While the Kurds fighting in Syria are notionally the YPG, or People’s Protection Units, their affiliation to the PKK is no secret. “When we fight in Turkey, we are PKK, when we fight in Syria, we are YPG,” said the guerrilla guarding the PKK cemetery near Zergaly. The birthplaces of the graveyard’s occupants, shown on the headstones, reveal the truth of this. Men from the Syrian towns of Aleppo, Afrin and Hasakeh lie alongside those from towns notionally in Turkey, Iraq and Iran.