Guerrillas Mahir Binevş and Azad Serab died resisting the Turkish invasion of the Zap region in South Kurdistan.

The press center of the People's Defense Forces (HPG) in Behdinan said in a statement that the guerrillas were killed in an enemy attack on 22 June 2023 in the west of the Zap. Mahir Binevş was a Kurd and came from Nusaybin (Nisêbîn), Azad Serab was an Arab born in Manbij in Northern Syria.

The HPG said: "Our comrades Mahir and Azad knew that the murderous Turkish state had nothing to offer the peoples of the Middle East except oppression. They were aware of their revolutionary responsibility and fought against it."

The HPG expressed their condolences to the relatives and the Kurdish and Arab people and declared that the memory of those who fell in battle lives on.

The HPG provided the following information regarding the identities of Mahir Binevş and Azad Serab:

 Codename: Mahir Binevş

 First and last name: Idris Erkol

 Place of birth: Istanbul

 Names of mother and father: Yasemin – Süleyman

 Date and place of death: 22 June 2023 / Zap

 Code name: Azad Serab

 First and last name: Ali Demlexî

 Place of birth: Manbij

 Names of mother and father: Meryem – Ahmed

 Date and place of death: 22 June 2023 / Zap

Mahir Binevş

Mahir Binevş was born in Istanbul. His family came from Mardin-Nusaybin and later returned home, so that Mahir grew up in Kurdistan with the awareness of his Kurdish identity. The Rojava revolution in 2012 highly inspired him and he was active in the youth movement in Nusaybin for a long time. As part of this commitment, he was involved in the preparation of self-government and played an important role in the resistance when the Turkish state attacked the city with brutal military force. After the destruction of Nusaybin, he joined the guerrillas.

After basic training, he worked in the mountains for around four years in the youth organization Komalên Ciwan. After the Turkish occupation attacks on the Medya Defense Areas began, he prepared for a front-line deployment with additional training.

Because of his skills, he was quickly able to train fighters himself. He then went to the western Zap region and took part in the resistance against the Turkish occupying forces.

Azad Serab

Azad Serab was born in Manbij to Arab parents and experienced the occupation of the region by the Islamic State. The liberation offensive in Manbij, led by the later fallen commanders Abu Leyla and Eylem Riha, sparked great hope among the population.

When the city was liberated from Kurdish and other fighters on 15 August 2016, Azad was just a teenager. Later on, he tried to find out which ideology these freedom fighters followed. He came to believe that the Rojava Revolution was the common revolution of the peoples. Together with his sister, he joined the revolutionary movement and continued his ideological and military training. Because he had never gone to school, he was only now learning to read and write. At the same time, he took part in cultural work. He concentrated on his military training and became a capable fighter. After the Turkish invasion in autumn 2019, which occupied Serêkaniyê and Girê Spî, he went to the mountains to become a guerrilla.

In the mountains he met people from different backgrounds who confirmed his experiences in Rojava. He worked with the ideas of Abdullah Öcalan and saw the “Democratic Nation” model realized in guerrilla life. Although he had already learned Kurdish in Syria, he worked hard to improve his language skills. As a convinced apoist militant, he eventually joined the resistance in the Zap and took part in numerous actions against the Turkish occupying forces.