Mehmet Aksoy (Fîraz Dağ) was a film-maker, journalist and prominent figure in the Kurdish community in the UK . He lost his life aged 32 while documenting the Kurdish forces operation which would ultimately lead to the liberation of Raqqa.

Mehmet died in an ISIS ambush on 26 September 2017. Today the Kurdish community and Mehmet's many friends will remember him by paying a visit to his grave in Highgate Cemetery between 1 and 3 pm. 

On Sunday there will me a memorial at the Kurdish community centre in Harringey, London.

Mehmet was born in Istanbul, Turkey, the oldest child of Zeynep and Kalender Aksoy. When he was four his family moved to London, where his parents now run an off-licence.

Educated at Leyton college and then Barnet college, he started going to the Kurdish Community Centre in central London as a teenager and there became increasingly aware of the Kurdish freedom struggle.

Important milestones in his political development were the writings of the Black Panther activist George Jackson and ideas on democratic federalism put forward by Abdullah Öcalan.

After gaining a first class degree in film studies from Queen Mary University of London in 2007, Mehmet worked as editor of the Kurdish.com website, but was also founding editor of an internet-based news portal called The Region and of the website Kurdishquestion.com, the place for information, news and analysis on all things Kurdish.

In tandem with his journalistic efforts he maintained his interest in film and in 2014 completed an MA in film-making at Goldsmiths, University of London: his 2014 film, Panfilo, an apocalyptic fairytale about three generations of men coming to terms with loss and death in rural Italy, won prizes at the Italian Short Film festival and the UK Student Film Awards.

He was also the programme director of the annual London Kurdish film festival, and at other times could be seen wielding a megaphone or a placard in support of Kurdish self-government.

In addition to the memorial on Sunday at Kurdish Community Centre, friends and family of Memed will be visiting Memed at Highgate Cemetery on Thursday 26 September between 13:00-15:00. You are welcome to join us.