ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A Free Women’s Units Star (YJA Star) commander has said the unit has lost 112 fighters in 2020.
“In the past 11 months we have carried out 110 independent operations,” Zozan Cewlik, leader of the YJA Star’s Central Command, said in an interview with the PKK-affiliated Firat News Agency (ANF) on Tuesday, adding that “316 fighters of the enemy were killed and 112 of our comrades were martyred.”
YJA Star is a women’s wing of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), operating under the feminist philosophy of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.
The PKK is an armed group struggling for the increased cultural and political rights of Kurds in Turkey in the last four decades. It is regarded as a terrorist organization by Ankara and its Western allies. Kurdish activists, politicians and journalists in Turkey are also targeted by Ankara for perceived links to the group.
Over half of the operations - 68 - were carried out in the Haftanin region in Duhok province, the commander added.
Turkey announces regular operations against PKK fighters in both Turkey and the Kurdistan Region. The Turkish Ministry of Defense announced killing 10 PKK fighters in the Avashin-Basyan region of Duhok province on December 29.
On Wednesday, Turkey's defense minister Hulusi Akar said Turkey "neutralized 3,646 terrorists" this year, in both domestic operations and in the Kurdistan Region.
Turkey launched renewed airstrikes in the Kurdistan Region and disputed territories in mid-June, dubbed Operation Claw-Eagle. Said to target Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) positions in the Kurdistan Region, eight civilians have been killed in the strikes. The ground operation, Claw-Tiger, concluded in September.
Ankara regularly carries out airstrikes and ground operations in the Kurdistan Region, against what it says are positions belonging to the PKK.
504 villages have been emptied by Turkish and Iranian incursions into the Kurdistan Region since 1992, according to a report by the Kurdistan Parliament.
Both Erbil and Baghdad have repeatedly called on Ankara to halt its attacks and have demanded the PKK cease using Kurdistan Region and Iraqi territory to launch attacks on Turkey.
“2020 is the year in which the Kurdish people got to know the AKP. Regarding the politics of women and youth, their true colours were shown,” added Cewlik.
Regarding their aims for 2021, Cewlik said the group will continue to pursue operations.
“We will enter 2021 with persistence.”
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