Quick Facts
Biography
Nubar Ozanyan (Armenian: Նուպար Օզանեան, 1956–2017), also known by his nom de guerre Orhan Bakırcıyan, was a Turkey-born Armenian radical communist revolutionary, who served as commander for the militant Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist–Leninist (TKP/ML). Fighting in several conflicts for the group, he eventually died in combat against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant during the Battle of Raqqa.
Biography
Ozanyan was born into a poor ethnic Armenian family in Yozgat, Turkey in 1956, with his mother dying when he was still young. After receiving primary education, he was introduced to radical leftist ideology and joined the TKP/ML. Following the 1980 Turkish coup d'état, Ozanyan went into exile in France, where he reportedly was one of Yılmaz Güney's defenders. In the late 1980s, Ozanyan joined TKP/ML's military wing, TİKKO. In 1988 he ventured to Palestine and fought with the PFLP against Israel during the First Intifada. Ozanyan also received military training by local militants in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley in 1990. Between 1991-92, he reportedly fought in the Nagorno-Karabakh War against Azerbaijan. He returned to Turkey's Tunceli Province in 1992 and thereafter participated in the local Maoist insurgency. At this time, Ozanyan began to rise in the ranks of the TKP/ML, and became an important organizer, ideologist, recruiter, trainer and frontline commander for the party.
In 2013, he trained fighters of TİKKO in Iraqi Kurdistan. In July 2015, he became one of the commanders of the newly founded International Freedom Battalion (IFB) in Syria, whose aim was to aid the YPG/YPJ against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. As member of the IFB, he reportedly trained "many Kurdish, Turkish, Armenian, Arab, Palestinian, Greek, Canadian, Sardinian, Belgian and French internationalist fighters." Meanwhile, he attempted to keep the TKP/ML intact and active in Turkey, where the party faced increasing problems as the Turkish Armed Forces intensified their counter-insurgency campaign after the start of the Kurdish–Turkish conflict's third phase. Because of that, Ozanyan returned to Tunceli Province for some time in late 2016 or early 2017, but eventually resumed his participation in the IFB. He joined the battle for Raqqa, ISIL's self-proclaimed capital, during which he was killed in combat on 14 August 2017. He was 61 when he died.
His death was lamented by the TKP/ML, the Istanbul-based Armenian Nor Zartonk movement, the IRPGF, the THKP-C/MLSPB, the MLPD, and the PFLP.
Personal life
Ozanyan could read, write and speak Turkish, Armenian and Russian and translated several leftist treatises.