Kurdish-American returned from US to support Peshmerga

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – A Kurdish-American woman returned to Kurdistan after spending dozens of years in the United States to support Kurdish forces and the children of fallen Peshmerga fighters.

Evana Roj, who spent 27 years in the US, returned to the Kurdistan Region last year to help the Peshmerga forces in the fight against the Islamic State (IS).

“It is our duty to support the Peshmerga fighters, to raise their morale in their fight against the terror groups,” Roj told Kurdistan24.

“I left the US to come to Kurdistan, my homeland, to fight alongside the Peshmerga forces for the soil of Kurdistan,” she added.

Roj left the Kurdistan Region during the genocidal “Anfal” campaign under the former Iraqi regime in the late 1980s.

Since then, she spent her life in the US as a sports trainer. After the IS extremists had attacked the Kurdistan Region, Roj came back to volunteer with and support the Peshmerga.

“I visited most of the Peshmerga front lines to provide support and training to the Peshmerga fighters,” Roj said.

Roj added she had sponsored some children of the fallen Kurdish forces to attend private schools.

A Peshmerga officer said Roj had been supportive of the Kurdish forces regarding providing further training on first aid and other educational programs. She also brought meals for the troops on the front lines.

She has been with the Peshmerga on the front lines since the early stages of the war against IS to provide financial and moral support to the Kurdish fighters, the Peshmerga officer told Kurdistan24.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany