioğlu travelled to Iraqi Kurdistan and received military and political training from Osman Abdulaziz, leader of the Kurdistan Islamic Movement.^[2] Velioğlu also travelled to the city of Soran along with 300 Kurdish Hezbollah fighters to receive training from Adham Barzani.^[42]

On January 17, 2000, Velioğlu woke up around 1:30AM to pray, and remained awake. Other high-ranking Hezbollah members were at the house. Shortly after praying the Afternoon prayer, they heard the Turkish police pounding on the door. A Hezbollah member informed Velioğlu about the police, with Velioğlu replying "rahêlin keleşa" (grab the rifles). Velioğlu stood right by the door, one of his comrades stood behind him, and the rest went to shoot at the police from the windows. When the police broke the door, they were met with heavy fire, and the shootout continued until Velioğlu and his comrade died. After the police saw that Velioğlu had died, they briefly left before returning and raiding the house to arrest the remaining two Hezbollah members.^[43][44] Edip Gümüş, a close friend of Velioğlu, claimed that Velioğlu, before his death, would often say "God willing, I will not survive the hands of the enemy."^[43] Turkish undertakers refused to prepare his body, and he was left abandoned in the morgue, until he was buried after 20 days, in which there was a conflict between his supporters and Turkish police during his burial.^[35] Velioğlu was buried in Batman, and his grave often gets visited by his supporters, where they remember him and chant in Kurdish.^[45] Supporters of Velioğlu referred to him as "Şehîd Rehber" (Kurdish for "the martyred leader").^[46]

In 2016, Cübbeli Ahmet allegedly insulted Hüseyin Velioğlu and angered Kurdish Hezbollah supporters.^[47]