There are few who follow the operations in Rojava and Northern Syria who haven’t heard of Dr. Akif. Since the beginning of the revolution, he has dedicated his life to health efforts and has been treating civilians and fighters in war zones since the battle of Kobanê. He was one of the first doctors to heed the call of the wounded fighters in the battle of Kobanê and in Hawl, Shaddadi, Raqqa, Tabqa and Deir ez-Zor Operations.

We had met him in Deir ez-Zor before, and this time we met him in Qamishlo. Dr. Akif Kobanê wants to go to Shehba to provide health services to hundreds of thousands of people who migrated from Afrin. During the Afrin resistance he wanted to go to Afrin for health services, but his request wasn’t approved by the health committee.

Akif Kobanê has dedicated his life to peoples and humanity, unlike doctors within the system who have betrayed their Hippocratic oath for money. This character of his makes him beloved among SDF fighters and the people. In the short while we were with him, his phone never stopped ringing, and people just called him to ask how their doctor was doing.

Dr. Akif Kobanê spoke about why he started to serve as a battlefield doctor, and the hardships of being a doctor in war zones.

“THE WAR STARTED, BUT THERE WERE VERY FEW DOCTORS”

Dr. Akif Kobanê said he quit medical school and started working in health services when the Syrian civil war broke out and the Rojava Revolution started, increasing the need for trained doctors: “Since 2011, there has been a war in Syria. And there is this revolutionary process that has continued for almost 8 years. As everybody knows, the Arab, Kurdish and Turkish people have taken their place in the Rojava Revolution collectively. We as the children of Northern Syria, of this region, were in school.

While we were in university, the war broke out and there were no more conditions for us to continue. There was an intense war in Rojava, and there were very few doctors. There was a need for young people who studied medicine to take part in medical units here. That was when I joined.”

“WE WERE WITH YPG/YPJ AND SDF IN EVERY STEP”

Dr. Akif started to work in health services in Rojava with the start of the revolution, but didn’t serve as a battlefield doctor until the 2014-15 battle of Kobanê. After Kobanê, Dr. Akif and his friends were with YPG/YPJ and SDF in every step.

Dr. Akif is known by all YPG/YPJ and SDF fighters and the civilian people in the region, and is shown great love and respect. He spoke of his decision to work as a doctor in war zones as: “As you know, in September 2014, enemies of humanity ISIS attacked Kobanê. At the time, we took our place in the health efforts in the region.

There was a truly intense battle in Kobanê, and the price of it was high. ISIS was an enemy with no regard to human rights, and they waged an immoral war. When Kobanê was liberated, a reaction against ISIS developed throughout the people of Northern Syria. Old, young, male, female, all expressed their protest against ISIS.

We as Northern Syrian health professionals decided to act together with the YPG/YPJ forces and the SDF against an enemy that survives through massacres and that murders our children and our parents. We went all the way to Manbij, and moved on to Raqqa when it was liberated. After Raqqa, we went to Deir Ez Zor. Right now, ISIS is almost done for. They only have 6-7 villages left here.”

“BEING A DOCTOR IN A WAR ZONE IS DIFFERENT”

Dr. Akif  stated that doctors in active war zones who serve the wounded fighters and the people are faster and busier than volunteer doctors in civilian fields, and said the following on the hardship: “Today, a doctor in civilian life would only go into an operation every few days, maximum. This is the normal way, but our situation was different. We would do many interventions and operations in the span of a single day.

As citizens of Northern Syria, it is different for me to see my people massacred like this. We took our place in this war as doctors. Sometimes we wished we weren’t doctors. We saw children violently murdered by ISIS.”

“HAVING DOCTORS IN THE FRONTS SAVES LIVES”

Dr. Akif pointed out that there has been an important fight against ISIS in Rojava and Northern Syria since 2014, but the resources in the fronts are extremely limited. He added that despite the lack of resources, doctors in the fronts save lives.

Dr. Akif said they can’t perform heavy operations in the front, but they are able to stop bleeding and intervene in emergency situations: “Many wounded fighters are brought in every day in the fronts. For them, we do whatever is necessary to avoid martyrdom first. We stop the bleeding, give emergency transfusions, or operate on them. Despite the limited resources, we are fast. Then we send them to hospitals in the cities.”

Dr. Akif said they can’t bring necessary equipment to Northern Syria due to embargos: “We need to store blood for transfusions, but we don’t have healthy conditions for storage. Despite all lack of resources, the presence of doctors in the fronts still saves lives. Unfortunately there are very few doctors. The rate of survival is much higher for those who are wounded in areas with or close to doctors than those who are wounded elsewhere.”

“WE ARE PERFORMING A SACRED DUTY”

Dr. Akif stressed that they have no material interest when working as doctors in war zones and stated that working in this way and being able to do something for the people, saving the lives of fighters makes their duty sacred: “We have had the opportunity to meet and treat many valuable fighters during the war.

Summarizing the YPG/YPJ and SDF’s resistance despite the lack of resources and technology in a few words would be incomplete. When ISIS attacked Kobanê, the whole world knew that they were not alone, that they had many countries backing them. Everybody saw that countries like Turkey supported them. Saving the lives of people who fight against such an engorged enemy in a struggle that protects the whole of humanity, treating them, working towards this goal raises our spiritual levels very high. With this feeling, we carry out our duties voluntarily despite all hardship.”

“SING ME A SONG DOCTOR”

Dr. Akif Kobanê said he has unforgettable memories of SDF fighters he met while treating them and relayed one memory that touched him: “When we brought YPG/YPJ fighters in, it was emotionally very difficult to explain to them that they lost an arm or a leg. One day, in Kobanê’s Mugrup village, a YPJ fighter was wounded. Her name was Ezda. She lost a hand and a foot, she was a woman who sacrificed herself for this people. She didn’t make a sound, despite all the pain she was in.

We took her in the ambulance and asked if she needed anything, if we could do anything for her, if she was in pain. She said, ‘I don’t want anything, just sing me a song, doctor.’ I hadn’t ever sung until that day. I recited a poem for her. We rushed her to the hospital and treated her, but she was martyred 3 days later. That had affected all our staff very deeply.”

“AID ORGANIZATIONS SHOULD OFFER MEDICAL SUPPORT”

Dr. Akif said Arabs, Kurds, Turkmens, all the peoples who live in the Northern Syria region are poor peoples, and added that he and his friends treat not only fighters but also the people, despite the lack of medicine or hospital facilities: “The peoples of Northern Syria, be it Arabs or Kurds, have very limited material resources. When you approach them with morality and conscience, when they see you are working for them, they embrace you.

There are hundreds of thousands of people from Afrin who have had to migrate to Shehba due to the Turkish state invasion and fascism, and they live under very harsh circumstances. The medical services are extremely lacking as well. It is the same in not just Afrin, but also in Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor.

There aren’t enough hospitals or medicine. Aid organizations are not enough either. In Kobanê, Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor and now in Afrin, there are hundreds of wounded people waiting to be treated. In areas like Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor, our Arab brethren are struggling. There are many who were wounded by ISIS, and couldn’t get well with just one operation. I am calling on those who claim they are human rights organizations or aid organizations: Show solidarity with the peoples of Northern Syria in the health issue, help them.”