Martyr Nubar Ozanyan Brigade Explained

Martyr Nubar Ozanyan Brigade
Native Name:Armenian: Նահատակ Նուպար Օզանեան Գումարտակ
Arabic: طابور الشهيد نوبار اوزانيان
War:the Syrian Civil War
Active:2019 – present
Ideology:Armenian minority interests[1]
Anti-imperialism
Leader1 Title:Commander
Leader1 Name:Masis Mutanyan
Partof: Syrian Democratic Forces[2]
Allies: People's Protection Units
TKP/ML-TİKKO
Opponents:
Turkey
Syrian National Army
Identification Symbol Label:Unit flag

The Martyr Nubar Ozanyan Brigade (Armenian: Նահատակ Նուպար Օզանեան Գումարտակ, Arabic: طابور الشهيد نوبار اوزانيان|Tābūr Al-Shāhīd Nūbar Awzānyan, Kurdish: Tabura Şehid Nubar Ozanyan) is an Armenian military organization in Syria and a part of the Syrian Democratic Forces. The brigade was founded in the Marziya Church in the Assyrian village of Tell Goran on 24 April 2019, the 104th anniversary of the Armenian genocide.[3]

The brigade is named after Nubar Ozanyan, a Turkish-born Armenian Marxist-Leninist revolutionary, who was commander of TİKKO, the armed wing of the Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist (TKP-ML), in Syria during the 2017 battle of Raqqa, in which he was killed in action.[3]

The brigade stated that its goals are to defend the Armenians of Syria, the language, and culture, and all peoples of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and the Turkish state, which it described as the "current representatives of the fascist Union and Progress Committee".

On 14 August 2019 the Martyr Nubar Ozanyan Brigade and the TKP-ML held a joint ceremony in the Hasakah region of Rojava commemorating the second anniversary of Ozanyan's death during the battle of Raqqa, attended by representatives from multiple Syrian Democratic Forces forces and other Turkish communist groups of the International Freedom Battalion.[4]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Armenian fighters promise to "fight perpetrators of genocide" . ANF News . 26 April 2019 . en . "As the Armenian people and soldiers, we are here and we are ready. We as the Armenian military forces will defend our peoples, our freedom, our language and our culture.".
  2. News: Yekem hêza leşkerî ya Ermeniyan hat damezirandin . 26 April 2019 . SDF Press . 24 April 2019 . Kurdish.
  3. News: ANF News . Nubar Ozanyan Armenian Brigade declared . 29 April 2019 . Ajansa Nûçeyan a Firatê . 24 April 2019 . en.
  4. Web site: Komutan Nubar Ozanyan Rojava'da yapılan askeri törenle anıldı . TKP-ML . 18 August 2019 . tr . 15 August 2019.