2014 was the launch year of the genocidal plan of the Turkish state against the Kurdish freedom movement and the Kurdish people. The AKP government, which has never shied away from spilling Kurdish blood, wanted to put its extermination concept into action this year, in accordance with its policy based on genocide and colonialism, primarily through ISIS.   

The fact that many forces withdrew without resisting ISIS was an incredible opportunity for its supporters in the background. However, this murderous policy received its first major blow when, thanks to the foresight and instruction of Abdullah Öcalan, the Kurdish liberation movement waged a battle of historic significance for all humanity against ISIS and repulsed it in Shengal, Maxmur, Kirkuk and Kobanê. Above all, the first intervention of small guerrilla groups in Maxmur and Shengal prevented an even greater catastrophe and the planned genocide of the Kurdish people. Along with this, the entire Kurdish people joined the resistance against ISIS and all Salafist groups with great willingness to make sacrifices. Led by the Kurdistan Freedom Guerrilla, it prevented ISIS from establishing an empire in the Middle East at the cost of thousands of martyrs. The HPG and YJA Star, with their sacrificial fighting practice, took on a leading mission at a high price by giving everyone the necessary attitude and courage to resist ISIS. They continue to live up to this mission to this day. The struggle and the price paid in that struggle is a historical fact that cannot be overlooked. To ignore it would be a great mistake.  

The Headquarters Command of the People's Defence Centre has announced in its latest statement that the guerrillas who started to protect the Maxmur refugee camp against ISIS in 2014 have fulfilled their mission and retreated to their own areas. What happened at that time and afterwards must be properly understood.

Maxmur and the ISIS attack

As is well known, Maxmur Camp is a concise example of the failure of the policy with which the Turkish state has been trying to expel and destroy the Kurdish people for forty years. Tens of thousands of patriotic people went from the north to the south of Kurdistan because the Turkish state was destroying their villages. There they stood firm against the oppression of the KDP, which was hardly any different from the Turkish crackdown. The people had to move on several times and finally settled in Maxmur in 1998. For almost three decades, they have managed to maintain their patriotic attitude and successfully defend their own system against all oppression and attacks.

In 2014, ISIS caused great fear everywhere with its bloodthirsty actions and forced all military forces in the region to retreat in panic. The Peshmerga and the Iraqi army fled from many places without any resistance. In this scenario, ISIS began attacking Maxmur on 7 August 2014. The KDP had been collaborating with the Turkish state for many years and had made no provisions for the camp. However, the ISIS attack did not go as planned, because although there was an agreement for it, the ISIS gangs turned their attention to other areas in Southern Kurdistan that were under KDP control. ISIS captured the town of Giwêr, seventy kilometres from Hewlêr [Erbil]. Some Peshmerga fighters put up brief resistance but were subsequently withdrawn. The population fled in great fear.

Because ISIS was able to advance further without facing resistance, the people of Hewlêr also panicked. Those who had a car and petrol fled to areas like Shaklawa, Barzan and Salahaddin, which seemed safer. Due to over-density, the telephone networks collapsed. In this atmosphere of the highest tension, leading representatives of South Kurdistan made one statement after another. At this point, it was hardly known that they had been the first to take flight. Masssoud Barzani even wrote to the Kurdish liberation movement asking for the guerrillas' help.

Maxmur was defended by a seven-member guerrilla group

The Kurdistan Freedom Guerrilla defends the people in all four parts of the country and leads the liberation struggle with great determination and under all circumstances, even if it costs the lives of its fighters. With this claim, it also moved to the defence of Maxmur. The vanguard was formed by a seven-man guerrilla group under the command of Tekoşer Şemzînan, who later fell. This group of seven people did what an army of 70,000 people could not. It organised the youth in the camp and built a defence network that started the resistance. The guerrillas secured the population and fought against the ISIS gangs, who were thus beaten back. The story of the defence of Maxmur was similar to that in Shengal, where a twelve-member group under the command of Dilşêr Herekol, who later fell, defended the Yazidi community against ISIS genocide.

Hewlêr was saved by the resistance in Maxmur

The three-day resistance in Maxmur saved Hewlêr and the villages behind it from being captured by ISIS. At the time, it was said that half of the population of Hewlêr had already fled from ISIS. The fact that the guerrillas succeeded in doing what the Iraqi army and the peshmerga could not, gave the population security. ISIS withdrew from Maxmur after three days and continued to be pursued. After the fifth day, Maxmur and the surrounding area were cleared of ISIS. 

The KDP, which never misses an opportunity for hostility against the Kurdish liberation movement, congratulated the guerrillas that day. It knew that without the guerrillas, lives would have been in danger. It was the guerrillas' struggle that gave the KDP forces the courage to fight ISIS. There were 17,000 peshmergas stationed in Shengal. They retreated without firing a single shot. The second largest contingent of the Iraqi army was in Mosul, but the capture of the city by ISIS lasted only a few hours. The people who embraced the guerrillas as they confronted ISIS were the same people who turned out to be the biggest enemies after the defeat of ISIS. The Kurdish people and the guerrillas have given tens of thousands of martyrs in the fight against ISIS.  

The guerrillas guarantee the existence of the people

The fascist AKP/MHP regime has continued to attack the Kurdish people since 2015 as part of its "decomposition plan". The attacks aim at genocide, but the more the regime attacks, the more defeats it suffers. Each defeat makes it even more brutal, and yet it is no match for the guerrilla struggle.

The HPG and YJA Star guerrillas have taken responsibility for protecting the people of Maxmur from 2014 until today. As in Kobanê and Shengal, they have successfully fulfilled their mission in Maxmur. The fact that the guerrillas are retreating on this basis is important and must be properly understood.

For the guerrillas, the freedom and existence of the Kurdish people have priority under all circumstances. As the Kurdish liberation movement also says, the guerrilla will always be where the Kurdish people are attacked. The Kurdistan Freedom Guerrilla is the guarantee for the existence of the Kurdish people.