The guerrilla commander Demhat Cîlo and the fighters Erdelan Şaho, Mordem Norşîn, Warşîn Sekvan and Tolhildan Tekman fell as martyrs on 15 September 2020 while resisting against the Turkish army in Qelanis in the northern Kurdish Garzan region.

The press center of the People's Defense Forces (HPG) paid tribute to the guerrillas in a statement.

The HPG said that Demhat Cîlo was a "leading militant", who fought in North Kurdistan for ten years in the almost two decades of his guerrilla life and dealt unforgettable blows to the Turkish state.

The statement said that Erdelan Şaho was “a courageous Yarsan son from Kermanshah, while guerrillas Mordem, Warşîn and Tolhildan came from North Kurdistan and were aware of their historical task and responsibility."

The HPG expressed condolences to the relatives and all patriotic people from Kurdistan.

 Codename: Demhat Cîlo

 First and last name: Eyüp Çelik

 Place of birth: Amed

 Mother and father’s name: Saliha – Mehmet

 Date and place of death: September 15, 2020 / Garzan

 

 Codename: Erdelan Saho

 First and last name: Mensur Nasrî

 Place of birth: Kirmasan

 Mother and father’s names: Ekrem – Ehmed Murad

 Date and place of death: September 15, 2020 / Garzan

 

 Codename: Mordem Norşîn

 First and last name: Zafer Koç

 Place of birth: Mersin

 Mother and father’s names: Nurten – Rahmetullah

 Date and place of death: September 15, 2020 / Garzan

 

 Codename: Warşîn Sekvan

 First and last name: Dilvîn Can

 Place of Birth: Batman

 Mother and father’s name: Kıymet – Bayram

 Date and place of death: September 15, 2020 / Garzan

 

 Codename: Tolhildan Tekman

 Name and Surname: Yılmaz Uzun

 Place of birth: Erzurum

 Mother and father’s name: Sona – Ibrahim

 Date and place of death: September 15, 2020 / Garzan

Demhat Cilo

Demhat Cîlo was born in Amed. Under the influence of the political, social and cultural changes triggered by the Kurdish freedom movement since the early 1990s, his family took part in the struggle in various forms and was exposed to massive state repression, which is why they had to move to Istanbul. That's where Demhat grew up.

As a teenager, he took part in cultural work and at the same time was active in the youth movement. In 2004, he went to the mountains and was trained as a guerrilla in Xakurke. He joined the Hêzên Taybet special unit and went through further training, which he successfully completed after a year.

In 2006, he went to Rojhilat for a special task and was injured in a conspiracy and taken prisoner by the Iranian regime. After a year and a half, he was extradited to Turkey and was imprisoned there for another six months. After his release, he went to the mountains again and went to the central PKK party school in the Zap region, named after Mazlum Doğan. In 2010, his proposal to go to Amed as part of the People's Revolutionary War strategy was accepted. He returned to his birthplace as a guerrilla commander.

Erdelan Şaho

Erdelan Şaho was born in Kirmaşan in Rojhilat and belonged to the Yarsan faith community. As a Kurd and a Yarsan, he experienced double oppression from the system. In search of a way out, he heard about different Kurdish parties. Above all, the armed struggle of the PKK against the Turkish state aroused his interest.

Although he knew little about the PKK, he joined the guerrillas in the Qandil Mountains in 2011. At first he was surprised to find people from different backgrounds and faiths among the guerrillas. Within a short time, however, he realized that he was in the right place. Because he was Kelhor, he initially had communication problems, but over time he also learned other Kurdish dialects. After his basic training, he went to Zap and Zagros and played an important role in the offensives in these areas in 2012. He gained military experience in the war and witnessed the cooperative connections within the PKK. From 2014 he fought in Garzan.

Mordem Norsin

Mordem Norşîn was born in Mersin. His family came from Bitlis-Norşîn and was close to the Kurdish liberation movement. The repression against the family continued even after they fled Kurdistan and went to Mersin.

Mordem's father was brutally arrested. Mordem himself grew up knowing that the Turkish state denied the Kurdish people the right to exist. From 2011 he was active in the Kurdish youth movement. After the Turkish state-supported ISIA attacks on Shengal and Rojava, he decided to take up arms and went to the mountains in 2014.

Among the guerrillas, Mordem Norşîn received ideological and military training. After that, he was part of the self-defense work in which he had previously participated. But because he was discovered doing it, he returned to the mountains. He was in Xakurke when the Turkish army resumed its annihilation attacks against the Kurdish movement in 2015. After that, he took part in the revolutionary Şemdinli operation. Trained as a sniper, he came to Garzan in 2018, where he fought with great courage to the end while also working to organize the young people.

Warsin Sekvan

Warşîn Sekvan was born in Batman and knew the PKK as a child. She grew up in a patriotic environment and experienced first-hand the genocidal policies of the Turkish state. As a teenager she dealt with the ideology of Abdullah Öcalan and his approach by which a free society is based on the freedom of women. She vehemently rejected the traditional role of women in society. The extermination campaign launched by the Turkish state in Kurdistan in 2015 filled her with great anger and she looked for ways to join the armed struggle. At a time when the state was trying to spread hopelessness with propaganda about crushing the freedom movement, she went to the mountains and became a guerrilla. The HPG paid tribute to Warşîn Sekvan, a guerrilla who lived up to the leading mission of the Associations of Free Women (YJA Star).

Tolhildan Tekman

Tolhildan Tekman was born in Erzurum-Tekman and grew up in a patriotic family with the culture typical of the Serhed region. His childhood and youth were shaped by the ban of his Kurdish mother language and the massacres of his people from the past and present. He followed the guerrilla struggle and was happy about every successful action. In a time of heavy oppression, he went to the mountains and became a guerrilla. Because he joined the guerrillas under the conditions of war in North Kurdistan, he quickly learned the necessary basics of life and struggle in the mountains. His training took place at the front and he dedicated every moment of his life to defending his people.