Semelka protest enters its second month

For 31 days, mothers of the martyrs have been demanding at the northern Syrian border crossing Sêmalka that the bodies of fallen guerrilla fighters be handed over by South Kurdistan’s ruling party KDP.

Five HPG members were killed and two were injured in the Xelîfan region in South Kurdistan as a consequence of an ambush by armed forces linked with the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which is engaging in Turkey's activities against the Federal Kurdistan Region. Families of the two guerrillas from Rojava, Tolhildan Raman and Serdem Cudi, planned to cross from North and East Syria to the Kurdistan Region through the Semalka Border Crossing to receive the bodies of their martyrs.

The mothers joining the action in a tent for 31 days have repeatedly been denied entry to South Kurdistan by the KDP forces, and have been put off with false promises. The KDP had recently promised 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.

Teachers and the Peace Mothers from Qamishlo visited the tent protest today.

A statement was made here by teachers and the Peace Mothers walking to the border crossing on the South Kurdistan border. Ebduleziz Mirza, Executive Member of the Girkê Legê Schools Committee, made the following remarks:

"The KDP supports the occupying Turkish state's attacks against the guerrillas and the Kurdistan Freedom Movement," said Ebduleziz Mirza, who remarked that Turkey has been trying to destroy the Kurdish people for a long time by changing the demographic structure and using chemical weapons on Kurdistan's territory.

"The KDP should also deliver the bodies of the martyrs to their families as soon as possible and meet the demonstrators' demands," Ebduleziz Mirza stated.