For four months, the Turkish army has been trying to capture the Şehîd Botan war tunnels through daily bombardments, using chemical weapons and carrying out ground attacks. It failed because he met with the guerrillas’ proud resistance.
For nine months, the Turkish army has been trying to conquer the Medya Defense Areas. The guerrillas are responding by putting up fierce resistance in war tunnels and with highly mobile units and have inflicted heavy losses on the Turkish army. One of the positions whose name has been mentioned repeatedly in the past two months is the Şehîd Botan War Tunnels. The Turkish army intensified its attacks there in December because it wanted to break the fighting positions there. On a single day, in December, 150 chemical weapon attacks were reported. But the guerrillas continue to resist.
The strategic role of the Çemço region
The Turkish invasion began on 14 April 2022 in the regions of Zap, Avaşîn and Metîna. The guerrillas responded with the Bazên Zagrosê offensive. The first months of the war were fought especially in the Zap and Avaşîn regions in the Zagros Mountains. In July, the war reached the Çemço region. Strategic summits such as Şehîd Adil, Kale Çemço, Şehîd Fedakar in Çemço and Sida areas have played an important role in coordinating the struggle and carrying out actions from the first day of the war. This particularly affected the Şehîd Şahin, Werxelê and Karker peaks. The guerrillas on the mountains of Çemço and Sida supported the fighters in Zap and Avaşîn with heavy weapons actions. At the same time, despite their limited technological means, they followed the movements of the Turkish army around the clock, informed the fighters in the tunnels about enemy movements and thus repeatedly prevented soldiers from going in front of the tunnels. In July, the Turkish army launched an invasion operation in these areas to wipe out the guerrillas in the mountains of Çemço and Sida. The positions of Kale Çemço, Şehîd Fedakar and the war tunnel Şehîd Botan on the top of the mountain Şehîd Adil have been putting up tremendous resistance for months.
One of the important guerrilla positions in the Zagros Mountains
In July 2022, the Turkish army attacked the Şehîd Botan War Tunnels with a display of its military capabilities. Although attempts were made to drop troops from Sikorsky helicopters for days, they were repulsed each time. Both the fighters in the tunnels and the guerrillas on the top of Kale Çemço contributed to this. Realizing that they could not land with helicopters, the Turkish army tried to advance with ground forces. In July, very fierce fighting broke out between the guerrillas in the Şehîd Botan War Tunnels and the invading forces. The fighting lasted two days. Many Turkish soldiers were killed in the clashes. The soldiers fled the guerrilla resistance and settled at the foot of Şehîd Adil. There, too, the guerrillas never gave the soldiers a moment of peace. The guerrilla units constantly attacked the soldiers with heavy weapons, while mobile guerrilla units pressured the soldiers with their actions.
The Şehîd Botan war tunnels have great strategic importance because they are making a crucial contribution to preventing the occupation of the Zagros region. Since the Şehîd Botan positions are on the borders of Sida, Çemço and Saca areas and play an important role in defending strategic peaks in Zap and Avaşîn, their defense is also a high priority for the guerrillas to thwart the Turkish invasion. For this reason, the commanders of the Turkish army sent their ground forces in front of these war tunnels again in August, although dozens of their soldiers were killed. Since August, the guerrillas have been waging resistance there on an historic scale.
The guerrillas there have been fighting in harsh conditions since April, maintaining an unimaginable level of resistance against all odds. This resistance continues even under the intense chemical weapons attacks of the past four months. The fighters in the tunnels have been subjected to round-the-clock chemical weapons attacks for the past four months. Every day they send out reports on the current situation and show an unbroken will to win and the determination to hold the positions. They defend their positions with very limited material resources and continue to carry out actions against the Turkish troops in front of the tunnels.
