Fleeing Rojava

Since the ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) took the second largest city of Iraq, Mosul on June 10, 2014 and confiscating heavy weapons, quickly turned its attention to the West (Syrian) Kurdistan (Rojava) of Northern Syria. An area consisting of three autonomous cantons Cizire, Kobane and Efrin wherein the inhabitants, after their independence from Syria on January 2014, they have managed to implement a democratic self-government, based on equality and justice for all people, regardless of ethnicity, religion and gender. Kurds, Assyrians, Christian Armenians, and Arabs live together in harmony and equal representation in the local councils of municipalities and women with not covered face with equal participation in public affairs and the political and social life organization as that of men. The ISIS has dramatically increased their attacks against the self-governing regions of Rojava, especially in the administration center of Kobane (known as Ayn al-Arab in Arabic), the last stronghold of the Kurds in northern Syria, which besieges from 16 September. Until recently the canton of Kobane hosted thousands of people displaced due to the civil war from various regions of Syria as it was considered safer region. By the beginning of their invasion, the jihadists of the Islamic State succeeded in capturing 350 villages and towns in Western Kurdistan, creating a wave of about 300.000 displaced refugees, most of whom fled across the border into Turkey to save themselves leaving behind Kurdish YPG (Peoples Protection Units) and women YPJ fighters who fight to keep the Islamic State forces outside the Kobane along with the help of the FSA (Free Syrian Army) and the airstrikes by United States and the Arab states coalition. Most of refugees have found temporary shelter in houses, warehouses, mosques, and refugee camps in the Turkish border town of Suruç, 10 kilometers from the Kobane. The Suruç, a city of 60.000 inhabitants, has seen its population tripling since the beginning of Rojava invasion trying to return to their daily life, as everything indicates that it will take some time. Kobane has become a symbol of resistance against the jihadists of the Islamic State that control parts of Iraq and Syria territories committing abhorrent crimes against his opponents and the local civilians.