ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on Monday announced the deaths of 15 fighters from Maku, a predominantly Kurdish city in northwestern Iran, who died in previous years, as the group continues to disclose previously unannounced fatalities amid an ongoing peace process with Turkey.
The People's Defense Forces (HPG), the PKK’s armed wing, released the names through the PKK-affiliated Firat News Agency (ANF), paying tribute to the fighters and highlighting Maku’s longstanding involvement in the Kurdish armed movement.
The HPG identified the fighters by their nom de guerre as Berivan Amed, Chavresh Gabar, Marya Amanos, Ronya Ronahi, Dicle Maku, Erish Welat, Tamara Gever, Evin Firaz, Kani Urmiye, Berxwedan Gilidax, Shervan Shoresh, Bawer Gilidax, Shervan Maku, Egid Zardasht and Ruken Azad.
The HPG said Berivan Amed, whose real name was Chichek Omeri Bruki, was killed in the Khakurk area of the Kurdistan Region on April 17, 2024. Khakurk witnessed some of the fiercest fighting between the Turkish Army and PKK during the former’s Operation Claw-Lock.
The HPG did not establish when all 15 fighters were killed, saying they died at different times during the group's armed campaign.
The announcement follows a similar disclosure last week, when the PKK identified nine fighters from Kurdish areas of Iran who had been killed between 2006 and 2022.
In recent weeks, the PKK has released several batches of names of fighters whose deaths it had not previously announced, including members from Iran’s Western Kurdish region (Rojhelat) and northeastern Syria.
Iranian Kurds have served within the PKK for decades, with recruitment accelerating during the 1990s, particularly after the capture of PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan in 1999.
Hundreds joined the organization, and in April 2003, around 250 Iranian Kurdish PKK members established the Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK) in the Qandil Mountains, according to a founding member interviewed by Rudaw English.
While PJAK subsequently focused its armed struggle on Iran, some Iranian Kurdish fighters remained within the PKK and participated in operations across Turkey, Iraq and Syria.
The latest disclosures come as the PKK's armed conflict with Turkey remains on hold amid a peace process involving Ocalan, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli.
Following Ocalan's February 2025 call for disarmament, the PKK announced its dissolution in May 2025 and subsequently declared the withdrawal of its remaining fighters from Turkey in October 2026.
The future of the group's fighters and affiliated Kurdish organizations across the region remains uncertain as negotiations continue, with Bahceli repeatedly declaring that PJAK and other PKK offshoots needed to dissolve as well.
