The press center of the People's Defense Forces (HPG) has published the names of two guerrillas who fell as martyrs in 2021. Andok Axîn and Destan Dêrsîm died on 3 June 2021 as the result of an attack by the Turkish army in the area of Cîloya Biçûk in the South Kurdish region of Zap. The two fighters were leading militants of the Bazên Zagrosê revolutionary offensive against the Turkish invasion attacks in Zap. Andok came from Halabja in South Kurdistan, while Destan was from the district of Nusaybin (Nisêbîn) in the northern Kurdish province of Mardin (Mêrdîn). The HPG offered their condolences to the families of the martyrs and the Kurdish people and vowed to keep the memory of the martyrs alive.

  Codename: Andok Axîn

  First and last name: Warzer Yasin

  Place of birth: Halabja

  Mother and father’s name: Zuhre – Yasin

  Date and place of death: June 3, 2021 / Zap

 

  Codename: Destan Dêrsîm

  First and last name: Mehmet Sait Acat

  Place of birth: Mêrdîn

  Mother and father’s name: Kevser – Mehmet Nuri

  Date and place of death: June 3, 2021 / Zap

Andok Axîn

Andok Axîn was born in Halabja and grew up with the story of Saddam’s gas massacre in 1988. The HPG pointed out that the population of "South Kurdistan has a deeply rooted patriotic consciousness and has been fighting for freedom for over a hundred years. This struggle has claimed many victims since the Ottomans plundered British imperialism and the artificial state of Iraq that was later founded until today. The Anfal operation under Saddam's regime killed hundreds of thousands of people in South Kurdistan. Nevertheless, the Kurdish people persisted in their resistance and achieved certain achievements."

The statement continued: “Andok's father, Mam Yasin, was a Peshmerga all his life. His mother, Zohre, instilled in her children ethical values and an awareness of their identity. Family members joined the Kurdish liberation struggle and Andok knew about this movement as a child. As an adolescent, he became active in the revolutionary youth movement. There, he tried to organize young people and make them aware of the reality of Kurdistan. It became clear to him that the fight was taking place primarily on an ideological level and that certain groups of people who had initially supported the freedom of Kurdistan became more and more similar to the enemies of Kurds after they had achieved their first gains. Andok believed in the need for a mind revolution and fought, starting with himself, against a way of thinking based on power and domination. He joined the guerrillas in 2017.

Andok went into the mountains during a phase of heavy attacks on the Kurdish freedom movement and pursued with great determination the promise he made to himself to take a leading role in life and struggle. In 2018, he came to the Zap region. He carried out various tasks and showed great commitment to the construction of underground defensive positions. At the same time, he was very concerned with the restructuring of the guerrillas and the requirements for effective defense.

In 2021, the Turkish state assumed that it would be able to conquer the Media Defense Areas within a short period of time with the support of local collaborators. When the long-prepared invasion of the Turkish army began in the regions of Avaşîn, Zap and Metîna, Andok took part in the resistance in the Cîloya Biçûk area with courage and sacrifice. He died along with Destan Dêrsîm in an enemy attack."

Destan Dêrsîm

Destan Dêrsîm was born in Nusaybin. Countless people from the region have joined the Kurdish liberation struggle. The city is known for its popular uprisings (serhildan). Destan's family was also close to the freedom movement and he grew up in a corresponding atmosphere.

The HPG said that "as a child, he heard about the Serhildan in the 1990s and the guerrilla struggle in the Bagok Mountains. At the same time, he experienced the brutal oppression of the population by the Turkish state. The fact that his country was divided by artificial borders became clear to him when looking at the border between Nusaybin and Qamişlo. He became active in the youth movement and thereby developed further. When the guerrilla commander Akîf Bagok (Mehmet Şirin Cebe), who had a great influence on the population in Mardin, was killed in early 2013, Destan was deeply affected and felt it was his duty to pick up the fight. The revolution in Rojava inspired him and, like thousands of other young people from Bakur, he crossed the border to defend the population against the Islamic State. In Rojava, he took part in various offensives and played an effective role in the fight against Islamist barbarism. In 2015, he returned to Nusaybin to take part in the resistance for self-government. He then went into the mountains and joined the guerrillas.

When he went to the mountains, Destan already had combat experience and was able to deepen his knowledge of basic training for new fighters. It was clear to him that one does not become liberated simply by coming to a liberated area, but that this requires constant intellectual and practical work. He studied the philosophy of Abdullah Öcalan and tried to implement it in the collective life of the guerrillas. The women's liberation ideology in particular had a strong influence on him. At a military academy, he learned more about modern guerrilla warfare and focused on effective war tactics. After further training, he went to the region of Zap and was tasked with the building of tunnels. When the Turkish invasion of the Medya Defense Areas began in 2021, Destan Dêrsîm resisted on the front line until the end."