Mehmet Aksoy (February 1985Matt Blake,
British film-maker killed by Isis militants in Syria
.

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

, 27 September 2017. Accessed 4 October 2017 – 26 September 2017), also known as Fîraz Dağ, was a British-Kurdish filmmaker and activist. Aksoy was killed while covering the battle to retake

Raqqa Raqqa ( ar, ٱلرَّقَّة, ar-Raqqah, also and ) (Kurdish: Reqa/ ڕەقە) is a city in Syria on the northeast bank of the Euphrates River, about east of Aleppo. It is located east of the Tabqa Dam, Syria's largest dam. The Hellenistic, ...

in Northern Syria from

ISIS Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kin ...

. He was embedded with the

People's Protection Units The People's Defense Units (YPG), (YPG) ; ar, وحدات حماية الشعب, Waḥdāt Ḥimāyat aš-Šaʽb) also called People's Protection Units, is a mainly- Kurdish militia in Syria and the primary component of the Syrian Democra ...

when ISIS fighters overran a base where he was staying on 26 September 2017.

Life and work

Aksoy's family are from the Kurdish Alevi community, and were originally from the

Elbistan Elbistan ( 1ca, Ablasta, Ablastayn, Ablastin, Ablistan;Aksüt, Ali"''On the Alevism of Elbistan, Nurhak, Ekinozu and Afsin - Elbistan Nurhak Ekinözü Afşin Aleviliği Üzerine - Zum Alevitentum in Elbistan, Nurhak, Ekinözü und Afşin''"- Alevi ...

district of Maraş (East Turkey). They moved to London from Malatya in 1988, and Aksoy's interest in the Kurdish independence movement began in 2004 when he first visited the Kurdish Community Centre in North London. Aksoy became politicised as a result of his involvement with the Kurdish community in London and was influenced by the writings of the Black Panther George Jackson as well as

Abdullah Ocalan Abdullah may refer to: * Abdullah (name) Abd Allah ( ar, عبدالله, translit=ʻAbd Allāh), also spelled Abdallah, Abdellah, Abdollah, Abdullah and many others, is an Arabic name meaning "Servant of God". It is built from the Arabic words ...

's prison writings on Democratic Confederalism. Aksoy studied filmmaking at

Queen Mary, University of London , mottoeng = With united powers , established = 1785 – The London Hospital Medical College1843 – St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College1882 – Westfield College1887 – East London College/Queen Mary College , type = Public researc ...

and later

Goldsmiths, University of London Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the Wo ...

. His short film ''Panfilo,'' made for his MA course, was released in 2014, and won awards in the Italian Short Film Festival and the UK Student Film Awards. Aksoy did not inform his parents of his plans before travelling to

Rojava The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), also known as Rojava, is a de facto autonomous region in northeastern Syria. It consists of self-governing sub-regions in the areas of Afrin, Jazira, Euphrates, Raqqa, Tabqa, ...

(West Kurdistan)/ (North Syria) in June 2017. He did not want to fight with the Kurdish forces in Syria, but instead wanted to tell the stories of Kurdish fighters through his films. He was the founder and editor-in-chief of the website Kurdish Question. His uncle, Firaz, had been killed fighting for the

PKK The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of sout ...

militia during its conflict with the Turkish military in the 1990s. Aksoy went by the nom-de-guerre 'Fîraz Dağ' in honour of his uncle. After his death, more than 2,000 people turned out at a community centre in

north London North London is the northern part of London, England, north of the River Thames. It extends from Clerkenwell and Finsbury, on the edge of the City of London financial district, to Greater London's boundary with Hertfordshire. The term ''nor ...

to pay tribute. Aksoy is the fifth British citizen to be killed in Northern Syria while fighting ISIS. He was buried on the eastern side of

Highgate Cemetery Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...

in London on 10 November 2017. Aksoy, Mehmet 2017

References

External links

Aksoy talks about his film ''Panfilo''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aksoy, Mehmet 1985 births 2017 deaths Burials at Highgate Cemetery Kurdish people Kurdish film directors British filmmakers Journalists killed while covering the Syrian civil war People killed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant Turkish emigrants to the United Kingdom