Resistance Is Life

MUNICIPALITY OF SURUCÇ ARIN MIRXAN TENT CITY

Do you want me to talk to you?

My name is Evlin and I'm from Kobane.

We are here because ISIS bombed us.

ISIS came to slaughter us and we fled.

The children were little so they couldn't run away fast.

We escaped slowly and reached the border.

Then the gates opened and we crossed into Turkey.

Thank you.

ISIS has launched massive attacks

-on the city of Kobane. -

ISIL is a terrorist organization.

Pure and simple.

It has no vision

other than the slaughter of all who stand in its way.

Outgunned and outnumbered,

Kurdish men and women of Kobane

are resisting against ISIS.

They are calling for support in the fight

against the Islamic State.

They are not enemy against only us,

they are enemy against humanity.

-They are against history. -

Kobane is located

just a stone's throw away from the border with Turkey.

Islamic State fighters

are taking their battle into...

The U.S. has been pressing Turkey

to take a more active role...

Problems cannot be solved with airstrikes.

Several months have passed with no results.

As of now, Ayn al-Arab, also known as Kobane,

is about to fall. It's falling.

Until ISIS is defeated from here,

we are going to resist together everywhere.

Long live the resistance of Kobane!

Long live the resistance of Kobane!

Long live the resistance of Kobane!

Where are you coming from Evlin?

City center.

I have two brothers.

Hemude and Mustafa.

Hemude is six years old.

And Mustafa is five months old.

My parents and I...

we are in this camp.

Trying to survive here.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten!

We are learning in Kurdish.

We are going to learn the alphabet from A to Z.

Our school is nice.

On our break we play with our teacher.

We find solace in playing.

I'm learning how to read and write now.

It's my goal to educate myself.

Without education, you have nothing.

After school I help out my mother.

My mother cares for me, and I care for her, too.

Everyone should care for their mother.

It is working!

My name is Newroz and I'm Evlin's mother.

We are from Sheran Village.

They informed us that ISIS

was a village away from us in Tilejbe.

They announced from the mosque that women and children

should flee the village immediately.

It is better that we save our honor

before something happens.

We must flee before they arrive.

And the men who wanted to fight stayed in the village.

I called my brother and asked if they were fleeing to Turkey,

and whether I could go with them.

He said yes and asked where my husband was.

I said Aladdin was not at home.

I was at the fight in the beginning

in Tell Abyad in Northern Syria.

During the heavy combat

we didn't break.

ISIS couldn't break us, and they never will.

But the part that broke me personally was my children.

As a father of these children, I broke apart.

One part of me was with them, and the other was in the battle.

Daesh is in this village,

about a kilometer away from here.

It's down this road. I can show you.

I'm scared enough that I can protect myself.

But I'm not so scared of them,

that I'd hide from them, run away from them.

I will face them wherever I can.

We have many comrades here who joined YPG

who are not Kurdish originally.

I have met three comrades from Germany.

They were born and grew up in Germany.

But they saw what happened to the Kurdish people

and they came here.

And I've seen a lot of American citizens.

A few British citizens, Canadians,

and Australians.

They come because...

the pain is so massive.

The scale of the brutality is so big.

So many people are trying to defend this right.

I told my comrade, a guerilla commander,

that I wanted to go see my children that night.

He said, "Sure, you can go."

I started the engine of my pickup truck,

which was loaded with ammunition.

I arrived at my village and my family was not there.

They told me that my family went to the city of Kobane.

Kobane was liberated

from Syria's Ba'athist Regime on July 19th, 2012.

We have established a democratic self-rule.

It was peaceful here.

Everyone wanted to live in Kobane.

There were Armenians, Turks, Arabs and Kurds.

There was a brotherhood and a unity here.

After one year of democratic self-rule,

some dark and chauvinistic powers

attacked Kobane.

They launched attacks on Kobane on July 20th, 2013.

- -

After the fall of Mosul, Raqqa

and other major military bases in Syria...

ISIS started attacking Kobane from all three sides.

With hundreds of tanks and Humvees

that they stole from Mosul,

and with thousands of fighters, they attacked Kobane.

So we had to pull the civilians out of Kobane

to prevent a genocide.

As ISIS got closer,

most of the people fled to Northern Kurdistan.

When I went to Kobane...

I didn't see my children again.

Once again, I returned to my village.

I said goodbye to my parents and I left.

I met with my brother and my parents

and we went to the border.

Before crossing the border, my son Hemude got lost.

I was very worried crossing the border without my son.

It was very crowded and devastating.

Babies in cribs were crying.

Elderly people were holding hands.

Elderly people were carried on shoulders.

When I saw all this, I broke down and cried.

You didn't say, we made it.

Emine, come here. We should attach it together.

Wait! Let me do it.

It doesn't count. It hit Emine's hand.

Be quiet.

I'll kick you out if you don't.

There are no words that can explain

the war in Kobane.

It's a very inhuman and cruel war.

It's a dirty war on the people of Kobane.

Despite the heavy attacks by ISIS,

the people of Kobane continue to resist.

When I was in Kobane

my niece came up to me and said Aladdin was killed.

Then I looked my mother-in-law in the eye,

and she asked me if I had heard anything.

We were both hiding the truth from each other.

She insisted that I had heard something.

I said I had and asked,

"Is it true that Aladdin is killed?"

She said, "Daughter, I heard it too,

but I couldn't tell you."

I began to cry...

I looked at my little boy, and said...

"I don't know if your dad is dead or alive."

I was already heartbroken when I set foot in Turkey.

I just wanted to see him, dead or alive.

Was it recording?

The first crossings started on September 19th.

I was there at Ohan Village on the Turkish side.

We were there in solidarity and ISIS had just gotten closer.

Everyday four to five thousand people

were literally jumping over the fence to this side.

They left their cars and animals behind,

because Turkish soldiers didn't allow them.

They were forced to abandon all their belongings.

They only brought their children and some clothes.

I was not scared on the border at all.

Why should I be?

Syrians are not allowed to cross.

Some of them have relatives in Turkey.

And they want to cross.

This is causing great tension.

And now Turkish forces are firing