YJA-Star fighters celebrate 33rd anniversary of Women’s Army 

The commander in the military council of the YJA-Star, Beman Amid, spoke at ceremonies organized by the Guerrilla fighters on the occasion of the 33rd anniversary of the martyrdom of Beritan (Gulnaz Karataş), and delivered important messages underlining the continuation of the struggle along the line of the martyr.

The commander said:

“Today marks the anniversary of the martyrdom of the great leader Beritan (Gulnaz Karataş). We congratulate all the martyrs of Kurdistan and all the women martyrs of the Women’s Army on this day in the person of the leader Beritan, and once again we bow before the comrade Beritan, the great leader, in reverence for the souls of all Kurdistan’s martyrs. Today is also the 33rd anniversary of the founding of the Women’s Army, and we first commemorate the founding of the Women’s Army and its founder, the founder of the army and the women’s movement, Leader Abdullah Ocalan (the Leader). We congratulate all the martyrs and all the martyrs of the Kurdistan movement, the fighters who struggle on the battlefronts, revolutionary women, Kurdish women and all mothers on this day.

Comrade Beritan has become, as a person and leader, a symbol of women’s leadership and of the revolutionary of the Apoist woman; she became a model of contemporary leadership. Thirty-three years ago she showed a unique struggle against treachery and occupation of Kurdistan, writing a heroic chapter; with the operation she carried out she became a symbol of the Free Women’s line and of the stance of Kurdish women who never accept surrender, whatever the circumstances. She became an example for women around the world. Thirty-three years ago the Leader Apo announced the campaign to found the Women’s Army in the person of comrade Beritan, and the Leader thus responded to Beritan’s struggle. Over the past 33 years the Women’s Army has waged a unique struggle on the line of women’s freedom against the occupation of patriarchal power and the armies of authority. Under Beritan’s standards and stance, women over the past 33 years have carried out a great struggle against all kinds of wars; the step of founding the Women’s Army became an exemplary pioneering act in the struggle for women’s freedom worldwide. For this reason the Women’s Army has become a source of inspiration and confidence as a defensive force for all women in the world, not only for Kurdish women, instilling courage, strength and will.

The legacy of these 33 years has cemented its place in the history of women in the world. The Women’s Army stands against armies founded on a patriarchal mentality and is a critique and response to those armies. Kurdish women founded the Women’s Army with a free mentality and a distinctly female character.

Today, as the YJA-Star, which continue the Women’s Army and its honorable history, we also continue the struggle on the line of the great leader Beritan.

Today the Women’s Army is a defensive force for all women and will continue this role and mission. Women will continue their struggle until women’s freedom, the freedom of peoples, and the freedom of the Kurdish people are realized. Women lost their protection first with the rise of authoritarian power, and society lost its protection when women lost theirs; thus women established, in the field of war and in forming an army after thousands of years, defense institutions of their own — with their natural strength, their distinct character, and their special nature. On this basis we will continue today our defensive role and the role of the army.

Very great and heroic leaders have emerged over the past ten years; attacks by the authorities have been thwarted by the professional guerrilla-style methods of the YJA-Star. These units have played a very strong role in the past ten years, even at the level of tactical leadership, in a professional and very powerful manner.

Our struggle will continue from now on as well. We rely on our history and our experiences spanning thirty-three years, and from now on, if a task is placed on our shoulders we will certainly accomplish it as the YJA-Star, and we will do everything in our power to make this process succeed. We will also continue to defend ourselves and to defend women, the Leader, the people and the mothers from now on, so that friends and enemies alike know well! We are ready to sacrifice to achieve the physical freedom of Leader Apo and to crown the Kurdish people’s struggle and the struggle for women’s freedom with victory. We will shoulder every task and continue our struggle on the basis of this project begun by Leader Apo. We once again bow to the martyrs of the Women’s Army and to comrade Beritan in reverence for their souls, and we again congratulate the day of the founding of the Women’s Army to the Leader Apo, to all the martyrs, and to all the women and comrades present on the founding day of the Women’s Army, and we say: Long live the Leader Apo! Women, Life, Freedom!”

A-H 

ANHA