The People's Defense Forces (HPG) have published a statement for guerrillas Kemal Piling and Devran Cûdî. Both guerrillas were killed in an attack by the Turkish state in the Medya Defense Areas in September 2021.

"We commemorate our comrades Kemal and Devran, who became immortal because they sacrificed their lives for the freedom of our people, with respect and gratitude and reaffirm our promise to lead their struggle to victory," said the statement published by the HPG.

 Code name: Kemal Piling

 First and last name: Ubeydullah Muhammed Laçin

 Place of birth: Istanbul

 Names of mother and father: Gulê - Orhan

 Date and place of death: 5/9/2021, Medya Defense Areas

 Code name: Devran Cûdî

 First and last name: Nimet Fındık

 Place of birth: Şirnex

 Names of mother and father: Sultan - Mahmut

 Date and place of death: 5/9/ 2021, Medya Defense Areas

Kemal Piling

Kemal Piling was born in the western Turkish metropolis of Istanbul. His parents originally came from Ağrı (Agirî), left their homeland in the early 1990s and raised their children far from their own identity and culture due to the assimilation and oppression policies in force in North Kurdistan at the time. Confronting this reality led to Kemal Piling's first profound contradiction in his youth. As he grew older and became more socialist in his politics, he realized that the Kurdish liberation movement offered solutions to discrepancies like these.

He became active within the Revolutionary Youth of Kurdistan because he took up the idea that the PKK's liberation struggle was also a struggle for freedom, equality and a life of dignity against capitalist modernity.

Kemal Piling joined the guerrillas in Dersim in 2011. He had been there for around two years when PKK founder Abdullah Öcalan, who was being held as a political hostage in Turkey, called on the guerrillas to withdraw from Turkey in 2013 as part of a dialogue process with the Turkish state. Kemal Piling refused to leave Northe Kurdistan. "He suspected that the enemy's intentions for peace and reconciliation were only feigned and insisted on staying in the Cûdî Mountains. We could not refuse our friend this wish," said the HPG.

But the fighter did not stay in the mountains in the province of Şirnex (Şırnak) for long. The following year, he went to Rojava to take part in the fight against the Islamic State in Kobanê. He was seriously injured in a battle. After recovering, he returned to the Cûdî Mountain for a short time, but soon moved to the Medya Defense Areas. After intensive ideological and military training, he was deployed in the field of strategic special operations. The HPG paid tribute to Kemal Piling as a passionate fighter of the revolution who represented the militancy of the PKK until the end.

Devran Cûdî

Devran Cûdî was born in Silopi near Şirnex and belonged to the Teyî tribe, a family confederation that has always been deeply rooted in the Kurdish liberation movement. Many of their tribesmen fell as martyrs in the ranks of the guerrillas. This fact shaped the lives of many other members of the Teyî, including that of Devran Cûdî. He grew up in an environment where the martyrs and the goals for which they stood and gave their lives, as well as the reasons why they had chosen armed resistance, were always present.

It was no coincidence that Devran Cûdî broke with the system while still a student. The HPG said: "He did not allow himself to be alienated from his reality in the schools of the Turkish state, which function as centers of assimilation in Kurdistan, but always tried to preserve his own essence. He refused to allow the rulers to integrate him into their system. That was Hevalê Devran's first success against capitalist modernity. At that time, he was in the eighth grade."

His anger against the state increased in the following years, when the level of oppression in North Kurdistan even exceeded that of the dark 1990s. In 2015, Devran Cûdî joined the guerrillas in Botan. Shortly after his first ideological and military training, he expressed his wish to be transferred to the front line. In the summer of that year, the Turkish state unilaterally ended the dialogue process with Abdullah Öcalan and launched a devastating war against the PKK. Devran Cûdî did not go to the war front, but worked in the area of ​​strategic special operations. He only went to the Medya Defense Areas in 2017.

The HPG expressed its condolences to the relatives of the martyrs and to the Kurdish people.