Press Release
2018 was a significant year in the Kurdistan Freedom Struggle and a year of resistance against pressure and attacks for the Kurdistan Freedom Guerrilla.
The fascist AKP regime that aimed to wholly destroy the gains made by our people in Bakur, Bashur, Rojava, and Rojhilat without distinction has attempted to deepen the elimination concept they already had in place in 2018. In this context, the war in Kurdistan that saw a historic resistance against the invasion operation against Afrin early in the year occurred as a great resistance in Medya Defense Zones and Northern Kurdistan with the coming of spring.
Throughout this process of war, the AKP-MHP fascism aimed to achieve results through the most advanced technology that they tied all their hopes to and attempted to best and destroy the Kurdistan Freedom Guerrilla through intense aerial strikes throughout Kurdistan during the year. They aimed to weaken our movement, intimidate our people and pressure Leader Apo with their attacks based on this.
But Turkey’s system hasn’t achieved any of its goals in 2018 in the war. They failed to achieve results against the popular revolution in Rojava, or in the attacks against Northern Kurdistan and Medya Defense Zones. HPG, the vanguard army of the peoples of Kurdistan, displayed a historic resistance and voided the colonialist Turkish army’s plans to invade Kurdistan in Northern and Southern Kurdistan and the Medya Defense Zones.
The Kurdistan Freedom Guerrilla, in the efforts to most effectively implement the new guerrilla system necessitated by the 21st century, has developed a defense war in 2018 and stopped the enemy’s advances and their attempts to fully invade Kurdistan. The guerrilla has also dealt heavy blows to the enemy through effective actions. In the action on the Besosin Silor Hill (Ortaklar-Sungu Hill) in Semdinli, and in actions in Bradost, Serhat, Zap, Botan and throughout Kurdistan, the AKP regime has been defeated and found the only way out of the situation to be to hide the truth. In this context, they have both served their small successes to the public as grand victories, and attempted to deceive the public by hiding their losses although evidence was captured clearly by guerrilla cameras. But everybody knows that mud can’t cover the sun, and the Kurdistan Freedom Struggle’s truth cannot be hidden. The war process in Kurdistan is announced to the public in the truest and simple way through the HPG Press Center, and our people can follow the HPG statements to get an idea about the progression of the war.
Without a doubt, all the gains by our people and movement in 2018 have been achieved through our heroic martyrs who sacrificed themselves in the name of freedom despite intense enemy attacks. We remember our martyrs with great gratitude and respect, from comrade Zeki Sengali who was martyred as a leading commander to comrades Atakan, Cetin, Cuma, Medya, Dicle, Tarik, Cudi, Vedat, Jîndar, Rizgar, Roza, Sorxwîn and more.
As the Kurdistan People’s Defence Forces, we state that we are entering the struggle to free Leader Apo and the people of Kurdistan for 2019 ready to raise the flag of freedom left to us by our heroic martyrs, and share the balance of the war against the colonialist Turkish state in 2018 as a revolutionary duty.
The details of the balance of war is as following:
Turkish Army Ground and Aerial Operations
Ground Operations: 163
Air Strikes: 370
Attack Helicopter Strikes: 313
Mortar, Howitzer, Tank and Artillery Attacks: 558
The result of Actions against Attacks
Guerrilla Actions: 556
Armed Clashes: 59
Actions with Undetermined Results: 220
Enemy Forces Killed (Police, Soldiers, etc.): 2103
Ranked Officers Killed (Police, Soldiers, etc.): 12
Wounded Enemy Forces (Police, Soldiers, etc.): 418
Military Vehicles Destroyed (Armored): 43
Military Vehicles Destroyed (Normal): 13
Construction Machinery Destroyed: 29
Damaged Military Vehicles (Armored): 33
UCAVs Downed: 1
Drones Downed: 5
Damaged Scout Planes: 1
Damaged Helicopters: 10
Comrades Fallen Captive to the Enemy: 19
Comrades Martyred: 523
January 2, 2019
People’s Defence Centre Headquarters Command