Sputnik: Why did you decide to leave Essex go to Syria?
Ed Nash: I didn’t leave Essex, I was already in Asia, I was volunteering with an aid organisation in Asia and saw the situation developing in Syria, the situation I was dealing with was quietening down and thought I’d go to Syria and try and help out.
Sputnik: How did your family react when you told them you were going?
Ed Nash: Well I didn’t initially as I was in Asia, I told them when I was out there but generally they were slightly alarmed but pretty proud about what I did out there.
Ed Nash: I think they sort of expected it, they know I go round interesting places, so don’t think it was a complete shock. I think my father said I’m not really surprised.
Sputnik: Tell us about your experience while out there fighting against ISIS?
Ed Nash: Well my academic background is in history and I’m quite big on events like this being recorded, I think it was a phenomenon in the modern age, I think it is try to get an accurate record down of the situation from my limited viewpoint. I think it’s important to have that down for people in the future.
Ed Nash: I wouldn’t say so no, I’ve been travelling around for years, I’ve been to various places, Syria was the far end of them, but it’s not like I haven’t been to places where you were under threat. I’ve come back to UK it’s not made a difference to be honest. I’ve just got back from another trip to Asia where I was working Burmese refugees, so I’ll go back to doing that soon I’d imagine.
Sputnik: How did you deal with pulling that trigger and knowing you’ve killed people?
Ed Nash: It wasn’t why I went out there, I thought I could do other things to help out but that’s how it worked out. When you’re in that situation, it’s just doing a job. I chose to be there, I chose to go Syria and I have no respect for ISIS or anything like that. It sounds melodramatic, but they truly represent evil. At the end of the day you go out and your fighting against that, you do what you have to do, that’s the truth of it really.
Ed Nash: What I was doing, I was writing situation reports while I was out there and keeping a log. I was emailing these situation reports to various people I knew all over the place. When I got back people would say what was it like? So you’d tell them and they’d say you should write a book about it. It was a case of getting the reports and collating putting my logs in and filling in the gaps in the detail with events I haven’t covered properly. It wasn’t too difficult to be honest.
Sputnik: And finally when can people read about your experiences in Syria?
Ed Nash: The book is out on the 6th September so this Thursday.
The views expressed in this article are those of the speaker, and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.
