"Congratulations to humanity, to Kurdistan, and the people of Kobani for the liberation of the city of Kobani!" - YPG Commander Polat Can

We left the cultural center in Suruç where all the international volunteers and locals had just eaten a hearty meal. The open lounge was filled with quiet conversation after a long day of solidarity work. Darkness had set in and a dozen or so of us squeezed into the back of a van on our way to Mahser village to watch Kobane, and to sing for its freedom. On that cold night with lights flickering in the not-so-distant city, everyone felt that freedom would soon lift Kobane back to its former glory.

This week, finally, Kobane has liberated itself from the grips of an ISIS siege with a fierce resolve, a commitment to revolution and a firm belief in the human values of freedom and equality. We have now seen what is required to drive the barbaric forces of ISIS into retreat: firmness, bravery and no condition-ridden international interference. The Kurds of Rojava, of which Kobane is one of three cantons, have shown they can protect the revolution and liberate their lands. We owe them a thousand congratulations.

As we drove to Mahser I reflected on the day in Suruç, and on a man named Khalil, who had escaped the grips of ISIS in Ar-Raqqa by finding safety in Kobane. Each bullet wound here is a bitter reminder of the violence that YPG/YPJ fighters have endured day in and day out for 134 days. International media has for months had its lens focused on the precarious city of Kobane, lying in the autonomous region of Rojava in Northern Syria, just minutes away from Turkey. The battle has been long and fraught with drama, such as when the Turkish military allegedly facilitated ISIS in perpetrating two suicide attacks.

When we arrived in Mahser the temperature had already dropped below zero but the open fire, traditional music and dancing all created a warmth that pushed the cold out of mind. Speaking with Mustafa, a 64-year-old tank driver for the YPG fighters, who was set to return to battle in a few days, it became evident that the freedom fighters had never wanted to fight and hoped to never need to do so again. Mustafa spoke about how he had killed dozens of ISIS fighters and how for him, this was a duty in order that his children could return to their homeland.

When I asked how soon he felt it would be before Kobane was freed, Mustafa, like scores of other Kobane residents we spoke to, seemed certain the liberation was imminent. For the tens of thousands of Kobane citizens who fled to Turkey for safety, it was always only a matter of time before they could return. Now, hundreds have traveled into Suruç to celebrate the triumph of the YPJ/YPG fighters over ISIS. Saeed, a friend in the village of Hatmanek just yards from Kobane, was filled with excitement at the prospect of return. He told me that he hopes we can do dinner in his Kobane residence soon.

However, the liberation of Kobane has come at a heavy cost to its citizens. One resident and activist who invited us back to his home in Mahser explained en route how he had lost two sons and a brother in the battle for the city, and his only daughter is now being trained for fighting in the mountains. Hundreds have stories like this. The highly emotional funerals of freedom fighters have been a regular occurrence. The recent triumph, winning liberation for the city, was far from easy.

Although rebuilding Kobane will take many years and the region's freedom from ISIS is not at all assured, there's much to be celebrated. The autonomous region of Rojava, in which Kobane sits, is undertaking one of the most inspirational and radical social experiments in modern times. Upwards of 4 million people live within Rojava, where efforts are being made from the ground up to create a pluralistic and horizontal society. Feminism, ecology and face-to-face democracy are the brick and mortar of this movement. Today there is cause to celebrate, for a revolution has defended itself from the clutches of Islamic extremists and shown that another vision of how we organize society, and how we protect it, is possible.

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