By Samer Yassin
HASAKAH, Syria (North Press) – In a small, dilapidated room in the village of Tel Nasri in the Tel Tamer countryside, northeastern Syria, Fatima al-Ahmad lives with her children after her home was completely destroyed by shelling from Turkish forces and their affiliated armed factions, aka the Syrian National Army (SNA) in late 2019.
Six years ago, al-Ahmad was forced to flee her village, Umm al-Keif, north of Tel Tamer in the northern countryside of Hasakah, due to the bombardment. She and her family became displaced, living in conditions unfit for human life—without support, income, or hope of returning any time soon.
Displacement with no horizon for return
Fatima al-Ahmad is among dozens of families in the Tel Tamer countryside who have lived under forced displacement since late 2019, when Turkish forces and SNA factions intensified attacks on large parts of Tel Tamer and Zirgan (Abu Rasin) in northern Hasakah after capturing the Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) region in northeastern Syria.
Speaking to North Press from the small room she now shares with her family, al-Ahmad said she has not been able to visit her home since it was completely destroyed.
“Everyone tells me to go back to my village, but how can I? My house is rubble. A lifetime of work vanished in a moment—within fifteen minutes everything was on the ground,” She said.
She described her house as “a piece of her heart,” hiding her tears in silence. “It was not just walls. It was like one of my children,” she said. “I cry over years of hard work and a whole family’s life. I cannot rebuild my home. The prices are extremely high. I cannot even build a single room. If I return to the village, I will just pitch a tent on top of the ruins.”
The villages of Umm al-Keif, al-Kanihir, and al-Qasemiyeh were among the areas most heavily shelled, lying directly along the frontlines between the attacking forces and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Those attacks displaced the residents of around 40 villages, most of whom fled to nearby villages that lacked the capacity to host them, amid near-total destruction of infrastructure, absence of basic services, and no serious efforts to rebuild or ensure the safe return of civilians—despite an undeclared truce and informal ceasefire agreements between the SDF on one side and Turkish forces and their affiliated SNA factions on the other.
Residents say that the vast majority of these villages are now uninhabitable due to partial or total destruction, lack of services, and the high cost of reconstruction, leaving them unable to return and forcing them to remain in other villages as “displaced persons.”
Homes reduced to rubble
Na’em al-Kanihir, displaced from al-Kanihir village north of Tel Tamer, has also been living in Tel Nasri for more than five years after his home was completely destroyed.
“If I went back, I would not find anything but rubble—no doors, no windows, no furniture. Even the floor tiles are gone for good,” he said.
“If I return, I will pitch a tent over the ruins of my house and sit there, slowly repairing and rebuilding it bit by bit—but that’s nearly impossible without support.”
He explained that he built his house with his own hands after years of work as a laborer and farmer. “I worked the land day and night until I built my home, but we were forced out because we could not live under the mercy of the occupation,” he said.
Ghalia al-Husinu, displaced from Umm al-Keif, told North Press she currently lives in a room that used to be a cow shed in Tel Nasri.
“We had a good life before the war. We owned land, farmed it, and lived off it—but the shelling destroyed everything, and now we live a life that’s unbearable,” she said.
She recalled the moment they fled the village. “We were in the village when we heard shelling would start soon. We fled to Tel Tamer, and just minutes later the bombing began, destroying our home completely.”
“The hardest feeling is seeing your home destroyed before your eyes and being unable to do anything to bring it back or make it as it was,” she said sadly.
Although she wishes to return, her husband refuses as long as there is no genuine agreement between the warring parties. She stressed that unless a real ceasefire is announced and the security situation improves, “we will not return to that fear again. But surely, we will return one day—even if we live in a tent on our land, we will come back.”
Hundreds of families from these villages now live in nearby areas or host villages, most of which are ill-equipped to accommodate so many displaced people, with no real support from organizations or official bodies for more than six years.
More than six years after their displacement, most residents have not even been able to visit their destroyed homes. Many say the dream of returning grows more distant each year, with no prospect of reconstruction amid deteriorating security, soaring rebuilding costs, and a lack of any support programs from relevant authorities or international organizations.