When armies fail in military operations, they tend to blame those who are responsible for coordination and leadership. They believe that they can prevent losses and succeed by changing personnel. Such changes can be used as a tactic in conventional warfare, i.e. when regular armies of relatively equal strength fight each other, but when it comes to guerrilla warfare, this tactic leads to no result. On the contrary, the new level of command can put its soldiers in dangerous situations under impossible conditions to show their power and prove themselves. An example of this is the situation in the Medya Defense Zones in southern Kurdistan. When the Turkish army suffered major defeats and losses in 2022, it devised a way out by replacing the operational command in 2023 and expanding the boundaries of the operation. This new command willingly sent its own soldiers to die against the guerrillas to show its power and please its masters. There are many reasons for the resulting losses.
Mobile guerrilla teams wear down the enemy
The restructuring into a guerrilla of democratic modernity, successfully applying the doctrine of revolutionary warfare under the most difficult conditions, has proven and shown everyone the level of struggle that can be achieved. The Kurdistan Freedom Guerrilla is raising the bar of struggle by becoming more tactically professional with each passing day. They demonstrate this in the war zone against the enemy's most advanced techniques and technological equipment. Enormous successes are achieved through professionalization in various sectors. The guerrillas use various tactics to carry out result-oriented actions, from snipers to sabotage to heavy weapons. These tactics are used both alone and in combination.
This style is practiced in two main areas. The first area is the guerrilla teams in the battle tunnels and the second area is the mobile teams that move around the terrain. The resistance in the battle tunnels represents a culmination of the struggle developed in the last century. We continuously observe that the Turkish occupation state uses all modern techniques against the guerrilla tunnels in addition to conventional weapons. There is great resistance against this form of aggression in the tunnels. The resistance consists not only of passive defense, but also of attacking the enemy before it gets close and retreating into the battle tunnels without suffering casualties. The style of the mobile guerrilla teams in the field is the one that wears down and hits the enemy troops the most. With this style, the guerrilla teams camouflaged according to the terrain can observe the enemy from one moment to the next, bring them under control and unexpectedly strike and destroy them at the most opportune moment.
Psychological effects
The Turkish army was not prepared for such a style, and as the invasion grew longer and more extensive, the conditions of war, apart from the guerrilla attacks, hit its own troops hard. Also, from a psychological point of view, the presence of the guerrillas in the tunnels, even when they are not carrying out attacks, and the constant presence of mobile guerrilla groups, which they cannot predict where and when they will encounter them again, has a great demoralizing effect on the enemy soldiers. The resistance in the battle tunnels in Sîda and Girê FM in the Zap region, which has lasted almost two years, is one of the best examples of this. The occupying army has deployed the entire arsenal in its inventory against the tunnels, but the guerrilla resistance continues nonetheless. The guerrillas have the great advantage of knowing the terrain.
Despite uninterrupted control from the air, the guerrillas are still mobile. In order to interrupt the connections between the areas, the guerrillas' strategic lines of passage are constantly bombed. However, the guerrillas suffer no casualties from these bombings. The reason for this is the tunnels built by the guerrillas and the experience they have gained in recent years.
Revolutionary guerrilla operations turned the situation on the ground upside down
The occupiers stepped up their attacks with a new style in 2023 to make up for the defeat suffered the previous year and compensate for their losses. They thought they could achieve success by changing the level of command in the operation. However, the heavy blows they received during the year have put this new command to shame. The revolutionary guerrilla operations in the last two months have turned the situation on the ground completely upside down. The more the army tended to expand on the ground, the more this situation favored the guerrillas. Above all, its approach of underestimating the guerrillas has shown in practice what a mistake it has made. With the decision of the so-called new command center, it was decided not to withdraw from some areas this winter as in previous years. This wrong decision was the beginning of a heavy blow for the occupiers, as the guerrillas have largely eliminated the negative effects of seasonal differences on their fighting ability due to their reorganization.
Only the guerrillas can survive here
They thought that they could easily take the Medya Defense Zones and especially Zap. However, in winter, these areas become hell for those who don't know them. The conditions there are so harsh that you can feel nature's war against humans down to your bones. Only the guerrillas can survive here. The snow is meters high in winter, snowstorms and storms are never far away. The guerrillas have been fighting against these conditions for years, but the occupying army cannot withstand them.
This is a dimension related to the human will. The Apoist spirit of sacrifice sustains the guerrilla even under the most impossible conditions and circumstances and increases the determination to fight. For the guerrilla pursues the sacred goal of fighting for freedom until there is not a single occupier left. This will allows people to do things they normally cannot even dream of. Despite the difficult conditions, the guerrillas paralyzed the occupying army with their revolutionary operations on December 22 and 23. In dense fog and snow, they infiltrated enemy positions, demonstrating once again the effectiveness of professional guerrilla warfare. The enemy cannot harm the guerrillas, even if they change hundreds of command levels. We have seen this in concrete terms.
Erdoğan regime continued to send its soldiers to their deaths
Last year, the Turkish occupying army suffered over 900 deaths. This was made public by the guerrilla forces, sometimes with specific images. In many cases, the names of the soldiers killed, their identification tags and the equipment taken from them were published. Nevertheless, the Erdoğan regime continued to send its soldiers to their deaths and concealed its losses in order to avoid public pressure. It is now obvious that there is a major deadlock in domestic politics. The economic problems of the people of Turkey have reached an all-time high, and although a utopian picture is being painted, society is no longer falling for these lies and is beginning to question. At least a certain section has started to question.
Therefore, the fascist Erdoğan regime has once again found a means to spread fascism and propaganda about the death of soldiers. It is obvious that the announcement of the death of twelve soldiers after the latest guerrilla operations serves to shift social perception back in an anti-Kurdish direction and prevent the public from questioning the existing problems. The Turkish army is suffering one loss after another on the ground and the system is collapsing. In light of all this, it is important that society's perception sees through these dirty games and takes a stand against the Erdoğan regime. The occupying army will not succeed no matter what is done against the guerrilla struggle. The burden of war falls on Turkey's entire society. Soldiers are blinded by the litany of fatherland and nation and sent to their deaths to maintain the regime's power.
The occupiers have two options
As Murat Karayılan, commander of the headquarters of the People's Defense Forces, has said, the reality on the ground shows that the occupying forces have two options: Either they withdraw and leave the guerrilla areas completely or they stay and are annihilated. The invaders have no other choice against the guerrillas. They have probably realized better after these last blows that their technical equipment cannot save them. If they don't realize it, the guerrillas will make them do it with effective blows. There is no doubt about that.