Mothers of martyrs have been protesting at Sêmalka for 24 days

For 24 days, mothers of martyrs have been demanding the bodies of the guerrilla fighters Tolhildan Raman and Serdem Cûdî from South Kurdistan’s ruling party KDP. The two martyrs were from Rojava and died in a KDP ambush in Xelifan.

On Tuesday, women from Tirbespiyê in Rojava took over the protest at the border crossing. A protest tent has been set up there for 24 days. The mothers have repeatedly been denied entry to South Kurdistan by the KDP forces, and have been put off with false promises. For example, the KDP had promised last week to hand over the bodies of the martyrs to the families – but so far nothing has happened. The women are determined to continue their protest action until they succeed.

The Xelifan Massacre

The Xelifan massacre is one of the darkest chapters of the current cooperation of the KDP with Turkish fascism. Five guerrilla fighters were murdered in a KDP ambush on the night of August 28-29, 2021. Eyewitness testimonies indicate that survivors were executed extrajudicially.