Mahmud Mustafa Tayba comes from the village of Rami on Mount Zawiya in Idlib. His family had to flee several times, first from oppression and persecution by the Turkish state and Jabhat al-Nusra (Hayat Tahrir al-Sham) from Idlib to Afrin. When the Turkish state also occupied Afrin with jihadist mercenaries in 2018, the family, like many others, fled further to Manbij. Already in Afrin, Tayba came to terms with the Apoist ideology and took part in the defence of the region. He became a commander of the armed organisation Suwar Idlib. His father also fights in the ranks of the liberation organisation. His mother works in the Council of Families of Martyrs and one of his siblings is among the guerrillas.

"We fight to help people"

In an interview with ANF, Mahmud Mustafa Tayba talked about his story and perspective. On staying in Afrin, he said: "We went to Afrin because it was safe there. There we founded Liwa Shimal al-Demokrati and fought against ISIS. We went to the Friends (Self-Defence Forces). They had a training academy there. We fought together with them with the aim of helping people."

"No difference between Kurds and Arabs, between Muslims and Christians"

Tayba reported that the Rojava revolution was of the utmost importance to him: "The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have a successful foundation. It consists in the unity of the peoples, of all ethnic and religious identities. Their aim is to protect the territory of Syria from Turkish invaders and mercenaries. The architect of this development is Abdullah Öcalan. His ideas are based on peace, love and tranquility. There is no difference between Kurds and Arabs, between Muslims and Christians."

He further explained, "In order to develop myself, I proposed myself for training in 2017, and then went to the Şehîd Aziz Arab Academy. The training helped me develop as a person. I was able to better appreciate my previous experiences. We were together with people of all ethnic and religious identities in the training. It was interesting and exciting. Also, reading Rêber Apo's [Abdullah Öcalan] books contributed a lot to my development. During the training we learned that there were people who took part in the freedom struggle in the 1990s and fell in the process. Şehîd Aziz Arab was one of them. He was from the village of Mehrebiye, the place where we settled in Afrin. We were deeply moved by that."

"There was great will and infinite morale"

Impressed by Öcalan's ideas, Tayba then began giving education himself. Then he went to the front. In 2018, he resisted the Turkish invasion of Afrin on the Rajo front. He recalled: "Despite the bombardment, reconnaissance and artillery fire at the front, morale was high among us. I would like to tell you one of my memories. Two of my friends had been wounded six days earlier. After the liberation of the village, we took them out of there and everyone was in high spirits. There were also friends who sacrificed their lives in actions. The civilian population was bombed. After the first self-sacrifice actions, many more were preparing for such actions. In other words, there was great will and infinite morale."

"People in Idlib live in fear"

Tayba also took part in the al-Bagouz offensive, which ended ISIS’ territorial rule in 2019. He added, "Another of our targets is Idlib. It is about liberating Idlib as well as Afrin. We have information about Idlib. There is shelling every day. Everyone knows that Jabhat al-Nusra is the child of ISIS, but no one dares to say it. People in Idlib cannot revolt because they will be beheaded if they do. People are afraid."