Aylan Kurdi was a Kurd. Before his parents took him on a fateful boat journey towards Europe, he grew up in Kobane, the Syrian border city that became famous as the place where Kurds mounted a stand against Islamic State.

Kobane was saved by Kurdish militia, basically civilians with arms, who fought house-to-house against jihadists who wanted to eradicate them even though they are Muslim. The town is now in a Kurdish enclave surrounded by territory controlled by IS or an indifferent Turkey across the border.

A Kurdish peshmerga outside Mosul, Iraq, in 2014. Credit:Khalid Mohammed/AP

The Kurds, in Syria and Iraq, are the only people who have been able to stand up to the genocide of IS, because they have been fighting for their national survival.

Kurdish militia, men and women, have not only carved out a Kurdish state from the chaos in Iraq and Syria, they have retaken territory held by IS.