Mehmet Aksoy

Mehmet Aksoy (24 February 1985 – 26 September 2017), nom de guerre Fîraz Dağ, was a British-Kurdish filmmaker, citizen-journalist and political activist, known as the founder and editor-in-chief of the Kurdish Question website. He served as a press officer with the People's Protection Units (YPG) and was killed while covering the Syrian Democratic Forces' battle to retake Raqqa in northern Syria from the Islamic State (ISIS).

Life and work Aksoy was born in Istanbul His family belongs to the Kurdish Alevi community. It won awards at the Italian festival Roma Film Corto and the UK's National Student Film Festival in 2015, and was screened at that year's Ankara Film Festival. He reported on Rojava's first-ever elections, held on 22 September 2017. staged a surprise attack on the near-frontline military base where he was staying. Before the attackers were killed, they broke through a guarded gate into the compound and shot Aksoy alongside a female Kurdish journalist dead outside the SDF Press Centre.

Aksoy was the fifth British citizen to be killed in Northern Syria while fighting ISIS. Aksoy's grave in Highgate Cemetery, London, carved by Teucer Wilson.