Remembering guerrilla Şilan Koçer

Embracing history is a reality in the PKK. Şilan Koçer, known for her devotion to the struggle, became a militant worthy of the Kurdish people's leader, his people and the guerrilla.

We set out early in the morning. A long way… A bumpy way, full of obstacles. It is a road that we try to walk with the help of the trees and without hurting the soil. It is a road we walked on its paths filled with martyrs shed blood. Many things are said about this place. It is up to you to see both heaven and hell. This is the land of companionship and pain, a place where dreams are entrusted to each other, where smiles are full of meaning, this is the place of men and women who have spurred blood on the enemy, young people of all ages are fighters, who learn about life; this is Zagros.

Let the cliff see the wind blowing, let a sun rise, let a path end, let a song never stop, let it be scattered everywhere on every stone and water in our language so that its voice is heard, Zagros. This is the longest road to longing, Zagros is the most beautiful place of fighters with longing and love. Endless… Our path is Ertuş! Here I met with guerrilla Şilan Koçer. In her words: "Zagros is the land of goddesses." All the buds have burst. We're going up. Two female friends greeted us. Someone's face is brighter than the moon, and someone's eyes are even more beautiful than the sea. They take a very thick and long wood and cut it.

One of them is Eylem, a friend from Mardin, eyes the colour of the sea and the other is Vejin from Qamıshlo, who is more beautiful than the moon. A distant voice says: “If you don't take our photo, we won't accept it.” This voice belonged to friend Zindan. After I met him, I did not understand why a person in love with nature, freedom and mountains can choose a name like Zindan, but it was the name of a martyr comrade. All of them are so committed to Martyr Ali Piling, the tactical architect of the HPG and the great Commander of life and war, that their only goal is to expel the enemy from Zagros in 2020.

Heval Şilan immediately started to introduce friends. "These are Xelil Dağ, Botan Çiçek, Azad Siser, Reşit Serdar, Rojin Gevda, Devrim Amed ... This is the place where all heroes come together! Zagros!" She was so shy to tell something about herself, but when it came to her friends, Şilan suddenly opened up. The excitement in her was completely different. Şilan was a tireless guerrilla.

And when they first saw the camera, everyone suddenly came to me and said: "You know, Şilan heval's biggest dream is to have a photo with her DShK". Her friends had asked for this before guerrilla Şilan. Because this was a principle in the guerrilla. All of them thought of her/his companion before thinking about him/herself.

They worked hard to make a dream come true for their comrade. Guerilla Şilan Koçer; She was a young woman who believed she had joined the guerrilla late. And she was always telling her regret for joining late. Laughing was the leading role in everything she told. Constantly for coming late; She enumerated many sentences such as: "How can I play a better role in the guerrilla and serve freedom more, why did I come so late, I wish I had arrived when I was very young." But when her friends told her: "It is as if she had been in the guerrilla for years, heval Şilan is so devoted to this life. Whenever we go to an action, she immediately goes to the DShK."

Silan's biggest dream was to take a photo with her DShK, which she called "şêre". Guerrilla Şilan Koçer was constantly talking about Ertuş and her comrades who were martyred there, while trying to find the most beautiful tree to take pictures with her and find the most beautiful flower. She was shouting as if I didn't hear her. Guerrilla Şilan believed that her immortalized comrades should be known by everyone.

And that's why she was speaking from her heart: "Every fountain we drink water, every path we walk, every area we come across belongs to a martyr. We are not doing anything for the first time. And we are not the one to do anything for the last time. Look at this fountain, Martyr Zagros fountain, where we hide the PKM machine gun. There was where Martyr Harun attacked the enemy in Kela Bedeve with his PKM, martyr Üvezş fell here by this tree, we always come here when we miss him, and this is the hill of Martyr Arjin, she would take us here whenever she wanted to shout.”

Describing all this she walked in front of me. I felt as if millions of people heard everything she was telling and everyone saw her excitement.

Embracing history is a reality in the PKK. The greatest teaching force that teaches the guerrilla to approach everything with this awareness is definitely Kurdish people's leader Abdullah Öcalan, whom they call "Our Wise Leader Apo".

And Şilan Koçer became a militant worthy of the Kurdish people’s leader, her people and the guerrilla. I remember you so that your name stays that way in history. Guerrilla Şilan Koçer and her DShK.