The People's Defense Forces (HPG) have issued a statement to announce the deaths of guerrillas Yekbûn Şoreş and Rustem Hemdem. The guerrillas fell as martyrs in May while resisting the Turkish occupation in the Metîna region, the HPG said, expressing its condolences to the relatives of the martyrs and the Kurdish people. The guerrilla organization provided the following information about the biography of Yekbûn Şoreş and Rustem Hemdem:

 Code name: Yekbûn Şoreş

 First and last name: Nisan Ay

 Place of birth: Amed

 Names of mother and father: Ayhan – Mehmet Emin

 Date and place of death: May 19, 2024 / Metîna

 Code name: Rustem Hemdem

 First and last name: Sedat Özen

 Place of birth: Mûş

 Names of mother and father: Perihan – Misbeh

 Date and place of death: May 20, 2024 / Metîna

Yekbûn Şoreş

Yekbûn Şoreş was born in Amed. She grew up in a family close to the culture of Kurdistan and the Kurdish liberation struggle. She spent her childhood in her parents' village. It was here that she first met the reality of the state, as a result of raids and violence by the Turkish army. Under this impression, the family migrated to Izmir, a city on the Turkish Aegean coast.

As she grew older, Yekbûn Şoreş's confrontation with the state of war in Kurdistan and the omnipresent oppression there became even more apparent. The killing of an uncle on her mother's side by the state had a formative effect in this phase. She herself experienced the repression of the system. This fact led to her leaving school and instead pursuing various jobs - also to support her family.

"While Hevala Yekbûn was working, she deepened her questioning of the system. She looked at the role assigned to women in society, firmly rejected the act of commercializing women and the abuse of their bodies as advertising media," said the HPG. This was the period when the resistance for self-government in the Kurdish provinces in 2015 took place. Even then, Yekbûn Şoreş wanted to join the liberation movement, but had to postpone the implementation of this decision for several years. In 2019, she managed to overcome the hurdles and join the guerrillas.

In the mountains, Yekbûn Şoreş initially underwent basic military and ideological training. During this time, she intensively studied the women's liberation paradigm of Kurdish people’s leader Abdullah Öcalan. Over the years, the Kurdish leader often underlined that the degree of women's liberation is a measure of the liberation of society. Yekbûn Şoreş became part of the women's party PAJK and the autonomous women's guerrilla YJA Star (Free Women’s Units) with the motto ‘Social freedom and women's liberation are inseparable’. With the escalation of the war in Southern Kurdistan, she went to Metîna at the beginning of the 2020s. Here she fought against the occupation on various fronts. On 19 May 2024, she was seriously injured in an enemy attack on Metîna. Nevertheless, she fought until her last breath.

The HPG said: "Hevala Yekbûn was an apoist militant. With her selfless nature, her unwavering love and friendship, she has written her name into the history of our resistance and left lasting traces in the hearts of all her companions."

Rustem Hemdem

Rustem Hemdem came from the Tîl (Korkut) district in the province of Mûş. He grew up in a family environment that was committed to the Kurdish cause and, even as a child, felt sympathy for the liberation struggle. This was also the time when he first encountered the Turkish state's assimilation policy towards the Kurds.

As a student, he recognized the contradictory role of the school as an authority for assimilation and enlightenment at the same time. He himself felt the assimilative function of the school in particular, as it forced the denial of Kurdish identity.

These experiences continued when Rustem Hemdem's family left Mûş and migrated to western Turkey. He took this as an opportunity to examine his identity and culture even more intensively. While studying computer science at Trakya University in Edirne, he had the opportunity to analyze the reality of assimilation even more clearly. He viewed the education system in Turkey as a mechanism of alienation from one's own identity; he saw the schools in Kurdistan as a component of the state's "security policy" to keep the region under control.

Rustem Hemdem provided his own political answer to this by joining the Revolutionary Youth of Kurdistan. It was the late 2000s when the Kurdish movement led its "Edî bes e" [Enough] campaign. In 2008, he was arrested in the course of these activities and spent the next ten years in Turkish prison, including in Edirne, Tekirdağ and Bandırma. After his release in 2018, he went to the mountains.

Guerrilla Rustem Hemdem first underwent basic military training, and also intensified his knowledge in the ideological field. He gained his first practical experience in combat during the resistance against the occupation operation in Gare that began in February 2021. After successfully repelling the Turkish invasion, he initially went to the Academy for a while before returning to the front - this time in Metîna. He was part of the mobile guerrilla teams in Girê Hekarî and was deployed in Golka against the invasion. When the Turkish army's recent offensive on Metîna began on 16 April, he was among the first guerrilla units to take action against the occupation.

On 20 May, Rustem Hemdem was seriously injured in an enemy contact and subsequent fighting. To avoid being taken prisoner, he blew himself up with a hand grenade.

The HPG said: "As Hevalê Rustem's comrades, we repeat our promise that we will follow the dreams of all our fallen soldiers and march to the victory line with the banner of struggle that they have entrusted to us."