Kobanî, also known as Kobane or Ayn al-Arab, is a Kurdish-majority city in the Ayn al-Arab District in northern Syria, lying immediately south of the Syria–Turkey border.
As a consequence of the Syrian civil war, the city came under the control of the Kurdish-majority People's Protection Units (YPG) militia in 2012 and became the administrative center of the Kobani Canton, later transformed into Euphrates Region of the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.
From September 2014 to January 2015, the city was under siege by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Most of the eastern parts of the city were destroyed and most of the population fled to Turkey. In 2015, many returned and reconstruction began.
In mid October 2019, Kurdish forces accepted the entry of the Syrian Army and Russian Military Police in a bid to stop Turkey from invading the town.
Prior to the Syrian civil war, Kobani was recorded as having a population of close to 45,000. According to 2013 estimates, the majority of the inhabitants were Kurds, with Arab, Turkmen, and Armenian minorities.according to a 2013 estimate, about 90% Kurds, close to 5% Arab and Turkmen, and 1% Armenians.
Names One theory of the origin of the Kurdish name () is the word company, referring to the German railway companySociéte Impériale du Chemin de fer de Bagdad, founded on 13 April 1903 with 40% ownership of Deutsche Bank, 30% Imperial Ottoman Bank, 10% Anatolische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, 7.5% Wiener Bankverein, 7.5% Schweizerische Kreditanstalt, 5% Banca Commerciale Italiana. who built the section of the Konya-Baghdad Railway that the city is placed along from 1911.Other sources that refer to this subject include Nedal Yousef, 'Interview with Hussein Amin Hussein about [his book] 'Ayn al-Arab – One Hundred Years "حسين أمين حسين"...يتحدث عن مدينة "عين العرب" في مئة عام.. (esyria.sy) 9 April 2009. Hussein Ali Hussein, "Ayn Al-Arab over a century" (عين العرب في مئة عام), Dar Al-Aqsa, Damascus (2007); the book is a history of the town compiled for its centennial from accounts in living memory (notably from one Mohamed Abdi, who according to Hussein died in 1998 aged 118, as well as "other centenarians from the region").Patrick Cockburn, Isis in Kobani: Turkey's act of abandonment may mark an 'irrevocable breach' with Kurds across the region Independent 7 October 2014. However, this is doubted by some who point out that company in German is “Gesellschaft”, whereas "Kompanie" (meaning company) refers solely to military units. (This not true, however, as business partnerships with more than two partners were called at the time, and the abbreviation Co. remains established in German.) Others have suggested that the origin of the middle of the word could come from the German "Bahn", meaning road, as the railroad was in fact named "Anatolische Eisenbahn".
The Ottoman Turkish name of the eastern village was Arab Punarı (, ), and Kobani's Arabic name, ʿAyn al-ʿArab (عين العرب), is a translation of this. The word "spring" refers to the creek that used to flow east of the village, and during the summer Arab nomads would bring their herds to the location. This village was located south of a small lake that dried up in the 1960s. The name Mürşitpinar is still used as the name for the western village and the railway station in the Turkish side.The district of Kobani comprises about 170 villages: Gérard Chaliand, A People Without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan, 1993, p. 195. name of the station: Office International de Renseignements sur les Sauterelles de Damas, 1930, p. 43.
History
Ottoman period
Prior to World War I, the area was mainly populated by Kurdish tribes, many but not all of which were part of the Milli confederation. These tribes had progressively migrated in from the north during the 19th century, pushing back the Bedouin Arab tribes which had previously occupied the area. Local Kurds living in the plains to the east of the modern town reportedly provided lodgings at their encampment for a French-led archaeological team on its way to survey the nearby ancient Assyrian site of Arslan Tashî () in the summer of 1883.
In 1892, there were three homesteads situated in the area.Nedal Yousef, 'Interview with Hussein Amin Hussein about [his book] Ayn al-Arab – One Hundred Years "حسين أمين حسين"...يتحدث عن مدينة "عين العرب" في مئة عام.. (esyria.sy) 9 April 2009. Hussein Ali Hussein, "Ayn Al-Arab over a century" (عين العرب في مئة عام), Dar Al-Aqsa, Damascus (2007); the book is a history of the town compiled for its centennial from accounts in living memory (notably from one Mohamed Abdi, who according to Hussein died in 1998 aged 118, as well as "other centenarians from the region"). During the construction of the Baghdad Railway (launched by the Ottoman Empire to connect Baghdad with Berlin), Kurdish raiders from the Busrawi and Shahin Bey clans—rivals who lived south and east of today's Kobani - reportedly harassed work crews attempting to mine basalt from the nearby hills, partially because the German companies responsible for its construction were lax in providing payment and compensation to local landowners. German engineers staying in the area from 1912 to 1913 described Arab Punar as a "small Kurdish village around east of the Euphrates" comprising a small cluster of square mud-brick huts, many with domed roofs; the local chief's hut was notable among these in its incorporation of European-style doors and windows and its concrete flooring. The area was apparently also known for its swarms of biting sand-flies.
The newly built town began to form south of a simple train station built in 1912 along the railway by workers from the nearby town of Suruç. The train station was part of the Baghdad Railway project launched by the Ottoman government to connect Baghdad with Berlin. Refugees fleeing the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire settled in the newly built town around 1915, and were soon joined by more Kurds from nearby areas.
French Mandate Some of the Kurds who settled in Kobani were originally from the Kurdish regions in Turkey. Some fled persecution following the Kurdish-led Sheikh Said rebellion in 1925. After the demarcation of the border with Turkey along the railway line in 1921, the northern part of Ayn al-Arab was left on the Turkish side. This small settlement is incorporated in the Suruç district and still has a little railway station and a border crossing gate. By the middle of the 20th century, there were three Armenian churches and two schools in the town, but many Armenians emigrated to the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic in the 1960s while others moved to bigger cities, including Aleppo and Beirut, as well as cities in the US and other countries. Originally published in Arabic by Al-Hayat as أكراد سورية لا يريدون الانفصال نحارب النظام و"النصرة" ونخشى مجازر on 28 September 2013. The town was also home to a small Syriac Orthodox community, but their numbers dwindled and the town's only Syriac Orthodox church was demolished in the early 1960s.
The city's infrastructural layout was largely planned and constructed by French authorities during the Mandatory period, and a number of French-built buildings were still standing and in use until recently. During this period, the city of Suruç served as the regional center of Kobani. The area was marked by several border crossings with Turkey, unsanctioned by either the Turkish or French Mandatory governments. The crossings became a source of numerous Turkish complaints and led to the establishment of a French intelligence office in Kobani to monitor border activity. Throughout the 20th century, the border remained officially closed even as the neighbouring towns of Tell Abyad and Jarablus—both of which had smaller Kurdish populations—were allowed to have commercial border crossings, a situation which economically marginalised Kobani for many years. However, there was limited traffic at the Kobani-Mürşitpinar gate and passengers from Kobani often crossed through it to travel by train to Aleppo. By 2011, as a result of the Syrian Civil War, traffic through this gate increased. Wounded and sick people could cross to the Turkish side while trucks carrying goods crossed into Kobani from Mürşitpınar.
Syria pre-autonomy When Syria gained independence from France in 1946, the intelligence building served as the political office of the Kobani area's highest-ranking local administrator. Kobani started to develop as a city in the 1950s when it was further separated from Suruç as a result of the Turkish government mining of the border area.
Syrian Civil War Siege by ISIL
The People's Protection Units (YPG) took control of Kobani on 19 July 2012. The Syrian authorities in Kobani and other Kurdish towns evacuated the government offices and centers without any fighting taking place between the Syrian and Kurdish forces. Since July 2012, Kobani has been under Kurdish control. The YPG and Kurdish politicians anticipated autonomy for the area, which they consider part of Rojava. After similar less intense events earlier in 2014, on 2 July the town and surrounding villages came under a massive attack from fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. On 16 September, ISIL resumed its siege of Kobani with a full-scale assault from the west and the south of the city.
Kobani Canton had been under attack by ISIL militants for several months. In September 2014, militants occupied most of the Kobani region, seizing more than 100 Kurdish villages. As a consequence of the ISIL occupation, up to 200,000 Kurdish refugees fled from Kobani Canton to Turkey. Turkish authorities did not allow the refugees to enter with any vehicles or livestock that they had.
In captured villages, militants committed massacres and kidnapped women. IS militants, however, were not able to occupy all of Kobani itself, as the YPG and YPJ forces managed to defend a part of Kobani and later several nearby settlements. After weeks of isolation, which resulted from Turkey's preventing arms and fighters from entering the town (which in turn was due to the general hostility of the Turkish establishment towards Kurds with any links to the PKK), the US-led coalition began to target ISIL with a larger number of airstrikes. From September 2014 through January 2015, hundreds of airstrikes struck ISIL fighters and leveled most of the administrative buildings and houses in the city center, helping to stop the ISIL advance. On 20 October there were reports that Turkey, under significant US pressure, would allow Kurdish fighters from Iraqi Kurdistan to cross into Kobani. About 150 Kurdish troops were admitted on 29 October, which then began to turn the tide of the siege in favor of the Kurds. The YPG forced ISIL to retreat from Kobani on 26 January 2015, thus lifting the siege. Following the victory the city received the nickname "Kurdish Stalingrad".
Reaction The humanitarian response to the people from Kobani who were displaced to Suruc, Turkey, was highly polarized, with actors associated with the Turkish state on the one hand, and the pro-Kurdish movement on the other. In September 2014, Defend International launched a worldwide campaign aimed at, among other things, raising awareness about Kobani and the brutal attacks its residents were subjected to, and building connections between potential partners and communities whose work is relevant to the campaign, including individuals, groups, communities, and NGOs.