Kobani becomes battle for Kurds' future
With the Islamic State siege of Kobani endangering the peace process and the cease-fire between the PKK and the Turkish state, Kurds could soon be facing a host of new challenges.
SURUC, Turkey — Rojava was a hope. A land that Jehan and her husband, Hamo, believed they could safely settle with their family in Ayn al-Arab, or Kobani, as Kurds name the city. They believed that Rojava, the Kurdish autonomous region that arose during the Syrian civil war, could provide their children with a better future.
Yet, the brutality of war has followed them to Kobani. She found her family uprooted for a second time, escaping fierce clashes. “I do not understand this war. Why is the whole world watching us being massacred? Why is Turkey not doing anything?” Jehan cries.
“We are armed and organized solely to protect Rojava. We will fight when and only if our regions and people are under threat,” Salih Muslim, the leader of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), said when we met at the BBC building in London in January 2013.
That time seems to have arrived. For the past 17 days, the Islamic State (IS) has tightened its siege on Kobani, and targeted the city with mortars and bombs. Jehan’s daughter, who has joined her family in Turkey, had been fighting against IS for the past three months.
