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Kobani:
The Legend
Dr. Rashid Karadaghi
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Ekurd.net |
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November 13, 2014
Not many people outside Rojava (Syrian-occupied
Kurdistan), except for Kurds, had heard of Kobani
two months ago. Today, anyone who can see, read, or
hear knows something about Kobani -- and what they
know honors the women and men of the legendary city,
the heroic defenders of freedom on behalf of us all.
Kobani makes every Kurd proud of being a Kurd. It
makes all freedom-loving people proud. In a little
over seven weeks Kobani has become a myth and its
heroic resistance fighters -- young girls, women,
and men -- have become heroes to us all. Like other
cities that have fought bravely against invaders in
the past, Kobani is etched in our hearts and our
memory forever.
I must admit that I have been moved to tears many
times these past few weeks, tears of both sorrow and
pride -- sorrow for the precious young lives lost in
defending Kobani against a horde of barbarians
devoid of every value we hold dear in life, and
pride in what the valiant Kobani women and men
resistance fighters have been able to do to prevent
the fall of the city to terror.
Language despairs of doing justice to the
bravery, the nobility, and humanity of the
resistance fighters of Rojawa as well as the
Peshmergas in South Kurdistan (some now also in
Kobani) for resisting terror and putting their
people and their homeland ahead of themselves.
Language also despairs of capturing the brutality,
the cruelty, and inhumanity of the enemy they are
fighting, this barbaric group known as ISIL / ISIS.
The story of the people defending Kobani and other
parts of Kurdistan against terror is the story of
those who are fighting for something bigger than
themselves. “We are tied to our land and our
principles more than our lives. ... We are looking
after our nation,” says a female commander of the
Kurdish resistance to Richard Engel of NBC News.
While the rest of us worry about our little lives
and never-ending worries, they worry about the
survival of their people, thewww.Ekurd.net
Kurdish people, against this onslaught of evil
descending upon them for no fault of their own. In
doing this, all of them face death every minute of
every day and night and many of them don’t make it
to see the joy of victory, which is certain to come,
over this army of killers. For this, we owe them a
debt we can never pay back to them or their loved
ones. And let us always remember that they do this
voluntarily because of their love of their people
and their homeland.
The people of Kobani did not attack anyone; they
were attacked. Their story is the story of the Kurds
– past and present. This much-wronged people have
never been the aggressor at any time in their
history. They have not wanted to dominate others;
others have wanted to dominate them, mostly because
of the richness of their land. The wars they have
fought have always been defensive ones against
aggressors just as the one they are fighting today.
No one can dispute this fact no matter how far they
go back in history.
Kurdish women get a lot of the credit for defending
Kobani. It is well-known that about one-third of the
resistance fighters in Kobani and the rest of Rojava
are young women, something unheard of in the history
of warfare. Their determination and bravery make us
all proud. “We will liberate the town house by
house. We are determined to crush terrorism and
extremism,” says Narin Afrin, Kobani’s Kurdish
female commander. “We’d rather blow ourselves up
than be captured by ISIS,” said Nineteen-year-old
Ceylan Ozlap, who spent her last bullet taking her
own life in preference to falling in the hands of
the barbarians and being defiled by them. Arin
Mirkan, another resistance fighter, a mother of two,
blew herself up using a grenade killing many
terrorists, to avoid capture by ISIS.
The sacrifices of these brave young women and
their male comrades must not have been for nothing.
The human and national rights of the Kurdish people
everywhere in their occupied homeland must be
recognized. The recognition by the US and the
international Coalition of the Kurds in Rojava as an
ally against ISIL / ISIS must be followed by US
recognition of them as a people with national rights
and aspirations. A delisting of all Kurdish
resistance organizations throughout Kurdistan from
the terrorist list by the US and EU is in overdue;
they should never have been on such a list to begin
with because they are not terrorists but fighting
terrorism; they are patriotic groups fighting for
the Kurdish people’s basic rights. The people of
Kobani and the rest of Rojava must not be abandoned
once their usefulness to the mission runs out. They
deserve US and international support in achieving
their freedom.
Whether Kobani makes it or not (I hope it does),
whether it remains free or falls into evil’s hands
matters little now, for Kobani and its defenders
have entered history and will be honored forever.
Kobani put Rojava (and Greater Kurdistan) on the
map. It put the Kurdish struggle for freedom from
oppression and domination by the occupiers of
Kurdistan in the consciousness of the world. It
obliterated the artificial and imposed-by-force
borders between the four parts of occupied
Kurdistan, borders that were designed to divide the
Kurds and keep them under occupation. Never before
has there been such co-operation and co-ordination
among the resistance forces of all parts of
Kurdistan.
The Kurds in Syria will never again accept
oppression and occupation by any Syrian regime --
they never had. They want to rule themselves by
themselves democratically. Kobani makes us all
proud. It has shown us all that the human spirit is
impossible to crush when fighting for a just cause,
regardless of the superior power of the enemy. In
the words of Narin Afrin, the female commander of
the Kurdish resistant fighters defending the
besieged city, “Kobani has a bigger message than
defeating ISIS; it is a human being’s belief in
himself and his will power.”
Dr Rashid Karadaghi, a senior
Kurdish writer, author of "The Azadi English-Kurdish
Dictionary", the dictionary is
available on Amazon.
A regular contributing writer and
columnist for Ekurd.net
Copyright © 2014 Ekurd.net. All rights
reserved
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