Here's the statement of International Freedom Batallion (IFB), on the first anniversary of Raqqa's liberation:{divide}

From Raqqa to the whole Middle East; Victory is in the Hands of Freedom Fighters

We are leaving behind the first year of the liberation of Raqqa, which had became the capital of reactionism and cruelty by the occupation of ISIS, the headquarter of the attacks against humanity. Today, we are singing freedom songs in this city Raqqa.

The victory of Raqqa is the final defeat of ISIS gangs, who had been spreading around the lands of Syria with an unpreventable advance backed by all sorts of decayedness; from the fascist Turkish state to the exploitative Arab reactionism, from political Islamist gangs to some imperialist powers. The oppressed peoples of the Middle East were rescued from the nightmare of ISIS by the struggle which our International Freedom Batallion did also take part under the leadership of YPG-YPJ. Rather than limiting itself with the cantons of Cizire, Kobanê and Afrin, the Rojava revolution, which destroyed the slavery system deemed proper for poor peoples, has spread the freedom fire around the Northern Syria. The freedom torch now illuminates an area from Raqqa to Deyrê Zor, as well as the whole Middle East.

At the expense of thousands of martyrs and tens of thousands of woundeds, the brave women and men fighters of Rojava's peoples, those unyielding fighters of human dignity won a historical victory against ISIS gangs.

Raqqa has became the history anymore. It is a guiding success which engraved in the history of the oppressed peoples' struggle against oppression. It is the fulfillment of the promise that we gave to the martyrs of Rojava. It is the actualization of the dreams of Destan Temmuz, Hasan Ali, Nubar Ozanyan, Jehat Digor, Demhat Goldman who fell martyr during the Raqqa operation.

The victory of Raqqa is the comradeship of the immortalized fighters who were moving ahead house to house by fighting against the ISIS, which had appeared as a particular phenomenon of fascism that bases its existence on monistic nation, sect, religion and gender; of those various revolutionary forces of Kurds, Arabs, Syriacs, Yazidis, Christians reaching to the lands of Iceland, Greece, England, Canada... It is the "halay" of victory, which transformed the differences into a richness and echoed all around the world.

The victory of Raqqa is the will of women liberation that was manifested by bearing arms; it is the account of women who were raped and murdered in Shengal, in Rojava. It is the destruction of the male-dominated power apparatuses and the ideologies enslaving women.

The victory of Raqqa is the realization of revolutionary justice by asking the account of Yazidis, who were kidnapped and murdered after brutal tortures by ISIS gangs, of Assyrians whose villages and religion centers were plundered and bombed, of children of Rojava whose future was taken from their hands.

We, as the International Freedom Battalion fighters, have been at every stage of the freedom road built from Grê Spî to the center of Raqqa, and now on the first anniversary of the victory of Raqqa, we promise to carry the dreams of our martyrs to the future. We know that wherever the darkness grows, the dawn gets closer. And with this consciousness and hope, we once again state that the future is revolution! In Afrin, Jarablus and Bap, the fascist occupying Turkish state and its gangs, who have taken over ISIS' role in the region, will not be able to free themselves from sharing the same fate of ISIS and they will definitely give the account to the justice of the oppressed of Rojava and Syria.

Long live our Raqqa Victory!
Victory of Raqqa is the herald of Afrin's emancipation!
Long live the International Solidarity!

International Freedom Battalion- IFB
October 27,2018