Bêrîtan Elyakut/JINHA

KOBANÊ – Hawar News Agency reporter Nazdar Abdi, who worked in Kobanê, throughout the war, spoke about her commitment to reporting on the resistance in the city no matter the cost. “The education I’ve gotten here is ten times more valuable than any university,” said Nazdar of her experience as a reporter.

Nazdar had just started working as a journalist when the attacks started. She got her first taste of the profession as a war reporter.

“When the attacks escalated, people were starting to be forced to leave the city. At the time, I had to choose between going and staying—fast. Of course, no one blamed those who left; it was a hard day. But at that moment, I noticed a YPJ woman resisting Daesh’s heavy armaments with just a Kalashnikov. That was the moment I decided to stay,” said Nazdar. She says the image of the fleeing city residents turning back to look at their home for the last time will always remain in her mind’s eye.

Nazdar said one of the most important battles she reported on was the Serzorê resistance, where 12 YPG and YPJ fighters resisted Daesh gangs. The 12 fighters, hearing over the wireless that they were surrounded by Daesh gang members on all sides, criticized their comrades on the other end of the radio, saying “there’s much more we must do fort his people” before they went to their death.

“No one who knows the story of this epic can leave this place easily,” said Nazdar.

In addition to the difficulty of being an inexperienced reporter, Nazdar said technical difficulties made the work even harder. The reporters would struggle to get the generator working all night trying to send photographs and updates from the front. The reporters also had no permanent place to stay in the city, which quickly became a total war zone.

“Those kinds of conditions force you to look for alternatives,” Nazdar said. She noted that “anyone who wants to fully understand what it means to be journalist” should work as a war reporter. “It forces you to be twice as curious,” she said.

(zd/fk/cm)