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Gelawêj Hemzî Selîm, the daughter of peshmerga Hemzî Salîm Taha, who lost his life in the Batîfa region of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region in 1995 during the conflict between the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), reacted against Turkey’s cross-border operations in a broadcast on Rûdaw Radio last week.
Upon the insistence of the host of the program that her father lost had been martyred in the Birakuji (Fratricide) war, she responded saying: “I do not accept my father as a martyr. I do not accept someone who lost his life to birakuji as a martyr. I will never forgive those who caused these wars”
When the host asked her, “Does the PKK have the right to settle in the villages of Amediyê?” she answered: “If they are brothers, if they are Kurds, they have to accept each other. Isn’t Kurdistan four parts? Why don’t we accept each other?”
After the statements she made on Rûdaw, Gelawêj Hemzî Selîm was threatened with death by some of her family members, MA reports.
“We were ashamed about my father’s death in the birakuji conflict. This war brought nothing good to our people. It only brought harm to our nation and our unity,” she stated.
Indicating that she had appeared on the Rûdaw broadcast in order to explain the damage caused by ‘birakuji’ [war among brothers] Selîm said: “I used my own father as an example in the broadcast to spare the feelings of the children and wives of others who gave their lives in the war. I’m proud of my father, but I am not proud of his death. When asked about this, I cannot say that my father was a martyr to birakuji. I wanted to send this message because there are people calling for a repeat of the birakuji. ”
Selîm was subjected to threats after the messages she put out on Rûdaw, even from members of her own family.
“One of my closest relatives, my uncle Taha Selîm Taha who lives in Norway, threatened me with. He also called my mother and was abusive to her. No one has ever disrespected my mother before.” She continues: “The only time my mother has ever been abused was because of my national and patriotic stance. He made threats to her too, saying, ‘We are going to kill your daughter’. ”
Gelawêj Hemzî Selîm’s mother was in shock for days after this incident. The day after making the threats, Taha Selîm Taha sent her cousin, Safin Abdilwahid, who had also lost his father in the birakuji conflict, to her workplace. She says: “Luckily I wasn’t at work, so nothing happened to me.”
Defining Turkey as an occupying force, she stated that all parties in the region are against the occupation, “other than for the KDP, because there is an agreement between the KDP and Turkey that does not comply with our national interests.”
Evaluating Turkey’s military operations against the Iraqi Kurdistan Region and claims of the participation of KDP special units, Selîm said, “Turkey’s attacks have done us great harm. They have turned all the villages they have occupied into wastelands. They continue to damage the environment, homes and livestock.”
“This is causing great losses for the Kurdish people. If the Kurds had been united, none of this would have happened. “
