There are certain people who, when you look at their face, make you think that the smile must still remain even as they cry. You don’t need to know this kind of people for too long to see that the innocence they hold inside has manifested in a smile on their face. But don’t they ever feel grief, rage, or sadness? Only when you touch them, or listen to them, do you get the chance to know the flood of emotions they have inside. HPG member Eris Cesur is one of these people.

ALL EMOTIONS MANIFEST AS A SMILE

You don’t have to look too long at Cesur’s face to have it burned in your memory. He has a magnificent smile that is impossible to forget after seeing it once. Of course, in his young heart he has all the emotions as a human being underneath that eternal smile, as well as the love for his comrades and the pain of his two brothers, Eris and Cesur, who he takes his nom de guerre from.

“FOR THE MARTYRS, THE LEADER AND THE GUERRILLA”

HPG member Eris Cesur left the lands he was born in Northern Kurdistan after two of his brothers lost their lives in the PKK, and said the main reason he joined the HPG was “our martyrs, the Leader and the guerrillas who fight in the mountains”.

Eris Cesur took his name from Eris Gever who had joined HPG in 2013, and Cesur Gever who had joined in 2010: “All names are names of our martyrs, they took their names from other martyred comrades.”

Cesur said Turkish police used to raid their homes frequently before he joined the HPG and his brothers grew up seeing this pressure, which was why they joined and he himself has witnessed the worst of the pressure.

“WE GOT TOGETHER IN THE STRUGGLE”

Eris Cesur spoke about his brother Cesur Gever: “He always had a rage against the Turkish state, but he wouldn’t express it in a disorganized way. He was organized and known for his sharing character.” He said his brother wanted to see him but lost his life before he could: “We couldn’t get together in the mountains, but we do in the struggle.”

Eris Cesur said, “We walk on the same paths and drink from the same springs in these mountains,” adding that there are dozens of comrades Eris and Cesur for him now and all his comrades are as precious to him as his brothers, that he will fight for all his friends who lost their lives for the cause: “Martyr Cesur’s goal was to go to the Zagros mountains, I hope I can fulfill the guerrilla dreams of so many Cesurs.”

“PKK IS LIKE MILK”

On the PKK, HPG Member Eris Cesur said: “The organization has a different attraction. PKK is like milk, any contaminants in milk would show immediately and float to the surface, and that is how the PKK is.”