Attacks by ISIS gangs on Kobanê town of Western Kurdistan, Rojava, began in the spring of 2014. Gang groups launched their first attack on Kobanê on March 22nd, soon after the celebration of Newroz Fest on Hill Mishtenur. This was yet not the first confrontation of the ISIS and YGP/YPJ that had previously fought and defeated Al-Nusra gangs. Armed clashes had formerly taken place between YPG/YPJ fighters and ISIS gangs when they attacked the Cizîrê Canton of Rojava territory. Still, Kobanê always remained at the center of attacks by ISIS that emerged as an international paramilitary organization after the elimination of similar gang groups in Syria, Al-Nusra being in the first place.

NOT A COINCIDENCE

It was not just a coincidence that Kobanê was chosen as a target by ISIS gangs. The cities in Rojava territory had been isolated from each other as a result of the Arab Belt policy of the Ba’ath regime, which consequently caused a disunity among the cantons declared after the beginning of the Rojava Revolution.

While the city of Girê Spi (Tal Abyad) which had been Arabized through the Arab Belt policy became the base of gang groups with the beginning of the civil war in Syria, because of which the cantons of Kobanê and Cizîrê also ended up disconnected.

On the other hand, the city of Jarablus, which had similarly been cleared of Armenians and Arabized through the same policy, was also occupied by gangs after the beginning of the civil war, because of which the towns of Kobanê and Afrin were also disconnected from one other.

In this state of affairs, ISIS gangs, acting in line with their joint strategy with the Turkish state, considered it appropriate to attack the Kobanê Canton which had been under a siege heavier than other cantons, lacked a steady military system, occupied a small area but at the same time a strategic position.

TURKISH STATE POINTED ROJAVA AS A TARGET TO THE ISIS

To the Turkish state, occupation of Kobanê meant besieging of the Cizîrê and Afrin cantons and thus breaking the Rojava Revolution; a new door opening into the Middle East through its ally ISIS, and growing of the trade volume again with the ISIS. It was the Turkish state that put the idea of Rojava into the head of ISIS as a strategy close to theirs that had been grounded on the Middle East.

The ISIS, which always treated the Rojava Revolution and philosophy with enmity and would unavoidably attack Rojava, approved this strategy put forward by the Turkish state, and thus started an attack on Rojava and Kobanê as the first thing in Syria. For ISIS, a new door opening into the ally Turkey and occupation of more areas was a golden opportunity to encircle Cizîrê and Afrin, and most importantly of course, gain a strategic cooperation with the Turkish state.

Kobanê was becoming the first target for both forces for being the place where the revolution was first sparked, and where the Ba’ath regime was first thrown out from. Within this context, ISIS conducted its first attack on southern Kobanê on March 22nd. ISIS gangs had beforehand seized the cities surrounding Kobanê- Girê Spi, Jarablus, Minbic, Sirin- from FSA (Free Syrian Army) and AL-Nusra gangs one by one. After reaching the borders of Kobanê, gangs settled on the line of Şexler at the bank of the Euphrates. Kobanê was completely surrounded now. The first attack began in Sirin. During the clashes that erupted around the wheat silos, gangs faced strong resistance from YPG/YPJ, which constituted the first military blow they were inflicted in Syria. The ISIS gangs that had smashed almost all the forces in the towns and regions they had previously entered, were literally beaten hollow by a small group of YPG/YPJ combatants in their very first attack on Kobanê which lacked the required military means and arms and was therefore seen as a sitting target.

THE FIRST RETREAT OF ISIS

After facing the first blow in Sirin, the gangs launched an attack on Kendalê village in the evening of the same day. Kendalê went down in history as the place witnessing the first retreat of ISIS gangs that had never withdrawn from any of the areas they attacked during their occupation of big areas and cities. In the evening of March 22, YPG/YPJ groups acting under the command of Commanders Hebun and Siyabend started writing a history that later turned into an epic during the course of the battle.

ISIS gangs were inflicted heavy blows by the YPG/YPJ fighters in Kendalê village who resisted hundreds of gang groups with a limited number of combatants and armament. After making an advance to the extent of a half of the village, gang groups fled the village in the wake of a loss of over 40 militants during the clashes here.

Receiving a major blow and tasting a defeat yet in the very first attack on Kobanê, ISIS gangs were beginning to understand that things wouldn’t go as easily as they thought in the face of the determination and will manifested by the forces they targeted and attacked.

The resistance mounted by a professional team of just 40 YPG/YPJ fighters and self-defense forces of local Kobanê residents with small arms and hand-made grenades against ISIS gangs, who continued their attacks during the months of April and May, was also manifesting the capacity of the resistance to be waged from then on.

TOUGH PERIOD

A tough period was now beginning in Kobanê which had been surrounded from three sides and was facing a major shortage of essential needs such as food, as well as water and electricity both of which were cut off by the gangs.

In the meantime, the Turkish state was hindering the access of aid into Kobanê, which had only the side of Northern Kurdistan open amid a siege from three sides. The Turkish state was sort of laying siege on Kobanê from the northern side on behalf of ISIS.

All the challenging circumstances were being coped with by means of a joint production, equal distribution, joint management and self-defense.

The water need was being provided from the wells opened in the town, and electricity from common power generators working with the fuel left available.

In military respect, defense was being waged with hand-made grenades and bombs, and youths were being given self-defense training in the ranks of YPG/YPJ.

While all these were happening in 2014’s spring in Kobanê, ISIS gangs had understood that they would not be able to accomplish a result by the present manners of attack and armament, and started preparations for the first major wave of comprehensive attacks on Kobanê.

THE JUNE PAGE WAS BEGINNING

There had been going on a big war in Kobanê by by the month of June. The armament and numerical difference between two sides during the attacks on three fronts was developing in an unprecedented level of inequality. While ISIS gangs were attacking with thousands of tanks, artillery and heavy weapons on all three fronts, YPG/YPJ resisted this force with mainly new fighters whose number wasn’t higher than 500, hand-made grenades and old Kalashnikov rifles.

The June page of the 21st century epic of resistance in Kobanê was now beginning to be written.

After suffering heavy blows in the hands of YPG/YPJ combatants during the spring of 2014 and facing resistance to the attacks in all areas, ISIS gangs had understood that it would not be that easy to attack Kobanê.

The ISIS and the Turkish state, having understood that attacks on Kobanê with a certain number of groups wouldn’t succeed, initiated their first strategic plan for the most possible comprehensive attacks from all fronts.

During the course of the June battle, border military posts of the Turkish state served as operational rooms where ISIS attacks were being managed. The Turkish state went beyond that, and gave further assistance to ISIS by providing the coordinates of YPG/YPJ points in the areas where ISIS gangs faced difficulties.

FIRST-TIME SIMULTANEOUS ATTACKS ON THREE FRONTS

The offensive of June began at June 2 night in the village of Evdiko in the east, Kunheftarê in the south and Zor Mîxare in the west. This was the first time ISIS gangs were conducting simultaneous attacks on Kobanê from three sides.

The assault was the most comprehensive one ever, as ISIS gangs as many as thousands used all kinds of heavy weaponry, tanks, artillery and missiles they had brought in from the Iraqi city of Mosul they had previously occupied.

In response to these attacks, YPG/YPJ forces, comprised of mainly new fighters in restricted numbers, started resistance with light arms that would perhaps have no effect at all against the weapons of the ISIS. The heaviest weapon of the YPG during that time was a hand-made Dushka machine gun.

BORDERS LOSING THEIR MEANING WITH ÖCALAN’S CALL FOR MOBILIZATION

While resistance was growing against the ISIS gangs that intensified their attacks on all three fronts, the only breathable area was the Northern Kurdistan side where, however, the Turkish state was providing assistance to the gang groups. The will of the Northern Kurdistan people then came into play against the Turkish state that used this area as a fourth front for the ISIS.

Acting upon the call made by Kurdish people’s leader Abdullah Öcalan for mobilization after the beginning of the June offensive, the people of Northern Kurdistan turned the Ziyaret village at the border into a front of resistance.

The long resistance in Ziyaret village was aiming to hinder the support the Turkish state provided to ISIS gangs over the border, and it accomplished to a large extend.

The resistance in Ziyaret village meant a unity of the Northern and Western Kurdistan peoples, who already had a historical background of solidarity, and a de facto loss of meaning of the borders for the first time in history since drawn with the Treaty of Lausanne.

YOUTHS OF THE NORTH FLOCKED TO THE RANKS OF RESISTANCE

While the border line was turned into a front of resistance upon Öcalan’s call, the youths of Northern Kurdistan exceeded the borders and joined the resistance in the ranks of YPG/YPJ.

The participation of hundreds of youths from Northern Kurdistan in the ranks of YPG/YPJ gave a great moral and strength to the people of Kobanê who had lost dozens of their children in the ranks of the PKK in the resistance of Northern Kurdistan. Kobanê resistance was raising the spirit of unity and solidarity in a way greater than any period.

STORIES OF BRAVERY INCREASING

As the dimension of attacks on Kobanê grew, stories of resistance and bravery were also increasing. YPG fighters under the command of Commander Botanê Reş started to write the June pages of the epic of Kobanê resistance against ISIS in the village of Evdiko.

Following a resistance of two days and two nights, YPG/YPJ fighters commanded by Botanê Reş inflicted heavy losses on ISIS gangs and repelled their attacks targeting Evdiko village with tanks and artillery. The resistance developed under the leadership of Botanê Reş on the eastern front did not allow the ISIS gangs to make an advance.

Against the ISIS groups that used their heavy weaponry force more effectively on the eastern front which was a plain and unprotected field, YPG/YPJ fighters were shielding each other with their own bodies and laying their bodies under tanks to neutralize them with bombs, through which they were slaughtering the gangs at this front.

ISIS gangs suffered heavy blows on this front, where they had been most effective, and this forced them to retreat from all the villages they had entered on the eastern front.

Botanê Reş, commander of the resistance on the eastern front, fell a martyr during a self-sacrificing action against gangs in later June, and became one of the symbols of the June’s battle.

YPJ FIGHTERS BECOMING AN EPIC ON THE SOUTHERN FRONT

The same days witnessed the self-sacrificing resistance of YPJ fighters on the southern front. In late June, a group of 7 YPJ fighters was surrounded on the hill of Kûnheftarê village in and around which big accomplishments had been made against the gangs.

The resistance mounted by 7 female fighters led by Commander Avesta in an underground emplacement of the hill, and the divine effort and self-sacrifice made by their comrades to reach them, was summarizing the level of resistance on the southern front of Kobanê, and the reason why gangs couldn’t make any advances here either.

Kobanê Commander Meryem Kobanê who was speaking to Avesta over radio during the encirclement, was saying; “Comrades, you will get out of that hill alive as long as we are here. Do not worry. We all will reach that hill, even if we all are killed, and push the DAIŞ (ISIS) away from the emplacement.” Her words were being received with an ululation in joy. Answering Meryem Kobanê, Avesta was saying; “Even if you can not, we will resist with honour”. There was literally a deadly run beginning against the time.

ISIS gangs, having failed to enter the emplacement of female fighters that resisted and inflicted blows on them, were wanting to set the surroundings of the hill on fire and poison the female fighters with smoke.

A number of combatants and the YPG/YPJ fighters resisting on three fronts mobilized that night, sent there reinforcements from all fronts which they saw off to the scene by saying; “We can fight for you too. You just go there and save our female comrades from the encirclement of the gangs”.

As the sun started brightening Kobanê in the very early morning hours, Commander Meryem and her combatants were telling about the faces of their comrades that bravely resisted in the underground emplacement in Kûnheftarê hill. The seven female fighters had been taken out of the emplacement as a result of daring resistance.

Gangs were being inflicted heavy blows in every village on the southern front, and hindered from making advances.

WESTERN FRONT COORDINATED BY THE TURKISH STATE

The western front was mainly housing hills, thanks to which gangs weren’t being able hold on against YPG/YPJ combatants, and were suffering the heaviest blows in comparison to other fronts.

YPG fighter Botanê Sor’s action against gangs in the village of Zor Mîxare was being described by YPG/YPJ commanders as; “the moment that broke the will of DAIŞ in this offensive”.

After entering the village of Zor Mîxare all alone, Botanê Sor fights with hand grenades and kills dozens of gang members. Getting wounded during the battle, Botanê Sor doesn’t listen to his commanders’ warning to “stay there, we will get you out”, as he advances on the gangs with his last grenade and kills dozens more before he loses his life there.

It happens the Turkish state to come to the rescue of the ISIS that suffered a major panic and failure on this front after this action, providing the gangs with the coordination of the YPG/YPJ fighters on this front.

ISIS gangs had remained desperate in the wake of the one-man resistance put up by YPG Commander Hogir Garzan on Zagros Hill overlooking the village of Ziyaret. Provided with the coordinates of Commander Garzan’s position from the border military post of the Turkish state, gangs launched tank fire on this area, which left commander Garzan martyred.

ISIS DEFEAT ON THREE FRONTS

Following its emergence, ISIS suffered the first defeat, the first failure and the first retreat during the June resistance in Kobanê. Following their one month long attacks, ISIS gangs suffered heavy losses and started to flee. While withdrawing their forces back to their previous line on the eastern and southern fronts, the gangs on the western front had to leave a part of the Şexler line, which had entirely been under their control previously.

JULY OFFENSIVE

Following the flight of the gangs, YPG/YPJ combatants initiated the “Kobanê Martyrs Revenge Operation” which lasted throughout the month of July and witnessed heavy losses on the side of the ISIS. Dozens of villages held by ISIS before the June offensive were taken back and liberated on all three fronts.

After suffering a major defeat in the first major attack on Kobanê, ISIS gangs retreated from Kobanê in late July and headed towards the towns of Deir-e Zor ve Tabqa which were held by the regime and housed a large number of heavy weapons and munitions.

In early August, gangs started their attacks on Shengal.

During the month of August, Kobanê witnessed silent and small scale clashes, and an enhancement of the works for reconstruction.

However, with the sort of presentation of the huge heavy weaponry force in Deir-e Zor ve Tabqa to the gangs by the Syrian regime, it was understood that this silence was the calm before the storm.

After attacking Kobanê with a great force of arms during the month of June, ISIS gangs understood that it would not be possible to take the town by ordinary attacks and strategies in the face of the epic resistance that mainly intensified in the villages of Evdiko in the east, Kunheftarê in the south and Zor Mîxare in the west.

The gangs that fled the region in late July were also inflicted heavy losses during the “Kobanê Martyrs Revenge Operation” that lasted throughout the month of July.

The town which was relatively calm during the month of August faced as of mid-September yet another attack of an unequal balance of power similar to the one between the Persian army and the 300 Spartans in history. ISIS gangs attacked the town with an abundant number of militants and arm force capable of occupying several big cities.

ISIS SEIZE A HUGE ARM FORCE FROM THE SYRIAN ARMY

Throughout the month of August, ISIS gangs conducted attacks on the bases of the Syrian army. The first attack in mid August targeted the regime’s military headquarters which housed thousands of soldiers in the town of Ayn İsa. The assault which began at 20:00 in the evening ended up with the flight of the Syrian troops and seizure by ISIS of a large quantity of ammunition towards the midnight. Following Ayn İsa, gangs targeted the regime’s military airport in Tabqa housing a remarkable amount of heavy weaponry which also they seized after taking control of the area in a few days. They seized at least 40 tanks from Tabqa. After Ayn İsa and Tabqa, gangs attacked Deir-e Zor and seized here as well a large quantity of ammunition belonging to the regime. During the course of the month of August, ISIS gangs gained weapons and munitions that the regime sort of presented to them and that would suffice to occupy dozens of towns.

WEAPONS DEPLOYED AROUND KOBANÊ IN LATE AUGUST

After dispatching the weapons seized from the regime to Kobanê in parts, ISIS gangs deployed all these weapons and the heavy weaponry they brought in from Iraq around Kobanê.

CLASHES WITH REGIME FORCES CEASE

As of the first week of September, all clashes with the Syrian army were ceased and ISIS mobilized all its forces in Syria towards Kobanê. After this date, regime forces conducted neither aerial nor ground operations against the gangs.

MOBILITY AT TURKEY BORDER

During the same days, villagers from Kobanê witnessed a delivery of weapons to ISIS by the Turkish state over the Baghdad railway passing by the Kobanê border. Commanders of YPG/YPJ following the mobility in this process announced that ISIS was preparing for a major offensive greater than the previous one with the use of arms provided to them from Turkey’s side in addition to the other three fronts. They were pointing to the role of the Turkish state in the attacks on Kobanê.

THE SITUATION IN KOBANÊ

Kobanê had been under siege and cut off from the outside world for two years now, as a result of which all needs were being met based on own sources. The canton administration was trying to produce a solution to the lack of food by initiating an agricultural move in the town where there no production was being made and trade had come to a halt. Power generators and water wells were being used to settle the problem of electricity and water both of which had been cut off by the gangs after the siege of the town. By August, water was being provided from the wells opened in the western part of the town, and electricity from the common power generators set up in every neighborhood.

BURKAN AL-FIRAT ALLIANCE

Again during the same days, Kobanê still lacked the sufficient arm force and number of fighters to protect the town against attacks. Yet, fighters of the YPG/YPJ were ready to confront every attack with the spirit of self-sacrifice after inflicting a major blow on the ISIS gangs during the month of June and July with inadequate arms and a military force mainly consisting of new fighters that joined the resistance from across the town itself and Northern Kurdistan upon a call for mobilization.

In the first week of September, a military alliance was formed in Kobanê with progressive groups from the Free Syrian Army, such as Suwar Al Raqqa and Şemsî Şîmal. The military alliance was called Burkan Al Fırat which became the first one of its kind between Kurdish and Arab peoples in history. Soon after the declaration of the alliance, Burkan Al Fırat conducted a series of actions against the ISIS gangs. The most striking of these actions was the one conducted in the center of ISIS-occupied Jarablus city in the second week of September, which left a number of gang members dead.

MAJOR OFFENSIVE BEGINS

At the night of 14-15 September, ISIS launched the first attack, starting the battle which would witness a defense of values of humanity with an epic spirit of self-sacrifice and go down in history on the side of the Stalingrad defense and the resistance of Spartans against the Persians in Thermopylae (“The Hot Gates”).

ISIS gangs started to attack the villages of Tahlik and Zerik in west Kobanê with missiles, mortars and a number of tanks. As YPG/YPJ commanders moved for this area, reports came through that gangs had also started to attack the villages of Serzori, Qizeli, Huriye, Leqleqo and Qorike on the eastern front to the accompaniment of at least eight tanks. On 15 September morning, ISIS launched an attack on the southern front as well. Differently from the previous simultaneous attacks from all three fronts, ISIS gangs now deployed arms and militants on the southeastern and southwestern parts too, and started an offensive from five fronts.

‘WE ARE GOING TO WIN THIS WAR’

It didn’t take long to see the dimension of this offensive. YPG/YPJ commanders were now understanding that this was not an ordinary attack and occupation move and witnessed a technical and numeral inequality at an awesome level. As ISIS gangs launched this offensive with all their forces and weapons in Syria, it became clear that their aim was to ensure an entire occupation of Kobanê in a short time. YPJ Commander Meryem Kobane was making this fastening; “This will not be an ordinary battle but a confrontation between the male-dominant sovereign savagery and the spiritual power and will of democratic modernity. We are going to win this war.”

AWE INSPIRING RESISTANCE

September had passed by, and in the first days of October the gangs had reached the Hellince village to the east. Intense clashes happened there, and heavy attacks continued in the Mishtenur Hill at the same time. The Seyran Restaurant had been passed in the south, and the advance from the Aleppo road towards the city continued. To the west, the gangs had the Izae Hill under heavy tank fire.

The gangs had constant backups and exchanges in all fronts and positions, they rested well and attacked with all they had. But the YPG and YPJ fighters and commanders sometimes had to fight in multiple fronts and positions in one day, let alone taking time to rest. The YPG and YPJ fighters and commanders, who almost never slept for two weeks in the scorching September heat in Kobanê with very little water or food, dumbfounded the gangs and their supporters, and inspired awe in the peoples of the world. The YPG and YPJ fighters who increased the resistance against the gangs under completely unbalanced circumstances were preparing for urban warfare.

YPJ FIGHTERS HEROIZED IN MEKTEL AND KANIYA KURDA

YPJ fighters Eastern Kurdistani Ruken and Northern Kurdistani Eylem were waiting for the gangs in the trenches dug by the entrance of the Mektel neighborhood. They fought hard and didn’t let the tanks pass through. Fighters Ruken and Eylem rushed towards the gangs with a large amount of ammunition with them when they saw them approaching Mektel, they inflicted great losses on the gangs and damaged the tanks. YPJ fighters Ruken and Eylem did not budge one bit in their trenches, and fought until their ammunition ran out, after which they were heroically martyred.

One day after the YPJ fighters Ruken and Eylem’s sacrifice and resistance, YPJ fighters Jiyan Rojhilat and Gulan displayed a similar resistance on the Kaniya Kurda Hill. The gangs had entered Mektel, from there they would take the Kaniya Kurda neighborhood and step into the Kobanê city center. Starting from the dawn, Jiyan Rojhilat and Gulan fought until late night despite the numbers and weapons advantage of the gangs and did not allow them on the Kaniya Kurda Hill. After their full day of resistance, YPJ fighters Jiyan Rojhilat and Gulan were martyred and the gangs did enter Kaniya Kurda Hill, and later Kaniya Kurda neighborhood.

ARİN MİRKAN BECOMES A SYMBOL IN MISHTENUR

On the same days, there were large scale clashes in the Mishtenur Hill. The hill was hit by heavy weapons and tanks, and clashes broke out between the gang groups that infiltrated the hill and the YPG/YPJ fighters. The Mishtenur Hill is sacred ground for the people of Kobanê, and it witnessed the sacred resistance of the YPG and YPJ fighters. The hill fell under gang control on October 5, after days of heroic resistance against heavy attacks on the hill. YPJ Commander Arin Mirkan was furious that the Mishtenur Hill fell under ISIS control. She thought the gangs needed to be hit hard in Mishtenur, and decided to carry out a sacrifice action. She prepared for the action in great resolve, and expertly infiltrated the gangs. She arrived at their gathering point, and there detonated the explosives on her person, killing dozens of gang members. The ISIS gangs had arrived to the city, but they went into a panic and fear in the face of the resistance up to that point and the sacrifice. As the ISIS gangs advanced, they lost their faith that “it would be handled in a week”, and had come to understand that they would go through hell in Kobanê.

“HELL FOR ISIS”

After Miştenur, the gangs started to enter the Kaniya Kurda neighborhood from the east. To the west, the Izae Hill had fallen under gang control and the YPG/YPJ fighters had taken positions in the trenches dug by Til Sheir Hill and further. To the south, the gangs had reached the Martyr Dicle Cemetery close to the city entrance.

During those days, YPJ commander Meryem Kobane said: “ISIS will now enter the city through Kaniya Kurda. But this city will be hell for ISIS. They will be kicked right out of Kaniya Kurda.”

The resistance was taken into the city at that point. When Kobanê did not fall within a week, the Turkish media and the AKP government attempted to create an air that “if ISIS reaches the city center, Kobanê will have fallen automatically, there will be no resistance”. Because the then-Prime Minister, current President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had expressed his expectations and wishes that “Kobanê is about to fall” when ISIS started entering the city. Erdoğan was veritably wringing his hands and expressing this desire, and YPJ General Commander Meysa Ebdo responded to it: “Kobanê will fall only in his dreams. The resistance is just starting now, Kobanê will be hell for ISIS and its supporters.”

With ISIS entering the city, Meysa Ebdo’s words came to pass with the superhuman resistance and heroism of YPJ and YPG commanders and fighters.

In the first three months of the resistance, the YPG and YPJ fighters displayed a glorious defense resistance, and it was time for the YPG/YPJ commanders and fighters to launch the process in Kaniya Kurda that would lead to declaring Kobanê the hell of ISIS. The launch happened by early December, in the form of the Kobanê Emancipation Operation.

OPERATION TIME

The operation process had begun in Kobanê, the YPG and YPJ fighters had abandoned the defensive after a long time and were gearing up for operation mode. That created great morale and enthusiasm. The YPG/YPJ fighters cleared most of the city of gangs in a short time with this morale and enthusiasm, and in the end reached the Miştenur Hill and realized the dreams of martyrs Givara, Cudi, Dicle and many other Kobanê martyrs. After Miştenur, the second large scale maneuver was the southern front operation. This operation cleared the gangs completely from this front.

ALL READY FOR THE FINAL BLOW

On the second day of the operation, Eastern front commander Mazlum Kobanê said, “We will herald freedom in 4 streets”, and that is what happened. On the third day of the operation, preparations were complete to deliver the final, fatal blow to ISIS gangs. The declaration of the city’s freedom would be in time for the anniversary of the canton declaration, January 27.

OPERATION STARTED

The Kaniya Kurda operation then started. Journalists are asked to stay back and are not allowed further into the front.

Some hours into the operation, chants started to come through the radio, “Biji Serok Apo”, “Biji Berxwedane Kobanê” - one fighter jumped up in joy: “Friends have taken Kaniya Kurda!”

Kobanê was to be declared free after Kaniya Kurda was taken. The fighters were restless with excitement. It wasn’t easy, for more than four months they fought tooth and nail, finger on trigger at all times, through the cold, with no sleep, little food, insufficient ammunition. Always insisting on living free, marching towards death, a resistance almost defying laws of nature. They fought against better weapons, better logistics, better numbers and inhumane methods.

YPG FLAG FLEW IN KANIYA KURDA

The YPG and YPJ fighters rushed to the Kaniya Kurda Hill to put up a giant YPG flag, chanting “Biji Serok Apo” and “Biji Berxwedana Kobanê”. The giant flag was put up on Kaniya Kurda Hill. Posters of Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan had already been put up by the previous group of fighters.

After Meryem Kobane said “We will declare to the whole world on the Kaniya Kurda hill they entered the city from that Kobanê is hell for ISIS,” her words were made into reality on the 134th day of the relentless resistance. The Kobanê resistance created a divide in “Before Kobanê” and “After Kobanê”. History was interrupted in Kobanê, and was rewritten. If Stefan Zweig was alive to see it, he would have said, “Kobanê is the moment the star shone in human history.”