MARDAGER

 Respectfully to all freedom fighters,

There's something I've been bringing up on every platform; Armenians and Kurds have shared similar fates and are bound to each other by unbreakable historical ties. The fact that both communities have suffered from Turkish attacks and even genocide throughout history is the most significant aspect strengthening this historical connection. Sometimes historical ties are formed by events, sometimes by shared great sorrows, and sometimes by heroes!

Let me introduce you to one of those heroes: Nubar OZANYAN. His real name was Fermun CIRAK (some sources also mention Orhan BAKIRCIYAN). Nubar OZANYAN, a hero who engraved his name in golden letters in the struggle history of Armenian and Kurdish peoples, creating even closer ties between two already friendly communities.

Nubar OZANYAN was born in 1956 in a poor Armenian family in Turkey. His mother died at a young age, and his father had abandoned him. There was no family left. He had an aunt, and she took care of him. He experienced the fate of Armenians who remained in Turkey after the 1915 genocide. Armenian children in Anatolia and Kurdistan couldn't attend the schools they wanted, so he received education in schools where orphan or poor Armenian children could go. He wasn't a very successful student; he wasn't interested in lessons. He loved playing soccer.

His intellectual world started to form in elementary school. His first act was to take down the flag hanging on the school yard pole. Climbing a straight pole with no grip in front of his amazed friends, he did it with unpredictable agility. In his youth, meeting another Turkish Armenian hero, Armenak BAKIR, further clarified his intellectual world. Maybe one day I'll write about Armenak BAKIR too.

In the 1970s, Nubar OZANYAN started to be active in leftist associations in Turkey. While pursuing his revolutionary ideals, he didn't neglect to diversify his social life. When he was only 14 or 15, he started working in the gym owned by the famous bodybuilder Ahmet ENUNLU to earn his allowance. He worked on strength training while working. He wasn't just a revolutionary; he was also a successful athlete. He was even chosen as the bodybuilding champion in Turkey. He had a world fifth place in this category. In 1979, he participated in the Turkish national bodybuilding team and competed in tournaments. He lifted heavy weights. According to some rumors, he lifted weights better than the later Olympic champion Turkish weightlifter Naim SULEYMANOGLU. It is even said that Nubar OZANYAN was hindered because he posed an obstacle to Naim SULEYMANOGLU's championship.

After the military coup in Turkey in 1980, he went to France. In the late 1980s, he joined the military wing of the radical left organization in Turkey called TKP/ML, TİKKO. In 1988, he went to Palestine and fought in the ranks of the Palestinian People's Liberation Front against Israel. From 1990 to 1992, Nubar OZANYAN received military training in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon and then fought against Azerbaijan in Artsakh. In 1992 (some sources mention 1994), he returned to Turkey and supported the freedom struggle of the Turkish people.

He had a great passion for Dersim, a Kurdish city that, although Kurdish, is located within the borders of Turkey and has undergone a complete genocide by the Turks in the past. Thanks to this passion, he took an Armenian folk and music group to Dersim for the first time. Seeing the Armenian folk dances alongside the local games of Kurdish people and accompanying the songs made Nubar OZANYAN very happy, almost like a child.

He did not stoop to anything offered by the capitalist system. When it came to revolutionary and libertarian struggle, he joined immediately. Nobody, not even his closest friends, knew where he was going and when he would return. His physical strength was tremendous. He was very agile and athletic. He had great skill in using weapons. No one could compete with him. That's why his friends called him "Mardager" in Armenian, meaning "no one can compete with him."

Starting in 2013, he began training freedom fighters in Northern Iraq both militarily and ideologically. In 2015, he became one of the commanders of the newly established International Freedom Battalion (IFB) in Syria and trained many Armenian, Kurdish, Turkish, Arab, Palestinian, Greek, Belgian, and French internationalist fighters. He assisted the Kurdish forces fighting against the threat of ISIS in the region.

While participating in the struggle against ISIS, he was particularly moved by the massacres suffered by Yazidi women and children who had lived in their ancestral lands for centuries. These massacres reminded him of the atrocities that Armenians experienced in 1915 or Kurds in Dersim in 1937, perhaps.

During his time in Northern Syria against the ISIS threat, according to his friends, he used to walk during the hottest hours of the day in the summer to increase his endurance. He did sports during lunchtime. He could carry fifty-kilogram sacks of sugar and flour alone.

Until 2017, he remained one of the leading commanders in the continuing struggle in Syrian Kurdistan. Nubar OZANYAN became immortal during the battle in Raqqa, declared the capital by ISIS, in August 2017. On August 28, 2017, a ceremony attended by thousands was held in Syria/Al-Malikiye to bid him farewell.

To see Nubar OZANYAN only as a military figure would be to know him incompletely. He loved to read. He read many books and newspapers. He loved cooking at home. He was also a good swimmer; he could dive into the depths of blue waters like a diver. He never wasted his time. He supported the struggles of oppressed peoples everywhere in the world. His greatest ideal was for everyone to live together in a free and equal world. Throughout his life, he chose to fight for the oppressed people. He was a revolutionary; he believed in people's war. He was also very emotional. He felt very sorry for those who lost their lives for freedom and would cry for them. He tried to help everyone he knew or didn't know. He didn't like taking pictures, so there aren't many photos of him with his friends and family.

Speaking of family, let's go to 1994 and Erivan. In 1994, after the Artsakh war, Nubar OZANYAN was looking for a rented house in Erivan when he found a suitable house and met its beautiful owner, Nazik TULAKYAN. Nazik TULAKYAN, a contemporary woman who got married at a young age and was abandoned by her husband, was struggling to make a living with her 8-year-old son in Erivan in the 1990s. She thought Nubar OZANYAN was a good person at first sight and rented her house to this handsome and idealistic man. After this fateful encounter, they continued to stay in touch. What started as a landlord/tenant relationship turned into an emotional closeness in just 4-5 months. Later, without formalizing the relationship, Nazik and Nubar got married, and they, along with Nazik's then 8-year-old son Hacik, began to live as a family of three. Until the day Nubar OZANYAN died, this family managed to maintain their unity.

After this challenging and honorable life, in order to "protect the Armenian people, language, and culture, as well as the peoples of the communities in northern Syria against ISIS and Turkey," the Syrian Armenians established the Martyr Nubar Ozanyan Brigade on April 24, 2019, as a component of the Syrian Democratic Forces. Individuals from Syria, Armenia, Lebanon, and some European countries joined this brigade. Organized Armenian women and men in this brigade continue to fight for the freedoms, equality, and justice of the peoples.

People like Nubar OZANYAN will not let the flag he received touch the ground, and they will pass it on to others when the time comes. This honorable struggle will continue until the last enemy is defeated, until the last tear is wiped from a child's eye, until everyone lives justly and fraternally!

The source I use most about Nubar OZANYAN: https://www.tkpml.com/nubar-ozanyan-2/