ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Footage showing a Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) during the recent disarmament ceremony of the first batch of PKK fighters in Sulaimani province helped Kurdish parents find their daughter a decade after her disappearance.
During the ceremonial disarmament on Friday, PKK fighter Arya Tokay (aka. Arin Hebun) went viral as she laid down her weapon, capturing a moment of profound sadness and emotion.
Hebun, who became an icon of the disarmament ceremony after laying down her Kalashnikov rifle, was born in 2000 in Turkey’s Mardin province. She joined the PKK in 2014.
“When she first appeared in the line, I didn’t recognize her. After two or three minutes, people from outside called me and said, ‘Your daughter is among them,’” Hebun’s mother, Vesile Tokay, told Rudaw on Monday, describing the moment she saw her daughter after nearly ten years without contact.
The PKK on Friday held a landmark ceremonial disarmament in the Region’s eastern Sulaimani province with 30 members and commanders burning their weapons before heading back to their hideout. The decision to lay down arms was made following a February call by jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan for the group to pursue politics instead of armed conflict.
“At first I didn’t believe it. I said [to myself], ‘How could my daughter be among all those people after ten years?’ There had been no news, we didn’t know if she was alive or dead,” she said, recalling the moment she saw her daughter for the first time in years. “My husband, Rezan, and I started crying.”
Despite their concerns, Tokay and her husband were ultimately relieved and overjoyed to learn that their daughter was alive in the Qandil Mountains.
Amid the ongoing peace process between Turkey and PKK, Tokay expressed cautious hope for the future.
“I keep telling myself, ‘Do you think this process will continue and my daughter will return to us and heal our wounded hearts?’” she said, as their long-standing dream appears closer to becoming reality.
“We can’t believe it!” she added.
The four-decade conflict between the PKK and Turkey has claimed an estimated 40,000 lives, including civilians.
Ankara has cautiously welcomed the move, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stating on Saturday that the formation of a parliamentary commission will serve as a “first step” in the peace process, following the PKK’s historic disarmament ceremony.
Hebun’s mother described her as a “very cheerful person, always laughing,” recalling her daughter’s vibrant presence at home. “She was the flower of the house,” she said. “We never
believed she would leave us so soon.”
The PKK was founded in 1978 in response to the oppression of the Kurdish population in Turkey. It initially struggled for an independent Kurdistan but now calls for greater political and cultural rights within Turkey. Ankara and its Western allies consider the group a terrorist organization.
