YJA-Star (Free Women's Troops) Commander Amara Ronahi spoke to ANF about the process of joining the PKK and her reasons to do so.

Ronahi pointed out that the genocidal and annihilation attacks that the Turkish state has carried out against the Kurdish people for years have become much more comprehensive today.

Reminding that the state resorted to all kinds of ways to attack Kurds, Ronahi said: "This is not a new situation. Actually, Kurds have always been ignored throughout the history of the Republic. The fascist mentality has used many methods to destroy this people and all their values. As an Alevi Kurd, I, too, have been subjected to the enemy's policies of assimilation, attacks to our identity and deprivation. So much so that I grew up not knowing that I was a Kurd. I was only describing myself as Alevi, unaware of the reality of my own people, my country, and I was not even aware of my national reality. This means that we were in a situation of not knowing ourselves, not knowing the society to which we belong.”

Commander Ronahi added: “Considering the woman your own property means to accept all kinds of oppression and to stand without doing anything against the reality of this regime, which rapes and murders.

Of course, the attacks of the fascist Turkish state brought me to the mountains and this is the reason why I joined the PKK. I realized that the only place where I could fight against the attacks of the fascist enemy was within the PKK, and I joined the guerrilla ranks. I got to know the freedom movement and could live freely and with my own will as a woman. It would have been a great dishonour to live as if nothing had happened, while my people were being massacred. I also fight in the mountains to protect my values of humanity and national dignity."

Emphasizing that the AKP-MHP regime attacked the people using all kinds of moral and inhumane methods, Ronahi said that even children are killed for being Kurds. Underlining that the Turkish state attacked even martyrs and cemeteries, Ronahi continued: "We have such an enemy, with neither morality nor human values. Every day a woman is murdered brutally. However, there are honourable sons of this lands who struggle for the freedom of this people.”

Commander Ronahi added: “Since the AKP government cannot condemn this people to live dishonourably, and achieves no results, then it resorts to massacre and immoral methods. It also wants to purge the HDP, a political party representing the Kurdish people, by using very dirty methods.

Calling on Kurdish people, including her father, to not playing into the hands of the enemy, Commander Ronahi said: “A dirty plan is being carried out against the Kurdish people. I would like to state that I am very honoured to be part of the struggle for freedom for my people, my country, all oppressed peoples and women, and that I will continue to resist to the last drop of my blood like my other comrades."