An American volunteer in YPG, nom de guerre Demhat, spoke to YPG Press Office as to why and how he came to Rojava and joined the fight for revolution.

Demhat who is in Rojava for five months now tells that he started paying attention to the Kurdish struggle around 2004.

Demhat tells the following as to how he decided to go to Syria:

“In 2014, that was when Kobanê was under siege and everybody I knew was kind of watching and waiting. It was a tense sort of moment. But as the fight started to turn, people got hopeful, more people started turning up at friends that left and came to help.

And I'd just started a family, so I hadn't but the plane ticket just yet, but it was something on my mind. Last year, a buddy of mine, who I was really close with, came out here. And when I saw him out here, I was like 'That's it! I got it. I got to go'. I talked with my partner and my family and I'm like, "I'm going to Syria, it's something I care about". And I got in contact with the YPG international. I had friends who told me exactly what I need to do, and I started to plan for it. And then I showed up about five months ago and helped through it.”

For Demhat, “it's been the political struggle that's been going on in the region. Watching it develop over time and seen a real chance to take a hand, take a hand in something. And that's really important for the region. It is not, to me it's not just important for just the Kurds. It's important for the Middle East to have something like this take hold and work.”

The American fighter remarks that contributing to the revolution is a very big part of all why he is here, adding: “It's also about setting an example. I mean, this is a fire that may have started here but it can, you know, candle elsewhere. There can be other people that learn from the examples, there can be other people that welcome the example and hopefully things develop in an important progressive sort of way towards a better region.”

Demhat points out that most people in America don't know about Rojava, they don't know at all about Kurdistan, ans continues: “You don't see Kurdistan on a globe. Anywhere, it doesn't show up, you know. You have to Google it to really know what it is. And the only way you'd google it is if someone told you, "Oh! Have you heard about the Kurdish liberation movement. Oh! My son is fighting in Kurdistan right now." My family knew only about this because I told them I'm going. Otherwise, they would have continued on their lives without knowing about Kurdistan.

According to Demhat, it is always easy to get people motivated for big, drastic actions like war and conflict because it seems important, it seems “some sort of thing that you really have to fight because there's a real consequence to not fighting.”