00:01

The Kurds are the largest ethnic group in the world without a nation of their own. Spread over four countries – Syria, Iraq, Iran and Turkey – they fight for independence and recognition as a people. To speak of Kurdistan is merely to refer to the grouping of the Kurdish settlement areas in each of these countries. Yet there is no talk of a united Kurdistan. For decades, the Kurds have been an object of power plays in these countries; their efforts for more rights as a people have suffered constant and brutal suppression.

00:35
But the geopolitical situation in the region shifted in favor of the Kurds at the start of the civil war in Iraq and Syria. In the fight against the terrorist organization “Islamic State,” they have become an indispensable actor in the Middle East. For their attitude towards this organisation, the Kurds have garnered great respect internationally, and for the first time there is a serious hope that they will finally get recognition as a people, and maybe even their own state:

01:12

Titel:
            KURDISTAN
            DREAM OR REALITY ?
01:18
            A film by Halil Gülbeyaz

1:27
Turkey is home to most Kurds in the region with 15 million Kurdish-born inhabitants.

1:34
Diyarbakır is the unofficial capital of Turkish Kurdistan with its population of two million.

The Republic of Turkey, which was founded in 1923, deprived the Kurds of all their privileges, which they had won for themselves as a people in the Ottoman Empire.  Despite the assimilation policy of the nation’s founder Ataturk, the Kurds have been able to preserve their identity as a people until today. But for this, they have had to pay dearly. Tens of thousands of Kurds have lost their lives in revolts against the policy of forced Turkish assimilation.
The peace negotiations, which began in 2013, did much to arouse the people’s hopes. But they were unilaterally called off by Turkish president Erdogan by the end of 2015. Since then, all signs point to war.

2:25
The effects can be felt everywhere in southeastern Turkey, even in Diyarbakır. The city is literally besieged by Turkish security forces, even if one doesn't see them at first glance.

2:39
Upon entering the narrow streets of the old town, one encounters roadblocks, which are there to prevent the police vehicles from approaching. But every day the Turkish police try again... The traces can be seen everywhere. Bullet holes in the walls and shattered windowpanes. The refrigerators in these stores have been shot up.
Vandalism.
Yet no one claims responsibility for the damage. The only ones trying to help the people here is the pro-Kurdish party, the HDP.

3:08
This is Ziya Pir, a member of the HDP. His uncle, Kemal Pir was one of the founders of the Kurdish guerrilla organization, the PKK. Although Pir is not a Kurd, he has decided to run for office in Diyarbakır. “This is where people need my help the most,” he says, and help knows no nationality.
Today, he cannot do much, only offer support to the people whose houses are riddled with bullet holes.  

3:37
It is still important that he is here, says Pir. This way, he can give the Turkish police the impression that their actions in this city are still being observed by a parliamentarian.

3:50
O-TON Ziya Pir
    HDP Deputy
The police stormed this area and started firing off shots. They deliberately shot passersby with real bullets, shooting to kill. Many houses were demolished and shops looted.  This time, too, there were casualties and wounded.  One person was shot and at least four were wounded. Now, the police are trying to clear the barriers behind me. The city’s inhabitants are of course outraged over the police operation and immediately took to the streets to protest against it.

4:29
This is everyday life in Diyarbakır: daily clashes between the Kurdish population and the police, and people protesting the police in the streets every day, always with the army nearby. They’re screaming: "The state is a murderer," "Freedom for the Kurds" but never "Free Kurdistan" or even "Independent Kurdistan." No one wants to secede from Turkey, but why?

4:57
O-TON Jean-Francois Perouse
    Director of the Institut Francais d´Etudes Anatoliennes
It would be impossible for the Kurdish area to break away. It would be a step backwards. There has been internal migration, intermingling in Turkish society; there are so many mixed marriages, that makes such a thing impossible.  I don’t even think the goal of territorial autonomy is something that’s being aimed for, even by those who most radically defend the cause of the Turkish Kurds.

5:30
It is exactly this policy, the wish of Kurds to live together with Turks, that has enabled the birth of a new pro-Kurdish party. Until the last elections, the Kurds had a strong presence in the Turkish Parliament. With ten percent of the vote, the HDP was able to prevent an absolute majority government from forming in Ankara: the pro-Kurdish party, which is now present across the nation, is headed by Selahattin Demirtaş. It managed – with the help of the Turkish left – to push its way in parliament as a faction: an unprecedented moment in Turkish history.

6:02
O-TON Selahattin Demirtaş
The HDP with its new policy has become a party that represents all of the nation’s people, without distinction. Thus its goal is to find solutions to all of the country’s problems.
We are for a solution to the Kurdish problem within Turkish borders and without secession. We are getting resonance with this policy. As long as the support of the population for this policy continues, any other solution is irrelevant for us, it would not even be right. Because we put all our hopes on this party policy. The more democratic Turkey becomes, the greater the hope we have of a peaceful life together. The Kurds will be much happier in a democratic country where they live together than a breakaway country.

6:46
But t success of the HDP does not please one man:  President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The HDP is getting in the way of his efforts to instate an autocracy. This is the reason that Erdogan chose to weaken the HDP just before the last parliamentary elections with an aggressive anti-Kurd policy.

7:04
O-TON Recep Tayyip Erdogan
    President of the Republic of Turkey
“The Kurds!” In this country, we’ve never had a Kurdish problem. But there is constant talk about this so-called Kurdish problem. For years now, Turkey has been dealing with this. Because of this, 40,000 people in this country have been killed. You see in what sort of state the southeast part of our country has fallen into, all because of the separatist aspirations of the terrorist organization.

7:35
He means the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party.
It was founded in the 1970s.  This small Marxist-Leninist organization quickly became the hope of Turkish Kurds.

7:51
This is the founder of the PKK, Abdullah Öcalan. Since 1999 he has been in custody, but that did not prevent the PKK from growing in influence and numbers. With more than 10,000 armed guerrillas, the PKK is a military power in the region.
It’s a force the Turkish government in Ankara cannot ignore. Thus in 2009 they began to hold secret peace talks abroad, in order to put an end to the economic costly and grueling war.

 8:32
O-TON Cemil Bayik
     Co-chairman of the Executive Council of the KCK
Our leader Abdullah Öcalan was able to set up the conditions to begin peace talks from prison, even though he had to make many sacrifices and unilateral concessions. The meeting at the Dolmabahçe Palace was supposed to provide the basis for these talks. That is where the principles were agreed upon by which the negotiations were to take place. The Turkish government had no other choice but to accept them. We were just about to start the peace negotiations when Erdogan intervened and ended the talks.

9:07
That was in June 2015, and since then the Kurdish region has been a war zone. Ankara sent military equipment and thousands of troops into Eastern Anatolia to combat the PKK, which is also on the list of terrorist organizations in many European countries. In rural areas it is the PKK, not Ankara, who is in charge.

9:30
The Turkish army attacks the PKK positions with the latest technology.
But the fighters of the PKK refuse to back down.

9:39
With remote mines, the force has managed to blow up Turkish military vehicles, passengers and all. Hundreds of soldiers have been killed with this tactic. These images were recorded by PKK fighters who filmed their sabotage operations.

9:58
The army’s supply routes have not been spared either.
A war that, in addition to many human lives, costs Turkey five million euros a day.  

10:10

O-TON Günter Seufert
    German Institute for International and Security Affairs
This is a vision for Turkey, which, as I said, sees the solution of the Kurdish problem to be the precondition for a strong Turkey in the next decade. What Erdogan has done is, in furthering his aim of becoming a supreme leader, to be the sole ruler, he has distanced himself from this vision in effect and destroyed this vision with his own hands. In that he continues to push through the confrontation with the PKK and the confrontation with the HDP, essentially equating the HDP and the PKK, in order to push them out of the parliament, and thus heat up the Kurdish conflict again.


10:46
The new war policy now determines life in eastern Turkey. We’re accompanying Deputy Ziya Pir. He just received a call from the town of Silvan, 80 km away. He’s been told that security forces are planning a massacre in the town. We hardly reach the city and we’re stopped by a police roadblock.

11:10
Finger on the trigger. The mood is tense at the police barricade.
The feared anti-terrorist units are not letting anyone into the city.

11:20
A helicopter circles overhead, and we can hear gunshots.


11:23
Deputy Ziya Pir tries to convince the police officers to let his convoy and others into the city. Some who’ve gathered here spent all night here at the roadblock and just want to go home.

11:39
O-TON Ziya Pir
    HDP Deputy
Armed skirmishes have been taking place in the city since five o’clock in the morning. We’ve come as an observation commission from Diyarbakir, to mediate between the parties, so that the violence comes to an end. But unfortunately we’ve been stopped at the gates of the city.

11:59
The discussions and negotiations take a long time. Finally, the police receive radio orders:

12:04
Only the deputy and the mayor of Diyarbakır are allowed to enter Sylvan, with two vehicles. All the others must remain outside. In fact they have to vacate the area in front of the roadblock. As soon as the members of parliament are away, the mood among the police becomes aggressive. The crowd disperses.

12:29
It is not until the next day that we are allowed into the city. Everywhere one looks, there are traces of conflict: a theater of war.  From the point of view of the HDP, it is no coincidence that the security forces are attacking only those cities whose inhabitants cast up to 80% of their votes for the pro-Kurdish party. Once again the people have lost their possessions and goods, again there are deaths and injuries.

12:57
The mainstream evening news shows what has happened in Sylvan. Police video footage from the police shows security forces hunting the city for the so-called terrorists.

13:14
But here, we only see city dwellers who have lost the little that they owned.

13:23
O-TON City Dweller
What if the baby had been in here during the attack?! We want peace. That’s enough! We want peace!

13:31
These are the special military units who have posted their video online. Allahu Akbar!" Allah is great! Then, as if in a state of hysteria, they fire randomly into the air.

13:46
Clearly, the special units aimed to set these parked vehicles on fire by shooting at the gas tanks. The outrage is enormous:

13:58
O-TON City Dweller
I have to deal with all of this because I’m a Kurd. If you don't want us, we don't want you either! Come and kill us all! Even if you were to kill us all, we could never back down. Let it be known. Neither in the mountains, nor in the cities. Nowhere. They know where I live. They ought to come and kill me. They will come anyway. They will arrest me tonight, because I speak out here. But I’m taking that risk.

14:27
Outside the city a funeral: an active member of the HDP was shot in yesterday’s clashes. He was unarmed and was just trying to help people, we are told. He was only 21 years old. So far more than 30,000 civilians have been killed in the Kurdish conflict , almost all Kurds, almost all victims of the Turkish security forces’ violence.

15:03
The body of the young man is lowered into the ground in tears. Friends and relatives vow to revenge him.

15:19
In such a situation, Deputy Ziya Pir is powerless. He can only pray and assist the survivors.

15:31
Then, their arms are raised aloft again: “Victory shall be ours” they whisper. A cycle, one that continues unceasingly.

15:40
O-TON Ziya Pir
HDP Deputy
The bullet hit the victim in the forehead and came out here. He remained in intensive care for a couple of hours, where he eventually lost his life.

15:56

O-TON Frau
A relative of the deceased.
Film me and broadcast it so that Erdogan sees and hears what we suffer here. I hope that what we're going through, Erdogan shall also  go through one day. His heart ought to be broken like ours. Erdogan, you deserve the worst possible death.
You want to be King?
You deserve to end up like Saddam Hussein.

16:27
Originally, the Kurds were a nomadic people. They moved through the mountainous landscape of Eastern Anatolia with their herds from pasture to pasture. But this way of life has become acutely endangered since the start of the Kurdish conflict in the 1990s in Turkey. In many places the Turkish security forces do not allow those Kurds who still practice archaic traditions to continue living as shepherds (?). They fear that the logistical needs of the PKK guerrilla organization are taken care of by the nomads and the semi-nomads.

17:12
The conversations among the men in the tents turn to the war again and again:  Where something happened, who was killed, and most importantly how will it continue?

17:28
O-TON Man in Tent
We used to suffer a great deal. Every few days the police would conduct raids and search through everything we had. When we passed by an army base every time they would stop us and beat us up.
Now we are afraid again. War is raging all around us, in the Iraq, in Syria, in Libya. We are afraid a similar fate will befall our country. May God protect us.

18:02
The nomads’ fears are justified: The war has long since reached the mountains in Kurdish areas. In many places, the forests and fields are aflame. The Turkish army deliberately uses incendiary bombs. They want to prevent the PKK members from hiding beneath trees to avoid the army’s surveillance drones.  

18:25
This amateur footage shows the events that happened shortly before: Bombs dropping and shots fired from an army helicopter. Then everything begins to burn. A few people try to put out the fire, in vain. Within a few minutes, it spreads and even reaches residential areas.

18:54
Again, people lose all they have. The year’s yield of crops has been destroyed. Before the harvest can be reaped, it is turned to ash, everything blackened and gone.

19:12
O-TON Village Dweller
The helicopter shot from above. Then, the fire spread quickly up to here. We barely had time to save our lives.

19:24
Meanwhile, the members of HDP have gathered to prevent a renewed attack by the Turkish army. But, suddenly, the soldiers appear elsewhere: from this mountaintop they can only watch in desperation as the Turkish army continues its so-called "operation against the separatist terrorists."

19:50
On August 15th, 1984 the PKK fired its first bullet at the Turkish army. This event is celebrated every year, like here in Diyarbakir. This celebration is illegal. It even constitutes a criminal offence under Turkish law. But no one cares about that here. The residents in this neighborhood dance freely, and the song “Guerilla” sets the beat.

20:15
Across the Kurdish areas, people go to great lengths to hold elaborate memorials for PKK fighters. A people edifying their own heroic epic.
This memorial celebration is to honor the son of the mayor of old town Diyarbakir. He lost his life during the fight for Kobani against the Islamic State in 2014.

20:43
The guests screen a commemorative film with pride in their hearts.

20:40 O-TON Seyit Narin
    Mayor of Old Town Diyarbakir
All parents are saddened by the death of their own son. But the immortality our son left behind is more important. Above all, it is an honor for us that he has fallen for the freedom of the Kurdish people in another country. He died in the fight against the inhuman, barbarian terrorist organization ISIS. That has a very special meaning for us. We are happy that we raised a son with such a sense of justice.

20:31
After this interview, the Mayor of Diyarbakir was arrested for "separatist activities." Today, Seyit Narin is still sitting in a Turkish prison.

21:47
Nowadays, there is a guerrilla cemetery in every majority Kurdish town in Turkey. Proudly, these people present their martyrs, as they call them. The tombs have been desecrated by Turkish security forces time and again, because paying tribute to the “terrorists” is forbidden. But the Kurds restore the tombs in short order every time.

22:12
Here, the Qandil mountain range of Iraq, near the boarder between Iran and Turkey, is home to the PKK leadership.  
Here, the flag of the organization flies. Posters of founder Abdulla Öcalan and memorial plaques to the fallen fighters adorn the landscape here.

22:38
The PKK has even built a museum, where the personal affects and photos of the deceased fighters are on display. Nearly 6000 have lost their lives in encounters with the Turkish security forces. Indeed, Iraq’s Qandil Mountains is a place where the army dare not tread.

22:59
However, they have repeatedly bombed PKK positions and villages throughout the mountain range. Shortly before our arrival, Qandil had just been targeted by Turkish bombers. The traces can be seen everywhere.

23:17
In this house alone, eight civilians lost their lives.

23:25
O-TON Cemil Bayik
Co-chairman of the Executive Council of the KCK
A military solution is no longer possible. Neither the Turkish army, nor do we have the military means to achieve definitive results. The Kurdish problem can only be solved with democratic politics. One cannot destroy the Kurdish people, not with assimilation, forced resettlement or cultural genocide. What can be done is to acknowledge the existence of the Kurds and respond by taking their hand extended in brotherhood. Our proposal for democratic self-governance should be accepted, and without delay.


24:10
Of the approximately forty million Kurds, more than six million live in the “autonomous region of Kurdistan” in northern Iraq.
Erbil is the capital.

24:21
More than two million people now live here, nearly every third Iraqi Kurd. Within three years, the population of Erbil grew by a quarter. It is no wonder that, in this war zone, the autonomous Kurdistan region has become a safe haven for many vulnerable minorities such as the Yazidis.

24:42
For decades the Kurds in the mountainous north of Iraq have been struggling for their own state. In spite of the brutal crackdown of the Iraqi army in the past, the Kurds have always been able to assert themselves. The napalm-phosphorus and gas bombs of Saddam's armies have taken tens of thousands of victims, but the Kurds have never given up. Now, it seems as if they have been rewarded for their intransigence and the sacrifices they’ve made.
Here, between Turkey, Iran and Iraq, they have fought for an autonomous area where they have all the say.

25:27
For decades, the Barzani family has held influence over Iraqi Kurdistan. The president is Masoud Barzani, a man who has come to prominence especially for his engagement against the Islamic State.

After two terms in office, he is supposed to relinquish his power, yet he refuses to do so.

25:38
O-TON Barzani
The "Islamic State" is a danger not only for Kurdistan but the entire world. For this reason all sides in the fight against ISIS must show solidarity, to help each other.  So far, the Kurds have born the main burden on their shoulders, but this problem concerns all of us. That's why we want more support from other countries.  Only together can we defeat and banish the threat of these terrorists from our country.

26:18
A de facto Kurdish nation already exists with all the necessary institutions, and thanks to the enormous oil deposits it appears to be here to stay. The material wealth can be seen everywhere. Here, a world has been built based on the Western model, one that is visibly better off than the surrounding countries.  Shopping centers arise from the ground, most of them – like this one – belong to the members of the Barzani family, and imitate a Western life-style. In this Kurdish region, nothing can be felt of the conservative-dominated atmosphere of Iraq, to which Kurdistan belongs on paper.

27:06
O-TON Celal Baslangic
    Journalist, writer
Here a state already exists, ruled in self-governance. This autonomy is based on the oil reserves. At the moment, the Kurds have their problems with the Iraqi government due to the sale of this oil, but one can definitively speak of a state that stands at the threshold to independence. It has its own flag and its own borders, even if these are disputed in some places. It is merely the common currency that connects this state to Baghdad. The Kurds owe this status in particular to the United States, which built a kind of independent protection zone here upon unseating Saddam Hussein. The Kurds have been able to make good use of it.

27:50
In fact, in comparison to Turkey, where Kurdish language instruction is prohibited, the Iraqi Kurds have had their own schools and universities operating in their language for years.
This art college was one of Saddam Hussein’s torture prisons. Today, students have turned it into a meeting place for artists and art lovers.
Yet visitors are reminded of what the Kurds had to suffer here.

28:18
In the 1970s, the Iraqi Kurds won partial autonomy for themselves. The autonomy agreement granted them the establishment of a Kurdish Academy of Sciences. Since then, Kurdish has been the language of instruction. In the meantime, many private universities have been founded in the autonomous region, which – in terms of academic quality – are in stride with international standards.  The Erbil Arts Academy is a popular college among Kurdish youth who, like those here, must undergo a rigorous entrance exam.

28:57
O-TON Prof. Mahdi Muhammed Qader
 Erbil Arts Academy
Since 2000, we have established our own separate school system. Many teachers have come from abroad to Kurdistan to work on its development. They came back from Germany, France, Austria, back to their home to help. At the moment, however, we have the problem that we are unable to hire new teachers for financial reasons, although we could definitely use them.

29:34
In Iraq, as in Turkey, the Kurds were a nomadic people who moved with their herds from one pasture to the next. Nowadays, the livestock markets are the only reminder of that way of life.  The Kurdish people here have largely abandon their traditional ways. Even the animals sold at this market often come from Turkey or Iran.

30:12
From nomadism to high-tech. The formerly archaic lives of these people have given way to a consumer society.  

30:23
The streets on the city’s outskirts are lined with tanker trucks queuing up at the refineries. The oil, which is sold in Turkey – partially without Baghdad’s involvement –, is Iraqi Kurdistan’s main source of income.

30:38
This is the largest refinery in the autonomous region. “Kar,” or ‘work’ is the ambiguous name of this refinery.  Of course, it also belongs to the Barzani family.
60,000 barrels of oil flow to Turkey every day. 65% of total oil from the autonomous region is refined here, the operator assures us.
Not until 2014 did Bagdad and Erbil sign a contract permitting the sale of 300,000 barrels of oil a day.  Before that, Erbil sold its oil to Turkey illegally.

31:16
A 970-km-long pipeline carries the Kurdish oil across Turkey to the Mediterranean. The fact this autonomous region exists seems to depend on the good will of Ankara. In return, Erbil does not support the Turkish Kurds’ aspirations to autonomy and even fights the PKK guerrillas in their region: a pipeline as leverage.
This dependence on the oil bothers some critical politicians.

31:41
O-TON Rebwar Kh. Hidayat
Minister of Investment
We must not solely rely on oil reserves in our country. We must try to tap new and different sources of income. Because we all know that one day the oil will be gone. Other nations are looking for alternatives to oil so that they are better off, if one day the deposits are exhausted...


32:13
The minister has since been relieved of his duties. Three more ministers – each from the opposition party GORAN as well – have followed in his footsteps. The reason: “irreconcilable differences in government policy.”

32:25
Another economic offshoot blossoming in the autonomous region is iron and steel production. Erbil Steel alone boasts a production volume of 400 tons daily. Demand stems above all from the boom in construction, structural iron that is urgently needed for new buildings. Here, scrap metal is recycled into construction materials 24 hours a day. Due to the war that the Kurds are waging against the Islamic State there is no shortage in scrap metal here.
New buildings arise daily from old iron.

33:09
O-TON Alwand Sabir Mustafa
Engineer / Erbil Steel
Of course, the progress in Kurdistan is positive. The country grows day by day. For us, the growth in Kurdistan means big sales of large amounts of structural steel...
Despite the economic and political problems we have had lately in Kurdistan, our goods on the markets sell quite well.

33:37
Erbil is growing inexorably. No wonder, as the city has had to take in more than 700,000 refugees in three years. Now, more than 30% of the city’s residents are wealthy Arabs who have resettled here because of the security and liberal way of life it offers.
That’s why demand for accommodation is enormous. New living space is urgently needed. Erbil is thus a huge construction site: everywhere new settlements, as far as the eye can see.

34:06
For one man the demand for dwellings in the autonomous region was a blessing: as a result he was able to start a new life.

34:17
Mehmet Kizilkaya, former Chairman of the Kurdish Association of Employers in Germany, left home in exile ten years ago and resettled in Erbil. Since then, he has married a building contractor and started a family. He sees no reason to return.
Erbil is looking towards a great future, says Kizilkaya. The city’s living space has almost doubled within a few years.

34:44 Mehmet Kizilkaya
General Manager CEO
While there has been positive developments in agriculture in recent years as well, we have to admit that (if you don't count the oil industry) the construction industry accounts for 80% of the total economic volume.  There is a big housing shortage in Kurdistan. There are not enough roads for the cars. Although the Kurdish government is doing their best, there are massive transport and traffic problems. This is also one of the reasons why the construction industry is more or less at full capacity, despite the crises.

35:16
Outside of Erbil, another 1.5 million people have found refuge over the last three years. Nearly one in four inhabitants is a refugee in this land. Non-Muslims especially, like the Yazidi, seek shelter in this relatively liberal area of Iraq.
It is very difficult for the government in Erbil to cope with the refugee influx. Some aid agencies are trying to alleviate the burden, but everywhere there is a lack in the means to do so. For years now, people have been languishing in tent colonies at the outskirts of the cities – sometimes in temperatures of 50 degrees Celsius!

35:59
New refugees arrive every day.

36:07
O-TON Nawzad Hadi
Governor of Erbil
There has to be an understanding that our government cannot meet all the needs of these people. Because it is not easy for a single country to deal with 2 million refugees: The hospitals cannot meet their needs. We as a government have to provide them with water. Our government is faced with huge problems; we have few options but to cope with them.

36:36
And as long as the war in the Iraq and Syria continues, there is no end in sight to the refugee problem.  Most of the refugees arrived when the city of Mosul fell into the hands of the Islamic State in the summer of 2014. The Peshmerga stationed around Mosul retreated from their positions without firing a shot. Thus they left the inhabitants defenceless against the brutal, advancing ISIS forces. Many Yazidi men were shot, the women enslaved and sold.

37:10
To ensure that this never happens again, the Kurdish military leaders are investing in their image., “The Peshmerga will guarantee Kurdistan’s safety,” they say. Erbil’s autonomous government is trying to build a strong regular army, with the help of Germany and the United States. In a few short months of training, young recruits are forged into front-line soldiers. However, the Peshmerga is still accused of being a “cowardly force,” despite there being sound reasons for the defeat at Mosul:

37:52

O-TON Officer Ahmad Mohamad
Training camp Zeravani
At the time we were stationed outside Mosul, I was an officer there... When the Islamic State suddenly attacked, we were taken very much by surprise. Secondly, our weapons were in bad shape. They were useless against the well-equipped ISIS fighters. On top of that, before then, we had never seen the strange fighting tactics that are typical for ISIS.

38:25
No, they won’t accept another such defeat, the officers say. And in fact, the Peshmerga recaptured the Yazidi town of Shingal in a successful surprise attack at the end of 2015.
As soon as Kurdish recruits finish combat training, they are sent to the front.

38:52
But before they go, they ride in ambulances through the city in a parade of honor.

38:59
The front lies about 60 kilometers away from Erbil.

39:05
The Kurds blew up these bridges over the Great Zaap river to stop ISIS’s advance after the surprise attack in which they were overrun.
A few kilometers away is the last bastion of the Kurds. From here to Mosul, it is only 15 kilometers.
The ISIS fighters are just a few hundred meters away.

39:27
Thanks to American and German weapons, the Kurds can keep them at bay.

39:31
General Faik Rashe’s quarters are also his bedroom. There is not much luxury, but the picture of President Barzani is a must.

39:48
The general begins his workday with a routine inspection of the positions.
For weeks not a shot has been fired. But the Peshmerga fighters are constantly on guard. They do not want to be surprised a second time, like back then at Mosul.

40:13
O-TON
The tile factory over there belongs to the Islamic State. That there, too, and the village of Vataniya is also in their hands. The right side, though, where that hill is located, is in the hands of the Peshmerga.

40:31
No one knows if or when the Peshmerga might attack and recapture Mosul, but everyone is talking about it.


40:43
With more than 2 million inhabitants, the Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Syria.  They live in three settlements in the north of the country.
The most important city is Kobani.

40:55
While the Assad government has been busy fighting the Islamic State and the Syrian opposition from Damascus, the Kurds used the vacuum in Syria to build their own system of government in their settlement areas. Under the leadership of the YPG national defense units, they declared their areas "cantons" and gathered in public assemblies to make the most important decisions jointly with the local population. They appointed their own government and put together a mini army, which consists of both women and men to defend themselves. It looked good for the Kurds in Syria. They had never known so many freedoms.

41:50
Then everything happened very quickly.

41:54
In a sudden attack, ISIS overran the Kurds’ fortifications and besieged more than 200 Kurdish villages within a few weeks, and rolled up to the gates of Kobani with tanks captured from Iraq and Syria.

42:09
The lightly armed Kurdish force had no way of fending them off.
The Islamic State tanks closed in street by street.

42:21
Fighting with Kalashnikovs against tanks, the Kurds quickly lost more than 60% to ISIS, who had surrounded Kobani with about 50 tanks and 7000 jihadis.  5000 Kurdish fighters put up fierce resistance but were outnumbered and outgunned by the Islamists. More than 700 Kurds lost their lives in the combat.

Despite several attempts, however, ISIS was unable to completely take Kobani. The longer the fight for the city took, the more people all around the world stood in solidarity with the Kurds. Many young people from Turkey crossed the Turkish-Syrian border and joined the Kurds.

43:16
O-TON Salih Müslüm
    Co-chairman of YPG
Millions of people protested in solidarity with Kobani. Even a year after that, on the anniversary of the liberation, millions still went out into the streets. Kobani became an argument (symbol?) for supporting all Kurds.  Because in Kobani, the Kurd demonstrated to the whole world: I am able to defend the values of humanity. I can do it.  I am a part of humanity.
For this reason, all those who defend freedom stood by the Kurds and showed solidarity with them.


43:57
The war raged on and on, all around Kobani. Staying in the city was no longer possible for civilians. Finally, Turkey opened the border.
Up to 300,000 residents of Kurdish areas in Syria crossed the Syrian-Turkish border to safety.

44:24
This refugee camp was once a sport facility belonging to the Diyarbakir municipality. On the Turkish side of the border, Kurds living in Turkey opened their arms to their brothers and sisters from Syria and Iraq.

There are no exact figures, but an estimated half a million Kurds live in the tent cities there. Most of them are housed by the city administrations of the pro-Kurdish party HDP and funded with donations from Europe.

45:06
When Kobani – contrary to all expectations – did not fall, the US-led coalition against ISIS decided to help the Kurds. Coalition aircraft began bombing ISIS positions and conducted these missions in coordination with the Kurdish fighters. In addition, US military planes dropped armor-piercing weapons over Kobani so that the Kurds could finally fight the tanks of ISIS.
The encircled city of Kobani could only be reached via Turkey. But they closed the border.
When the border opened for 250 Peshmerga fighters from Iraq who had rushed to help the Syrian Kurds with artillery, the tide turned.

45:50
The Kurds went on the offensive and recaptured their city street by street.
The ISIS fighters withdrew from Kobani, suffering great losses. It was the first time ISIS met military defeat.

46:33
For the Kurds, on the other hand, Kobani became a symbol for certain victory.
Not just here but everywhere in the world,  Kurds took to the streets to celebrate the city’s liberation. But many danced not only for the liberation of this one city. It became the symbol for cross-border Kurdish identity.

46:54
O-TON
Günter Seufert
German Institute for International and Security Affairs
At the over-arching level for the Kurds, Kobani is the first time that a cross-boarder and inter-state Kurdish solidarity developed. We know that in previous decades, Iran was able to ignite strife between the Iraqi and Iranian Kurds. We know that Erdogan has been trying, with some success, to get Barzani and the Iraqi Kurds against Öcalan and the PKK, the Turkish Kurds. But Kobani was the point where, for the first time, that Kurds in each of these four Middle Eastern nations trembled in joint fear for a Kurdish city’s survival. Where volunteers came from Iran, from Turkey, and the Peshmerga of Iraq to fight together. Thus I think Kobani is the point where it became no longer possible to get the separate Kurdish populations in each of those countries to fight against each other.

47:53
Kobani is now free. But not a single house is habitable. ISIS tanks, but also coalition aircraft sent in to support the Kurds, have completely destroyed the city.

48:09
The 200,000 former residents are slowly returning to their city and trying to make a home out of the ruins. The self-proclaimed government of Kobani has decided not to rebuild the city center. It is to be a memorial to war, an open museum, so that every visitor sees the consequences of war.
And the Kurds are in the process of building a democratic system of government, which is to be an example for all.

48:35
O-TON Jean-Francois Perouse
    Director of the Institut Francais d´Etudes Anatoliennes
We have seen an actor emerge that is atypical for the region, with the Kurdish movement in the Syrian conflict. They defend values that are not those predominant in the region. Notably regarding women, regarding ecology, regarding local administration policies.

48:59
While Kurdish fighters did manage to recapture Kobani, more than 250 Kurdish villages remained under ISIS control. With makeshift tanks and light weaponry, they began a campaign to retake the area.

49:21
With targeted acts of sabotage, they cut off logistic support for ISIS.

49:29
Within a few days, the Kurdish fighters recaptured their lands in Syria.  
Not only that. Something happened that hardly anyone had expected. Together with the Arab opposition, they also freed Arab-inhabited areas from ISIS. The Turkish government accused the Kurds of ethnic cleansing, but the Arab fighters who fought side by side with the Kurds denied this claim.

50:03
After recapturing the border town Tell Abyad from ISIS in a short siege, the Kurds merged the two cantons of Kobani and Jazira.

With this action, they cut off the Islamic State’s main supply route.
It appears to be only a matter of time until the Kurds take Rakka, as well, the self-proclaimed capital of ISIS. Despite protests from Turkey, the United States want to keep the Syrian Kurds as allies in the war against ISIS. For the Kurds it seems a new era has begun in the Middle East.

50:34
O-TON Salih Müslüm
Co-chairman of YPG
The Kurds are currently taking on a positive role in their region at this historic moment. They have become a major player. I think if the cohesion among the Kurds can continue to grow and old ways of thinking are abandoned, this role that they will play in the future of humanity and of the Middle East will become even bigger and better.

51:03
The Kurds: 40 million people without their own state, in some cases without rights. As a minority, even without the right to speak their own language.
But times are changing in the Middle East. The borders that were drawn by the Western powers after the First World War are losing their validity. States may dissolve and new nations are about to emerge. The Kurds have never been in a better position to gain recognition as a people and a nation. Whether this is the outcome, however, is beyond their own power to determine.