Turkish assault and displacement killed her two sons, leaving her with six orphan grandchildren

Northern Aleppo – North-Press Agency

Dejla Khalil

They were forcibly displaced from their city of Afrin, north-west of Syria, to be sheltered in semi-destroyed and uninhabitable houses in the villages of the northern countryside of Aleppo, which been have undergoing the fiercest battles since the start of the Syrian civil war.

The 60-year-old woman, Hikmat Othman, had the greatest share of the suffering since the beginning of the Syrian war. Likewise, each family from the Syrian-Kurdish region of Afrin carries a tragic story that has not yet been told, and among the most sorrowful mothers is Hikmat, who lost most of her family members to remain alone with orphaned children.

With the beginning of the war in Afrin by the Turkish military and its affiliated armed Islamist groups, the mother lost her middle son in one of the battles while defending his hometown of Afrin, leaving her with two orphaned children of her son, a further pain she had to deal with. Not long after losing her middle son, Hikmat lost the wife of her martyred son, after she was hit by shrapnel from a shell that targeted her house in al-Ashrafiya neighborhood in the city of Aleppo, leaving behind two children, as the grandmother, Hikmat, started taking care of them. She along with her grandchildren live in a dilapidated house, with a cracked roof and a wall in the village of Papins, in Aleppo’s northern countryside.

"We came to these villages and did not see a suitable house to live in, as my oldest son entered to remove the rubble from a house to live in, the roof fell over him to immediately losing his life,"  Hikmat Othman told North-Press her story, which started after her displacement from Afrin. "I now look after 6 orphaned children, while one of my grandsons was outside, the wall fell on him, causing fractures in his foot as well," the grandmother added.

The grandmother complained about her living condition, by saying: "I want to return to Afrin, because this life is unbearable, these are not habitable houses. I hope that they will work on our return to Afrin."

Fakhri Bakr, the 9-year-old grandson, who was affected in his foot after the wall collapsed on him, spoke of the moment his uncle lost his life: “Last year, my uncle lost his life here. I don’t know how the wall fell on me.”  Fakhri added: "I was deprived from going to school. I want to return to my home in the village. My house was not cracked."

The endless tragedy of the displaced people from Afrin is still continuing from one suffering to another, while relief and humanitarian organizations and the authorities responsible for assisting such cases don't move a finger to end these ongoing human tragedies.