The head of the village guards in Şırnak, Alihan Babat, who is in charge of 400 guards, announced that they will work for peace from now on and called on all the village guards to silence their arms, adding: “I now stand together with the fighters in Rojava who are fighting against the ISIS gangs”.

The statement of the KCK Executive Committee member Murat Karayılan, who said that the PKK will no longer use arms against the village guards employed by the state in North Kurdistan, has received a positive response from the village guards. The head of around 400 village guards in the Şenoba (Sêgirkê) district of the Uludere (Qileban) district of Şırnak announced that they will not fight against the PKK anymore and will support the peace process.

Babat organised a dinner at his house to make the announcement. HDP candidates Faysal Sarıyıldız and Ferhat Encü, PUK parliamentarian from South Kurdistan, Farhat Sangawe, and DBP vice co-chair Mehmet Arslan, as well as the family members and local people attended the dinner.

Speaking at the dinner, DBP vice co-chair Mehmet Arslan stressed the importance of unity amongst the Kurds as they have suffered a lot from infighting.

HDP candidate Faysal Sarıyıldız also drew attention to the importance of unity, recalling the Kobanê resistance that sustained the unity in practice, which created more respect towards the Kurds in the international community.

The head of the village guards, Babat, told the DİHA News Agency that the statement of Murat Karayılan saying that the PKK will no longer fight against the village guards demonstrated the determination for peace, and called on all the village guards to contribute to the peace process and to silence their arms.

Babat said they have not carried out any actions against the HPG guerrillas in the last 3 years and called on all the tribes and families standing on the side of the state to contribute to the peace process. Babat stressed that arms must be put aside for the sake of peace and said not only the guerrilla but the state forces must also stop using arms.

Babat said they would take action after the elections to contribute to the process, adding that they would hold meetings with the tribes in the region after the elections and have appointments with the state authorities together with the head of the tribes to discuss the issue. Babat stressed that the main issue in the peace process is not whether PKK gives up the armed struggle, adding that if the PKK laid down their arms, dangerous developments could take place in the region. “I have to say it openly, if the PKK abandons its arms, the agents of other states will put into action dirty plans and the people of the region will suffer new attacks. The problem is not laying down arms”, said Babat, adding that the tribes could rebel if the PKK laid down its arms as the problem would continue rather than being solved. Babat recalled the attacks of the gangs in Sinjar and Kobanê and the Turkish state’s not helping people against the attack and said if Turkey had understood the situation and acted together with the peoples of the region, and helped them, the question of laying down arms would not be an issue. Babat lastly said they were ready to give any kind of support to the resistance forces in Rojava fighting against the attacks of the ISIS gangs and added: “I now stand next to my comrades fighting against the barbarian ISIS; I am a fighter and a guerrilla now”.