For a young Kurdish fighter born in 2000, their grandfather might have heard stories of the T-34 from Soviet-provided textbooks. Now, they are climbing into the same steel hull. There is a grim poetry to it. In 2021, ISIS used Toyota trucks; Turkey used $40 million drones; the SDF used a 1945 tank.

By Michael S. Derwish | Defense Analysis

In the annals of military history, few machines have enjoyed a production run as legendary, or a combat tenure as lengthy, as the Soviet T-34 medium tank. Designed in the late 1930s, it was the backbone of the Red Army’s defeat of Nazi Germany. By the 21st century, most military historians assumed the T-34 was a museum piece—a relic of a bygone era of blunt force and mass mobilization.

Videos under the "t34 kurdish 2021" tag rarely went viral. They garnered 2,000 views, a handful of comments in Kurdish, Arabic, and Turkish (often derisive), and a few English posts saying "No way this is real."

Then came 2021.

In northern Iraq, near the border with Syria, the YBŞ (Yezidi forces loyal to the PKK) held a military parade. Rolling down a dusty road was a freshly painted T-34-85, complete with a Kurdish sun insignia and the name "Şehit Rustem" (Martyr Rustem) stenciled on the turret. This was not a battle-ready tank (the bore was plugged), but a propaganda symbol. It argued that the Kurdish struggle, like the Soviet struggle against fascism, was a fight of the people against superior foes.

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