Based on the photograph and textual content on his gravestone, S. Warson was solely twenty-one when he was killed by ISIS. The picture reveals a proud younger man in navy uniform holding a weapon. Close by graves show images of a smiling teenage boy and a pregnant girl. Some girls put on trendy gown, others put on hijab; among the many useless are youngsters, troopers, and civilians, all totally different varieties of people that share the commonality of getting been killed by ISIS.
My translator defined the tales behind most of the graves. One grave marks three members of the identical household who have been all killed. One other belongs to a person who misplaced each fingers and a leg fighting ISIS earlier than he was lastly killed by a Turkish drone. Pointing to 2 extra headstones, she mentioned the victims have been “poor households, civilians, regular folks. Within the morning they went to high school, then got here dwelling, ate, and went to work fixing vehicles.” They too have been killed.
“You see all totally different varieties of individuals right here,” she mentioned, “all victims of ISIS. All of them died collectively, they usually’re buried collectively and remembered collectively. You should have this sort of martyrs additionally.”
At one other grave she paused. “That is my uncle,” she mentioned, then pointed to a close-by gravestone. “And that is essentially the most well-known comedy actor in all of Kurdistan, in Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey. He was killed on the best way to a protest in opposition to Turkey.” They have been civilians. They went as a result of Turkey had restricted water move into Rojava. The folks have been protesting once they have been attacked by the Turkish-backed Syrian Nationwide Military, and plenty of have been killed.
Throughout Rojava, the Kurdish-led autonomous area of Syria, every metropolis has a cemetery devoted to the martyrs who have been killed by ISIS. In Qamishli, the most important metropolis and de facto capital of Rojava, the cemetery known as the Martyr Delil Saroxan Cemetery, named after the primary native resident killed by ISIS.
The cemetery is adorned with the flag of the Establishment of Martyr Households and a big sculpture of a candle engraved with a quote attributed to Abdullah Öcalan, a key Kurdish political chief imprisoned in Turkey since 1999. “To offer mild to the folks round him after which he died. So that is the martyrs,” it reads.
My translator defined that the gravestones are inscribed in Latin script if the martyrs have been Kurdish and in Arabic in the event that they have been Arab. “All of the martyrs are buried facet by facet,” she mentioned, emphasizing Rojava’s multiethnic society. Christians, she added, are buried in a separate cemetery not because of discrimination, however as a result of below the traditional traditions of the Church of the East, the useless should be laid to relaxation in sanctified floor.
One part of the cemetery holds rows of graves for unidentified victims, every marked solely with a quantity. “There are additionally foreigners who have been killed preventing ISIS, and plenty of others who died in Turkish drone strikes,” she mentioned. Nevertheless, two essential international martyrs should not buried there; we needed to drive practically an hour and a half to succeed in their memorial, a public hospital, run by the Kurdish Purple Crecent, that treats as much as a thousand sufferers each day, freed from cost.
Alina Sánchez, identified by her Kurdish nom de guerre Lêgerîn Çiya, was an Argentine physician who labored with the Kurdish motion’s well being providers and the YPJ in Rojava, saving hundreds of lives. A clinic was later named in her honor. That clinic grew to become linked to one of the extraordinary and shifting martyrs: Zau Seng, a member of the Kachin ethnic group and a Free Burma Ranger (FBR) cameraman and medic who served on the frontlines in Burma.
Based on FBR founder and chief David Eubank, who was with Zau Seng when he was killed, “Always ready to go and movie wherever assaults have been taking place, Zau filmed rather a lot over his 13 years as a Ranger. He filmed Burma Military airstrikes in opposition to civilians. He filmed on the streets of Mosul throughout ISIS’ last days there. And he filmed in Syria, exhibiting the world that there was no ceasefire and the price of preventing to the civilians who’ve fled this space.”
Regardless of the 80-year-long warfare in his dwelling nation, Zau Seng felt that God had known as him to Syria to assist these struggling in Rojava. Shortly earlier than arriving, he advised considered one of his teammates that he needed to proceed going to the Center East as a result of “there are nonetheless fixed battles, so the civilians need to always flee. Once they flee to us, we, the FBR, give them medical care and distribute meals. I nonetheless wish to return and do these issues, and on the similar time, document and report the scenario.”
“I wish to return and assist till it’s completed,” he mentioned. “The primary factor I wish to say is that I’m able to go and assist due to God. I can’t do a lot, however I’m able to report what is occurring there. Now, in Iraq and Syria, I’m able to go and assist, and I’m grateful for that chance. Typically I really feel unhappy as a result of I don’t know what to do. The one factor I do know as a cameraman is to report what is occurring right here and report it to the world.”
Zau Seng was killed throughout a Turkish-supported Free Syrian Military assault. “Zau died immediately within the hit, though we did every thing we might to save lots of him,” Eubank mentioned. Two of their group members, Jason and Mohammad, have been additionally injured within the assault however recovered. Zau Seng was not buried within the Martyrs’ Cemetery; his physique was cremated and returned to Burma.
The wounded, together with Zau Seng, have been introduced by the Kurdish Purple Crescent to the clinic named after the Argentine martyr Alina Sánchez. When that clinic was later destroyed in a bombing marketing campaign, its workers have been absorbed into a brand new free hospital operated by the Kurdish Purple Crescent, now known as Zau Seng Hospital.
The hospital director grew to become tearful as she recounted her experiences through the warfare. She defined that the Kurdish Purple Crescent was usually denied entry to sure areas due to stress from the Damascus government or from Turkey. “The Kurdish Purple Crescent couldn’t go there to assist the folks,” she mentioned. “The hospital was seized, nobody might go. So, Free Burma Rangers helped us get an armored automotive, they usually coordinated till all of the wounded have been evacuate.”
Tears streamed down her face as she remembered these determined days. “They helped us as a result of they rescued many lives, many wounded individuals who would have died in any other case.” She added that as a result of the hospital is known as after Zau Seng, “folks within the area need to say his identify day-after-day, and on this manner we bear in mind his sacrifice.”
The story of the martyrs highlights the political tightrope that Rojava should stroll. Surrounded by three hostile forces, the Damascus authorities, Turkey, and ISIS, the area continues to combat for survival whereas attempting to supply a good lifestyle for its folks. But the wrestle is ongoing, with ISIS assaults rising extra frequent and Turkey deepening its protection coordination with Damascus to launch strikes deeper into Rojava. Sadly, the listing of martyrs will continue to grow.
