On Friday, people in the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani (Kobanê) lit candles at the graves of their loved ones lost in the 134-day battle against the Islamic State (ISIS), for the ninth anniversary of 26 January 2015, the day Kurdish forces declared the town liberated from ISIS.
The battle for Kobani claimed hundreds of lives, including civilians and Kurdish fighters. A UN analysis of satellite imagery revealed widespread destruction, with more than 3,200 buildings damaged or destroyed during the four-month battle.
Since its liberation, the town has become a key symbol in the fight against the jihadists.
ISIS attack on Kobani
2010 saw the beginning of the Arab Spring, a series of uprisings in the Arab region, with Tunisia as the epicentre. By March 2011, these uprisings had reached Syria. Here, the Kurdish population in northern Syria adopted a neutral stance, pursuing an alternative path which led to the emergence of the Rojava revolution. The city of Kobani played a key role in the origins of this revolution. On 27 January 2014, Kobani declared its autonomy.
On 8 June Mosul fell to ISIS, and on 3 August, ISIS launched an attack on Sinjar (Şengal). After the withdrawal of the Peshmerga forces affiliated to the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), ISIS perpetrated a massacre, later internationally recognised as genocide, of the Yazidis, for whom Sinjar is the homeland. In September of the same year, ISIS expanded its presence in northern and eastern Syria and launched an attack on Kobani.
On 22 September, Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan, speaking through his lawyer from İmralı prison, warned against the attacks on Kobani, stressing that “the fall of Kobanê means the fall of all Kurdistan. Everyone should act according to this reality.”
Turkey’s refusal to join fight against ISIS
Meanwhile, the Turkish government has long resisted calls to support the fighters in Kobani, arguing that the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which is leading the resistance against ISIS, is linked to the PKK which Turkey considers a terrorist group.
As a NATO member with one of the most powerful military forces in the region, Turkey faced mounting pressure to join an international coalition carrying out air strikes in support of Kurdish fighters against ISIS. But the Turkish government steadfastly refused to participate. Instead, Turkey deployed more than a dozen tanks to defensive positions along the border near Kobani. Ankara also stoked tensions within the Kurdish community by refusing to allow Kurdish fighters from Turkey to cross the border and defend the besieged town.
“Months have passed, but no results have been achieved. Kobani is about to fall,” declared Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on 7 October. “I am telling the West. Dropping bombs from the air alone will not bring the desired results. The threat of terror will continue unless we work together for a ground operation,” he added.
On the last day of October, Erdoğan condemned the international focus on Kobani. Turkey’s hostile attitude towards the Kurdish resistance and any solidarity with it remained intact.
The imprisoned former co-chairs of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party’s (HDP) Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, along with many other senior party officials, face trial for their calls for solidarity with Kobanê in the autumn of 2014, on charges of inciting violence that led to multiple deaths.
Though the Battle of Kobani ended in victory for the resistance, the region was only liberated from ISIS in mid-March 2015, after claiming the lives of over 700 fighters from the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ), the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and hundreds of civilians, and leading to the displacement of over 400,000 people.
Kobani massacre
In the aftermath of successive defeats, ISIS launched a renewed assault on Kobani on 25 June 2015 with militants deploying a car bomb which claimed the lives of at least 25 people.
Following the detonation, ISIS intensified the onslaught with a coordinated assault from various directions. The attacks persisted over several days, resulting in a grim toll of at least 223 civilian casualties and the loss of 35–37 Kurdish fighters.
The assault stands as the second-largest massacre orchestrated by ISIS since the declaration of its caliphate in June 2014.
Syrian state TV asserted that the attackers infiltrated Kobane from Turkey, sparking disputes and denials from the Turkish government.
Ongoing threat
The Kurdish-majority city continues to face the threat of war today, this time from Turkish forces, whose jets have intensively targeted areas under the control of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES). The air strikes in last October completely destroyed all power stations and most of the region’s oil production facilities, leaving some two million people without electricity and water.
“Kobanê, the city that defeated ISIS, is now under intense and brutal bombardment by Turkish warplanes, as are the Amuda and Dêrik [Al-Malakiyah] areas,” the SDF’s chief press officer Farhad Shami announced as he shared footage of the bombardment on his social media account on 8 October.
