Karim Franceschi: The fighter. History of the Italian who defended Kobane from Isis

Karim Franceschi

Ed. BUR-Rizzoli

pp. 350

I came to be interested in this book by chance and with some skepticism but I must admit that it was a pleasant surprise. Time ago, during an exhausting evening session of "zapping", now desperate, I landed at an episode already started of a talk show of a national network, in which a certain Karim Franceschi was interviewed: "the Italian who defended Kobane from ISIS". However, there for a while, you want fatigue, because I missed part of the interview, I had not framed the story well. The nighttime rest that followed, interrupted several times by my daughter's crying, typical of hungry babies, did the rest and the next morning in my poor head there was no trace of the interview.

A few months later my father asked me to read the book "Il Combattente", by a certain Karim Franceschi and by some miracle of nature that name was immediately recognized by that agglomeration of neurons that is usually idle protected by my skull cap and so he recomposed in his mind the figure of that young man with a melancholy gaze, seen on television months before. It was the right opportunity to know the deeds of Franceschi "The fighter".

I read the book in one go, as it is written in a language that I found clear and with an appealing style, almost devoid of rhetoric. It is seen that it was written by a young man who addresses mainly to his peers. But let's get to the story of "Il fighter" condensed in the book edited by Fabio Tonacci, journalist of the Republic.

Karim Franceschi was born in 1989 in Casablanca, the son of a former Tuscan partisan and a Moroccan mother. At the age of nine, he moved with his family to Italy for his father's health problems, settling in Senigallia. There he completed his studies and developed his own individual conscience and the political one, declared to be communist. In the 2014 he took part in a humanitarian initiative that made him know firsthand the drama experienced by the Kurdish populations subjugated to the troops of the Caliphate in Kobane, Syria. This experience marked him to such an extent that he decided to take part in the battle for the defense of that city enlisting, in January 2015, in the YPK (People's Protection Unit), ie the armed wing of the political movement of which the author his own admission, he is still "in love". Then, stealthily crossing the Turkish border at night, he reached the city of Kobane and after a brief and rudimentary training, which however revealed abilities unknown to him until then, he participated for about three months in the tremendous fighting for liberation. of the city and in pursuit of the retreating troops of the Daesh up to the Euphrates. Franceschi, or rather "Marcello", claims to have earned in those months, in the field, the esteem of the other fighters of the YPG, to become almost a legend among the troops on the front line. Finally, in March of the 2015 he returned home.

Beyond the author's political beliefs that can be more or less shared and that necessarily influence the story, there are many aspects of the Syrian conflict dealt with in this book that I found interesting. First of all the ease with which the author describes the ways in which a Foreign fighter, although having limited resources, can take part in the conflict and then return "home" (if he survives!), using a simple tourist visa and passing all customs security controls (yet at the time of Franceschi's story had just happened the facts of "Charlie Hebdo"). Secondly, the variety of characters encountered and cited by the author who, similar to moths attracted to light, revolve around the conflict and its load of death. Furthermore, the role played by the international coalition for the fight against Daesh in the Battle of Kobane and, on the other hand, the "alternating sense of porosity" (to put it mildly) on the border between Turkey and Syria against the fighters of both. parts.

Fourth, the "democratic" principles behind the functioning of the YPK units and their "informal" organization, put to the test by the ferocity of the fighting with the Daesh troops. Finally, the impressive quantity of weapons of all kinds and of various origins in the possession of the fighters of the two sides (as the Holy Father is right!).

Ultimately, the book of Karim or "Marcello", if you prefer, represents in my opinion an interesting testimony of the conflict in Syria, which also confirms many aspects highlighted daily by Difesaonline. Yet on the net I read several particularly ferocious reviews, which more than anything else highlight the political aspects of the book, coming in some cases to state that it is a mere commercial operation with political ends (it is reported that part of the proceeds from the sale will be destined for the reconstruction of Kobane). Honestly I do not care about the controversy. Rather I appreciated the opportunity offered to me by the book to be able to enter for a moment in the head of a twenty-six Italian who, driven by a strong motivation and without ever taking a weapon in his life, first became an ace of console war games , he documented the conflict and looked at hours and hours of video tutorials on the use of weapons in use at the YPG, then he left for Syria and he really fought. Down there he learned to kill learning and putting into practice fighting techniques worthy of a soldier by profession, so much so that at the height of his "war" experience he even acted as a sniper, a role that led him to kill "in cold blood". And now he's back in Italy.

If this was not shocking enough, weeks after I have finished reading this book, many questions continue to ignite my poor neurons, putting them to the test and in particular three out of all: for a precise political choice of the main global state actors Are we going inexorably to a world where conflicts will be exclusive business of terrorists, partisans, militiamen, foreign fighters, contractors, intelligence workers, special forces operatives, pilots and armed drones? If so, what consequences can we imagine for our beloved Armed Forces? And what will be the consequences for the unfortunate populations who will be involved in such conflicts?

That's enough. My head is already hurting. Enjoy the reading.

Ciro Metuarata