The PKK announced in a written statement that “Comrade Kasım Engin (Ismail Nazlıkul), our precious militant, commander, member of the PKK Central Committee has fallen martyr during the air attack of the fascist Turkish state against the Bradost area on 27 May.”

The PKK statement added: “Comrade Kasım met the PKK at a young age as the Nazlıkul family was involved with the party at the time of its establishment and suffered exile. He started to carry out patriotic duties by taking responsibility since 1985, and joined the PKK ranks as a professional revolutionary in 1989. He has been involved in Youth, Culture-Art, Diplomacy and People Studies in the European field. Comrade Kasim gained the love of everyone who knew him in a short time and soon became a much looked for friend. In 1990, in order to integrate with the Kurdish public reality, he insisted on moving to the Middle East area where President Öcalan was located and succeeded in his insistence.”

In 1990, he moved to Lebanon, where the Mahsum Korkmaz Academy was located, with a group of comrades. Comrade Kasim, during the training period he attended, knew President Öcalan closely and was sent to the South western province where he lived his first guerrilla experience. The struggle that Comrade Kasım developed with his comrades in Nurhak, Engizek and Binboğa has been the basis of the transformation of the South western field into a guerrilla position and has been described as an epic until today.”

The PKK statement ended with expressing “condolences to the valuable Nazlıkul family, the people of Kurdistan and the resisting free humanity.”