KOBANE is the city that turned the tide against Daesh.

It is a largely Kurdish city, in the, predominantly Kurdish, Autonomous Authority of North East Syria – also known as Rojava - hard up against the Turkish border. This will be the seventh year that November 1 has been marked as World Kobane Day.

The first World Kobane Day took place in 2014, when Kobane was still under a siege that caused massive destruction and saw Daesh take control of half the city.

Interviewed just before that first world-wide demonstration, Polat Can, spokesperson for the Kurdish forces, explained: "Today, Kobane is able to stand for two reasons.

"The first is the heroic resistance of the Kurdish People’s Protection Unit (YPG) and Kurdish Women’s Protection Unit's (YPJ) fighters, and the second is the support pouring from all corners of the globe.

"Such conscious, democratic and peaceful efforts have motivated the international coalition against Daesh to help the Kurds, significantly contributing to improvement of the situation on the ground."

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"We would like these efforts to expand further. Kobane is no longer an issue for Kurds, Syria or Kurdistan, but it also belongs to the whole world.

"It is an expression of democratic and peaceful existence … We want November 1 to be the day the world showed its ownership of Kobane."

Subsequent commemorations have celebrated the achievements of the Rojava Revolution, and drawn attention to ongoing threats and attacks – as well as highlighting the importance of international solidarity.

The battle of Kobane wasn’t just a defeat for the forces of religious fascism. It was a victory for a movement that is demonstrating, despite the harshest of circumstances, that society can be organised in a new way that is based on fairness and radical democracy.

The people of Rojava have been demonstrating that "another world is possible" – not that they like that phrase much, since, as they point out, we only have one world and change is possible in this one.

When I visited Kobane in 2018, physical reconstruction of the city was impressive, but not as impressive as the social structures that were allowing people to take control of their lives and neighbourhood communities.

The radical democracy – and strong emphasis on women’s rights - that I was witnessing has long roots, dating back to the 1980s and 90s when Abdullah Ocalan was exiled in Syria. Kurds were especially oppressed by the Syrian regime, but ideas nurtured secretly in those decades were finally able to flourish in the power vacuum created by the Syrian civil war.

As one of the women we met put it: "It was as though a rock had been lifted and there were green shoots beneath."

I was so struck by this image of a new world that had gestated in hiding at last able to grow, that I made it into a collage.

The most ruined area of the city has been left as a memorial to the siege, and when we walked through it with our cameras, a family handed me a white rose, which I pressed as my own memento of this powerful place. Our delegation were guests of the women’s organisation, Kongreya Star, whose symbol looks down on this scene.

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Just beyond the ruins that I photographed for this picture, is the border, where a large Turkish flag flies as a bitter reminder of the hostile and bellicose neighbour to the north.

Turkey has already invaded and overrun large parts of Northern Syria, and there are very real fears that they will invade further and target Kobane.

They have never stopped their attacks, despite agreeing to ceasefires, and recent days have seen them increase their aggression.

There are Syrian troops outside Kobane now, but neither the Syrian regime, nor their backer, Russia, has any sympathy for the democratic model developed in Rojava, nor for the federal solutions the Kurds have proposed for Syria.

Life under the Islamist militias that Turkey employs as its ground troops is not very different from that under Daesh – and many of these mercenaries are themselves former Daesh fighters. Turkish President Erdogan has also made no secret of his plans to ethnically cleanse the area of its Kurdish population.

At the same time, within Turkey, the brutal crackdown on the leftist, pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) has intensified. The reason given for the most recent arrests of prominent party leaders is linked to the siege of Kobane.

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Turkey provided the main route for foreign jihadis entering Syria to join Daesh, however, in October 2014, Turkish tanks were preventing Kurds crossing from Turkey to help the YPG defence. The HDP’s Central Executive Board put out a call for peaceful protests, but the protesters were attacked by the Turkish government, aided by Islamist sympathisers, and many lost their lives.

In today’s Turkey, a call for peaceful protest is enough to get you a long prison sentence.

The dangers of Turkish fascism and military aggression are clear for all to see, but "world leaders", guided by their own interests, prefer to look away.

Kobane Day serves as a reminder of these dangers, and of the beacon of hope that they seek to extinguish. And a reminder that politics is much too important to be left to politicians.

Sarah Glynn is Co-convener of Scottish Solidarity with Kurdistan