Ş.Kawa Amed – Ş. Çekdar Rojava – Ş. Delîl Emerîka

Kawa Amed – Paul Tod

Date and Place of Birth: 21 May 1986 – Los Angeles, California, USA

Date and Place of Martyrdom: 15 January 2017 – Suwaydiya, Raqqa

Şehîd Kawa first came to Rojava on 4 November 2016. Heval Kawa was no stranger to struggle. He was involved in the resistance at Standing Rock, a protest against the attack on indigenous land and water rights by the colonial USA and the fossil fuel industry. The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) threatened ecological catastrophe for the Sioux people who lived at Standing Rock. They initiated a heroic resistance in the face of the state and capitalist forces who met their resistance with naked brutality.

As an indigenous American, Şehîd Kawa knew what it means to struggle against the system of violence, the system that aims to crush and assimilate oppressed peoples, occupy and pillage the wealth of their lands. Kurdish comrades who knew him personally remember him for his compassion, sincerity, and revolutionary spirit.

“I came to Rojava to support Kurdish people and indigenous rights around the world. We are going to go to the frontline, I will be in a heavy weapons unit, and I am very happy to do this to support the Kurdish people and Rojava revolution. Long live Kurdistan.” – Şehîd Kawa

Şehîd Kawa was martyred on 15 January 2017 courageously fighting Daesh while liberating the people of Raqqa from their reign of terror. His strength, courage, and spirit are remembered by all who knew him. In a eulogy given by a member of the IRPGF (International Revolutionary People’s Guerrilla Force – an anarchist internationalist group in Rojava), it was said “In the prime of his life, and on his first trip to Rojava, Heval Kawa became a Şehîd, a martyr for the revolution in Rojava. To be a martyr is immortality for his blood will continue to nurture the struggle and show the path that others will follow. From the Dakotas to Rojava, all indigenous people’s will be free; united against their continued oppression and domination. The future is bright, for justice will prevail. The light will shine through the darkness as millions win their freedom and their right to live the way they want, on their own terms.”

 

Çekdar Rojava – Albert Avery Harrington

Date and Place of Birth: 11 August 1967 – Lynwood USA

Date and Place of Martyrdom: 25 January 2017 – Raqqa

Before coming to Rojava, Heval Çekdar was a Corporal in the US Marine Corps until 1991. He first came to Rojava in March 2015. He was a skilled soldier who participated in many of the major campaigns of the War Against Daesh. Heval Çekdar was considered a veteran in the fight against Daesh, having come back to Rojava to serve with the YPG on multiple occasions.

He used the Kurdish nom-de-guerre Çekdar Rojava, but was also known by the Assyrian name “Neshro Hiro”, a name given to him because of his close work with the Syriac Military Council (MFS) which is a partof SDF.

Şehîd Çekdar had a true warrior spirit, and in Rojava he found his life’s mission, to take on the fascist murderers of the so-called Islamic State and drive them from every corner of Syria. “When others ran, he always chose to stand and fight. He died like a real Marine,” an anonymous comrade who fought alongside Heval Çekdar said in remembrance.

Şehîd Çekdar was gravely injured in a bomb attack by the terrorist Islamic State, during the operation to liberate Raqqa on 18 January 2017. Despite the best efforts of medics, he succumbed to his wounds on 25 January.

His body was laid to rest in the şehîdlik (martyrs’ cemetery) in Derik alongside other internationalist fighters who gave their lives to the struggle, such as Şehîd Rustem Cudi from Germany.

Delîl Emerîka – Jake Klipsch

Date and Place of Birth: 11 May 1981 – Vincennes, Indiana, USA

Date and Place of Martyrdom: 5 January 2018 – Ayn Issa

Jake Klipsch, known to his comrades as Delîl Emerîka, came to Rojava in early 2016 to participate in the democratic revolution and to fight against the Daesh gangs. Known to all as a dedicated and hardworking comrade, he fought in numerous campaigns with YPG – from Şaddadî to Minbic to Raqqa, never wavering in his dedication to liberate these lands from the Daesh fascists.

As a young man, Jake had served in the US Army infantry but had missed being deployed overseas due to a disciplinary matter. However his training would prove useful as he fought in some of the most dangerous fronts of the fight against Daesh.

In late November 2016 he wrote on his blog “My reasons for going were two-fold. First, like a lot of people, I’d watched ISIS swallow up huge swathes of the Middle East like an out of control brush fire–sometimes literally burning alive their enemies. I read up on the situation, and found a kindred political outlook in the YPG Kurdish resistance, as well as a ready-made pipeline for entrance to their forces. It was as simple as good versus evil to me. Then there was the other factor–as a young man, I’d been Army Infantry set to deploy to Iraq. I never made it. I was kicked out for fighting (yes, really!) and found myself as an involuntary civilian reading about friends of mine who died in my absence. It left a mark. I wanted badly to fight, and found myself with a second opportunity. I took it.”

On 5 March 2017 he wrote on his blog “Before I carry on…I want to talk about this. Losing People. Losing your friends, your Brothers and Sisters. It’s intensely painful. I can’t find the right words to describe the sensation of wrapping your newly Şehîd friend in a blanket. Words fail me. One quickly gets accustomed to the unattended bodies of enemies, of the smell of rotting flesh. Not so with dead comrades. When their gaze meets yours, it sticks with you. You can only hold their eyes shut and hope you did everything you could, but you will never feel like you did. You will wish you had stepped just a few feet forward and took the bullet for them. And I don’t know how to express how this feels.”

Having survived the carnage of the battlefields in Minbic, Şaddadî and Raqqa, some of the bloodiest and most horrific fighting of the war, Heval Delîl had many of his friends, both local and international fall şehîd. He was there in the last days and moments of Ş. Ciwan Firat, Ş. Firaz Kardo and Ş. Rodî Çekdar. The psychological toll of war, the psychic wounds it creates, are every bit as real as wounds to flesh and bone. The physical wounds can be packed with gauze, bandaged and stitched up – Heval Delîl also suffered such injuries during his time fighting at the front – but the question of how the injuries to the mind and soul can be healed is much deeper and more difficult. In an active warzone where the existential threat of annihilation looms large at each step, where 11,000 fighters and many thousands of civilians have fallen at the hands of the butchers of ISIS, amid the chaos and bombs and rockets, where is the space for this healing?

Şehîd Delîl took his own life on 5 January 2018. It may not be known exactly what drove him to this action, but it is likely that the pain and trauma of the horrors he witnessed and survived were a major factor.

Even though he fell to his own hand, and not to the enemy, this does nothing to detract from his contribution to the struggle of humanity against Daesh, nor his sacrifice for the people of Syria and their revolutionary movement.

In a statement the YPG said “After the resistance process of Kobanê, the common heritage of humanity, internationalist revolutionaries in particular who came to Rojava took their places at the frontlines against the Daesh gangs. One of these internationalist fighters is our comrade Jake Klipsch, who is code-named Delîl Emerîka, who was born in the United States (USA). Comrade Delîl, who came to Rojava at the beginning of 2016, had received military and ideologically-theoretic training for two months along with other internationalist fighters against Daesh gangs and other gang groups. After completing his training, our comrade Delîl first fought in the Shaddadi campaign, then Manbij and fought against Daesh gangs, and has fully fulfilled his responsibilities until the liberation of Manbij. Lastly, he has contributed to the liberation campaign of Raqqa city centre.

Comrade Delîl, much loved and seen as a role model by his comrades, was a humble and self-sacrificing person, as well as a labourer comrade. He had a stance that practiced what he received from education. The reflection of all these characteristics was also manifested in the battlefield… Although the martyrdom of our comrade has deeply saddened us, his struggle and life will always be a guide for us, and be our greatest reason to fulfil his goals…We send our condolences to the family and to our people.”

The body of Şehîd Delîl was taken to the border crossing at Semalka, on the border between Syrian Kurdistan and Iraqi Kurdistan, where he was bid farewell by his comrades and the people of Rojava in a martyr’s ceremony with full military honours. After this he was repatriated to his family in the United States where he was laid to rest.