Mustafa Yasin Mihemed Eli from Hesekê told ANF about how he got to know about the Kurdistan Freedom Struggle and what the 15 August 1984 Initiative brought to Rojava.

Eli said he learned about the Kurdish Freedom Movement when he went to Bakûr Kurdistan to visit his relatives in 1981-1982. "When I returned to Rojava, I told everyone about the freedom movement, but we did not know exactly what kind of party it was. After listening about the 15 August initiative on BBC radio, we started to get to know the struggle better. When the first bullet was fired, other parties made statements saying that ‘if this movement attacks Turkish outposts, the Turkish state will massacre our people’. But that wasn't the case. These people were fighting for Kurdistan. With the step taken on 15 August, our anger towards the enemy grew bigger. We have reacted to those who oppose this action."

Eli said that he heard the name of the Kurdish people's leader, Abdullah Öcalan, for the first time among students in Damascus in 1986, and added: "We started to understand the party better by reading what it was publishing. On 15 August 1991, I went to Lebanon with my father and saw the Öcalan. He said that they would liberate Kurdistan even if one PKK member remains. This was a great source of confidence for all of us. After seeing him, our confidence increased and we joined the political work here. We wouldn't be where we are today if it weren't for the PKK idea and struggle. The Rojava Revolution victory is the product of this struggle."