After Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan increased his threats of invading Afrin, people of Afrin mobilized and joined HPC to defend their land. A civil defence force with five thousand members, HPC’s centres have been filled with volunteers in the last few days.

According to HPC officials, several hundred Kurds and Arabs joined the organization to defend their land against a Turkish invasion attempt.

Afrin’s HPC commander Xelil Huseyin pointed out fabricated news of the Turkish media that say people of Afrin leaving the city.

“It’s a lie that our people left Afrin because they fear the Turkish state. As you see now our people come to Civil Defence Forces and sign up to defend their land and Afrin” Huseyin said.

Hundreds lined up in HPC centres to pick up arms and deployed to military positions across Afrin canton.

“We are ready and we will never let the Turkish state enter our land. We are ready to fight until the last drop of our blood and defend our land. As people of Afrin and HPC, we will support our comrades in YPG and YPJ and we will resist together” Huseyin added.

One of the volunteers is Muhammed Bayır, who came to Afrin from Saudi Arabia. His son Murat Amanos lost his life in Kurdish freedom struggle. Now he has picked up arms to fight against Turkish invasion.

“We will never leave our land when we have our heroes by our sides. We say ‘either victory or death’. We say nothing else” he said.

Another volunteer Adil Abbud is an Afrin resident of Arab origin. He also joined the defence of the canton and said “We, as the people of Afrin, will stand against these attacks. I wanted to be a part of our land’s defense and therefore I signed up for the HPC. To defend Afrin is the duty of everybody living here”.

Volunteer Muhammed Bin Yusuf came to sign up to HPC after the threats of Erdogan. “We will defend our land and our life. We won’t allow the invasion” he said.