YJA Star Commander Feride Alkan answered the questions of journalist Çınar Göktaş regarding the 36th anniversary of the 15 August Initiative, the resistance organized by the YJA Star and HPG guerrillas against the invasion and genocidal attacks launched by the Turkish state.

The Battle of Heftanin [Cenga Heftanin] has going on for about 2 months and its nearing the 15 August anniversary. How were these 2 months?

A couple of months have passed since the resistance started. First of all, I salute all the heroes of Cenga Heftanin who fell on the path of Comrade Mahsum Korkmaz, the great commander. We can talk about two full, busy, and important months. Recently, there has been a legendary resistance in Pirbula and we could talk about that a lot, films can be made and novels can be written about that resistance.

A young 19-year-old guerrilla comrade waited for the soldiers trying to infiltrate Pirbula with a great spirit of resistance. With the attack of friends from 8 sides, 22 soldiers were killed along with the treacherous betrayers who helped them. Eight of them were seriously injured, others had to flee the area, leaving their belongings without looking back, so to speak. There were clashes until the evening. They could only take their corpses towards the evening with a great display of weaponry. They carried out heavy air attacks during the night. The only martyr of this great resistance was Heval Warshin. He was the first to meet the enemy, and he sacrificed himself to allow the other comrades to take position. If we were to summarize the events of two months with this incident, the following has emerged: The enemy who tried to expand the occupation of South Kurdistan and Kurdistan in general with the invasion of Heftanin was stopped there.

This is the strength of the Kurdistan freedom guerrilla, even when fighting with NATO's second largest army. It has been like this for 36 years. Many governments were overthrown in the multi-faceted war against the struggle led by Leader Apo [Abdullah Ocalan] in Kurdistan with the support of all colonialist and imperialist states.

Can we call what happened in this two-month period, the restructuring of HPG?

We can easily say this. For the HPG, YJA Star, a new era has started, which we call professionalization, modern guerrilla. This model has been implemented very concretely in Heftanin. The result of this is that 50 planes bombed Xantur until the morning, but we only lost Comrade Çekdar. When the enemy bombed Şeşdare with all its sophisticated weaponry, Comrade Esmer caused the enemy dozens of losses.

Can we say that YJA Star has also moved to a new stage? Or could Heftanin pave the way for the next phase of YJA Star?

In the modern guerrilla age, as in all of our war history, the leadership of women and therefore the leadership of the YJA Star as a women's army has been crucial.

A few days ago in Pervari, the female comrades killed 12 soldiers in a sabotage action, and it was not an easy place. But with the successful action of a female unit, YJA Star's leadership has demonstrated its insistence on the war. In other words, Heftanin demonstrated the truth of comrade Gülnaz Karataş-Beritan when she said: 'We exist as we fight, we grow and become more beautiful as we fight'.

Can we state that Cenga Heftanin is the updated version of 15 August?

Undoubtedly, 15 August emerged as a stance against fascism. It was an initiative to say “stop” to fascism, “stop” to denial and annihilation. It was daring to live honourably and humanely, paying whatever cost is needed for this, but refusing to submit to slavery.

If the war is also a balance sheet then we have to say that the two-month balance sheet reports more than 300 enemies killed. There is a war unlike anywhere in the world. In which hot war zone in the world, in Yemen, Libya, Idlib, are 50 planes striking continuously overnight?

A syndrome has been experienced in the past two months, right?

What makes this syndrome is the guerrilla stance that has become modern and professional with new tactics and style. It is a 2-month resistance war that we refer to as Cenga Heftanin.