War against ISIS/Daesh: ‘From Tuzluçayır to Kobane’ – Interview With An Anarchist Warrior (Kurdistan)

(en) War against ISIS/Daesh: ‘From Tuzluçayır to
Kobane’ – Interview With An Anarchist Warrior (Kurdistan)

(Contributor note: "Rojave is not a sectarian insurrection - it is a social revolution of 
the masses". I.S.) ---- The following article is an interview with an environmentalist, 
vegetarian anarchist from Turkey who is a member of Sosyal Isyan (Social Insurrection) 
fighting as part of Birleşik Özgürlük Güçleri (United Freedom Forces) alongside the YPG / 
YPJ in Kobane, Rojava. The interview was conducted by H. Burak Öz and originally appeared 
on the jiyan.org website. We would like to thank the comrade Ece for translating the 
interview into English for us. ---- Environmentalist, vegetarian, anarchist combatants who 
fight in Kobane. ---- We are sitting at the headquarters of United Freedom Forces 
(Birleşik Özgürlük Güçleri) in Kobane. I ask for a cigarette from a fighter aiming to meet 
and talk with him. While he offers one, I’m asking how many group form the United Freedom 
Forces. He says that, this force consist of salvationists (Kurtuluşçular), MLSPB, TDP and 
anarchists and indicates that he is an anarchist too.

What is the aim of fighting here for the anarchists?

I’m one of the founders of Social Insurrection and also their spokesperson. When the 
attack of ISIS started in Kobane, in the name of international solidarity, not considering 
it too much, we idealized to raise the defense as International Brigades much like in the 
Spanish Civil War.

United Freedom Forces was formed by different socialist factions from Turkey. Being an 
anarchist, how did you become involved with this structure?

United Freedom Forces was founded when we arrived. We made a call to anarchists and 
ecologists.

Are there any other anarchist fighters who came from other countries than Turkey?

Comrades came from Italy and Spain. There is also an Argentinian anarchist who fights not 
with us but in YPG.

When was Social Insurrection founded?

Social Insurrection was founded in 2013 in the tents of resistance in Tuzluçayır. 
(District in Istanbul Turkey – translator)

Why did you prefer a black and green flag?

Both because of the memory of Makhno peasants and also because of the fact that we are 
also ecologists.

What sort of a structure does Social Insurrection have?

We defend class war and reject neo-liberal anarchism. Mostly we have classical anarchist, 
Makhno and Proudhonian comrades. Generally, we have a platformist comprehension. We can 
call Social Insurrection as: we didn’t take Bakunin, Proudhon, Luigi Galleani, Malatesta 
etc as they were. We examined every anarchist and added our own thoughts and said that we 
are the Social Insurrectionists.

When did you enter the armed struggle?

We defended armed struggle from the beginning of our foundation. Specifically, we were 
influenced by the view of insurrectionist anarchism of Alfredo M. Bonanno. We founded our 
own insurrectionist theory. We believe that the revolution will start with armed struggle. 
First, 3-5 armed acts in Turkish slums like Okmeydanı and now, this all led us to Kobane. 
But first of all, we dreamed about it.. If we hadn’t dreamed about it and tried to 
practice it, we would just be drinking beers in a bar in Kadıköy or Beyoğlu. Some of our 
comrades stayed as they were.

How is the approach of Kurdish Movement to you in Kobane?

In some way, our presence in Kobane shows that anarchist armed struggle didn’t end in the 
Spanish Civil War. At the beginning, socialist and Apoist (defenders of Abdullah Öcalan) 
friends were surprised to see anarchists using guns in here. A kind of an idea of 
anarchism created in minds. Actually, people don’t really know anarchism in here. They 
know anarchists as against everything and to all sorts of organization. There is a nice 
statement by Kropotkin: “Anarchy is order.” We’re explaining and taking the responsibility 
of it. Even though its responsibility is hard to take, we’re trying to manage it.

In which point does theory of the ecological anarchism and the practice in Kobane overlap?

We lived such things in here that we couldn’t figure according to which movement we have 
to act, we couldn’t find the answer in books.

Like what?

This is a military war. For example, we reject all sort of hierarchy but in here, you have 
to have a team commandant. You can’t give a walky-talkie to everyone in here or no one can 
act in his/her own way. Maybe the naturality creates its own priorities. We understood 
what the guidance of Malatesta and natural leadership of Bakunin was here, which we hadn’t 
understood while reading. There was information, we practiced it and we obtained 
information once again.

What were you dreaming about before coming to Kobane and what did you find?

I thought I would have some problems about the chain of command but I didn’t. I didn’t 
confront with any sort of pressure or difficulty within YPG and United Freedom Forces. 
Some of our comrades may have screamed while a bullet passed near our heads in stressful 
times of war but it’s normal.

Didn’t any ecological problems occur?

There was an orientalist point of view such as there was a need for people to come here to 
fill the gap of awareness. For example, comrades from Italy wanted to import organic 
agriculture but there are people who already know organic agriculture and they apply it. 
They are talking about ecology. A Spanish comrade insisted on “not using diesel oil to 
light a fire”. You’re in a place where diesel oil costs 7 cents. Wood is more expensive 
and you can’t find it easily because the place is generally a desert. There are olive 
trees but they are planted with agriculture. You can’t cut them. So, its absurd to tell 
these people “don’t use diesel oil, why do you use diesel oil to warm up?”

You told us earlier that comrades from United Freedom Forces asked socialist friends not 
to eat meat and to apologize to the animals that they’ve killed but when you were cut off 
from supplies, you ate mostly meat. Can you talk about that?

So many things happened in the mountains. Supplies didn’t arrive. We were hungry and there 
wasn’t anything else other than the ducks that were left behind by the villagers. When the 
comrades began cutting the ducks, I said “what are you doing? It’s murder!” but I said it 
detached from reality, as a reflex. Things that we do according just to theory had collapsed.

You are fighting with socialists in the same group. Have any theoretical discussions 
occurred among you?

Even when they do, they are more like banter. We never had a problem. Us and them, we are 
all conscious that we came here for international solidarity. We are all acting 
accordingly to revolutionary ethics. We sleep side by side and we eat together. We are 
trying to understand each other. Maybe we need a new revolutionary theory in the 21st 
century that this practice may add something into, in terms of understanding each other.

You must have had some times that you approached to death. What do you think of in such 
moments?

I definitely had but in battlefront, you think of your comrades. Maybe there are some 
moments of fear and panic but when you hear gun sounds, they all disappear. I mean, you 
develop a reflex to protect yourself and your comrades.

What is this Coca-Cola can?

Don’t touch! It’s a handmade bomb.