photos: Giannis Papanikos

In Rozava, an autonomous region in the north of Syria, where the Kurdish nation had begun to organize around its national demands, Kurds, Arabs, Armenians, Turkmen, Assyrians and others ethnicities lived together peacefully, before the start of the civil war caused by the imperialists in Syria. This was an area in which there were no ethno-religious conflicts. Here lately, the rebels of YPJ - Star, female Kurdish guerrilla organization, are taking part holding guns to defend their people and to prevent taking prisoners of women and children, while the men of the Kurdish army of Rozava region, are fighting against the army of ISIS(Islamic State of Irak and Syria).

Last stronghold of the Syrian Kurds, the city of Kobane, located along the Syrian border, is besieged brutally by Islamic militants, but so far has not fully surrender. However and despite the resistance of the Kurds since 6 of September, when the march of jihadists to the city began, 50% of the territories have been placed under ISIS control. The air strikes that United States and allied Arab states have unleashed, seem inadequate and the city of Kobane, which counted of at least 400,000 citizens before the Syrian civil war, now is seeing the fighters of the Islamic State coming even closer.
More than 200,000 Kurdish refugees from the region have already crossed the Turkish border to be saved from the violent onslaught of ISIS, while inside the city conflicts between the Islamic State and the Kurdish forces are getting wilder, in an unequal struggle for its control. The refugees who were forcibly expelled from their homes, worry about those left behind and weep for those lost in the vortex of war. Photographs of FOSPHOTOS photojournalist Giannis Papanikos narrate their own drama.
In case Kobane drops in the Islamic State's army hands, then ISIS will put under control a major strip of land at the border between Syria and Turkey, and it is estimated that their next goal would be Baghdad ..