JINHA

ISTANBUL – Yesterday, a crowd of thousands bore the coffin of YPJ fighter Gülcan Özdemir to her final resting place in Istanbul's Gazi neighborhood.

Gülcan (nom de guerre Sara Dersim) lost her life fighting Daesh gangs in Tirbespî, defending the Rojava revolution. After an autopsy in the Northern Kurdish city of Mardin, her body was flown to Istanbul, where in the afternoon hours the body was borne to the cemevi (Alevi house of worship) in the Gazi neighborhood for a funeral.

"Comrade Sara Dersim will live on in the struggle of people in fraternity," read a sign in the march of thousands, where the crowd chanted slogans, including the famous "woman, life, freedom."

Gülcan's older brother, Kubilay Özdemir, speaking at the ceremony, said that the family was not sad, but proud.

Congress of Free Women (KJA) representative Türkan Esen, speaking in Kirmanjki (Zazaki) called Gülcan "a rebel daughter of Dersim."

Women bore Gülcan's coffin into the ground. The mourners placed at the head of her grave the shawl she had brought from Kobane, the flag of the PKK and a bouquet of flowers.

(lk/dk/gc/cm)