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Despite the constant threat of a Turkish drone or air strike, thousands in northeast Syria attended the funeral procession for three Kurdish women fighters who were killed by a Turkish drone on Friday.
The procession was held on Sunday in the village of Dawudiye in Hasakah province.
Addresses were made by Asya Abdullah, co-chair of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), and representatives of the council of martyrs’ families and Women’s Protection Units (YPJ), an all-women self-defence force that is part of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Noting that the Turkish attack was carried out on the 10th anniversary of the beginning of the ‘Rojava revolution’, Asya Abdullah said that the people of Rojava (Kurdish-majority parts of north Syria) put up a resistance in the face of attacks through great sacrifices, and the ‘fraternity of peoples in the region constituted a model’ for all other parts of Syria.
Abdullah stressed that the international community also held responsibility for the offences perpetrated by occupying Turkish forces in Syria.
The remains of Jiyan Tolhildan, a SDF deputy commander, and Barin Botan will be buried in the cemetery for martyrs in Shahba, and the remains of Roj Xabur will be buried in the Martyr Rustem Cudi cemetery (named after the nom de guerre of volunteer YPG fighter Guenter Helstein) in the town of Dirbasiyah.
Three Kurdish women activists targeted for the second time
The assassination of the three Kurdish women in northeast Syria is not the first incident in which three Kurdish women activists have been targeted.
Sakine Cansız, co-founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Fidan Doğan, representative of Brussels-based Kurdish National Congress (KNK) in France, and young activist Leyla Şaylemez were assassinated by a Turkish national allegedly instructed by the Turkish National Intelligence Agency (MIT) on 9 January 2013 in Paris, France.
