Xemgin is a 22-year-old Arab member of the YPG. Before joining the YPG, he served as a soldier for 3 years in the Baath army: “My sister had been killed by ISIS. At the time, the YPG hadn’t reached our lands, so I joined the regime forces. I thought that was the way to fight ISIS,” is how he talks about both his desire to fight and his desperation.

During his years as a soldier of the regime, he was wounded seriously in Damascus and Idlib, and he still has wounds on his legs and abdomen. Xemgin received training for heavy weapons and now uses a DShK gun in the YPG, and goes to the frontlines with his personal weapon in assassinations and special operations. He says: “YPG is everything to me. It is my friend. The YPG became my family, life began for me after I joined. The comradery in the YPG brought me back to life, I felt like a human being.”

WHOLE FAMILY MASSACRED

His mother, father, 3 sisters and 3 brothers - all were massacred in their own home, some by firing squad, some by beheading. A total of 8 people were murdered after being tortured for having a different faith and not joining ISIS. Xemgin was already in the YPG when the massacre happened, and he ran back home when he heard of it. His voice is shaky: “The rooms, the yard, the door was all full of blood.”

A few hours later, he was back in the front. “I fight a war of vengeance. I will continue this fight against ISIS and all who torture humanity. I promised that to the family I lost, and to myself,” says Xemgin and continues: “It wasn’t only my family who died. All of Deir ez-Zor was in a way my family. When I was a child, we used to go from door to door. My neighbors, my friends in the neighborhood, the shopkeepers in the city, they were all my family. We were very close. Now the liberation of Deir ez-Zor actually means the liberation of my family and my land for me.”

ISIS KILLED MANY IN DEIR EZ-ZOR

Xemgin says ISIS committed many atrocities in Deir ez-Zor and adds: “They killed thousands from just one tribe, including women and children. There were dozens of beheadings in Deir ez-Zor every day. They even filmed killing children in Deir ez-Zor. I witnessed them killing children countless times.”

DEIR EZ-ZOR OF HIS DREAMS

Xemgin believes the SDF will bring true democracy to Deir ez-Zor: “The region will know life again after its liberated. People will see democracy and freedom and understand how vital they are. They will come together more.”

* This article by Erem Kansoy first appeared on Yeni Özgür Politika newspaper and was translated by ANF English service.