In the midst of a historic revolution in which women became the center of beauty and noble values, a young woman carrying a new seed, woven together with a love of life, was walking toward the morning of a free day.
With her love for a new life, she was building the character of a brave woman on the path of truth. The mountains, with her enthusiasm, and her smiling face, brought an end to the longing of years. The time had now come to give meaning to the story of guerrilla Engîzek with all its beauty.
Guerrilla Engîzek Ararat, whose real name was Şîraz Xalid, grew up in a family connected to the culture of PKK resistance. She opened her eyes in Kobanê, the fortress of resistance. She came to know the Freedom Movement and Leader APO during her childhood. This played an important role in shaping her consciousness at an early age. The truth of Leader APO’s struggle and the free way of life created a deep sympathy in Şîraz and allowed her search for truth to develop early. Alongside this, the participation of family members in the guerrilla ranks deepened her attachment and love. In particular, the strength of women who wage war and struggle through their own will drew her attention and influenced her. This influence also left its mark on her search, leading her to make the decision to take part in a great struggle. During the war in Rojava, Şîraz made her decision to join and chose the path of struggle against ISIS’s dirty plans. In 2014, she turned toward the mountains of Kurdistan and joined the guerrilla ranks.
A Searching Personality in the Mountains
The mountains are a sanctuary where all forms of beauty come together, a place where everyone finds themselves. Guerrilla Engîzek, too, embraced that beauty with great will and determination, and walked the paths of those mountains toward her dreams. With every step she took, she renewed her pledge to realize her dreams. She motivated herself with the firm decision that nothing could stand as an obstacle before her struggle, and she built her participation on this basis. With all the subtleties of guerrilla life and struggle, she played her role as a young and pioneering militant. She was always curious and searching. In order to learn guerrilla life and the communal way of life in all its details, she acted with strong awareness. Through this stance and determination, she was quickly loved in life and took her place in the hearts of her comrades.
Guerrilla Engîzek received her basic training in the Medya Defense Areas. She participated in the training with great enthusiasm and excitement. She made great efforts and gave much labor in order to become one of the pioneers of her people. First of all, she gave great importance to understanding the reality of Leader APO and insisted on acting according to the measures of freedom. She saw this as a militant duty that had to be fulfilled consciously. She never compromised this stance, and at all times she preserved the stance of the woman who “becomes more beautiful as she fights.” She described this as an answer to the existing system. With these claims and with the strength she gained from training, she turned toward the Zagros, the first homeland of humanity. There, she began her guerrilla life. In Avaşîn, which is paradise itself, she had the opportunity to carry out practice. With her excitement and joy of life, she gave color to her surroundings and was loved.
On every peak and in every valley of Avaşîn, the sweat and blood of thousands of martyrs have been poured out. At the same time, countless memories and dreams have been lived on that land. To protect those values and realize those dreams, guerrilla Engîzek saw herself as responsible. She took this upon her shoulders with great will and belief. She always displayed her self-sacrificing stance. At the foundation of all this, her understanding of freedom revealed itself. For this reason, guerrilla life and the struggle for freedom were more important to her than anything else in the world. For this, she was able under all conditions to develop a conscious war against the enemy. These became, for her, more effective steps that enabled her to achieve successful results.
With the Stance of Resistance, She Opened the Road to Victory
In 2015, the Turkish state began brutal attacks in the field against the guerrilla forces. Guerrilla Engîzek also fought actively against the enemy in that war and carried out practical work. After a long period of practice, she moved on to military training in 2017. On the basis of all her previous experiences, she demonstrated stronger participation and more solid results. Both in the ideological and military fields, she prepared herself as a young commander for every practical task. After guerrilla Engîzek successfully completed her training, she turned this time toward the Heftanîn area, where she entered practice with an even stronger participation. She took responsibility as a young commander and played an active role. In the Battle of Heftanîn, as a pioneering commander against all occupation attacks, she joined the war with the spirit of victory and carried out the struggle. Despite all the difficulties and hardships experienced in war, she played an important role both in giving morale to her comrades and in motivating those around her. With her stance, determination, and comradeship, she was always taken as an example in the war. At the same time, through her activity and her style of fighting, she took her place in developing the struggle. Without doubt, all the experiences she gained in war, she discussed one by one with her comrades as experiences of life and shared them. This allowed her, as a commander, to bring her work in actions to a more successful conclusion.
Going to Botan Was a Dream for Her
For guerrilla Engîzek, carrying out guerrilla struggle on the soil of Northern Kurdistan, in the Botan area, was a very different feeling. In the mountains, highlands, and peaks of Botan, there are thousands of stories of heroes, and the story of the freedom guerrillas has been written there. In order to protect those values, going to the area was no longer only a dream for her. She tied her heart to sacred values and gave meaning to her life through the memories of the martyrs. Once again, the pledge to protect these values placed a historical burden upon her shoulders. With this greatness, and without betraying her dreams, Engîzek set out with love toward her dreams.
After a process filled with values, and at her own request, she moved in 2019 to the land of Aqîd and Bêrîvan, to the Botan area. At all times, as an Apoist militant and a freedom fighter, she put herself forward for the difficult areas of struggle. With the self-sacrificing stance of the Kurdish woman, who has always been embraced through her rebellious spirit and struggle, Engîzek too turned with the same spirit and the same feelings toward another field of struggle and took part in practice. She took as her foundation the legacy of hundreds of heroes who became symbols of the struggle on the soil of Botan. In the same way, in order to demand the account of years from the enemy and to avenge her martyred comrades, she walked toward her dreams with an even stronger participation. Despite the lack of possibilities in the area and the hardships of guerrilla life in the North, she held firmly to the struggle with a spirituality worthy of mention, and created possibilities out of impossibilities. With this mission, without taking even one step backward, she advanced with insistence on bringing her duties to success.
Guerrilla Engîzek, like her majestic name, carried out war and struggle in all fields of struggle with the determination and anger to demand an account from the enemy, and with a heroic stance that never bowed before the enemy. On the soil of Botan, which had become the center of Kurdistan’s heroes, Engîzek realized her dreams of demanding an account from the enemy. Through the stance of self-sacrificing comrades like Engîzek, the Botan area was illuminated with the light of freedom.
On January 9, 2022, in Faraşîn, connected to Botan, in the Melî Axa region, as a result of a difficult operation by the Turkish state, guerrilla Engîzek, together with her comrades Canşêr Maku and Sîdar Roj, fought in a self-sacrificing manner until their final breath against all the attacks and techniques of the enemy, and reached martyrdom.
You were that pledge of revenge in all four parts of Kurdistan. You were that resisting woman whose militant stance so greatly suited her stature. Your heartfelt steps, your spirit made of steel, seemed to spread their light everywhere, building the hopes of a new future for children. You were Engîzek; your name and your heartfelt struggle will be remembered with heroism. May your spirit rest peacefully upon those sacred lands. Let your eyes not remain behind; today, upon your memories, there exists a living memory that keeps society standing on its feet. The pledge to raise the struggle and protect the martyrs is the guide of all your comrades and friends.