Comrade Azad Eruh joined our ranks in 2009 together with a friend. He was in the Gabar area. He was only seventeen years old.

The comrades wanted to send him south. He was young and was also struggling physically. But Comrade Azad had such a stubborn personality that he rejected the comrades’ request, saying, “Mount Çırav is Comrade Agit’s place; the August 15 Initiative was carried out here, and for that reason I will remain here.” He was deeply attached to Çırav. Just as the August 15 Initiative had greatly affected the people of Eruh, it had affected him as well.

At first, he wanted to take the name Agit. But when the other comrade chose that name, he had to take the name Azad. They gave him the name of a comrade who had been martyred during that period. He wanted to remain in the Çırav area. At times he stayed in Gabar, and at other times in the Çırav area.

Comrade Azad was a very intelligent person. Because he had taken part in youth work before coming to the mountains, he was not unfamiliar with the leadership’s ideas. He grasped guerrilla life early. He wanted to take part in every attempt at an action and in ordinary assignments. Even setting actions aside, Gabar is a difficult area in terms of ordinary guerrilla life; not everyone can overcome it. It is surrounded by 29 battalions. Being a guerrilla there is a difficult undertaking in itself. Despite these conditions, Comrade Azad wanted to stay there. He would say, “As guerrillas, we must not leave Gabar empty. Wherever it is difficult, I will carry out the struggle there.” That was the degree of his eagerness.

He constantly proposed self-sacrificial actions. He presented the projects in his mind to the comrades. He said that a raid could be carried out on Eruh. Because he was young, the comrades did not include him in actions. In life, however, he was an example for all of us.

In 2011, we were in the same unit. He was then reassigned and began serving in a unit in the Gabar region. The unit that included him had gone on a mission toward Güçlükonak. They were ambushed there, and Comrade Azad was wounded. So that nothing would happen to his comrades, he told them to leave him and go. But the comrades did not leave him. They brought him as far as a certain place, and Comrade Azad was martyred. Because he loved his comrades very much and did not want them to be harmed, he said, “Leave a grenade beside me and go.”

Whether he knew the terrain or not, he always walked in front and, if there was danger, wanted to face it himself. He had established within himself guerrilla life and the PKK’s self-sacrificial character. Despite his young age and limited seniority, he demonstrated self-sacrificial participation. It is said that he was walking at the very front when he was martyred. There is much to tell about him.

He asked questions constantly so that the winter training sessions would be strong. Saying, “Let me develop you, and you develop me,” he showed that he did not regard his own views as inferior to anyone else’s. He never put down the leadership’s defenses and read them continuously. Through discussions, he tried to understand the leadership’s ideas and put them into practice in life.

He was always in dialogue with the comrades. He proposed a raid on the center of Eruh. “With this raid, we will rewrite history; we will carry out the second August 15 action,” he said. When an action was carried out against Eruh, it deeply upset him not to be part of it. The action had turned against them, and three comrades had been martyred. Comrade Azad then reproached them, saying, “I knew Eruh; I should have taken part in this action.” The comrades tried hard to send him south, but he refused. For various reasons, his martyrdom was not announced for a long time. The statement issued by the HPG Central Headquarters on August 4, 2013, concerned him:

“We Respectfully Commemorate Comrade Azad, the Cry of Freedom That Grew in the Heart of Botan

Our comrade Azad, born in Siirt, joined our freedom movement with a profound sense of moral responsibility and turned toward our mountains of freedom to continue the resolute march. The strength of his moral reckoning created the will to say stop to pain, cruelty, and oppression, while, as a comrade who lived the smile of walking toward freedom with hope, he left a great and deep impression on us. In 2011, as a result of the attacks developed by the enemy, our comrade Azad joined the caravan of the martyrs of freedom. The militant stance of our comrade Azad, who struggled against every kind of enemy attack with his strong and resolute personality, will be the illuminating force of our march of struggle.”

Code Name: Azad Eruh

Full Name: Selim Özer

Date and Place of Birth: 1993 Siirt

Mother’s Name: Rahmete

Father’s Name: Nurettin

Date and Place of Joining: 2009 Eruh

Areas Where He Stayed: Botan

Date and Place of Martyrdom: May 30, 2011, Gabar, Botan

Comrade in Struggle

Welat Urfa