Haukur Hilmarsson (Leftist Militant, Iceland)

• Full name: Haukur Hilmarsson
• Pseudonym: “Hauk”, “Sahin”
• Alternatives: N/a
• Location: Syria, fmr Iceland, fmr Israel
• Affiliation: Revolutionary Union for International Solidarity [RUIS], People’s Defense Units [YPG]

Haukur Hilmarsson (°1986) was an Icelandic radical leftist who fought in the ranks of Kurdish forces in northern Syria. As a young man, he became a well-known environmentalist activist and human rights campaigner in his home country.¹ In the mid-2000s, Hilmarsson was arrested and fined on two separate occasions for blocking a road and ignoring police orders during protests against the construction of a power plant.² He traveled to Israel in early 2007 to agitate for Palestinian statehood. On Mar. 18, Israeli police briefly detained him in Chevron following an altercation with a Jewish woman after the Icelander had been interfering with security forces who were trying to stop Arabs from hurling stones.³ In July 2008, Hilmarsson ran onto an airport runway in a bid to halt the deportation of an illegal Kenyan immigrant.⁴ Later that year, he climbed atop Iceland’s parliament, took down the national flag and replaced it with the banner of a discount supermarket chain.⁵ Hilmarrson was apprehended by police two weeks later.⁶ His arrest sparked considerable anger among leftist activists and politicians in the country.

Hilmarsson became passionate about the Kurdish cause in the wake of the onslaught of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [DaIISh; Dawlat al-Islamiya fi-Iraq wal ash-Sham] in Iraq and Syria during the mid-2010s. A first bid to join the ranks of the Kurdish forces failed when he got caught by Iraqi security forces in 2017. In July of that year, Hilmarsson succeeded in reaching northern Syria from Greece. He ended up with the Revolutionary Union for International Solidarity [RUIS; Epanastatikós Sýndesmos Diethnistikís Allilengýis], a mainly Greek constituent of the international volunteer wing of the People’s Defense Units [YPG; Yekîneyên Parastina Gel].⁷ Hilmarrson furthermore became tied to the YPG-allied Marxist-Leninist Communist Party [MLKP; Marksist-Leninist Komünist Partisi].⁸

Hilmarsson fought on the side of the Kurdish forces against the DaIISh during its offensive to retake Raqqa in 2017.⁹ Following the ouster of the jihadis from the city, he took part in Kurdish resistance against Turkish military operations in northern Syria.¹⁰ Hilmarsson was killed when the Turkish air force strafed his position at Afrin on Feb. 24, 2018.¹¹ A few weeks later, the YPG lauded his sacrifice in a communiqué.¹²