ARTE Distribution

War reporter Yuri Maldavsky gives an outstanding account of the last days of Afrin before its fall. He lived alongside foreign fighters who have come to help the Kurdish forces (the YPG) to defend the Syrian city from the Turks and their allies.    

On the 20th of January, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdo?an – with the support of some Syrian rebels – launched the “Operation Olive Branch” whose goal is to drive out the Kurdish forces from the region of Afrin they have been controlling since 2012. Ankara fears that the Kurds – who it has always considered as terrorists but who have been rehabilitated by the international community for being one of the main contributors to the Islamic State's defeat – might fulfill their dream: to create a true autonomous Kurdish zone on Turkish borders.
Aerial strikes, heavy artillery, mortar shots... The Turks and their allies have relentlessly pounded the region. Despite the Kurds’ fierce resistance, the city of Afrin fell on March 18th; its population fleeing.
 
Infiltrated in a Kurdish women convoy, Yuri Maldavsky arrived on March 7th in Afrin. The YPG quickly integrated him into the international unit – comprised of foreign fighters who believe in the Kurdish cause. A Briton of Chinese descent, a young American and an Italian are among them. All of them had previously fought alongside the YPG against the Islamic State; they have all decided not to abandon their Kurdish comrades in this new ordeal against Turkey.