Executive Summary
This report analyses the Martyr Nubar Ozanyan Battalion’s redeployment to Deir ez-Zor, considering its operational objectives, historical background, and the wider geopolitical effects on the Syrian conflict, regional players, and the stability of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), also knows as Rojava.
Key Takeaways
- The battalion’s deployment to Deir ez-Zor supports SDF counter-Islamic State efforts and its Armenian Genocide-rooted mission to protect minorities.
- Turkey perceives the unit as PKK-aligned, increasing the likelihood of kinetic, informational, and diplomatic targeting that could strain AANES-Turkish relations and regional stability.
- The battalion enhances SDF’s multi-ethnic representation and legitimacy but faces the risk of being exploited in adversarial narratives as a foreign or ethnic militia, fuelling local and regional tensions.
Information Context
On 22 August 2025, the Armenian Military Force Battalion Martyr Nubar Ozanyan released a video declaring its continued commitment to defending the principles of the Rojava Revolution and the Syrian people.
After its previous involvement in the defence of Tal Tamr and Kobani, the battalion announced its deployment to Deir ez-Zor with the stated aim of preventing another genocide. Since early August 2025, indeed, the Islamic State has increased its attacks in Deir ez-Zor, causing numerous civilian and SDF casualties.
Historical Background
The battalion was established on 24 April 2019, coinciding with the 104th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. The founding ceremony occurred at Marziya Church in the Assyrian village of Tell Goran, Tell Tamer district, Al-Hasakah Governorate. The unit initially comprised 90 fighters and was prepared to operate in Hasakah, Ras al-Ayn, and Amuda, as well as near the Turkish border in Tell Abyad and Ayn al-Arab (Kobani).
During the ceremony, images of prominent figures of revolutionary and armed struggle were displayed, including Levon Ekmekjian (member of the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia-ASALA, executed in Lebanon in 1983 after involvement in a 1981 attack in Ankara), Monte Melkonian (briefly member of the rival group ASALA–RM. Prominent commander in the Nagorno-Karabakh War during the 1990s), and Ibrahim Kaypakkaya (founder of the Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist–Leninist- TKP/ML and its armed wing, the Liberation Army of the Workers and Peasants of Turkey- TİKKO), alongside a picture of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan.
The unit was named after Nubar Ozanyan (code name “Orhan,” honouring Turkish-Armenian Marxist-Leninist Armenak Bakirciyan). Ozanyan, a member of TKP/ML and TİKKO, was killed in Rojava on 14 August 2017 while fighting the Islamic State within YPG-PKK ranks. Some reports also place him in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict of the 1990s.
At its establishment, commander Masiss Botania declared that the Battalion would continue its resistance until all communities in North and East Syria achieve freedom and build a decentralised, pluralistic Syria.
According to its fighters, the battalion views Rojava as a safe space where Arabs, Kurds, Assyrians, Syriacs, and Armenians coexist. It claims to be preventing a new genocide by resisting Turkish aggression and to be protecting social unity across Syria.
The battalion participated in fighting against Turkish forces in Serêkaniyê (Ras al-Ain) and Girê Spî (Tal Abyad) and continues to confront what it describes as “the Turkish occupying enemy.” Currently, it combats the Islamic State insurgency in Deir ez-Zor.
The group’s historical perspective is rooted in the 1915 Armenian Genocide, during which Deir ez-Zor served as a key deportation and extermination site. Many Armenians died in the Deir ez-Zor concentration camps. Orphans grew up among Kurds and Arabs, learning their culture and becoming Muslim. This shared legacy of persecution underpins today’s alliances in the Battalion.
The Armenian genocide was also the systematic destruction of Armenian culture and heritage. Therefore, in addition to combat training, the unit emphasises Armenian cultural revival, memory of the genocide and teaching in the Armenian language. Women also serve within its ranks. According to Yerevan Ozanyan, who joined the battalion in 2022, Turkey fears the unity between the Rojava’s ethnic groups, which represent an obstacle for Ankara’s geopolitical goals in the region.
Commander Nubar Melkonian has accused Turkey of manufacturing hostility to sustain its political order, and of using Azerbaijan to extend influence in the Caucasus. In response to Turkish claims during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war that an Armenian battalion from Syria was deployed to the conflict. Melkonian denied involvement, asserting that the unit’s mission is confined to self-defence in Rojava. He added that neither PKK nor YPG have intentions in Armenia, contrasting this with Turkey’s use of Syrian mercenaries in the 2020 war, as reported by multiple international outlets.
The Martyr Nubar Ozanyan Battalion’s Organisation and Posture
The battalion is militarily affiliated with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a coalition led by Kurdish forces (YPG/YPJ) but also including Arab tribal fighters, Syriac/Assyrian units (MFS), Turkmen groups, and Armenian elements. Backed by the US-led coalition, the SDF led the campaign against the Islamic State from the defence of Kobani (2014) to the territorial defeat of IS in Baghouz (23 March 2019).
The Martyr Nubar Ozanyan Battalion is active in North-East Syria (Tell Tamer / Hasakah area) and explicitly opposes both the Islamic State and the Turkish state and is embedded in the SDF’s political-security framework. Although the brigate has not issued formal statements against Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), its ideological positioning makes hostility toward HTS highly likely. The unit’s commitment to defending Syria’s multiethnic and multicultural identity places it in direct opposition to jihadist-Salafi movements and to the Turkish-backed armed groups that threaten minorities. Ongoing attacks by forces and extremists affiliated with the Ahmed al-Sharaa’s regime against religious and ethnic minorities are fundamentally at odds with the Battalion’s core values.
During an interview, Lusin Hovsepyan, one of the brigade’s commanders, stated that Turkey had trained and equipped HTS, providing support ranging from logistics to military infrastructure, which contributed to its victory. He recalled that HTS is essentially Jabhat al-Nusra, the organisation once recognized as al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria. Although the group announced its split from al-Qaeda and rebranded itself as HTS, he described it as remaining a sister organisation to the Islamic State, still driven by a jihadist ideology. In 2024, he emphasised that HTS fielded thousands of jihadist fighters, including units with takfiri ideologies and members of various nationalities. In addition, he noted that groups backed by Turkey, presented as the National Army, should also be considered takfiri (non-believers).
Identified commanders and spokespersons include Masis Mutanyan (sometimes spelled ‘Botanyan’), Nubar Melkonyan and Manuel Demir.
Geopolitical Scenario
The Martyr Nubar Ozanyan Battalion’s deployment to Deir ez-Zor aligns with SDF priorities against the Islamic State resurgence and signals intent to protect minority communities where genocide memory is most resonant, but it also exposes the unit to intensified retaliation and information warfare by the Islamic State.
Turkey can perceive the group as part of the PKK-adjacent ecosystem, increasing the likelihood of targeted kinetic pressure (UAV strikes, sanctioning via proxy militias, information operations) and diplomatic messaging that conflates AANES with transnational Kurdish militancy.
Ankara may further leverage the Battalion’s profile in propaganda to depict AANES as a foreign-influenced or “separatist” project, complicating reconciliation tracks. Diaspora networks might provide symbolic support and fundraising.
Friction with the current government in Damascus is probable in narrative space but operationally limited due to geography; direct clashes remain unlikely unless front lines shift east of the Euphrates.
Adversaries may portray it as “non-Arab militarisation”, exploiting ethnic diversity to instigate internal fragmentation. If operations are perceived as heavy-handed in Arab areas, adversaries can frame the unit as an ethnic militia rather than a protective force, causing community backlash.
Baku/Turkish media ecosystems may amplify claims of Syrian Armenian fighters to justify pressure in the Caucasus information space. The Battalion’s denial of extra-theatre roles helps contain fallout.
Conclusion
The Martyr Nubar Ozanyan Battalion frames its mission as the defence of Syria’s ethnic and religious minorities against two main threats: the “Turkish occupier” and the Islamic State. In its discourse, Turkey is presented as the successor to the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide, with current policies in Syria seen as a continuation of historical persecution. Command’s narrative frame Turkish actions (including the 2020 Caucasus war context) as part of a continuum of anti-minority violence.
The battalion diversifies SDF force composition, strengthens minority outreach, and contributes niche counter-terrorism capacity and local liaison in mixed communities. It supports AANES messaging on pluralism and “social contract” legitimacy. It may increase Turkish targeting of AANES infrastructure under the pretext of counter-PKK operations.
Offering deterrence and representation and encouraging community resilience and language/cultural preservation, it might increase recruitment into AANES structures. The associated risk is that communities could be singled out by Islamic State cells or pro-Turkish proxies as “collaborators”.
Ideological hostility with groups and figthers affiliated to Ahmed al-Sharaa and allied Islamist factions is high, but physical contact is low given front-line geography. The Battalion’s rhetoric might be used by Islamist and pro-government media to delegitimise AANES as “PKK/leftist” and anti-Sunni, with limited kinetic implications unless lines shift.
*Cover image: the banner of the Martyr Nubar Ozanyan Battalion (Credits: Yeghishedaviti, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
