After the car bomb attack in Qamishlo’s Xerbî neighborhood on July 27 in the morning hours, all Qamishlo residents have used all means available to carry the wounded to the hospitals and donate blood. Qamishlo residents joined the search and rescue efforts today by the Asayish, YPG, Ministry of Defense and municipal workers since yesterday. Qamishlo residents reacting to the massacre said they “won’t leave their land”.

“THEY WANT TO SCARE US AWAY, BUT WE WON’T LEAVE”

Neriman Şahin: They are trying to push us out of our lands with these attacks and massacres. But we won’t leave. We will always stay in Qamishlo. One of the reasons for this attack is the success of our fighters. ISIS can’t hold up in the face of our military forces. Then they come and use bombs in the middle of the people. All the world and all the states should know, we are not leaving our lands. We will prove to the world that we won’t leave our country and our land.

Muhiyeddin Zeynel Xelîl: They want to scare us out of these lands, but we will never leave.

“THEY DON’T HAVE ENOUGH POWER FOR MANBIJ, SO THEY ATTACK CIVILIANS HERE”

Reyhan Taner: I am a member of the Women’s Asayish. First of all, I condemn this attack on the Xerbî Neighborhood. Our friends and many civilians were martyred. These filthy gangs attacked the civilian population in a massacre when they failed in the face of YPG, YPJ and QSD forces. Our answer to this will be harsh. We will declare the liberation of Manbij. And we won’t allow these violent attacks to break the will of our people. We as the Asayish are the people’s defense forces. We have resisted and we will resist.

Kawa Hesen: I was downtown when the explosion happened. There was a very loud noise when the bomb exploded. I thought the explosion was from Nusaybin, but then I saw smoke cover the city. I condemn this massacre. This massacre shows the weakness of the gangs, and this is what always happens. In all battles in Til Hemîs, Til Berak and Til Temîr, they used explosions like this. Our forces and our people caught many ISIS members but still treated them as human beings. But they see the city, they see the bazaar, they see people working in their shops or lying in their homes, and they come and explode a bomb in the middle of civilians.

“WE WILL UNITE MORE AND BECOME A FORCE”

Ebu Jack Corç: I am a Christian myself. Whether we’re Arabs, Kurds, or Christians, there is no difference among us who live in Rojava. We live all together. They wanted to break our unity and destroy our city, but we don’t accept this. We won’t give them our city even if we die. With this explosion, they want to tarnish Rojava’s reputation and make it look like it’s not safe. But they can’t have what they want, and we will unite more and get stronger the more they want to disrupt our unity.

Ranya Muhammed: I am the co-mayor. We have been here since the explosion and we have partaken in the search and rescue efforts. Families, children, adults, many people were massacred. ISIS says our comrades in Manbij have killed children and adults and that is why they carried out this massacre. But our friends save the civilians there, even if that means losing dozens of martyrs. ISIS must know that whatever they do, even if they tear down all of Qamishlo, we the people of Qamishlo are not afraid of them. When we have a martyr here, thousands of people step up in their place.

We will never escape this land, ISIS should know this. ISIS has no dignity and no honor. They say they are Muslim, but they know nothing of Islam other than parroting “Allah aqbar”. We promise our martyrs, our wounded and our people who have suffered that we will never leave our lands. We the Kurds, Arabs, Assyrians, Christians will all come together and answer the evil of ISIS. However much evil they commit, we will get that much stronger and face them.