Internationalist Thomas (Azad Şerger) Martyred in Combat in Kurdistan

In the early hours of June 15, Thomas Johann S. fell in combat with Asya Kanîres (Kadriye Tetik), a Turkish fighter, and Kocer Medya (Diyako Saîdî), originally from Iranian Kurdistan, two of his comrades from the People’s Defense Units (HPG ). They were killed in the Xakurke region of Iraqi Kudistan by shelling after leading an attack on Turkish occupation forces. Thomas had started to organize in 2014 in anti-fascist and revolutionary action in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, near his native village. He was part of the revolutionary group “La Résistance” [in French]. In 2014 and 2015, he took part in attacks against German army propaganda and vehicles. He participated in the organization of mobilizations against the “Munich Security Conference” in February 2015 and against the G7 summit in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Thomas was actively involved in the anti-fascist struggle in Germany, such as in 2016 during the clashes to prevent the fascist march in Ingolstadt.

In the spring of 2016, he traveled to North Kurdistan for the Newroz celebrations, and visited the ruins of Amed-Sûr (Dyarbakir), where the Turkish army had massacred young Kurdish rebels a few weeks earlier. He became involved in the Kurdish movement and joined the guerrillas under the nom de guerre of Azad Şerger. He had written: “We can crush the extermination organized from our soil and carried out by others on foreign and distant soils only together, therefore united. Not only united internationally, but also among ourselves. We can no longer get bogged down in unnecessary infighting and bickering. Whoever does this will only lose sight of the real enemy and our goal in the fog of capitalist and imperialist maximization and valorization. He/she will only submit again to the capitalist command that suffocates and kills us, the subject, in liberalism”.

Source: Secours Rouge