In 2013, the Kurdish-led People’s Protection Units (YPG) took control of the city of Kobani (also known as Ayn Al-Arab) in the Aleppo governorate, located near the Syrian-Turkish border. Just a year later, in 2014, ISIS seized the city. Following fierce battles and a prolonged siege, the YPG, supported by the Global Coalition Against Daesh, expelled the ISIS fighters from the city in January 2015. Many parts of the city suffered significant damage, especially the Customs neighbourhood, an old area with narrow streets covering about 15 hectares, located just 200 metres from the Turkish-Syrian border.

In May 2015, Kurdish-led authorities in the northeast announced their intention to preserve this neighbourhood as it is, without rebuilding it, to serve as a testament to the “resistance and victory” over ISIS. A specialised committee called the “Kobani Reconstruction Coordination” was formed, emerging from a conference held by the Kobani Canton Authority. On June 25, 2015, the committee began receiving claims from affected property owners in the city, including approximately 300 owners in the Customs neighbourhood alone, to assess their claims and provide compensation.

At the end of 2015, the Real Estate Documentation Office of the Municipalities Authority, part of the Autonomous Administration, issued a decision listing all the affected property owners, which was ratified by the Kobani Canton Presidency. Compensation for those affected in the Customs neighbourhood involved allocating them plots of land equivalent in size to their damaged properties. These new plots are public property in a zoned area west of Kobani, now known as New Kobani District. The decision of the Municipalities Authority, ratified by the Kobani Canton, along with property allocation documents, are considered ownership documents for the new plots, allowing owners to manage and sell them.

In January 2016, the affected owners began building their new homes or commercial shops in the New Kobani District. A source from the AANES told The Syria Report that more than 20 percent of the affected property owners sold their allocated plots in New Kobani, aiming to emigrate, particularly to Europe.

The New Kobani District, located on the Aleppo-Kobani road, was, before the conflict, the site of the local livestock market (bazaar) and has a small cemetery. The site is still registered as state-owned land in the Land Record of the Damascus government.

In 2019, the old Customs neighbourhood was fenced off and designated as a military museum by the Autonomous Administration, becoming known as the Museum District. This decision faced opposition from local residents whose properties had completely collapsed. These property owners had only received plots of land ready for construction as compensation and did not receive any financial support to help them build new homes, as the damage to their properties was considered war damage.

In contrast, property owners whose buildings were partially damaged in the old Customs neighbourhood and could be rehabilitated received, in addition to the construction-ready plots in the New Kobani District, a monetary compensation to help them build on it. This led those whose properties had collapsed to object to the initial compensation. They eventually received financial compensation that allowed them to build new homes, with some even receiving building materials free of charge.