Adle Bekir is from the village of Kaniya Kurdan in Kobanê. Her family had 10 children, 3 girls and 7 boys. Their parents passed away. Adle Bekir's mother told her: "After I die, go to the Kurdistan revolutionaries and work for the revolution", which she indeed fulfilled. "As soon as I disassembled my mother's condolence tent, I went to the revolutionaries and said "I want to participate in organizational works, I do not want to marry and imprison myself in the house." They said "okay".

Adle says that she is lucky and believes that God has given her two lucky things. First one; being with revolutionaries for 9 years and the second is not getting married.

We move on to our main subject. Adle Bekir is one of the heroes of the Kobanê war. We want to listen to each story separately. Adle also does not neglect to express her gratitude to us and those before us who wanted to write Kobanê stories into history. Adle is aware that it is also a duty to tell what happened.

KOBANE ATTACK…

Adle says that ISIS gangs captured the points with basic living elements (bakery, mill, water tank, etc.) in Kobanê and begins to describe the day the city war started with the attack from three directions.

“The attack started in Til Şehr, Kaniya Kurda and Qulbe. At that time, we were cooking for YPG and YPJ fighters in the Heci Reşit Mosque. Suddenly a friend said, "Turn off the propane cylinders, ISIS is very close." We said, "Not until we finish the cooking." They were attacking with heavy weapons. A mortar hit the minaret of the mosque and exploded. Despite that, we finished our cooking. Then we packed our belongings and went to the area close to the border gate. It was between 4-5 o'clock in the evening, ISIS entered Kobanê."

MIGRATION ROUTES...

Adle remembers the rhetoric of the wild ISIS members saying, "If we capture the women of Kobanê, we will make worry beads with their nipples!"

Despite this, the people, gathered in the border area for 6-7 days, move to Northern Kurdistan as the war escalates. A small number of people from Kobanê decide to wait near the border. Adle and her colleagues start cooking for the people who stay near the border.

Adle says that the Turkish state opened the border gate and enabled the people to leave, and also sent ISIS members to Kobanê through Til Şehr and Kaniya Kurda. At that time, photos documenting how they crossed the border as well as images of Turkish soldiers and ISIS members standing next to each other were reflected in the press.

“WE PROMISED”

Adle continues: "Against Erdogan's discourse "Kobanê will fall", a YPJ fighter, Destina lifted her gun and hit its stock on the ground, saying, "As long as Kobanê has fighters like us, we will never fall, we will not turn our backs on our martyrs!" Indeed she did. She stood alone, resisted an enemy to which no one could stand, and whose barbarism could not be described. The people of Suruç showed great solidarity by saying "We are with Kobanê", from the elderly, young people to their children. In that way it was promised that Kobanê would not fall.

"THE LEADER HEARD US, KOBANÊ WILL NOT FALL"

I took a nap for a while. I saw the Leader (referring to Abdullah Öcalan) in my dream. He came to Kobanê. In my dream we were 4-5 women friends. We had a ball of string. We just couldn’t untie the knot. A white ball of string. The Leader said, "Bring it to me, I'll untie it for you" and took it and untied it. When I woke up I told my friends. They came and kissed me and said, "The Leader heard us too, Kobanê will not fall." In the morning of that day, neither border gates nor border wires remained. The people of Northern Kurdistan flowed into Kobanê like a flood with the Leader's call for mobilization.

DIFFICULT TIMES…

We were washing the clothes of the wounded and martyrs and cooking. Sometimes 4-5 bags of clothes belonging to the martyrs and the injured were coming a day. We never allowed our fighters to go hungry or thirsty on the front lines. It was a difficult time. We were soon receiving news of the martyrdom of the warriors who had asked for our sake and left. Heval Evar was injured in his hand. He said, "I can't stay here, my friends are all fighting in battlegrounds." When we said "you are injured, don't go", he did not listen and went. We heard that he was captured by gangs that evening.

Despite all this, we were trying to keep our spirits high. After we finished our work in the evening, we were visiting our wounded friends with our tambourines. We were trying to cheer them up with ululations, applause and songs.

WE BUILT 4 CEMETERIES OF MARTYRS

We built 4 cemeteries of martyrs during the war. We bid farewell to over a thousand martyrs. Young, old, father… Of course, they were not just from Kobanê. They were from East, South, Afrin, Aleppo et al. They all spilled their blood here. We are also followers of that blood and that cause.

TURKISH SOLDIERS MARTYRED KADER

For example, there was heval (comrade) Kader. She came from Istanbul. Turkish soldiers assassinated and martyred her. We saw it with our own eyes. We brought the body of our martyr, washed it, put it in the coffin and sent it to her family the next day.

BLOODY WATER POURED IN THE ROOTS OF THE TREES...

Our days were spent with the hustle and bustle of making bread, cooking, washing clothes, burying the martyrs, looking after the injured, drying the clothes and rushing them to the fronts, but I don't remember saying once that we were tired. After washing the uniforms of the wounded, we used to pour that water on trees so that the blood of heroes is not wasted and trees take root with their blood.

There was a fighter from Amed who said, "We owe you, Kobanê". I asked "Why would you owe Kobanê, heval! You've already given your soul. As soon as we left the hospital door, that warrior was martyred.

OUR DOCTORS HELPED THE INJURED…

There was no electricity, no bread, no water. Bread, food, medicine supplements arrived later. Our doctors did not leave there either, they healed the wounds in the heroic battle. Dr. Mehemed Ehmed and Dr. Welat worked without pause for 4.5 months.

WE WERE NOT TIRED!

We were making bread until the morning. Then we were washing clothes and looking after the injured. If we had a martyr, we were burying him. We were coming back and rushing to other jobs. But we never got tired. For example, I did not get sick during the war, only one tooth ache.

WE ARE FOLLOWING THE CAUSE

Of course, it is heavy to talk about Kobanê. Fighters came from everywhere and they were martyred here. We are followers of that line. We follow the red blood spilled. That bloody clothes we washed, boots, human parts left on blankets, severed hands, pinch of hair… We are the followers of the line for which all these were sacrificed.

Many people came to Kobanê and fell as martyrs. I wish my condolences to the families of all these martyrs. Those heroes were people of cause, brave and self-sacrificing. Their parents should be very proud of them. I cannot express the happiness of the Kurdish people embracing each other in Kobanê regardless of where they came from. I will never forget the sacrifice of the people of the North, who leaned against those iron bars and stayed there for days.

WE ARE INDEBTED

Kobanê was a small place. However, it has been recognized in the world with the blood of the martyrs. We did whatever we could. Yet it is not enough. We are still indebted to those who sacrificed parts of their lives and their eyes, arms and feet.

OUR OWN WILL IS THE ONLY THING WE BELIEVE!

What we believed in was our own strength. Now some say, "it was thanks to the Americans". It had nothing to do with them. This much has been paid. Why didn't the Americans help in the very beginning before the ruins, the lootings, the immigration and death. These rumours are false. We are confident in ourselves. We believe in our own strength, the power of our own unity. We have neither trust nor belief in anyone else.

DETERMINATION OF THE KURDISH PEOPLE

Whatever the enemy did, they could not defeat us. Everywhere became Kobanê and victory was ours. What a wonderful day it was when we removed the flag of ISIS and planted our own in Kaniya Kurda. In fact, the day Erdogan said "Kobanê is about to fall", we got stronger, we rose up. The Kurds have a saying: "The Kurd is hard-headed, stubborn". That day it became clear. We rose up, they fled back.