Lorenzo Orsetti


Lorenzo Orsetti, also known as Orso and Tekoşer Piling, was an Italian anarcho-communist and antifascist from Florence who fought with the Kurdish People's Protection Units in Syria.

History

Orsetti was a chef and sommelier by trade and worked in different restaurants in Florence. He became interested in the Rojava conflict, the struggle of the Kurdish people against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and the Rojava Revolution. He met Paolo Andolina, an Italian activist and anarchist who had fought against the Islamic State with YPG International.
In September 2017 Orsetti traveled to Syria, where he joined the People's Protection Units. Once in Syria he struck up friendships with several Italian antifascist volunteers who were fighting there alongside the Kurds. He met anarchist and communist militants from all over the world, but especially from Turkey, and was linked to the anarchist IRPGF.
Upon finishing his military training, Orsetti joined a military formation organised by the Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist–Leninist and then fought during the Battle of Afrin against the Turkish Army and Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army's jihadists with other internationalists as part of TİKKO and AFFA.

Death

Orsetti was killed in action on Monday morning March 18, 2019 in the village of Baghouz, Syria. He was in that locality fighting in the Battle of Baghuz Fawqani against the last bastion of the Islamic State in Syria. He was attached to an Arab unit when he and his comrades were killed by ISIS jihadists in an ambush. His death was announced by Islamic State media and confirmed by the YPG and by Tekoşîna Anarşîst, the anarchist group with which he had been operating in the last few months of his life.
When announcing his death, his comrades shared Orsetti's last will in which he explained why he had decided to travel to Syria and his ideological motives.
Orsetti's body was returned to Florence in June 2019, and was buried in the Porte Sante cemetery.

Honours

A library in the train station of Berceto, near Parma, has been named in his honour.
The municipality of Rome approved a motion to name a communal park Parco Nomentano in his honour, becoming Parco Nomentano Lorenzo Orsetti Partigiano. The ceremony took place during a festival organised in the park, announcing: “Five years ago we turned the spotlight on this area of greenery which had been abandoned: today it will be dedicated to a partisan of our era, Lorenzo 'Orso' Orsetti who fell in Syria while fighting against ISIS at the side of the Kurdish democratic forces. The struggle for freedom has neither borders nor confines, this is what Lorenzo taught us."
In September 2019, the municipality of Florence approved plans to name a street in his honour. The motion was proposed by left-wing municipal councillors and opposed by the right-wing Lega Nord with the abstension of nationalist party Brothers of Italy, who disagreed with calling him a partisan and with the depiction of him as a hero.
In November 2019, a bar and social space in Prato, Tuscany, joined the Arci network and renamed the bar in dedication of Orsetti, becoming the Casa del Popolo Lorenzo Orsetti. The inauguration was held on Saturday 9th November 2019 in the presence of Orsetti's family and friends.