On the 104th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, revolutionary forces in Rojava established the Martyr Nubar Ozanyan Armenian Battalion. The battalion is named after Armenian guerrilla Nubar Ozanyan, who fought in the ranks of the PFLP, and later as a commander with TIKKO in Rojava.

There was a memorial service held at Marziya Church in the village of Til Goran in Hasekê. The memorial event and the later commemoration were attended by various revolutionary organizations.

Anarchist comrades, Tekoşîna Anarşîst, delivered a speech to honor the formation of this new group and to highlight this development as a “significant step towards defending the diversity” in Rojava.

The statement from the battalion reads:

“We are proud to announce the establishment of the Martyr Nubar Ozanyan Armenian Battalion, which is formed as a self-defence unit by the children of the genocide.

As the children of the Armenian people, who were massacred and exiled in the genocide period, we came together to strengthen the revolution in the grounds of Rojava and to defend Rojava against the fascist attacks of ISIS and the Turkish state.

The establishment of our battalion is also the step of realizing the dreams of commander Nubar Ozanyan who was martyred in the fight against the imperialists, who are the enemies of the world people, and against the ISIS fascism, who are fed by the imperialists. The power of the Armenian people in Rojava is a step towards organising the unorganised and defend both, themselves and the Rojava revolution.

While the Kurdish, Arab and Assyrian people, who existed in the Rojava revolution, established their own self organizations, battalions and regiments, the lack of such an organization within the Armenian people was a great deficiency and need. Feeling this need, we will not relive the genocide, by not only organizing in military dimension as the Martyr Nubar Ozanyan Armenian Battalion, but also organizing on multi-dimensional basis such as ideological, cultural, social and learning mother tongue. To this end, we will organize ourselves more and expand our revolution by further expanding our self-organization.”