Abdullah Beğik, commonly known as Mullah Abdullah Timoki (Kurdish: Mele Evdilayê Timoqî), was a leading Kurdish cleric and Islamic scholar, who became a friend of Abdullah Öcalan in the later years of his life. He was and still is called Seyda by his devotees.[1][2]
Biography
Timoki was born in 1889 in the village of Gümüşörgü in Kozluk. He pursued Islamic studies at a madrasah and lived an ordinary life until Turkey was formed in 1923. He was targeted by the Turkish state many times because he repeatedly defied them by refusing to give khutbahs in Turkish, refusing to promote Turkish nationalism in mosques and madrasahs, and instead he became a Kurdish activist. He was arrested and tortured countless times before 1940, and was arrested after each of the 1960, 1971, and 1980 coups. When PKK reached the Kozluk region, he praised their militants as freedom fighters and offered them shelter in his house. The house was raided after a while by Turkish forces, coincidentally when Timoki was not present. Timoki immediately crossed the border into Syrian Kurdistan in 1985. He lived in the Mahsum Korkmaz Academy for many days, and was highly respected by all the PKK militants and leaders. He became close with Abdullah Öcalan and taught him about religion and was a mentor to him. He died at a hospital in Hasakah on February 2, 1992, at the age of 102 or 103 years, and was buried there. He had 6 sons and 5 daughters.[3][4]
He advocated for an independent Kurdistan, not for better status for Kurds as Turkish citizens, nor for the restoration of the Ottoman Empire. Before his death, he told Abdullah Öcalan that he wanted to "live a little more and see the independent Kurdistan", in which Öcalan claimed that the PKK would achieve his wish after his death.[5] During Tiloki's funeral, Öcalan referred to him as the "the pedigree of independence" and urged Kurdish militants to dedicate their future victories to Tiloki, and remember him after the establishment of Kurdistan.[6] Öcalan also later stated that "he was a very beautiful person who protected his soul cleanly, did not get involved in the dirt that is the Turkish Republic, and did not get involved in their polluted values of Islam", referring to the addition of Turkish nationalism into Islam, as well as the Turkification of Islam which was done by Turkey. Öcalan, while speaking about Tiloki, also said "I don't think there is an elder that I love as much as that elder."[7][8]
The Batman Municipality sparked controversy after naming a 2,500 acre park in Yeşiltepe, Batman, after Tiloki.[9][10]
References
- ^ https://www.ozgurpolitika.com/haberi-musluman-kurt-yurtseverliginin-timsali-mele-evdilaye-timoqi-cihan-eren-124685
- ^ https://firatnews.com/avrupa/kuert-muesluemanlar-soemuergecilige-baskaldirmali-122891#google_vignette
- ^ https://www.posta.com.tr/gundem/parka-pkklinin-adi-verildi-44578
- ^ https://firatnews.com/kurdIstan/kurt-tarihinin-onemli-uc-ismiyle-unutulmayan-dostluk-156226#google_vignette
- ^ https://firatnews.com/kurdIstan/kurt-tarihinin-onemli-uc-ismiyle-unutulmayan-dostluk-156226#google_vignette
- ^ https://firatnews.com/kurdIstan/kurt-tarihinin-onemli-uc-ismiyle-unutulmayan-dostluk-156226#google_vignette
- ^ https://www.ozgurpolitika.com/haberi-musluman-kurt-yurtseverliginin-timsali-mele-evdilaye-timoqi-cihan-eren-124685
- ^ https://firatnews.com/avrupa/kuert-muesluemanlar-soemuergecilige-baskaldirmali-122891#google_vignette
- ^ https://www.posta.com.tr/gundem/parka-pkklinin-adi-verildi-44578
- ^ https://www.haberler.com/guncel/batman-da-parka-melle-abdullah-begik-adi-verildi-2254094-haberi/