In 2014, after the ISIS attacks in Southern Kurdistan (Northern Iraq), the guerrilla forces of HPG (People’s Defense Forces) and YJA Star (Free Women’s Troops) sent troops to Shengal, Maxmur and Kirkuk to defend the people of Southern Kurdistan against the Islamist invasion. Among other things, this stopped the ISIS advance on Hewlêr (Erbil). After the liberation and stabilisation of the region, the guerrilla forces were withdrawn step by step.

The headquarters of the People's Defence Forces (HSM) announced that the withdrawal of the guerrillas from Maxmur Camp has been completed. The HSM statement on Thursday includes the following:

“In the past eight years, the Turkish state has been attacking on a very massive scale. Its aim is, on the one hand, to liquidate the guerrillas and, on the other hand, to commit genocide against our people. In order to achieve this goal, the isolation [of Abdullah Öcalan] on Imrali was first tightened. Attempts were made to break the will of our people and to pacify and crush Kurdish democratic politics and democratic left movements in Turkey. The AKP government used ISIS in 2014 to implement its murderous colonial plan. But with the defeat of ISIS in Shengal, Maxmur, Kirkuk and Kobanê, these plans were destroyed. Everyone is aware of the great sacrifices made by the Kurdish people in the fight against ISIS and other Salafist groups. Our people have played a leading role on the front line together with the People's Defence Forces to prevent ISIS from establishing an empire in the Middle East. It is a historical fact that our forces pioneered this period by encouraging people with their practice in the fight against ISIS and contributed significantly to the liberation of all humanity from this scourge. 

In 2014, ISIS grew stronger and stronger. It took control of important cities such as Mosul and Raqqa and attacked numerous regions in Kurdistan. As a result, the freedom guerrillas mobilised following the call of Rêber Apo [Abdullah Öcalan]. It is known that we intervened against ISIS in the regions of Kirkuk, Maxmur, Duhok, Lalesh, Shengal and Kobanê by sending HPG units and tried to prevent the genocide of the Yazidi community from day one. It would not have been possible to stop ISIS if we as a movement had not deployed our most experienced forces from Botan, Zagros, Amed, Garzan and Erzurum provinces to these areas. It is also common knowledge that after they had successfully fulfilled their tasks and the people there had organised themselves and were able to defend themselves, we gradually withdrew our forces from these areas. It is also known that we, as the Kurdistan Freedom Movement, already started to withdraw our HPG and YJA Star units in 2017/2018, as our people no longer needed our forces and had reached the level of defending themselves.

The last link of this historical phase is the withdrawal of our guerrilla forces from the Maxmur political refugee camp, also known as Şehîd Rustem Cûdî Camp. The leadership of our movement decided that our forces here have fulfilled their tasks and will be withdrawn from Maxmur. Since the beginning of September, we have organised the gradual withdrawal of our HPG and YJA Star forces to the Medya Defence Zones. This was done secretly for security reasons. In the meantime, we no longer have any forces left in Maxmur refugee camp.

Our patriotic people and the public should know that our forces have fulfilled their mission and there is no more need for them to continue their mission there. No one has demanded the withdrawal of our People's Defence Forces from Maxmur to the Medya Defence Zones, and our forces have withdrawn from this area solely on the basis of an independent decision by our movement.

The forces we sent to these areas due to ISIS attacks were withdrawn from Kirkuk and its districts, from Kobanê in Rojava and from Shengal in April 2018. This withdrawal happened publicly in some areas and secretly in others due to security issues. We completed this process by withdrawing our units from Maxmur in a secure manner.

We are sure that the patriotic people of Maxmur will give the necessary importance to this decision of our movement. We firmly believe that they have acquired a national-democratic consciousness and are capable of defending themselves with the civil organisation they have developed. However, if the need should arise to take up a higher level of defence again, the Apoist militants will always succeed in reaching all areas, especially Maxmur and Shengal, under all circumstances. They will rush to the aid of our people and fulfil their responsibility in defence in any case.

On this occasion, we once again remember with respect and gratitude our martyrs of Shengal, Kobanê, Kirkuk and Maxmur who bravely resisted and repelled the attacks. They have led the fight against the mercenaries and criminal gangs of ISIS in Iraq and the Middle East. We bow our heads with respect to their memory and reaffirm our pledge to keep their memory alive in the peoples' struggle for freedom. We believe that our people, who have put up historic resistance in the path of the martyrs, will fulfil their responsibility at the highest level, and convey our respect and love to them and wish them great success in the struggle for freedom."