JINHA

WAN – Thousands gathered to say their final farewells to YPJ fighter Silav Serda, code name Şirin Kalkan, who lost her life in operations to remove Daesh gang members from the villages around Kobanê.

Şirin's family received her body at the Mürşitpınar border gate in the province of Riha (Urfa), where after an autopsy, her funeral was brought first to Amed (Diyarbakir).

There, hundreds of people said their final farewells in a ceremony organized by MEYA-DER, an association for solidarity with families who have lost their loved ones in war in Mesopotamia. Directors from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and Democratic Regions Party (DBP), along with members of the Peace Mothers Congress joined the crowd, who greeted Şirin with slogans in Turkish and Kurdish in praise of martyrs. In a short speech, her father Ali Kalkan said that his other daughter would not let Şirin's weapon stay idle.

The family traveled with Şirin's body to Wan, where a group of women bore Şirin's coffin on their shoulders to her final resting place in the central district of Edremit, in a graveyard in the Süphan neighborhood. Thousands marched in the funeral procession bearing posters of Şirin and imprisoned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan. They also waved the flags of the PKK, Group of Communities in Kurdistan (KCK) and Revolutionary Patriotic Youth Movement (YDG-H).

Wan representatives from the HDP and DBP attended the funeral, along with the Co-Mayor of Wan Hatice Çoban. Members of the Peace Mothers Parliament and MEYA-DER were also present.

After a moment of silence for the martyrs in Kobanê, DBP Wan provincial co-chair Hamiyet Şahin spoke at the funeral, saying that it was thanks to martyrs like Şirin that Kobanê was free. Her father also said that the family will be closely following the struggle to which Şirin gave her life.

After the ceremony, police attacked the tent set up for visitors to pay their respects to Şirin's family, citing the posters and flagson display as a violation.

(gk/mg/cm)