War of a forgotten nation

Dates

2014 - Ongoing
Author

Emilien Urbano
Topics Documentary
Location Iraq, Iraq
Recognition

Main Prize Honourable Mentions - PhMuseum 2017 Photography Grant

Following the offensive of the jihadists of the Islamic State organisation and the siege of Iraqi city, Mosul, on June 2014, Kurdish fighters have become the main force fighting IS. Since then Kurdish people inhabiting the Kurdistan regions have been envisioning the creation of an Independent State.

Since the summer of 2014, I have been documenting the fight and struggle of Kurdish people and fighters against the the jihadists of the Islamic State organisation in Iraq and Syria, but also the rise of the Kurdish people in South-Eastern Turkey, where the youth is battling the Turkish authorities believing them to be an ally of the Islamic State organisation, and fighting alongside the Turkish outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) against the jihadists of ISIS, in Iraq and Syria.

War of a Forgotten Nation

Following the offensive of the jihadist Islamic State organisation and the siege of Iraq's second largest city, Mosul, on the 10th of June 2014, as well as self-proclaimed Caliph, Abu Baker Al Baghdadi's declaration of the Caliphate, which spreads across Syria and Iraq and is ruled by a rigorous and extremist vision of the Islamic law, Kurdish fighters from Iraq, Syria and Turkey have risen against them.

In seized territory all over Iraq and Syria, as is the case with Sinjar in the Iraqi Ninivah province, ISIS have captured, enslaved and committed mass murders against minorities like Yazidis, Kurds, or Shia Muslims.

Since then, Kurdish fighters from the Turkish outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), and Peshmergas (i.e. the ones who face death) in Iraq, have become the main force fighting the jihadists in northern Syria and northern Iraq, winning successive, important battles and acquiring territories, subsequently making the self-declared Jihadist Caliphate weaker by the day.

Nestled between Empires and surrounded by conquerors, Kurdish people inhabiting the Kurdistan regions in Turkey, Iraq, Syria, as well as Iran, have been envisioning the creation of an Independent State for a hundred years, and for the first time, today, they feel closer to realising their dream.

The pictures of this on-going documentary project are being taken in Iraq, Syria, and Turkey, as of August 2014.

Emilien Urbano

© Emilien Urbano - Image from the War of a forgotten nation photography project

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Al-Malikiyah, Syria, in the northeastern province of Al-Hasakah, which is under Kurdish militia control, March 2015. A 17-year-old Syrian (center) and a Turkish fighter (right), both accused of being members of the Islamic State Organization, were captured on the Tal Hamis Syrian front by YPG militias (the Syrian equivalent of the Turkish Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the PKK). © Emilien Urbano/MYOP

© Emilien Urbano - Image from the War of a forgotten nation photography project

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Syria, Kobanî / Ayn al Arab, January, 2015. The eagle of the Liberty square. Fighting and bombing destroyed much of the city. In four months, the fighting killed more than 1600 people, including more than 1000 jihadists. Supported by air strikes from the coalition, Kurdish forces managed to regain control of the Syrian town of Ayn al-Arab. © Emilien Urbano/MYOP

© Emilien Urbano - Image from the War of a forgotten nation photography project

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On the front of Serekaniye / Ras al Ayn, northeastern Syria, March 2015. A YPG fighter at the rear base and observation point on the front line against the Islamic state organization, which is two kilometers away. Most of the fighting happens at night. © Emilien Urbano/MYOP

© Emilien Urbano - Image from the War of a forgotten nation photography project

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Syria, Derbasiyah, Al-Hassakah Province, February 2015. A Bashir Kurdish commande. He fights against ISIS. Here he is in his military base waiting orders calling him to combat. © Emilien Urbano/MYOP

© Emilien Urbano - Image from the War of a forgotten nation photography project

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Suruç a border town with Syria, Turkey, November 2014. In the green Mosque, Kurdish refugees arrived from Kobane, in the Turkish town of Suruc, near the borders of Syria and Turkey. They were fleeing the offensive of ISIS jihadists. In four months, the fighting killed more than 1600 people, including more than 1000 jihadists. © Emilien Urbano/MYOP

© Emilien Urbano - Image from the War of a forgotten nation photography project

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Al Hassakah, Syria, August 2015. A monument bearing the effigy of Hafez al-Assad, father of Bashar al Assad. Hassakah is the commercial and political center of the governorate of the same name. Sparsely populated before the French colonial rule in the early 20th century, the city is now divided in two parts: one ruled by the Syrian Government and the other by the PYD Syrian equivalent of the Turkish PKK. © Emilien Urbano/MYOP

© Emilien Urbano - Image from the War of a forgotten nation photography project

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Sinjar, Iraq, November 2015. Half of a body of an Islamic State jihadist, who still wears the detonator of an explosive belt. Peshmerga and PKK Kurdish fighters recaptured the town of Sinjar in Nineveh province from the fighters of the Islamic State on November 13, 2015. Before that, the city was brutally dominated for more than 15 months by the jihadists. © Emilien Urbano/MYOP

© Emilien Urbano - Image from the War of a forgotten nation photography project

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Cizre, a Turkish border town with Syria, July 2015.    Thousands of Kurds joined a demonstration following the death of Assan Nasre, who was linked to the PKK youth wing YDG-H. YDG-H is the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement, the militant youth wing of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). This 17 year old was presumably killed by the police during the night of July 29/30, 2015.  © Emilien Urbano/MYOP

© Emilien Urbano - Image from the War of a forgotten nation photography project

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Syria, Al Hassakah province, August 2015. Kurdish PKK-YPG fighters in a base south of Tall Abyad, on the frontline towards the stronghold of the Islamic State capital Raqqa. Tall Abyad, 50 km from Raqqa, a key city conquered by Syrian Kurdish forces YPG in June 16th, 2015, was a very important and strategic transit point between Syria and Turkey, for jihadist of the Islamic State. © Emilien Urbano/MYOP

© Emilien Urbano - Image from the War of a forgotten nation photography project

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Sinjar, Iraq, November 2015. Improvised Explosive Device (IED) made by ISIS jihadists defused by Peshmerga minesweeper from the General Mahmoud Hassan's Liwa (brigade). Peshmerga and PKK Kurdish fighters recaptured the town of Sinjar in Nineveh province, from the fighters of the Islamic State, on November 13, 2015, brutally dominated for more than 15 months by the jihadists. © Emilien Urbano/MYOP

© Emilien Urbano - Image from the War of a forgotten nation photography project

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Sinjar, Iraq, November 2015. Peshmerga fighters from the General Mahmoud Hassan's Liwa (brigade) division of minesweeper searched the opening of a tunnel built by ISIS jihadists. Peshmerga and PKK Kurdish fighters recaptured the town of Sinjar in Nineveh province, from the fighters of the Islamic State, on November 13, 2015, brutally dominated for more than 15 months by the jihadists. © Emilien Urbano/MYOP

© Emilien Urbano - Image from the War of a forgotten nation photography project

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Sinjar, Iraq, August 2014. Two dead bodies of Yazidi persons kill By ISIS jihadist, in the “humanitarian corridor” created by Kurdish YPG fighter armed branch of the Syrian Kurdish parti PYD through the territory and the frontline held by extremist sunni militant of Islamic State , to evacuate Yazidi people from the Mount Sinjar where they are trapped and surrounded by ISIS Jihadist. Nearly 1,000 Iraqi families fleeing advances by the jihadist Islamic State group have taken refuge in the Syrian province of Hassakah. They arrived in Syria despite the raging civil war there that has ravaged the country since March 2011 and killed more than 170,000 people. The number of Iraqi civilians arriving in camps on both sides of the Syrian border after being besieged for days by jihadist fighters has declined sharply, a UN spokesman said. © Emilien Urbano/MYOP

© Emilien Urbano - Image from the War of a forgotten nation photography project

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Istanbul, Turkey, July 2015. MLKP Marxist–Leninist Communist Party militants called for uprising and resistance, during a funeral in Gazi district of Istanbul, Wednesday, July 22, 2015, for three of the victims of an explosion in the town of Suruç. Protests have erupted in Istanbul and other cities after the suicide bombing Monday in the southeastern town of Suruç, near the border with Syria, which killed 32 people and wounded scores. © Emilien Urbano/MYOP

© Emilien Urbano - Image from the War of a forgotten nation photography project

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Sinjar, Iraq, November 2015. Elias Youssef is a Yezidi from the city of Sinjar. He's living in a makeshift camp on the Mountain of Sinjar were he took cover with his family 15 months ago when ISIS Jihadist invaded and took the city and the surrounding of Sinjar. Some of his children are still held prisoners by ISIS jihadists. Kurdish Peshmerga and PKK fighters liberated the city of Sinjar in Nineveh province, on November 12 and 13, 2015, from the jihadists of the Islamic State, who had brutally dominated and massacred the Yezidi population for a period of over 15 months. © Emilien Urbano/MYOP

© Emilien Urbano - Image from the War of a forgotten nation photography project

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Nusaybin Border town with Syria, Turkey, March 2016. Young members of the Kurdish militias YPS are training and preparing their-self for the incoming fights against the Turkish Security Forces, in the district of Firat (Euphrates). The YPS militas formerly named YDG-H, The patriotic Movement of the revolutionary youth, the young and militant wing of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), dug trenches and went up barricades to try to prevent theTurkish Security Forces to penetrate into the popular districts of the city. The Turkish security forces previously imposed from September, 2015 till November, 2015 seven curfew in several districts of the city. © Emilien Urbano/MYOP

© Emilien Urbano - Image from the War of a forgotten nation photography project

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Cizre, Southeast Turkey, located on the border with Syria and Iraq, March 2016. After two and a half months of a strict curfew and heavy fighting, Tuesday, March 2, 2016 the Turkish authorities have allowed the population to return to the town of Cizre where several neighborhoods are in ruins. On 14 December 2015, the Army and the Turkish Special Forces cordoned off all access to the city and launched a major offensive against the fighters of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), who had erected barricades and trenches for months and there defied the Turkish State by decreeing an autonomy Self-Administration of the city, copying the PKK governance system in the Kurdish areas in neighboring Syria. © Emilien Urbano/MYOP

© Emilien Urbano - Image from the War of a forgotten nation photography project

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Sinjar, Iraq, November 2015. Peshmerga fighters hung a giant Kurdish flag on city grain silo. Kurdish Peshmerga and PKK fighters liberated the city of Sinjar in Nineveh province, on November 12 and 13, 2015, from the jihadists of the Islamic State, who had brutally dominated and massacred the Yezidi population for a period of over 15 months. © Emilien Urbano/MYOP

© Emilien Urbano - Image from the War of a forgotten nation photography project

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Syria, Al Hassakah province, August 2014. Yazdi refugees try to make calls and take cover from the dust winds. Iraqi Yazidi refugees at Newroz camp in Al-Hassakah province, north eastern Syria, being cared for by Kurdish Syrian parti PYD and their fighter of YPG/YPJ, creating a “humanitarian corridor” for an evacuation of the Yazidis between Syria an Iraq Mount Sinjar, on the territory and the frontline held by extremist sunni militant of Islamic State. the International Rescue Committee, after fleeing Islamic State militants. Nearly 1,000 Iraqi families fleeing advances by the jihadist Islamic State group have taken refuge in the Syrian province of Hassakeh. They arrived in Syria despite the raging civil war there that has ravaged the country since March 2011 and killed more than 170,000 people. The number of Iraqi civilians arriving in camps on both sides of the Syrian border after being besieged for days by jihadist fighters has declined sharply, a UN spokesman said. © Emilien Urbano/MYOP

© Emilien Urbano - Image from the War of a forgotten nation photography project

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Nusaybin Border town with Syria, Turkey, February 2016. A woman is fleeing with her belongings the incoming fights between the YPS young Kurdish mills and the Turkish Security Forces in the neighbourhood of Firat. The YPS militas formerly named YDG-H, The patriotic Movement of the revolutionary youth, the young and militant wing of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), dug trenches and went up barricades to try to prevent theTurkish Security Forces to penetrate into the popular districts of the city. The Turkish security forces previously imposed from September, 2015 till November, 2015 seven curfew in several districts of the city. © Emilien Urbano/MYOP

© Emilien Urbano - Image from the War of a forgotten nation photography project

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Cizre, Southeast Turkey, located on the border with Syria and Iraq, March 2016. After two and a half months of a strict curfew and heavy fighting, Tuesday, March 2, 2016 the Turkish authorities have allowed the population to return to the town of Cizre where several neighborhoods are in ruins. On 14 December 2015, the Army and the Turkish Special Forces cordoned off all access to the city and launched a major offensive against the fighters of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), who had erected barricades and trenches for months and there defied the Turkish State by decreeing an autonomy Self-Administration of the city, copying the PKK governance system in the Kurdish areas in neighboring Syria. © Emilien Urbano/MYOP