0:00 - 0:09
This is eastern Syria, not far from the Iraqi border. For weeks, the Yaroubiya border crossing was contested by Kurdish and Arab armed groups.
0:10 - 0:19
For months, the town was under the control of rebel militias, some of them with ties to Al Qaeda. But in October, it was taken by the Kurdish militia, the YPG.
0:21 - 0:27
The people of Yaroubiya had fled the fighting. Some of those who have returned have stories of oppression by the radical groups.
[Pictures here are from Yaroubiya.]
Interview: Mohammed Jelloud, a local Arab man, in Yaroubiya
0:28 - 0:35
The rebels took my house. They even wrote on the wall that it belongs to them.
0:35 - 0:42
Many other houses, belonging to my relatives and other people, were also taken.
0:42 - 0:48
And some people had to leave the city. They said they would cut our heads off if we stayed.
0:48 - 0:54
They said we were supporting the regime.
0:54 - 1:01
And they burnt one of my cousins.
1:01 - 1:16
They poured gasoline over him. But he is alive and with the help of the Kurds we managed to get him to a hospital.
Interlude: Local Arab civilians are complaining about services to the Kurdish commander of the city
1:17 - 1:22
There is no power! The government has turned the power off in the entire Qamishly area!
1:22 - 1:25
I have already sent the oil to the village.
1:27 - 1:31
These Kurdish militiamen are busy painting over the slogans of the Arab militias.
Soundbite: Kurdish militiaman in Yaroubiya
1:33 - 1:36
This is the Allahu Akbar battalion.
1:37 - 1:40
The town is totally empty. People have only just started to return.
Interview: Arab female IDP on the outskirts of Yaroubiya
1:42 - 1:48
By God and Mohammed! There is no bread! Timato costs 150 pounds!
1:48 - 1:55
We are suffering a lot, we are sleeping in the fields! Our kids are cold! What can we do?
1:56 - 2:06
Here the Islamists have been beaten back. But in other areas of Syria, their influence is on the rise. Most worried are the Christians, who constitute about one tenth of Syria's population.
2:07 - 2:20
It is estimated that nearly 450,000 Christians have already fled their home. But here, in the northeast of the country, where Kurdish groups have so far succeeded in keeping the Islamists out, many have chosen to resist.
2:22 - 2:33
Mahjoub Abdulahad is a Christian glassmaker in the town of Ras el Ayn, not far from the frontline between the Kurds and the Islamists. He is trying to rebuild a church that he says was damaged by the extremists.
[Pictures here are from Ras el Ayn.]
Interview: Mahjoub Abdulahad in Ras el Ayn on the roof of the Orthodox church.
2:35 - 2:43
The crosses were on these two towers. They were new crosses, only about a year old.
2:45 - 2:49
They fired rockets at them from the neighbouring village and they were destroyed.
2:50 - 2:55
The dome has also been damaged.
2:58 - 3:05
Some people have made donations and everybody is trying to fix something.
3:05 - 3:08
Mr Abdulahad emphasises that his colleague is a Muslim.
Interview: the Muslim colleague in the same place
3:09 - 3:13
Before the war we never used to say he was a Christian, it would have been shameful to say such things.
3:13 - 3:16
So now I help him with the church and if I would ever need it he would help me with the mosque.
Interview: Mahjoub Abdulahad inside the church
3:16 - 3:19
The windows were broken, too.
3:20 - 3:27
They made a mess of the church, even defecated on the floor.
3:27 - 3:34
They say they know God and His religion, yet they came here and made a mess of the church.
3:35 - 3:49
People have suffered from these groups and as long as they are here Christians and Muslims will continue to flee the country.
3:51 - 3:55
They want to take the country back to Ottoman times.
3:56 - 4:04
There were books on the floor, they ripped them apart, even the Bible.
4:05 - 4:10
They said the Christians and the Kurds were infidels and had to be killed!
4:12 - 4:20
A few towns have Christian militias, and some people have volunteered to man security checkpoints, such as this one in the town of Malikiyah.
Interview: Christian armed volunteer at a checkpoint outside Malikiyah
4:22 - 4:31
We have checkpoints around the town to protect it from strangers.
4:32 - 4:35
Leaving the country is wrong.
4:36 - 4:45
This is our land, we were born here, we live here and to leave in the middle of a crisis is wrong.
4:46 - 4:53
To leave it to whom? To these foreign groups? To take our land and rape our honour and to destroy our things?
4:54 - 5:02
No, we must stay. We must stay and defend our land and God willing this crisis will be resolved.
5:02 - 5:12
The situation of the Christians is precarious. Many of them are against the revolution because they feel it is controlled by radicals and foreign interests, and it has only brought them misery.
5:13 - 5:24
And as Syria is collapsing into small cantons, and the Kurds are setting up their own autonomy in these areas, some of them still expect that the government will soon come back here and things will return to how they were before the war.
[Pictures here are from the town of Malikiyah.]
Interview: Same man
5:25 - 5:38
Until now the Kurds haven't fought with the central government, they only defend the land where they live.
5:38 - 5:50
Hopefully, there will soon be a political agreement and government of national unity will be formed.
5:51 - 6:04
This young Christian man here is Fadi. He feels that for Syria to work, the different ethnic and religious groups must all work together. And so he has joined the Kurdish security forces that control his town, and now commands an important checkpoint.
6:05 - 7:13
Interview: Fadi, Christian policeman, entrance to the town of Malikiyah
NOT SUBTITLED, HIS ENGLISH IS VERY CLEAR. THIS IS WHAT HE SAYS THOUGH:
6:05 - 6:11
Asayis [police] is not just for Kurdish people, it's for all people living in Rojava area [the northeast].
6:11 - 6:46
I have came to work with them because they are working to secure, to keep my way and my style of life, not to let people from outside like Jabhat al Nusra [jihadis] to come and force me to change my style of life, force me to change the way I live. Don't wear pants, don't do this, don't do that, be a Muslim. I just wanna be like I was before and better, and have freedom.
6:47 - 7:13
We definitely have a future. Here in Rojava [the northeast] we have a future. But I don't know about other people in different places places of Syria. You understand, in different places of Syria we have been killed, we have been bombed... I don't know. But everything is moving on. Life keeps going.
7:14 - until the end
In truth, there is not much chance that things will return to normal in Syria anytime soon. Most of the country has descended into chaos. Fighting continues between the government, the rebels, and the Kurds. The Christians are the weakest of Syria's communities. Many of them are richer and have fewer children than their Muslim Arab or Kurdish neighbours. Their emigration started already before the war: to Europe and elsewhere in the West. The Syrian civil war may be just another step in their slow decline in the Middle East.
Closing pictures depict a church service and a funeral held in Malikiya.