The HPG announced the deaths of guerrillas Ararat Herekol and Zîn Zagros. The two guerrillas were killed in a Turkish attack in Gare on 1 April, the HPG press center said.
Guerrillas Ararat Herekol and Zîn Zagros died on 1 April in the Gare region. The press center of the People’s Defense Forces (HPG) said that the two guerrillas from the Free Women’s Units (YJA Star) went down in the history of resistance of the Kurdish people as revolutionary advocates of women’s liberation. The HPG expressed its condolences to the relatives and people of Kurdistan and declared that the fight of the martyrs will continue.
The HPG provided the following information about the identity and biography of the guerrillas:
Codename: Ararat Herekol
First and last name: Sibel Deniz
Place of birth: Van
First and last name: Necibe – Nurettin
Date and place of death: April 1, 2024 / Gare
Codename: Zîn Zagros
First and last name: Gulê Hiso
Place of birth: Kobanê
First and last name: Ceyle – Ahmet
Date and place of death: April 1, 2024 / Gare
Ararat Herekol was born in Wan-Erdîş in Northern Kurdistan and grew up with Kurdish culture. Because close relatives had joined the liberation movement, she was already aware of the PKK as a child. Her childhood was shaped by stories about the massacre in the Zîlan Valley that her elders told her: tens of thousands of Kurds were murdered during the suppression of the last Ararat uprising in 1930.
Ararat Herekol sympathized with the Kurdish freedom struggle early on and in 2014, as a second-semester university student, she followed the path of her relative Sara Serhed (Leyla Yıldız), who later died, into the mountains to join the guerrillas in her home region of Serhed.
After spending about two months in the mountains of Serhed, Ararat came to Xakurke in the Medya Defense Areas for basic training. Her first practical experiences in northern Kurdistan formed the basis for her future guerrilla life. She dealt intensively with women’s liberation ideology and learned more about the development history of the PKK and the women’s movement from older comrades. After training, she worked in practice for a short time and then joined the party leadership, where she worked for three years. She developed into a competent fighter and gained expertise in various combat tactics. At her own request, she was transferred to the war zone and took part in the resistance against the Turkish occupying forces in the western Zap region. She then fought in various areas until she was killed in an enemy attack on 1 April.
Zîn Zagros
Zîn Zagros was born in Kobanê in western Kurdistan (Rojava) and belonged to the Kêtikî tribe. Her family was close to the Kurdish freedom movement and Zîn grew up with these values. During the Rojava Revolution, she met women who explained Abdullah Öcalan’s ideology to her and made a great impression on her. She compared these revolutionaries with the traditional role of women in society and chose the alternative of a free life. In 2014, she went to the mountains of Kurdistan and joined the guerrillas.
In the mountains, Zîn Zagros underwent training for new fighters and, with the support of her companions, quickly adapted to her new living conditions. Through the training she became aware of her own strength as a woman. With new self-confidence, she went to the Zap and Cîlo areas as a YJA Star fighter and took part in military actions against the Turkish army.
Afterward, she was in various regions of the Medya Defense Areas and finally took part in the fight against ISIS with great courage. At the military academy named after Mahsum Korkmaz, she had the opportunity to evaluate her previous practice and prepare for new tasks. She fought until the end with great conviction and willingness to make sacrifices.