Dirok Cudi, a fighter of the YJA-Star (Free Women’s Troops), joined the PKK in Qamishlo in 2017. She comes from a family supporting the KDP and was initially in the ranks of the peshmerga in Southern Kurdistan. After her training, however, she became increasingly at odds with troops loyal to the KDP.

In an interview with ANF, the female guerrilla fighter tells the following: "My family supports the KDP. Having grown up in such a family, I felt great sympathy for them myself. My big brother still works there as a high-ranking peshmerga. In particular, my grandfather's and mother's attitude toward the KDP had a strong influence on us as children. I believed they were fighting for Kurdistan and our people. I thought they were fighting to protect the Kurds and understood our attachment to the KDP as patriotism. Since I thought I knew the KDP, I decided to become a peshmerga in 2014 in order to benefit the Kurdish people.

Back to Rojava after training

So, I went to South Kurdistan in order to be trained as a peshmerga. My family also wanted me to become a peshmerga fighter. I started the training with great joy and a patriotic feeling. Since I thought that the Kurdish people in South Kurdistan were free, I believed that the KDP could also come to Rojava and liberate the Kurdish people basing on its own system. After I completed my training as a peshmerga in 2014, I went back to Rojava. During this training, however, I got to know the KDP better. The peshmerga view women as inferior. They took the stance that women could be active in political work, but never in the military field. This aroused reaction in me. Even though we women worked so much, our work was overshadowed by men everywhere we went. Their view of women was very reactionary. In their view, women must do housework and raise children. She has no place in a military unit."

"I realized that the PKK is a humanity movement"

With the revolution in Rojava, Dîrok Cûdî also became increasingly familiar with another role for women: "I have seen the reality of the people who are fighting and living according to the paradigm of Abdullah Öcalan, and I have noticed how different this is from the KDP. The KDP presents itself as a Kurdish party, but it collaborates with the most anti-Kurdish force there is, Turkey. The KDP’s attitude is oriented toward the state. It cannot liberate peoples, or even Kurds. Apparently, South Kurdistan is ruled by the KDP and the PUL, but actually the region is under occupation by the imperialist powers. South Kurdistan has rich natural resources, but the people have nothing to eat today. Many are unemployed and that is why they are forced to leave for Europe. The occupation of South Kurdistan by Turkish troops is completely hidden by the KDP government. During the training in the peshmerga ranks, they tried to incite us against the PKK all the time. We were told that the only reason for the invasion of South Kurdistan was the PKK. After I became acquainted with the ideas of Abdullah Ocalan, I also became involved with the movement he created; the PKK. What I had understood in my involvement with the PKK was that the PKK is not just a Kurdish movement, but a humanity movement. To get to know the PKK even better, I decided to go to the mountains of Kurdistan in 2017.   

"Anyone who wants freedom should take the path to the Kurdish mountains"

I read in the defense writings of Ocalan about the values of the goddess culture. I have seen how the divinity of women has been concretized in the person of women guerrilla fighters, in their struggle for freedom in the mountains, in nature. I kept asking myself, how can I become an Apoist woman? When I spoke of Apoist women, I meant a female personality who carries her country in her hands. What I understood best in the mountains is that the PKK is a movement that offers answers to personality questions in every way. In the mountains, I understood the essence of the woman much better.

If someone wants to know the essence of PKK, he or she should go to the free mountains of Kurdistan. The capitalist system does not have a life worth living for people today. Therefore, really all those who want to stand for freedom and also want to provide freedom for the peoples should take their way to the Kurdish mountains."