DİHA - Dicle News Agency

KOBANÊ (DİHA) - YPG (People's Defense Units) Arab fighter Şevger Himo said that the ranks of the YPG were a place where young people from all over the world who wanted democracy could meet.

Himo, an Arab from the Cizîrê Canton said he joined the YPG 3 years ago, and three months ago came to Kobanê oh his own volition to join the resistance. Four of Himo's brothers are also involved in various institutions in Rojava.

'The egalitarian nature of the revolution'

Şevger Himo said he had lived in Qamişlo (Qamishli) for a long time and become acquainted with the Kurdish Freedom Movement through his elder brother, but our loyalty to and belief in the Kurtdish movement really developed after the revolution in Rojava."

'With the gun given him by his father'

Şevger Himo said he had received his call up papers from the regime, adding: ''I didn't want to do military service for the regime, I preferred to join the YPG, which is defending the Rojava revolution. My family supported this decision, as the revolution represents the unity of peoples. When I joined the YPG it had limited capabilities and my father gave me his own AK47."

Went to Kobanê before his wounds had completely healed

''After I had joined the YPG 3 years ago my elder brother İshak Himo joined the public security and two other brothers joined the struggle in different institutions." He added that the YPG defended the whole of Rojava, and that when attacks began on Kobanê he wanted to go there, but had had to wait until he was discharged from hospital after being wounded in a clash in Hesekê. Himo said he had been in Kobanê for 3 months, and that the defence of that city meant the defence of the Rojava revolution that was the democratic future all the peoples and beliefs in Syria and Rojava. ''A great resistance is going on here. We are opposing ISIS attacks inspired by Leader Apo, and wherever ISIS attacks we will oppose them."

'Enemy of peoples and faiths'

''If there hadn't been a resistance in Kobanê, ISIS, acting in the name of the Arab people, would have carried out a massacre," said Şevger Himo, adding that ISIS was the enemy of peoples and faiths in the Middle East. 'As an Arab, I call on the Arab people to support the YPG, which believes in democracy and defends the fraternity of peoples, against the savagery of ISIS." Himo said he had not once encountered any prejudice or negative views towards the Arab people since he had joined the YPG, adding that peoples from many different places had joined the organisation. Şevger Himo said he had been profoundly influenced by Rojvan, an Iranian who he met in Kobanê and who fell in December. He added that that the ranks of the YPG were a place where young people from all over the world who wanted democracy could meet.

A joint struggle

Şevger Himo said it was not just one city that was being defended, but that the resistance in Kobanê and the Rojava revolution represented the joint struggle of all oppressed peoples in the region and worldwide. He said that although many young women and men from Kobanê were involved in the resistance, some had left the city, and he called on them to return and take their places in the resistance.

(nt)