The PAJK Coordination issued a statement to pay tribute to martyrs Emine Erciyes, Ş. Ekin Amara Toldar and Ş. Zîn Zagros, who fell as martyrs on 20 April 2020.
The statement said that the martyrs “with their lives and struggles, they have become immortal in our freedom movement, leaving us a great, unforgettable, and indispensable legacy. We bow with respect before these great martyrs, remembering them with love and gratitude. Each of our comrades contributed collectively to the struggle for free Kurdhood, free humanity, and women’s freedom, expanding our socialist struggle and adding great meaning with their own colors. Protecting and making permanent the great legacy of freedom they left us, and carrying it to victory, is our greatest duty, our responsibility, and the meaning of our lives.”
The statement added: “Comrade Emine devoted every moment of her life, from a village in Nevşehir to the Zagros mountains of Kurdistan, to the meaning of her community, the Kurdish community, and to her identity as a woman. As a Turkmen woman, she always questioned the meaning of life. In a geography where nationalism and conservatism were lived at their peak, even in the elite schools of the capitalist system, she did not allow her essence to be corrupted. Instead, she pursued the meaning of life, its magical and passionate truth. This pursuit led her to meet Leader Apo, the PKK, and the guerrillas. As a woman guerrilla in the freedom struggle, she continued that mysterious search and pursuit.
Comrade Emine integrated the brotherhood of peoples, the reality of the democratic nation and democratic modernity, with socialist leadership in a magnificent way. She recreated herself with love, songs, and poetry. She loved the guerrilla struggle, the mountains, especially the Zagros, with a magical passion. As a Turkmen woman, she became the Zagros, she became Kurdistan, she became the Kurdistan mountains and its people. She shattered all the borders of nationalism that divide and create enmity, and in the Kurdistan mountains she created a magical comradeship. She became a line of human and social unity that transcended even internationalism, embodying the ethical and aesthetic values of the Democratic Nation as a free woman’s identity. With her great heart, she defied the hidden history of the Kurds of thousands of years and the hundred years of denial and annihilation. She knew how to walk the paths and trails once opened by the goddesses in history, and the united revolutionary path opened by Hakis and Kemals, with excitement, joy, determination, and persistence.”
The statement added that “she was like the Dionysus of the revolution. At times a great commander, at times an educator, a theater performer, a poet, a singer. She was the joyful and creative free guerrilla of the mountains and forests. By truly uniting with the leadership, she brought forth the values of women’s freedom, shared them with both her female and male comrades, and nurtured communal values in her relationships. For this reason, she always managed to create an aura of admiration and love among her comrades. Her ever-deepening mind, her heart that knew how to love and share, her willful, stubborn, and combative personality created tremendous value both in women’s comradeship and in socialist comradeship among peoples. She took part in nearly every area of our struggle, shouldered great responsibilities, and carried them out with great seriousness and conviction. She successfully represented the PAJK and YJA Star line through her roles in the PAJK leadership and coordination, as well as in the YJA Star Command Council and Central Command. She gave great effort and value to women’s party-building and women’s army-building, strengthening and expanding those around her with her leadership and comradeship. Her comradeship was an honor.”
Rememberin martyrs Ekin and Zîn, the statement said that “with their love of comradeship, determination and insistence in struggle, their consciousness and resolve for freedom, became pioneers of our women’s freedom struggle and our Kurdistan freedom struggle. Valuing an honorable and meaningful life above all else, they lived every moment of their youth fully, with awareness, faith, and light. Rejecting the poisonous syrup of colonialism and capitalist life, they turned towards the clean and free breath of the mountains. Comrades Emine, Ekin, and Zîn, whose paths crossed in this struggle on the sacred mountains of freedom, gave their last breaths together and became immortal together. Their giving of their last breath together commands us to grow through unity in women’s comradeship, in women’s freedom, and in the sisterhood of peoples. Their last breath commands us to succeed. The promise we will make to them will be based on fulfilling this command successfully. In this sense, we call on everyone to always embrace our martyrs, to walk on the sacred and meaningful path they opened, and to succeed.
Once again, we remember our comrades with respect and gratitude, and we offer our condolences to their families and to the peoples of Turkey and Kurdistan.”