Fighting for survival: Syria's forgotten war

The world continues to turn a blind eye to the suffering of Syrians

Eight-year-old Hividar Khalil shows off her golden earrings and plastic bangles. “This,” she says touching her earrings, “is my mothers. And this,” she says showing off her bangles excitedly, “are my sisters.” Living with her uncle and aunt in a refugee camp in Suruc — Turkey’s bordering town with Syria — she plays mostly without toys, unlike other kids who play with the things donated to them by the NGOs visiting their refugee camps. Instead, Hividar is waiting for her mother and sister to return from the battle in Kobani, so she doesn’t have to share everything with her cousins and can have her own paraphernalia.

Just like old times, back home in Syria. For Hividar and nearly 700,000 other Syrian children, women and men — alone or with families — who have taken shelter in Turkey, life has changed forever.

The widow of a YPG fighter who was killed in the battle for Kobani. PHOTO: FURKAN TEMIR

An estimated 2.3 million to 2.8 million Syrian refugees have fled their country since late 2011. They were seeking escape from President Bashar al Assad’s brutal regime that forced its citizens to live in abject conditions and tortured and bombed those who didn’t support his rule. Nearly 125,000 people have been killed and tens of thousands tortured in the Syrian civil war till date. What started as a battle between forces favouring and opposing Assad soon acquired sectarian tones and drew in neighbouring countries and global powers. In 2014, this chaos was capitalised on by the Islamic State or ISIS (known as Daish in the region) — the extremist group that branched out of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. Once the group made inroads into Syria and seized towns and villages, there was an increase in the influx of Syrian refugees into neighbouring countries, especially Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey. It is said to be one of the world’s largest forced migrations since World War II, which is rapidly transforming the Middle East but the world seems to have turned its back to the crisis. 

Not just her story

Originally from Aleppo, a Syrian city now contested by ISIS, Hividar is the only child left in her family, but she doesn’t know that yet. All she remembers is that her father was killed by the militant group early this year near her home and her mother and sister are fighting in Kobani along with other Kurdish men and women to get rid of the enemy. “They are fighting Daish, who killed my dad,” she says proudly. Her mother and sister died in Kobani late October when the battle against ISIS picked up momentum and the Kurds were fighting alone. “She is not always this cheerful and often gets anxious,” says her uncle Hamed Khalil. Hividar often weeps when she misses her family and insists on being taken to her mother. “We can’t tell her now. We haven’t decided when she [will be] ready.” The eight-year-old knows chilling facts about ISIS based on what she saw in Aleppo. “They always carry weapons on the street,” she says adding that they couldn’t leave their homes without their permission. “We couldn’t go to school because father used to say Daish will kills us,” she elaborates, adding that they also took many students from schools and beat them up. “They hate infidels and cut off their heads. They look scary.”

While a large number of Syrians have fled their homeland due to the conflict, many are still trapped inside as neighbouring countries are becoming increasingly stringent regarding refugees while international NGOs and the UN are grappling to offer alternatives. PHOTO: FURKAN TEMIR

Stories like that of Hividar’s are pretty common among these refugees. Those who manage to escape are survivors of great debacles and carry with them unimaginable tales of human suffering. Almost everyone knows someone who has been killed in either the ongoing civil war or at the hands of ISIS. Scores of children, including infants, are living as orphans, waiting for their parents without knowing if they are dead or alive. People who had lives, homes, businesses and an education are now distraught and helpless. This was the case with Hividar’s elder sister Shillan, a medical student in Aleppo who gave up her education when ISIS took over their town. After their father was killed, Shillah, who aspired to become a doctor, became a fighter instead and joined the battle against the militant group with her mother. In Kobani, men and women fight ISIS side by side and often — although not always — their bodies are buried in the battlefield. 

Fighting for Kobani

The Kurds — an ethnic group also considered to be the largest stateless nation in the world — comprises of nearly 30 million people spread throughout northern Iraq and Syria, western Iran and eastern Turkey. Their struggle for Kurdistan — a land only for the Kurds which combines Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey’s Kurdish dominant areas — has been a long one and some areas declared independence. For example, the Iraqi Kurds gained autonomy in Iraq — which is now called the Iraqi Kurdistan — as an aftermath of the 1991 gulf war. But Kurds in other parts have still been striving for their own independent land in the region.

Many Syrian refugees, including those not from Kobani, have been supporting the Kurds in the fight against ISIS in the town which began in late September this year.  PHOTO: FURKAN TEMIR

In Syria, the 2.5 million Kurds gained de facto autonomy in three cantons just south of the Turkish border. One of these cantons, centred on the town of Kobani, became the target of ISIS assault, which has worried Kurds from all four regions. Losing Kobani to ISIS would disengage Kurds from the two other cantons in Syria and also disconnect them from Turkey. Hence, for the Kurds, Kobani is an existential battle.

SOURCE: UN DISPATCH

Many Syrian refugees, including those not from Kobani, have been supporting the Kurds in the fight against ISIS in the town which began in late September this year. They believe it is their collective purpose to regain the town from the militant group responsible for the murder of their families and destruction of their homes in Syria. In the absence of sufficient weapons and logistics, people’s  massive support has assisted the Kurds in keeping the ISIS at bay so far, who are otherwise used to seizing towns much faster. Most of the fighters trying to save Kobani are the People’s Defence Units (YPG) and its political wing, the Democratic Union Party (PYD). The Iraqi-Kurdish group called the Peshmerga also joined early this month, as the alliance to fight ISIS in Kobani expanded. Initially, the town was singlehandedly defended by the local Syrian Kurds, residents of Kobani and the YPG. The American airstrikes began only when YPG suffered from huge losses and a massive influx of Kurdish refugees spilled over into Turkey with horrifying stories that captivated the world’s attention. By that time, the battle had gone on for several weeks and caused enormous humanitarian crises.



The town has been almost entirely destroyed. Most buildings, offices, schools, homes and vehicles have been reduced to rubble. The streets stink of dead bodies of ISIS fighters and charred material. Medical and food supplies are running out for fighters and many injured have succumbed to wounds and died due to lack of medical facilities. Doctors operate from makeshift medical facilities, mostly inside the same buildings where the shootings are carried out. 

The politics of war

For ISIS, fighting the Kurds has been rather disappointing. When they first entered the town, flags were erected all over and information about their success and expansion was released through their website and social media. The Kurdish fighters inside — Turkish, Syrian and Iraqi — however, have put up a good fight against the militants so far. But unlike other parts of Iraq and Syria, where ISIS abandoned the towns and battles that were challenging to win, the battle for Kobani still rages on.



According to analysts, this war is not just about territorial gain for ISIS but also about PR. The usual largess displayed by ISIS on social media and massive circulation of videos of beheading of foreign journalists and aid workers indicates the group’s obsession with portraying itself as robust and undefeatable. Losing Kobani could destroy that image. The media attention to the Kobani battle has added further pressure. Many former ISIS fighters who fled to Turkey after leaving ISIS say that Kobani has become increasingly valuable to the group due to all the media coverage it is getting.

“They will be humiliated in front of the world if they lose the battle to the Kurds, who have fewer weapons than they (ISIS) have,” says one of the former fighters during an exclusive interview on conditions of anonymity.

Watching from the sidelines

Meanwhile, Turkey’s enormous army has been vehemently criticised for standing idle on the border, watching Kobani being destroyed at the hands of a militant group. But for Turkey, the bigger concern has been defeating its archenemy, Assad. From meetings in think tanks in Washington and diplomatic enclaves in Ankara to Kurdish parliamentarians protesting near the Syrian border, Turkey’s president Erdogan has been accused of making a secret deal with ISIS in exchange for the release of 47 of its diplomats taken hostage by the group in Mosul, Iraq, in June.

No one knows the details of that deal, but skeptic believe there both sides – ISIS and Erdogan – negotiated  over their interests in Syria, where ISIS wants to ensure it’s presence, and Erdogan wants to oust Assad.



Turkey is considered to be soft on ISIS and tough on the Kurds and recent events align with such accusations. Despite Turkey opening its border for hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees, giving them home on its land and providing aid for those living in the camps, the country has not allowed its border to be used to help the fighters in Kobani. This intensified the battle causing massive bloodshed and crises which could have been avoided if Turkey had helped.



It is believed that Turkey feared that if it helped Kobani from falling into ISIS hands, it would indirectly strengthen the Kurds — primarily the YPG, which is the Syrian offshoot of the PKK, a banned Turkish Kurdish group engaged in a civil war with Turkey for 30 years. In a controversial statement, President Erdogan also called the banned Turkish Kurdish groups PKK, “more terrorist than ISIS.”

Turkey’s reluctance to help in Kobani also delayed US action to help the Kurds. But losing Kobani is as symbolic for the US as it is for ISIS. As Kobani started succumbing to ISIS in mid-October, the US jumped in to help with aid and airstrikes since they could not afford to watch the militant group triumph in yet another town. It was a policy shift when the US finally sent aid, food and supplies to Kurdish fighters in Kobani and the Turkish government allowed Peshmerga to cross over from its border into Kobani to assist YPG battling ISIS. The Kurds fighting inside say that these developments have been tremendously helpful.

Nowhere to run

The fate of Kobani will soon be decided, but the witnesses of the battle have already learnt a lot from the regional and international fight against ISIS. The mass murders, public beheadings, recruiting and training child armies and a long list of other abuses by the group, however, have not pushed the international community enough to take immediate action against this militant force.



Meanwhile, problems persist for those living with these atrocities on a daily basis. Hividar’s mother or sister will not return. She might have to grow up without an education that could teach her the actual history of Syria. She might not be able to follow her dreams, or even discover them, in the despondency of refugee life. Worst of all, she might never be able to go back to her country, just like many other Syrians. Recently, many civilians who wanted to flee Syria have been trapped inside, as neighbouring countries are becoming increasingly stringent regarding refugees while international NGOs and the UN are grappling to offer alternatives. The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) recently published a worrying joint report, saying the worlds “doors are closing” for Syrian refugees.

Kiran Nazish is an independent journalist. She has covered human rights, conflict and militancy from different countries mostly in South Asia and recently the Turkish border with Syria and Iraq. She tweets @KiranNazish

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, November 23^rd, 2014.