The People’s Defense Center Headquarters Command released a statement about the action that targeted the Security General Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs near the Parliament in Kızılay, in Ankara at 9:30am, Sunday, October 1st.
The statement, according to which the sacrificial action was carried out by a team affiliated with the Brigade of the Immortal, said the following:
“Today at around 9.30 a.m., a unit of our ‘Brigade of Immortals’ carried out a sacrificial action in front of the Turkish Ministry of Interior. This action was explicitly planned for the opening of the parliament and in relative proximity to the building, which is considered a massacre and torture centre. It was carried out according to plan and without any obstacles. Our comrades who implemented this sacrificial action overcame the guard post and penetrated inside the security area. They were successful and achieved their goal.
However, as usual, the fascist AKP/MHP regime has chosen this time to brazenly deny its losses suffered in this action and to disregard the people and public opinion. Every person should know that the members of the Brigade of Immortals could have achieved a very different result with only a small change in their timing if they had wanted to. However, such a decision was deliberately not taken and the main objective – to send the necessary message to the concerned bodies and to warn them seriously – was maintained.
This action is an act of legitimate defence against the disregard of human rights that are being trampled on against national and international laws; against the inhuman practice and policy of isolation that is being implemented in all the jails of Turkey and Kurdistan; against the use of chemical weapons against our guerrilla forces despite the universal validity of the Chemical Weapons Convention; against the plunder of our nature and the ecocide in Kurdistan; against the oppression of the Kurdish people and all democratic circles. If the AKP/MHP regime does not stop its genocidal and fascist-motivated crimes, legitimate actions in the sense of revolutionary justice will continue.
This meaningful act of heroism, which was carried out on the day when MPs met in parliament for the first time after the summer recess, was dedicated to the memory of Axîn Mûş (Hülya Demirer), commander of Amed province and once commander of the Brigade of Immortals, and the comrades who fell alongside her. This great and historic action was carried out by our friends Rojhat Zilan and Erdal Şahin. We commemorate these immortal Apoists in the tradition of self-sacrifice, to whom our respect is due, with respect and gratitude, congratulate them and all other companions who contributed to this action and wish them continued success.
On Tuesday, October 3rd, the People’s Defense Center (HSM) Headquarters Command issued a statement to confirm the identity of the two guerrillas who carried out the action at the Turkish Ministry of Internal Affairs in Ankara on 1 October.
The statement said: “We announced that an action was carried out by a team affiliated with our Brigade of Immortals against the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Ankara at 9.30am on 1 October, and that we would share the detailed identity information of our comrades.
Rojhat Zîlan (Özkan Şahin) and Erdal Şahin (Hasan Oğuz) professionally carried out this historic and glorious action. We express our condolences to all our patriotic people of Kurdistan, especially to the valuable families of our comrades Rojhat and Erdal, who shook the colonialist genocidal enemy with their historical heroic actions and left their mark on an era. We promise that we will remain faithful to the Apoist lifestyle and comradeship of the self-sacrificing martyrs of our Brigade of Immortals, their line of struggle, their self-sacrifice stance, their professionalism, their being a great force of revenge, and their great actions that ordered us to victory, and that we will definitely lead their struggle to victory by making them our struggle guide.”
The identity information of our martyred comrades is as follows:
Nom de Guerre: Rojhat Zîlan
Name and Surname: Özkan Şahin
Birthplace: Van
Mother and Father’s Name: İpek–Mehmet
Date and Place of Martyrdom: 1 October 2023 / Ankara
Nom de Guerre: Erdal Şahin
Name and Surname: Hasan Oğuz
Birthplace: Mersin
Mother and Father’s Name: Ramziye – Abdulselam
Date and Place of Martyrdom: 1 October 2023 / Ankara
ROJHAT ZILAN
The statement said: “Our comrade Rojhat Zîlan was born in the Erdîş district of Van, in a family belonging to the Celali tribe, where the deep-rooted culture of the Serhed people prevails.
The fact that his family comes from a tribal tradition that has long been known for its stance against occupation, injustice and colonialism was effective in the formation of our comrade Rojhat’s personality.
The stories he heard about the Geliyê Zîlan massacre, in which thousands of our people were brutally murdered and subjected to the most severe torture and inhumane practices, deeply affected our comrade Rojhat. Thanks to these stories, he came to know the reality of the enemy. Our comrade, who recognized the reality of the genocidal Turkish state, with massacres, torture and cruelty, literally engraved this reality in his heart and brain and waited for the day when he would take revenge on our oppressed people.
Due to these characteristics of the social environment he was in, our comrade Rojhat was raised in accordance with the Kurdish and Kurdistani essence.
Our comrade Rojhat, who got to know the PKK when his brother, comrade Egîd Wan (İlhan Şahin), joined the guerrilla ranks in 1999 in response to the International Conspiracy developed against all our people in the person of our Leader, became more curious about our Party and began to seek to understand it.
After studying in Turkish public schools for a while, our comrade realized that the assimilation center had nothing to give him and started working in Turkish metropolises to contribute to his family’s livelihood. Our comrade, who worked in many different jobs, created himself with his labor.
When his elder brother Egîd Wan (İlhan Şahin) fell as a martyr in Qendîl in 2011 our comrade Rojhat decided to further expand his struggle after his brother’s death, stayed in youth work for a long time, then turned to the mountains of Kurdistan in 2014 and joined the guerrilla ranks.
ERDAL ŞAHİN
Our comrade Erdal was born into a patriotic family that did not bow to the attacks of the invading Turkish state and migrated from Şirnex, the center of resistance of the ancient lands of Botan, to Mersin. Like every Kurd who wants to live with dignity, he started to know the real and dirty face of the enemy from his childhood.
Our comrade Erdal, who was born in the patriotic Haruni tribe, who participated many times in the ranks of the Kurdistan Freedom Struggle, inherited the strong characteristics of Kurdish culture from his valuable family and patriotic environment, even though he grew up far from the sacred lands of Kurdistan.
Our comrade, whose love for Kurdistan and longing for the country is always alive in his heart, had the chance to get to know the historical guerrilla resistance and our party, the PKK, early on.
Our comrade joined the guerrilla ranks in 2013. Our comrade Erdal, who rejected the dirty life of the system, became a strong link to the free life woven with Apoist ideology in the mountains of Kurdistan. Our comrade, who successfully completed the basic guerrilla training, became a competent guerrilla in a short time by conducting his first practice.
The main focus of our comrade Erdal, who overcame all the difficulties he encountered with his enthusiasm and determination, and who became a leading militant with his stance that became a source of strength and morale for his comrades, has always been Rêber Apo’s philosophy of free life.
Our comrade Erdal was known for his ability to learn quickly and enrich himself by sharing what he learned with his comrades.