For immediate release. Press Contact: Elif Sarican, +44 7939 809542

Funeral services for fallen British-Kurdish activist and filmmaker Mehmet Aksoy will be held in London on Friday 10th November 2017 at the Kurdish Community Centre beginning at 09:30.

As the world watched closely while the Kurdish people fought and defeated ISIS in Syria and Iraq, Mehmet Aksoy, a long-time activist and cherished leader of the Kurdish community in the UK, went to Syria in June 2017 to document this resistance. He was killed in an ambush by ISIS who stormed a compound just outside of Raqqa on Tuesday 26th September 2017. His body was returned to the U.K. on Wednesday 25th October.

The Kurdish people have struggled relentlessly for the world to understand their battle for a democratic, ecological, multi-ethnic, and gender-equal society, which they have been fighting to build in the Middle East. Mehmet Aksoy was a leader in this self-determination effort, spearheading the Kurdish Solidarity movement in the U.K. and beyond, as editor of KurdishQuestion.com, a website devoted to news, features and commentary about the Kurdish liberation movement.

Aksoy was born in 1985 to a Kurdish family living in Istanbul. His family migrated to London when he was 4 years old, in 1989, for economic and political reasons. He first moved to East London and later to North London, where Aksoy became involved in the Kurdish Community Centre as a teen. It was there that he further developed his Kurdish identity and became increasingly political and vocal in the Kurdish struggle. He was an eloquent speaker and leader at Kurdish solidarity marches and demonstrations throughout the last decade. While in Raqqa he was assisting the YPG (People’s Defence Units, which lead the Syrian Democratic Forces) as a member of the press office making videos, photo stories, and working on a feature-length documentary. He had graduated from Goldsmiths with a Master’s Degree in Filmmaking.

Including the recent death of Jac Holmes of Bournemouth on Monday 23rd October 2017, a total of six British citizens have died in Syria fighting or working with the YPG.

The official funeral ceremony for Mehmet Aksoy is to take place at the Kurdish Community Centre (11 Portland Gardens, London, N4 1HU) on Friday 10th November 2017 at 09:30 with speeches from Aksoy’s family members and community representatives. The official ceremony will continue at 11:30 with a three-mile march from the community centre to Highgate Cemetery (Swain’s Ln, Highgate, London N6 6PJ), for the burial to commence at 13:00. More than 2000 people attended a commemoration for Aksoy on Sunday 1st October.

For more information please contact Elif Sarican (community representative) at: +44 7939 809542 or at: elifsarican1@gmail.com

Kurdish People’s Assembly – UK