Guerrilla commander Şêxmûs Milazgir was killed in a battle with Turkish military units in the Kurdish province of Ağrı (Agirî). The Press Center of the People's Defense Forces (HPG) said in a statement that the long-serving commander was killed last Tuesday in clashes in the area around Glîdax (the old name of Mount Ararat). The massif has been the target of a large-scale operation by the army, police and village guards since the beginning of the week, with combat aircraft and helicopters being deployed.

The body of Şêxmûs Milazgir was handed over to his relatives on Thursday and buried in his birthplace in the province of Muş (Mûş). The family expressed the suspicion that the body of the commander, who was born in 1975, may have been mistreated. Pictures circulated on social media by soldiers involved in the killing of Şêxmûs Milazgir show an intact body with a gunshot wound. However, when the body was washed, it was found that the body had been mutilated postmortem. The HPG expressed its condolences to the family of the fallen man and the Kurdish people.

 Code name: Şêxmûs Milazgir

 First and last name: Yılmaz Öner

 Place of birth: Mûş

 Names of mother and father: Melek – Hacı Ahmet

 Date and place of death: 18 June 2024 / Serhed

Şêxmûs Milazgir had been a member of the Kurdish freedom movement for 32 years. According to the HPG, he joined the guerrillas in 1992. This was an emotional decision. He was 17 years old at the time and lived in a region where the Turkish state's dirty war in Kurdistan in the early 1990s was particularly bloody, and the armed resistance against it was instrumental in the social struggle against oppression. He was part of a small group of guerrillas that, following the call of PKK founder Abdullah Öcalan, who was abducted to Turkey in 1999, did not retreat to the Medya Defense Areas but stayed in North Kurdistan.

Şêxmûs Milazgir spent most of his time there in the Serhed region. He was injured several times in battles, some of them seriously, but he recovered each time and continued his fight. At the same time, he and his group laid an important foundation for the offensive of 1 June 2004, through which the guerrillas struck against internal and external annihilation attacks.

It was not until 2010 that Şêxmûs Milazgir returned to the Medya Defense Areas for a longer period of time. He took part in various offensives against the Turkish occupation of South Kurdistan, including in Xakurke, where he also suffered a serious injury. Since 2019, he has been back in Serhed and was a member of the guerrilla regional command there. The HPG describe Şêxmûs Milazgir as an "irreplaceable friend" who dedicated 32 years of his life selflessly, courageously and determinedly to the freedom of his people.

The statement said: "In these 32 years, our comrade Şêxmûs has faced countless difficulties. He was repeatedly wounded, he dealt with ideological and organizational problems, thwarted enemy operations, took part in all actions selflessly, lived and cultivated truly sincere friendship, accepted his leadership tasks without hesitation and was ready wherever the fight required it. With his clear attitude, visible cooperativeness and persistent practice, Hevalê Şêxmûs knew how to be an example of militant morality and, as a selfless commander on the line of Apoism for over three decades, to integrate the history of a struggle for the free future of the Kurdish people into his personality.

He was alone when he fought against an entire army in his last confrontation with the enemy and joined the caravan of the fallen. Just as no hero or heroine of our people is forgotten, Commander Şêxmûs Milazgir will always be with us in our thoughts. The ideals to which he dedicated and sacrificed his life will prevail."