YPG honors Nûreddîn Sofî, “who helped carry the Rojava Revolution into the present and on whose foundations today’s system of North and East Syria rests,” saying that he remains an unforgettable commander, comrade, and revolutionary.
The General Command of the People’s Defense Units (YPG) released a statement paying tribute to Nûreddîn Sofî, a commander and leading figure of the Rojava Revolution, who was martyred on April 6, 2021, in the Bergarê area of Garê during an attack by the occupying Turkish army while he was visiting former comrades.
Extending their condolences to Sofî’s patriotic family and to all the peoples of North and East Syria and Kurdistan, YPG stated the following:
“With the Arab Spring in 2011, our region entered a historic period of change. The peoples of Syria stood at its center and faced a clear crossroads: either build a broad, free, and democratic system or slide deeper into chaos. Given Syria’s mosaic of Arabs, Kurds, Syriacs, Armenians, Turkmens, and Circassians, a new model and system were urgently needed.
In this context, a popular revolution took shape in Rojava under the leadership of the Kurdish freedom movement. People organized as the YXK, and later the YPG–YPJ soon became the core of the region’s defense. Within a short time, thousands of women and men joined to defend their land. The Rojava Revolution quickly grew beyond its own geography and, through its struggle against Jabhat al-Nusra and ISIS, became an internationalist revolution that defended all humanity.
Declared on July 19, 2012, the Rojava Revolution began to build its own system as a beacon of freedom and democracy. It offered an alternative to the turmoil tearing the region apart, in Syria and across the Middle East. As the joint revolution of Syria’s peoples, Rojava became a place where communities could find security. It confronted both reactionary states and jihadist structures, forming defense from within society and institutionalizing it. In this way, it pioneered a free and democratic order long yearned for by the region’s peoples.
This revolution was built through immense labor and sacrifice. With thousands of martyrs, it rose from the ashes. Great commanders, courageous fighters, and our people wrote a new history. Among its pioneers was our commander, Comrade Nureddin Sofi.
Comrade Sofî returned to Rojava, his birthplace, in 2013 and took on a leading role in the revolution. He brought long experience from the Kurdish freedom struggle. With his military and political capacity, he helped give structure to the Rojava Revolution and carry it forward to today.
Rojava was special to him because it was home. He was born in 1970 in the village of Mişerfê in Qamishlo, where Kurds and Arabs lived together, and came from a patriotic family that kept religious traditions and upheld strong social ethics. His family was respected among Arab and Syriac communities, and many youth from that circle joined the freedom struggle. Raised in this rich social setting, he developed strong patriotic and communal qualities. He lived his Kurdish identity deeply, nourished by Kurdish culture and literature. He came of age under the Ba’ath regime’s oppression and early on sought answers to state repression. As a young man he encountered socialism, read constantly, and explored socialist philosophy and scientific socialism while building a circle of like-minded friends. He studied physics and mathematics at Aleppo University, where he met Apoist thought and saw in the Apoist movement the living practice of the scientific socialism he had studied. On this basis, he joined the Kurdish freedom movement in 1990 and, over 24 years, gained deep military and political experience.
From 2013 onward he assumed senior responsibility in building the revolution. He worked across political, ideological, diplomatic, and military fields. He coordinated efforts throughout North and East Syria to institutionalize TEV-DEM and the canton system. To systematize commune and assembly work, he traveled city by city, engaging all institutions. He worked shoulder to shoulder with the people, dealt personally with issues, and never looked down on anyone. With children he was as a child; with elders he was as an elder. A compelling speaker with a deep philosophical, historical, scientific, and ideological grasp, he moved those he met and drew them into the work of the revolution. Wherever he went, social organization grew. He listened, understood, and knew how to speak with everyone.
He played an important role in the growth of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) and the Autonomous Administration. If the Autonomous Administration is recognized across Syria today as a foundational model, Comrade Sofî’s contribution is substantial. He foresaw this period and took ownership of the work, bringing Kurds, Arabs, Syriacs, Armenians, and Turkmens together within the democratic-nation framework.
He also led one of the most essential pillars of institution-building: defense. He devoted great effort to strengthening the YPG–YPJ. As ISIS and al-Nusra attacks intensified, he coordinated the war. With long military experience and clear command, he advanced our defense. As attacks escalated, YPG–YPJ mounted numerous campaigns. He personally coordinated, at the operational level, the Tel Hamis and Tel Barak operations, the Battle of Cezaa, the Tel Hamis–Revenge operation, Wrath of the Euphrates in Raqqa, the Jazeera Storm operation in Deir ez-Zor, and the final campaign that ended ISIS in Baghouz. He played an active role in the defense of Kobanî, coordinated resistance to attacks in Aleppo and Afrin, and commanded the fight against the Turkish state’s invasions of Afrin, Serêkaniyê (Ras al-Ain), and Girê Spî (Tal Abyad).
Committed to a common defense for all the peoples of this land, he played a direct role in the 2015 founding of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the joint defense force of North and East Syria.
As jihadist groups and the occupying Turkish state intensified their attacks, he assumed the post of General Commander of the YPG in 2016. With tactical depth and battlefield experience, he contributed decisively to ISIS’s defeat across North and East Syria. He was a multifaceted commander. His clarity and accumulated knowledge gave him tactical range. Wherever he was, fighters felt secure. Even in the hardest moments, he found a way forward. He never accepted that there was no solution. He gathered the views of his comrades, decided, and acted. His decisions were clear and courageous. He was sharp in command and steady in action.
His approach to women’s liberation reflected his socialism. He practiced genuine comradeship with women, recognized their will, worked alongside them, and treated the women’s line as a guiding principle. In social institution-building and in the YPJ’s development into a standing army, he worked jointly with women comrades.
He also stood out for his internationalism. In the fight against ISIS, hundreds of internationalist comrades joined us from around the world. Comrade Sofî engaged each of them so they could join the struggle more strongly, understanding their social background and speaking to their hearts.
In every respect, Comrade Sofî left his mark on our struggle. In social construction and in military work, he became a leading and exemplary commander. His words and deeds were one. He never lost his energy for life or his discipline for learning. He read, studied, and taught; he debated ideas and researched what stirred his curiosity. Loyal to the values we created, he also sought the new. He never stood still. With both mind and body, he set an example. He fit no mold. He was always in motion, living every moment for the struggle. He worked as a team with his comrades and practiced collective leadership as a socialist commander. He never insisted on himself and valued each comrade’s view. Spiritual and moral values were essential to him. He cherished literature, art, and the creations of the struggle. He was a persuasive advocate and a powerful orator who knew what to say and how to say it. Winning people to the struggle was his way of life. He left a deep impression on everyone who met him. With humility, honesty, sincerity, and revolutionary ethics, he was exemplary in every setting.
Our great commander, Comrade Nûreddîn Sofî, left us a clear revolutionary line and legacy. In the struggle across the four parts of Kurdistan against policies of annihilation and genocide, he inscribed his name in history. For us, he remains an unforgettable commander, comrade, and revolutionary.
By honoring Comrade Nûreddîn Sofî, who helped carry the Rojava Revolution into the present and on whose foundations today’s system of North and East Syria rests, we remember all who fell in the struggle for freedom. We offer condolences to the families of Nûreddîn Sofî and of guerrilla comrade Bahtiyar Gabar, who fell alongside him, and to all our people. We pledge to safeguard the martyrs’ legacy and to carry the freedom struggle to victory.
