The People's Defense Forces - HPG have published the names of three guerrillas who fell as martyrs in Bektorya in the southern Kurdish region of Heftanîn during clashes against the Turkish army. According to a statement published by the HPG press office, Bêrîtan Kobanê, Jinda Mardin and Mîrza Tolhildan fell as martyrs last Tuesday.

The statement said: “On 23 March, our forces carried out an attack from two sides against the occupiers at the Koordine summit. Subsequently there were battles from close range. Our companions Bêrîtan and Jinda as well as our friend Mîrza fought selflessly and fell as martyrs."

 

The identities of the martyrs are as follows:

      Code name: Bêrîtan Kobanê

      Name and surname: Talivan Terpuş

      Place of Birth: Kobanê

      Mother and father’s name: Islim - Fethi

      Date and place of martyrdom: 23/3/2021 Heftanîn

 

      Code name: Mirza Tolhildan

      Name and surname: Devran Demir

      Place of birth: Mersin

      Mother and father’s name: Saadet - Murat

      Date and place of martyrdom: 23/3/2021 Heftanîn

 

      Code name: Jinda Mardin

      First and last name: Zeynep Acet

      Place of birth: Urfa

      Mother and father’s name: Zehra - Vahit

      Date and place of death: 23/3/2021 Heftanîn

 

Bêrîtan Kobanê was named after her hometown in Rojava and after the nom de guerre of the legendary guerrilla commander Gülnaz Karataş, one of the leading figures of the Kurdish women's freedom movement, which survived in the so-called "Southern War" in 1992 for only 25 days in the combat zone until her spectacular martyrdom who made immortal. She had thrown herself from a rock to avoid being seized by Peshmerga of the KDP, which were cooperating with the Turkish army.

The HPG statement said: “Bêrîtan Kobanê followed the path of her namesake and fought with the spirit of Zîlan [Zeynep Kınaci] against the genocide attacks of the occupiers. We will always remember her as the heroine of Heftanîn.

Jinda Mardin was born into a patriotic family from Mardin in the province of Urfa. Even as a toddler, she witnessed the assimilation policy of the Turkish state in Kurdistan, the HPG wrote in their obituary. Deeply impressed by Abdullah Öcalan's paradigm, in whose theses the liberation of women is a central point, she joined the ranks of the guerrillas in 2016.

Mîrza Tolhildan was the son of a family from the Kurdish resistance region of Botan, who was expelled from their village in Eruh in the province of Siirt during the so called Turkish "counterinsurgency". The family settled in the Turkish coastal metropolis of Mersin, but remained connected to their resistant tradition in the diaspora."

The HPG expressed their condolences to the families of Bêrîtan Kobanê, Jinda Mardin and Mîrza Tolhildan and the Kurdish people. "We promise to crown the struggle of our heroines and heroes with a victory."