Complete absence of preventive measures against coronavirus in Afrin has residents fearful of the future
North-Press Agency
Hoshang Hassan
“While I was walking, everyone around me was looking at me in a strange way, with smirks spreading across their faces.” This is how Yasmin described wearing a mask and medical gloves as a precaution against coronavirus for the first time as she went home from her work in the city of Afrin.
Despite the short distance that Yasmin travelled on her way to work, she heard many comments on the street, some of them amounting to harassment and bullying, and this is what drove her to remove her mask and gloves and never wear them again. The percentage of those who use masks in Afrin does not exceed 1% at best, according to her estimate.
Yasmin and her family have been living in the city of Afrin, northwestern Syria, which has been controlled by Turkish-backed armed opposition groups since March 2018, after fierce battles with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
In the city center of Afrin, in which Turkey controls all aspects of life, preventive measures are absent and the movement within the city is as it was before. “There are no health instructions, no awareness campaigns, no sterilization, as if we live on another planet,” Yasmin said.
So far, the Syrian Interim Government (the political wing of the Turkish-backed armed opposition groups) has not announced a curfew within the areas it controls, including Afrin, as opposed to the rest of Syria, whose control is shared between the Syrian government and the SDF.
Neither Turkey nor the administration of the Olive Branch crossing, which links the city of Afrin to Turkey, have announced any precautionary measures or closure of the crossing so far, despite the announcement by the Turkish Minister of Health that 92 people have died from COVID-19 (coronavirus) in Turkey, and the number of infections has reached about 6,000 at the time of this report. Meanwhile, observers of Turkish affairs question the validity of these figures, accusing Turkey of hiding the real number.
In the same context, sources from armed opposition groups in Afrin confirmed to North-Press that two members of the armed groups are infected with coronavirus, and the infection likely occurred while crossing through Turkey coming from Libya.
The same sources talked about receiving strict instructions from Turkish forces to hide any cases of coronavirus, and announce to the public that Turkey is doing its best to protect civilians and its affiliated armed groups from contracting the virus.
The Minister of Health in the Syrian Interim Government, Maram Sheikh Mustafa, denied to North-Press any infection with coronavirus within the Afrin region.
Sheikh Mustafa added that they have started awareness campaigns for the people to prevent the virus. However, Yasmin sae that these campaigns consist only of a few paper leaflets.
The World Health Organization (WHO) classified coronavirus as a global epidemic in mid-March, and Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, called for the cessation of wars and the implementation of joint efforts to face the virus, whose number of victims is increasing day by day.
The ِAutonomous Administration imposed a lockdown for a period of two weeks, which is extendable, in northeastern Syria since March 23rd, while the Syrian government imposed a partial curfew from 6 PM until 6 AM, implemented on March 25th.