26 Peace Mothers from Rojava's Cizire Region stepped into action to receive the bodies of Rojava guerrillas Nesrîn Temir (Tolhildan Raman) and Yusif Îbrahîm (Serdem Cûdî) who were martyred following a KDP attack in the Xelifan region of South Kurdistan. The mothers moving from Semalka Border Crossing to Faysh Khabur (the other side of the border crossing) were blocked by KDP forces at the border. The Peace Mothers insisted on crossing the border and staged a sit-in protest.

On the night of August 28, a group of guerrillas was attacked by the KDP forces by the Zap River while moving from Qandil to the Behdinan area. Of the seven guerrilla fighters who were ambushed by the KDP, which rules southern Kurdistan (northern Iraq), in Xelîfan northeast of Hewlêr (Erbil), five were killed. One HPG member was apparently captured injured, and another fighter survived. 

The People’s Defence Forces (HPG) released a statement on October 3 and provided details of the KDP ambush, saying the following:

"It has been confirmed that a guerrilla group consisting of seven people was attacked by KDP forces at approximately 2:30 a.m. on the night of August 28-29 while traveling from Qandil to Behdinan. The group was fired upon directly from four sides with heavy weapons as it crossed the Zap River without prior address or warning shots. Five of our companions were definitely killed in this attack. One of our members is believed to have been captured injured. Our comrade Haki, who was part of the guerrilla group, observed what was happening and was able to leave the area unharmed after a while. He was able to save himself alive and reached our forces. Through his account, many aspects of the KDP attack have been clarified.”

The initiative of Peace Mothers

For days there has been a continuous protest in Sêmalka for the handing over of the martyrs. The driving force behind the protests is the initiative of the Peace Mothers. The Peace Mothers, an initiative of mothers of Kurdish guerrilla fighters, but also of Kurdish soldiers in the Turkish army, have set themselves the goal to fight with all their possibilities against the continuation of the war and for a political solution. They do not only stand up for peace, but they are also exemplary for a permanent dialogical engagement and a democratization of Turkey. The initiative of the Peace Mothers demands an end to the warlike and bloody conflicts in Turkey. Despite their experiences of expulsion from their own villages and the deaths of many family members, the women have supported the PKK's repeatedly proclaimed unilateral ceasefires. They have repeatedly played a central role in peace processes and contributed to temporarily breaking the isolation of Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan by participating in the 200-day mass hunger strike in 2019.