To anyone contemplating recent events, anyone seeking to filter fallacy from reality, the fierce Kurdish defense of Kobani is arresting, unlike anything we’ve seen before.  Kurdish resistance against the sweeping regional advance of the Islamic State (IS) has turned the attention of the world, ranging from analysts to mere followers of current events, to focus on this heroic city, also known as ‘Ayn al-Arab’ amongst Syrians. Why? Kobani is home to a bold ferocity and unrelenting resilience to the bloody terror that is the Islamic State. And it is this ferocity that opposes IS’ propaganda machine, perhaps even eventually passing into our communal memory as a paragon of resistance.

For, Kobani might be down to its final weapons cache. Kobani might be burning under the fires of IS’ war machine, crumbling to dust in the process. Kobani might be torn from east to west, from north to south, the result of an offensive by lying nations and by a malicious Ottoman neighbor, the master of reckoning against them.  Kobani may have lost much blood, may be failing as a terrible pillar of blood rises to the heavens. All of this may have indeed come to pass, but to the contemplative observer, he who seeks to filter distortion from reality, Kobani is means so much more.

Kobani means: ferocious and effusive resistance, despite a diminishing arms cache.  It resists the effort towards subjugation and reduce it to spoils of war. The city, upon the world stage, confirms its heroism with every casualty, all the while avenging the fallen towns and villages in its periphery, populations who fell because of inadequate arms and preparation. It is Kobani who returns their honor and their dignity.

Kobani means:  a flame that has not yet gone out, an incandescent idealism which still breathes; it is a people’s efforts towards independence, all the while refusing to be quartered off into sectarian and religious blocs. They stand in opposition to the sectarianism that currently runs rampant worldwide. Their battle is without hidden motive and their goals are clear.

Kobani means:  the resistance of a city, unencumbered by politics. This is a battle for existence state and the sanctification of life, not a suspicious scuffle for the extraction of booty. And this, at its core, means that this, in actual fact, is a battle for the sake of freedom and democracy. Freedom is the expression of identity and democracy is how we determine humanity’s basic needs.

Kobani means: one of the honorable testimonies that this city has presented is the involvement of women with men in the battle fighting till death. It’s an instance of speech interlocked with action, achieving the equality of women and declaring the city’s humanity in its battle for existence.

Kobani means: truth and reality echoing in its principles, far from political quackery, dressed in religion, infected with distortion, and often a means and an ends at the same time.  This evokes nobility and a sense of earthliness about the city, an anti-thesis to fraud and exorbitant fantasies calling for membership to the heavens.

Kobani means: the hopes of a people, extending to all segments of society, enshrined in a leftist, nationalist movement with a leadership selected by the people, but not simply these hopes and this leadership: there is also the threat lurking in wait for them. A threat supporting the interests of other nations and different sects, engaging in brutal behavior against this nation and its children.

 
Original article in Arabic
http://ar.ammannet.net/news/238646