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Kurdish activist: The Battle for Kobane is an inspiration for all freedom fighters

Isaac Nellist

Fri, 31/10/2025 - 17:54

Peter Boyle

November 1, 2025,
Issue 1442,
World

Baran Sogut, a Sydney-based Kurdish community activist, took part in an Australian delegation in September, visiting the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES) — the part of Syria which Kurdish freedom fighters liberated from the Bashar al-Assad dictatorship, in the Rojava revolution of 2012. They also helped defeat  the brutal and reactionary Islamic State of Syria (ISIS) in the following years.

See also
Green Left Show #70: Rojava offers hope for a new democratic Syria
10 years after the battle for Kobanî, the world must stand in solidarity with Rojava 
Kurds defend the gains of the Rojava revolution amid regime change in Syria

The delegation included NSW Greens Senator David Shoebridge, the first Australian parliamentarian to visit North East Syria, as well as Kurdish Greens Inner West councillor Ismet Tashtan.

Sogut spoke to Green Left's Peter Boyle about the gains and challenges of the Rojava revolution and in particular about his visit to Kobane, the city that was liberated from a siege by several Islamic fundamentalist militias in 2014–15.

The Battle of Kobane was the turning point in an heroic struggle to defeat ISIS.

Women
Democracy
International solidarity
Middle East

Kurds
Kobane
Rojava revolution
Islamic State (IS, ISIS, ISIL)

Rojava

Baran Sogut