The Martyr Nubar Ozanyan Armenian Brigade, declared on the 104th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, issued a written statement.

“MEMORIALS ARE NOT ENOUGH, WE NEED TO FIGHT”

The brigade’s statement included the following:

“Today on the 104th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, we are proud to announce the founding of the Martyr Nubar Ozanyan Armenian Brigade the children of genocide started to defend themselves.

As children of the Armenian people, who were massacred and exiled in the genocide, today we came together to defend Rojava against fascist attacks by ISIS and the Turkish state and to strengthen the revolution in Rojava. Based on the idea that a people have nothing if they don’t have an army, we formed a humble brigade to defend the Armenian people and all peoples of Rojava.

We wanted to take a step to make April 24 not just a memorial for the genocide, but a day of resistance against the current representatives of the fascist Union and Progress Committee who carried out the genocide. The Armenian people won’t just condemn the genocide and remember the lost. We want to spread the hope that they will also fight for them. Burdened by the knowledge that the genocide that happened 104 years ago continues today in different guises, we formed our self-defense force against all oppression, tyranny, massacres and assimilation attacks.

“WE POSITION OURSELVES AS A MULTIFACETED ORGANIZATION”

Martyr Nubar Ozanyan Armenian Brigade was founded to tend to the wounds of our massacred people, to hold perpetrators to account, and to allow a people torn away from its own history and language to come together with its own truth.

The founding of our brigade should be seen as proof that the ideas and the struggle of comrade Ibrahim Kaypakkaya, who spoke about the Armenian Genocide when nobody else would and who sparked the flame on the day of the genocide, have stayed alive. The founding of our brigade is also a step towards realizing the dreams of commander Nubar Ozanyan who was martyred in the fight against ISIS fascism which was nurtured by the imperialists that are the enemies of the peoples of the world. It is a step towards organizing the unorganized strength of the Armenian people in Rojava and to defend them and the Rojava revolution.

The Kurdish, Arab, Syriac and Assyrian peoples in the Rojava revolution have formed their self-organizations, brigades and regiments. It was a shortcoming and a need for the Armenian people to do the same. We as the Martyr Nubar Ozanyan Armenian Brigade feel this burning need and base ourselves on the military, ideological, cultural and social aspects and on learning our mother tongue to never experience a genocide again. To that end, we will organize more and increase our self-organization to grow our revolution.”