JINHA

KIRŞEHİR–The people of the inner Anatolian province of Kırşehir buried YPJ Commander Seran Altunkılınç (nom de guerre Seran Anatolia) yesterday.

Seran, like several other YPG and YPJ fighters buried yesterday, lost her life in the town of Mebruska, in Rojava, in an operation to clear the town of Daesh gang presence. She held the rank of commander in the YPJ.

While funerals for YPJ fighters have become common in the provinces of Northern Kurdistan since the intensification of Daesh attacks, Seran was the first YPJ fighter from the inner Anatolia region to be buried in her native region. Two days ago, her family traveled to a border gate in Mardin province to receive her body. As her funeral convoy traveled through Diyarbakır, a crowd of thousands received her with slogans, fireworks and ululations before sending her on the road to inner Anatolia.

Military police stopped the convoy at the entrance to the village, but after a short argument,Seran'sconvoy continued on to her native village of Çevirme. Thousands gathered to greet the convoy at the entrance to the village, with women chanting the slogan "woman, life, freedom" as several of them bore Seran's coffin on their shoulders to the village graveyard.

"When she went, I held my head high. And it will stay just as high now," said Seran's mother, Servet Altunkılınç. The funeral ceremony ended with the slogan "martyrs never die."

(fk/cm)