International Freedom Battalion

The International Freedom Battalion (Enternasyonalist Özgürlük Taburu, Tabûra Azadî Ya Înternasyonal) is an armed group consisting of leftist foreign fighters fighting as part of the People's Protection Units in the Syrian Civil War in support of the Rojava Revolution and against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The formation of the International Freedom Battalion was announced on 10 June 2015 in Serê Kaniyê (Ras al-Ayn). The Marxist–Leninist Communist Party (Turkey) had been the main force behind the establishment of the group. Inspiration for the group came from the International Brigades of the Spanish Civil War. The group contains Turkish, Spanish, Greek, German, Albanian, Circassian, Arab, Armenian, and Laz fighters. The political ideologies among many of the fighters include Marxism–Leninism, Hoxhaism, Maoism, and anarchism.

Groups
The International Freedom Battalion is made up of fighters from left-wing armed groups, most of whom had been fighting with the YPG before the creation of the International Freedom Battalion. These groups include:

Marksist-Leninist Komünist Partisi
Marxist–Leninist Communist Party (Marksist-Leninist Komünist Partisi, abbreviated as MLKP) is an underground Hoxhaist communist party from Turkey. MLKP fighters had been reportedly been sent to Syria to fight with the People's Protection Units since 2012. MLKP fighters have also joined Kurdistan Workers' Party fighting in Northern Iraq in defence of the Yezidi minority in Sinjar. In April 2015, it was announced that MLKP founded a permanent military training centre in PKK-controlled areas of the Iraqi Kurdistan. In March 2015 a 19-year-old German woman, Ivana Hoffmann, was killed whilst fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant making her the third western fighter, as well as the first female western fighter, to die while fighting alongside the YPG, her death was reported by many mainstream news sources. MLKP's female organisation, Komünist Kadın Örgütü, is also involved in fighting. MLKP was heavily involved in forming the International Freedom Battalion and has the largest amount of fighters in the group.

TKP/ML TİKKO
Liberation Army of the Workers and Peasants of Turkey (Türkiye İşci ve Köylü Kurtuluş Ordusu, abbreviated as TİKKO) is the armed wing of the Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist–Leninist (Türkiye Komünist Partisi/Marksist-Leninist, abbreviated as TKP/ML), a Maoist insurgent organisation in Turkey.

Birleşik Özgürlük Güçleri
The United Liberation Forces (Birleşik Özgürlük Güçleri, or BÖG), inspired by the International Brigades of the Spanish Civil War, were founded in December 2014 in the town of Kobanê as an organization of foreign leftist fighters of both revolutionary socialist and anarchist provenience. After groups such as the predominant MLKP however didn't join their command, they pushed for other ways of cooperation and finally, together with their female branch Kadın Özgürlük Gücü, participated in the formation of the International Freedom Batalion.

Reconstrucción Comunista
Communist Reconstruction (Reconstrucción Comunista, abbreviated as RC) is a Marxist-Leninist group from Spain. The group carries a variant of the Flag of the Second Spanish Republic. RC has strong ties to the MLKP and members fight as part of MLKP formations, even fighting in Sinjar. Two members of the group were arrested by police after their return to Spain and were accused of participating in an armed conflict outside of Spain without authorization from the state, as well as putting national interests at risk and joining groups fighting against ISIS that are considered terrorist organizations by international organizations.

Türkiye Komünist Emek Partisi/Leninist
Communist Labour Party of Turkey/Leninist (Türkiye Komünist Emek Partisi/Leninist, abbreviated as TKEP/L) is an illegal Marxist-Leninist party in Turkey.

Revolutionary Union for Internationalist Solidarity
Revolutionary Union for Internationalist Solidarity (, abbreviated as ΕΣΔΑ) is a libertarian communist group from Greece.