People's Defense Center (HSM) Headquarters Command has published a statement announcing the death Egîd Civyan (Vahdettin Karay), member of the HPG Command Council and Commander of the Botan region, died on September 11. Accordingly, the guerrilla commander was martyred alongside two other guerrillas, Hebun and Canfeda, in a clash with Turkish military forces in Çatak district of Van province.

The HSM statement includes the following:

"On September 11, Egîd Civyan (Vahdettin Karay), Canfeda Goyî (Tekin Yıldırım) and Hebûn Girê Spî (Xelîl Kavûs) were martyred in a clash with the Turkish colonialist and occupying forces in the Masiro region in Çatak, Van. Egîd Civyan was a member of the HPG Command Council, our area commander in the Botan region and commander of the forces that intervened in Shengal against the genocide on the Yazidi people. We express our condolences to the precious families of the fallen, our people in Gever and the whole Botan region, our heroic guerrilla and all the people of Kurdistan. We renew the promise we have made to all our martyrs in the person of these courageous martyrs.

The occupation operation, which began in the Masiro region in the early morning of September 11, began as always with an air strike. No guerrilla losses occurred in this air attack. Although there were several alternatives, our comrade Egîd chose a historically significant action and the guerrillas, with the selfless Apoist spirit, carried out a comprehensive assault on a hill where the control center of the enemy command was located. This revolutionary assault operation, which was launched at 6:30 a.m., became a historically significant action with its results. During the action, five high-ranking officials of the Turkish colonialists in the command control center and at least ten other occupiers were killed. The fighting took on a greater dimension with the intervention of Cobra helicopters and other aircraft against the guerrilla forces that successfully destroyed the enemy targets under the command of Heval Egîd. In this action, which is equivalent to a true heroic epic, the area commander Egîd Civyan and the team commanders Canfeda Goyî and Hebûn Girê Spî fell as martyrs.

It was already confirmed earlier that Canfeda Goyî and Hebûn Girê Spî had been martyred, and the HPG Press Center made their deaths public. Only later did our center receive concrete and detailed information that confirmed the death of Heval Egîd.”

According to the HSM statement, Comrade Egîd Civyan was born in Gever (Yüksekova) and became acquainted with the thoughts of Abdullah Öcalan as a university student. In 1995 he dropped out of his studies and joined the guerrilla. He fought for 26 years in the mountains of Kurdistan, was in Botan and the Zagros Mountains at the most difficult times, and he took on important ideological, organizational and military tasks as the commander of areas like Çarçela and Kato Jîrka. During the withdrawal of guerrilla forces in 2013, he moved to the Medya Defense Zones and was active in organization and educational work within the command responsible for Northern Kurdistan.

The liberation of Shengal

The HSM statement continued: “After the ISIS attack on Shengal on August 3, 2014, Egîd Civyan took command of the forces sent to the area to rescue the Yazidi people. He was one of the unforgettable personalities who, with great courage and intelligence, succeeded in freeing our people from the grip of the ISIS.”

Escaping from the genocide, the Yezidis fled to Mount Shengal at the time and were defended by the guerrillas against the attacks of the ISIS. At the same time an escape corridor to Rojava was cleared. Through the selfless efforts of the guerrillas and the YPG/YPJ, 150,000 people were able to reach Rojava from Shengal within eight days.

“This operation to save human lives, which not even states with completely different capabilities were capable of, was planned by Heval Egîd on behalf of our party PKK and was carried out with great success in a disciplined manner," the headquarters said.

Egîd Civyan defended the mountain region for months and finally went to the city center to lead the city struggle and drive the ISIS out of the entire region. He stayed in Shengal for three years and did not leave the region until a self-managed system could be installed.

In 2017, he returned to the Medya Defense Zones and finally went to Botan in 2018.

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