Qamishli – Ibrahim Ibrahimi – North-Press Agency
The 72-year-old man, Mohammed Sharif Yusif from the village of Sermisax of Derik/al-Malikiyah city, told North-Press about his tragedy as a peasant from the Turkish border wall saying, “I have 100 dunums of which 40 dunums have been cut, only 60 remains.”
Yusif owns agricultural lands near the Turkish border, where parts have been cut off from his land and from many neighboring lands as well, due to the construction of the border wall between Syria and Turkey, where Turkey built a wall on the border with Syria with a length of 711 km out of 911 km.
Testimonies
Mohamed Sharif Yusuf is not alone in his tragedy, but also there are hundreds who have been affected by the cutting of their land due to the construction of the border wall in the border village of Sermisax.
The wall cut off the land of Khurshid Ibrahim Farhou and Abdul Aziz Farhou, where 50 dunums out of 80 were cut off from the land of Khurshid, and 30 dunums out of 50 of Abdul Aziz land.
Khurshid also speaks to North-Press about his suffering, saying, “The Turks crossed my land, cut off 50 dunums, and my neighbor’s land 40 dunums, and the other between 40 and 45 dunums, we all do not know exactly how many dunams were cut. They do not allow us to approach.”
Abdul Aziz talks about the discussion between them and the Turks when they were concerned and occupied by building the wall, he says, “We discussed the Turks a lot, and we explained to them that it is our land and that they are trespassing on us unjustly, and they told us, whatever it is, the wall will be built.”
Mohammed Mahmoud, 77, from Kharzi village in Darbasiyah countryside, said, “At least 500-600 dunums of village property were cut by the wall.”
Shaha Ali, 50, a resident of al-Khashifiya village in Darbasiyah countryside, said, “They built the wall from the middle of our land and towards the nearby villages, where some of which were cut off from their land a lot, they have cut 25 dunums from our land.
Fawzi Ramadan Aji, 66, from the village of Hasada Fuqani, of Amuda town, west of Qamishli, says that he lost with his relatives Sheikhmus Aji and Ismat Aji about 60 dunums, explaining to North-Press that the area of the village property is 2400 dunums, and its length with the Turkish border 2500 m.
“Where and how to complain; we do not know”
According to residents of the village of Sermisax, they went to the Turkish military during the construction of the wall and told them that this land is theirs. The officer in charge replied: “Submit a complaint!”.
The 72-year-old man, Mohammed Sharif, and the villagers were wondering at such a request, “But we do not know where to complain and how?” He says. While, the Syrian government did not do any action during the construction of the wall, nor did it make any statement or declaration in this regard.
In an interview with Evin Jumaa, the co-chair of the Human Rights Organization in the al-Jazirah region (an administrative division that includes the cantons of Qamishli and Hasakah) confirmed to North-Press that they began field trips, saying, “During the trips, we recorded and documented citizens’ complaints of the areas that were seized, and the exceed of more than ten meters beyond the agreed limits.”
Evin Jumaa said they did not institute a lawsuit to any court, but individual complaints were submitted to the European Court of Human Rights, yet “the court did not accept the lawsuit because according to its laws it cannot receive cases directly related to Turkey without the case being passed through the Turkish courts.”
North-Press got the report of the Human Rights Organization in the al-Jazirah region, about the Turkish-Syrian border, which stated that “the number of villages that have been banned from approaching the border reached 129 villages along the border, and an estimated area of 27,6331 dunums has been cut, starting from the construction of the separation wall in 2016 until 2017.”
The wall
Turkey began construction of the wall on the Turkish-Syrian border since February 11, 2016. It ended in June last year with a length of 711 km out of the 911 km, the third-longest wall in the world.
The wall consists of prefabricated parts that can be dismantled and re-erected elsewhere, four meters high, three meters wide and seven tons.
It has eight-meter observation towers equipped with an advanced technology system, and the surveillance systems are developed with thermal cameras and radars for ground monitoring.