The People's Defence Forces (HPG) issued a statement on the action that targeted a police building in Mersin province. The statement released by the HPG press centre on Thursday includes the following:

“On the night of 26 September, two female comrades carried out a self-sacrificing action against enemy forces in the Mezitli district of Mersin. The action took place in response to the repression in the prisons, the massacres and the use of chemical weapons against the guerrillas.

Our companions, Sara and Rûken, have put their faith in the perspective of a professional self-sacrificing guerrilla team. They started moving from the rural area and successfully achieved their goal by overcoming all enemy information networks. The AKP/MHP regime wants to give the impression that it controls the whole of Turkey, knows everything about society and has agents everywhere. This is to intimidate society. Nevertheless, the enemy did not have any information about the identity of our friends or the nature of the action until our statement. In order to cover up its own weakness, the fascist AKP/MHP government has presented a false scenario for society.

Our self-sacrificing guerrilla team, under the command of comrade Sara, succeeded in achieving their goal in a professional manner. The fact that our companions Sara and Rûken went after the enemy target with great courage, self-confidence, prudence and determination is testimony to a spirit of sacrifice. They had the initiative in their hands and fired at the enemy first with a pistol and then with automatic weapons. Our self-sacrificing team organised this action on the basis of going after the enemy without hesitation for a sure result and carrying out a self-sacrificing action. At the same time, the action was masterfully planned at a professional level so that civilians would not be harmed. And this plan was successfully implemented by Sara and Rûken. After the battle with the enemy forces, they lured the enemy to them and set off the prepared explosion. They carried out their action and fell. The action of our comrades Sara and Rûken is proof of what autonomous self-sacrificing guerrilla teams and the Apoist self-sacrificing militants are capable of at the desired place and level.  

The Turkish state has attacked our forces with internationally banned bombs and chemical weapons a total of 2568 times in the years 2021 and 2022, starting at the beginning of 2021 in Siyanê in the Gare region. 66 of our comrades were killed in the attacks with banned bombs and chemical weapons. This crime against humanity, committed thousands of times by the Turkish state, has been ignored by everyone, nobody has reacted to it. Our companion Sara took part in the revolutionary operation against the enemy occupation attack in Gare in February 2021 at the command level. She was one of the first comrades who immediately started to move in the revolutionary operation, unreservedly attacked the enemy and reached the Siyanê camp where our companions were killed by chemical weapons. The chemical gas used there also affected Sara. The martyrdom of Şoreş Beytüşşebap and our other companions affected her deeply. She vowed revenge and based her self-sacrificing action on that.

The AKP/MHP government could not find out the names of our comrades who carried out this action. This shows how weak its intelligence service is. Although they knew that our friend Zozan Tolan was not involved in the action, the government deliberately named her and wanted to use her as a bargaining chip against her family and other circles. Our friend Zozan has nothing to do with this incident, she continues to do her job. The AKP/MHP government has arrested many people because of this action and is trying to take revenge on the people through pressure and torture. It is doing this to hide its failure against our self-sacrificing guerrilla team and to cover up the incident.

The AKP/MHP government has not been able to establish where our comrades came from for their action. It is deliberately trying to present it as if the action was from Rojava. Our friend Rûken had been in our ranks for a long time as a PKK militant in the rural area and as a member of Hêzên Taybet. She had no connection with the organisations in Rojava. The claim that this action was organised in Syria is not true. It is a fabricated lie of the AKP/MHP government, which is targeting its opponents.

While the sword of genocide is being pointed at our people, those resisting are being subjected to inhuman measures in the prisons, innocent Kurdish people are being murdered in different ways every day and our comrades are being martyred by chemical weapons, nobody can expect different behaviour from the Apoist self-sacrificing militants. Those who raise their voices against this great action should first look at the vile and dishonourable use of chemical weapons against our guerrillas by the fascist and genocidal AKP/MHP regime. If circles do not condemn the use of chemical weapons by the fascist regime and instead, for whatever reason, use the language of the enemy to criticise those who sacrifice themselves to protect the Kurdish people and their values, this can only be explained by the fact that they are intimidated. The comrades who sacrifice themselves to stop the genocide of the Kurdish people are our highest values. Those who verbally attack these values do not represent our patriotic people or the truth of self-sacrifice.

As long as the fascist AKP/MHP regime does not stop the inhuman torture in the prisons, the measures aimed at annihilation against our people and the use of chemical weapons against the guerrillas, we will continue such actions.

Our comrades who carried out this self-sacrificing action are as follows:

Nom de Guerre: Sara Tolhildan First-Last Name: Dilara Ürper Birthplace: Şırnak Mother's-Father's Name: Pîroz – Hamdi Date and Place of Martyrdom: 26 September 2022 / Mersin

Nom de Guerre: Rûken Zelal First-Last Name: Emel Feremez Hisên Birthplace: Qamishlo Mother's-Father's Name: Faize – Feremez Date and Place of Martyrdom: 26 September 2022 / Mersin