PKK fighter speaks up after being pronounced dead by Turkey

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A female fighter of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on Monday denied in a video message the claims by the Turkish interior ministry that she had been killed in southern Turkey last week. 

The Turkish interior ministry said on Tuesday that two PKK members, identifying one of them as Dilsah Ercan (codenamed Zozan Tolan), attacked a building housing police in the Mezitli district of Mersin province the previous day, claiming that both Kurdish fighters were killed by the security forces. A police officer was killed and another was injured in the same incident.

People’s Defense Forces (HPG), the armed wing of the PKK, confirmed in a statement on Thursday that two of its members carried out the attack on Turkish police, denying the involvement of Tolan in what they referred to as a “self-sacrificing action,” reported PKK media. 

Tolan appeared in a video shared by the PKK media on Monday, saying she is alive and will continue her fight against Turkish armed forces.

“I continue to carry out my duties,” says Tolan in the video, noting that her “most important task” is to struggle against the Turkish government.

Tolan used to be a journalist before joining the PKK nearly a decade ago. 

The attack was carried out by two female fighters, Sara Tolhildan and Ruken Zelal, who “fired at the enemy first with a pistol and then with automatic weapons… After the battle with the enemy forces, they lured the enemy to them and set off the prepared explosion,” according to the HPG. 

HPG claimed that the Turkish intelligence service is “weak” for failing to identify the perpetrators. 

Turkish security forces have arrested several PKK suspects since Monday, including members of Tolan’s family. 

PKK is an armed group struggling for the increased rights of Kurds in Turkey. Ankara considers it a terrorist organization and targets it at home as well as in Iraq and Syria.