The city that stopped the advance of ISIS and rewrote the modern Kurdish dictionary of heroism. Kobanê — also called Ayn al-Arab — stood firm for five unbroken months in 2014–2015 against the most violent ISIS assault, when its forces were nothing but Kurdish volunteers and women fighters. They saved it from annihilation and gave hope back to all the peoples of the region.
The city's history
Kobanê
Kobanê was founded in 1912 as an Ottoman railway station on the Baghdad–Berlin line and grew quickly because of its border position with Turkey. It was Kurdish from the beginning; the region had been Kurdish long before the Syrian-Turkish border was drawn by Sykes–Picot. Through the twentieth century it was a middling town, its people living from wheat and cotton farming and from livestock.
With the Syrian revolution of 2011, Kobanê became one of three Kurdish self-administration cantons (Kobanê, Afrîn, Cizîrê); self-rule was officially declared in November 2013. Fighters of the People's Defence Units (YPG) and Women's Defence Units (YPJ) took on its defence, the first Kurdish schools opened, and local councils gathered Kurds, Arabs and Armenians together.
On 15 September 2014 ISIS launched a massive assault on Kobanê from three sides with tanks and heavy weapons. It captured 380 Kurdish villages around the town, killed thousands of civilians, and pinned the YPG/YPJ — no more than 1,500 fighters — in the centre of the town. 200,000 Kurds fled into Turkey in the largest Syrian Kurdish exodus in history.
Kobanê held for five unbroken months. YPJ fighters led street battles; dozens of them — among them Arîn Mirkan, who detonated herself with a tank to stop the ISIS advance — became a global symbol of women's heroism. The US-led international coalition formed an air bridge for support and struck ISIS positions from the sky. On 26 January 2015, Kobanê was declared fully liberated after the death of more than 1,100 Kurdish fighters and 3,700 from ISIS.
Today Kobanê is rising from its ashes. A large part of the city has been rebuilt with international aid, most of its people have returned from Turkey, and it has become a model of Kurdish self-government. The picture of the mother of Arîn carrying the photograph of her martyred daughter does not leave the walls of the city. Kobanê is now a global Kurdish symbol; activists from all over the world visit it. The saying 'Kobanê stood firm' has entered every modern Kurdish dictionary, meaning: when the right is with you, numbers do not matter.