Five guerrillas were killed and two others injured in the Xelîfan region in South Kurdistan in August 2021 as a consequence of an ambush by armed forces linked with the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which is engaged in Turkey's activities against the Federal Kurdistan Region. Families of the two guerrillas from Rojava, Tolhildan Raman and Serdem Cudi, who are among the five slain guerrillas, have since been trying to cross from North and East Syria to the Kurdistan Region through the Semalka Border Crossing to receive the bodies of their martyrs. On the 5th of October, the Cizîre District Martyrs' Families Council and families of HPG members began a vigil in response to the blockade.

On the other hand, the Faysh Khabur and El-Waleed Border Crossings were closed following the Revolutionary Youth and Young Women's Union's protest at the Semalka Border Crossing, which was attacked by the KDP on December 15.

Thousands of people took to the streets in the northern Syrian canton of Qamishlo on Saturday in protest at South Kurdistan’s ruling party KDP’s cooperation with the Turkish state and closure of the Faysh Khabur and El-Waleed Border Crossings.

Democratic Union Party (PYD) member Şemsêxan Gulo addressed the crowd following the protest march and saluted the resistance of North-East Syrian peoples against the KDP’s betrayal and Turkey’s attacks.

Şemsêxan Gulo paid tribute to PKK co-founder Sakine Cansız (Sara), KNK Paris Representative Fidan Doğan (Rojbin) and Youth Movement Member Leyla Şaylemez (Ronahi) who were murdered in Paris on 9 January 2013. 

“While conspiracies against the Kurds continue, we must enhance the struggle for our values,” Gulo said.

Pointing to the ongoing vigil at Semalka, Gulo continued, “KDP has long been involved in betrayal; taking part in the occupying Turkish state’s attacks on the mountains of Kurdistan, imposing an embargo on North-East Syria and remaining silent on the attacks against Rojava and Shengal.”

“The KDP cannot draw us away from our cause and the revolution. We draw our strength from our martyrs, and we will resist the conspiracies against our lands till the end.”

Speaking in the name of Arabic and Kurdish tribes, Hisên El-Sade called on the South Kurdistan government to hand over the bodies of the martyrs.

Defining the closure of Faysh Khabur crossing as an imposition of an embargo on the people, El-Sade warned that the Turkish state sought to cause unrest in the region.

"The world maintains its silence as the policy of Turkification is executed in Afrin, Serêkaniyê and Girê Spî and chemical weapons are used in South Kurdistan. The people in our territories should resist the attacks and policies of the Turkish state," he concluded.