The HPG Press Contact Center said: "In August, we celebrated the 39th anniversary of the Glorious August 15th Initiative and entered the 40th year of struggle. The Turkish occupation and destruction attacks continued."

The statement added: "The Turkish state has been unfortunately repeating the same ‘music’ for 40 years, claiming that it will end the Kurdistan Freedom Guerillas and achieve its goal. The Kurdistan Freedom Guerrillas, which started out as a few military units, have today become a force and truth that has a decisive impact not only on the borders of Bakurê [North] Kurdistan and Turkey, but also in the entire Kurdistan and the Middle East, and inspires all the oppressed peoples of the world. This force, which neither the Turkish state nor the international hegemonic powers could liquidate for 40 years, will march to victory thanks to the heroic epics written in Kurdistan and to the 40 years of experience of the just and legitimate freedom struggle. The Kurdistan Freedom Guerrillas are determined to achieve victory more than ever."

Kurdistan Freedom Guerillas have proven their innovativeness

The HPG statement underlined: "Equipped with the knowledge and experience of 40 years of struggle, the Kurdistan Freedom Guerrillas have brought a brand new breath to guerrilla warfare. This new stage is also referred to as the guerrilla of democratic modernity. It has proven its invincibility by achieving skills of movement, action and undertaking that can defeat the advanced war technologies, by using competent guerrilla tactics and by showing the skill of applying them with great creativity on the battlefield. The performance of our forces during the 15 August anniversary, in particular, clearly demonstrated this. The Kurdistan Freedom Guerrillas show how committed we are to the tradition we come from by following the line of martyrs.”

The HPG said that "the colonialist, genocidal Turkish state continued its attacks and operations uninterruptedly, especially in North Kurdistan, in August. Many operations were carried out, especially in Garzan, Dêrsîm, Serhed, Mêrdîn, Botan and Amed. Most of these operations were in vain. The Turkish state again hid its losses as a result of guerrilla actions in North Kurdistan, and only confessed the death of one of its soldiers. As seen in the resistance of our comrades Ardem and Bêrîtan in Garzan, our forces in North Kurdistan responded to the enemy attacks with the Apoist sacrifice spirit, wrote historical epics of resistance and inflicted heavy losses on the enemy."

Bombing, use of banned bombs, attacks against civilians

The HPG added: "While the occupying Turkish state continued its attacks in Bakurê Kurdistan by organizing comprehensive operations, it has also continuously bombed the Medya Defense Areas from the air and on the ground. Those areas were bombed 113 times by warplanes, 40 times by combat helicopters, and hundreds of times by howitzers, tanks and heavy weapons.

Turkey attacked our positions in the Resistance Areas once with a tactical nuclear bomb and twice with banned explosives. In addition, it deliberately bombed the settlements and vehicles of the people of the region in South Kurdistan from land and air, killing civilians. The South Kurdistan Regional Government remained silent and did not react to the attacks, becoming complicit in this inhumane war crime of the Turkish state. It did not speak out against the killing of our civilians.

323 actions, 134 soldiers killed

In the month of August, our forces carried out 323 actions. As a result of these actions, 134 soldiers were killed and 23 injured. In addition, a lot of military equipment was destroyed, confiscated and damaged.

10 guerillas fallen as martyrs

In August, 10 of our comrades who fought with the spirit, consciousness and belief of the historic 15 August Operation fell as martyrs. In North Kurdistan, our leading YJA Star commanders and fighters Ardem Ararat (Sultan Oruç), Gulbahar Mercan (Şekirnaz Kaplan), Eylem Munzur (Emine Kaplan), Dicle Eylem (Leyla Gülcü) and Bêrîtan Sîser (Gurbet Kaymaz) fell as martyrs. In Medya Defense Areas, our comrades Rêzan Botan (Rêzan Güngen), Bawer Botan (Bekir Kına), Çiya Agirî (İsmail Por Mahmud), Mesken Nisêbîn (Zeynep Kaya) and Kawa Çekdar (İbrahim Demir) fell as martyrs. Our comrades, who fought with great determination, self-sacrificing spirit and unshakable faith from Garzan to Mêrdîn, from Amed to Zap and Metina, joined the caravan of martyrs by following in the footsteps of our immortal commander Egîd (Mahsum Korkmaz)."