Melsa Muş, the Commander of the Women’s Defence Units (YJA-Star) – an armed wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) – took part in a special programme aired on Sterk TV. She provided an assessment of the nature and outcomes of the clashes that have been taking place in Iraqi Kurdistan between the Turkish armed forces and Kurdish fighters in the Zagros mountains over the past two months.
She noted that the Zagros mountains, located in northern Iraq and administered by the Kurdistan Regional Goverment, had through the ages maintained its character of sustaining a revolutionary spirit at its heart.
“From Neolithic times to the present day, there has been a revolutionary quality to this geographical region, and it illuminates this quality once again and re-establishes its revolutionary values through the struggle of the Kurdish people and the guerrilla resistance today,” she said.
Commander Muş stated that by using its biased media, Turkey is trying to give the impression that it has been successful in its military attacks and that the technology in its possession is all-powerful. “Some things have not reached the press yet. In fact, certain scenes and images would be a source of embarrassment for the Turkish army. This has been exposed both in tunnel warfare and in the above-ground battles that have taken place,” she said.
Blows dealt by the Kurdish fighters in this operation, Muş further stated, “are blows in the fighting history of the Turkish army that they may never be able to forget. For example, the Turkish army will never forget the Piramit action and the spirit that was displayed in that action.”
Commander Muş stated that the Central Command Headquarters of the Peoples’ Defence Forces (HPG), an armed wing of the PKK, had released its ‘casualties and gains’ record, whereas the Turkish army had not yet released a proper record, or at least not yet released its true figures to the press, “because there are dozens of bodies of Turkish soldiers in the foothills of Mam Resho Hill, Küçük Cilo, Ertuş and Zendura under the control of the guerrillas.”
She noted that the Turkish army commits war crimes during its attacks against the positions and tunnels of the Kurdish fighters, using all kinds of technology, bombs and chemical weapons. Despite this, Commander Muş said: “The guerrilla have halted the occupying army.”
She provided the example of a small unit that prevented the Turkish army from advancing a single step for days on end in the region of Küçük Cilo: “They could not get into the Küçük Cilo area for 40 whole days. Every time they tried to advance, they were dealt a blow. When they were trying to get into the Küçük Cilo war tunnels, they dropped bombs and explosives on the tunnels of our friends, using ropes from Sikorsky helicopters because they could not send their soldiers in by land.
“But despite this, our friends emerged from the tunnels with their spirit of self-sacrifice, and dealt the enemy a blow.”
