Killed in Kobane, Nejat Ağırnaslı Remembered in Istanbul

A commemoration march has been organized for Suphi Nejat Ağırnaslı, a sociologist who joined Kurdish YPG forces against ISIS and was killed in action in Kobane on October 5.  

Held in Istanbul’s Kadıköy district on Sunday, the march was organized by an appeal of People’s Democratic Party (HDP) and People’s Democratic Congress (HDK). 

Some of the participants included HDK/HDP constituents, Bosporus University alumni [where Ağırnaslı studied] and other groups and unions including KESK, EHP, Halkevleri, PDA, Nor Zartonk, Filistin Solu, Jineps Newspaper, Alınteri and Kaldıraç. 

Along with Nejat Ağırnaslı [who used alias Paramaz Kızılbaş in Kobane], 5 other YPG guerrillas Nûjiyan Newal, Bêrîtan Deniz, Ömer Qamışlo, Rêber Mezlum and Rizgar Cûdî were also remembered. 

The remembrance speeches were held by the following individuals: Hikmet Acun (father), Nuran Ağırnaslı (mother), Emrullah Bingül (Democratic Regions Party Istanbul district chairman), Sultan Ulusoy (ESP Chairperson), Ozan Horoz (Nor Zartonk) and friends from Bosporus University. 

Saying that his son always had a different practice from Turkey’s left-wing, Hikmet Acun said his son never asked for appreciation from Kurds. 

“Where is the revolution… Where are we?”

“How can you be a revolutionary in an age where people give up on revolutions? This was the question that Nejat was indeed asking us. Where is the revolution, where is it in us today? Nejat went to Kobane as as a revolutionary. He was communist, he wasn’t a radical. He never linked to there as a radical and he always made us ask this question: Where are we? Where are we when Kobane is a war for existence and a people is resisting for its existence? Better saying: The bullet fired in Kobane, where does it pass from Turkey’s left-wing?” 

The message from Bosporus University group was as follows: 

“We must turn our face to Kobane”

“At the moment, we are both in our borders that Nejat reminded us and in Kobane border where everything, good and bad, exists for the humanity.

“We think that it is best to turn our face to Kobane today in order to revive his name and the life and death that he chose for himself. We are also inviting you to see this truth, cultivate hope and resistance from our pain, become a part of this resistance, and live Nejat’s memory in the most beautiful way. 

“Imagination to the power…”

Some of the extracts from Suphi Nejat Ağırnaslı’s letters to his family and beloved ones have been shared:

“As an ordinary young person and due to ordinary contradictions, I just made a choice; I did this for myself before everything. 

“I didn’t depart for a sacred goal, I just wanted to give magic to a magic-less, meta world along with profane people. I learnt how my contradiction can’t be surpassed, as they were societal issues, I learnt how to organize people’s contradictions and reorganize them in a higher level. This is the closest point that I reached to the truth…

“My only problem was that I never wanted to grow up and be a part of the grown-ups’ world. My only problem was that I always wanted to remain as a child...

“Now I am going to Neverland, just like Peter Pan. To never grow up. Nothing would make me more happy.

In the hope that we create a pioneer organization which will mesmerize the lives of working class people in the western part of Turkey, raise ordinary heroes and create a great emergence. 

Every heart is a revolutionary cell!

Imagination to the power!”

(MO-EG/HK/BM)

Photo credits: Erhan Demirtaş

Main photo: Twitter

* Click here to read the article in Turkish.