Four years of Turkish invasion, Syria’s Afrin people still mourn hometown

ALEPPO NORTHERN COUNTRYSIDE, Syria (North Press) – Amin Muhammad, an IDP from Afrin countryside, north Syria, gazes at a picture of his child and remembers, with eyes full of tears, all the details and scenes were still sticking in his mind while recalling the death of his son.

It was not a normal day, neither for Muhammad nor for the residents of his neighborhood. On that day, some lost their homes in the bombing, while others were injured, but the 50-year-old’s loss was the biggest, as he lost his 16-year-old son at the time.

It was on the third day of the Turkish offensive, accompanied by their affiliated Syrian armed opposition factions, on Afrin. It was 11:00 in the morning when a Turkish artillery shell fell on the building in which Muhammad used to live.

“Shells fell, we laid down the ground, I saw my neighbor was injured, I helped him and tied his wounds and then called the emergency for help, at that moment, my neighbor told me that my child had lost life,” the grieving fahter says.

“I saw my child’s dead body on the ground, It is not easy to talk about that moment, I could not do anything, I got frozen because of the shock , we could not help him in any way,” the father recalls the details with voice full of tears.

“He was killed by a fragment in his chest, He was martyred.”

Merciless enemy  

On January 20, 2018, the Turkish forces and Turkish-backed Syrian armed opposition factions started a ground and aerial offensive on Afrin under the pretext of expelling terrorist groups and protecting the civilians (but they did the contrary).   

The ground and aerial offensive, which continued for 58 days non-stop, killed 498 civilians and wounded up to 696 people, including 303 children and 213 women, human rights groups and organizations in north and east Syria said. 

Moreover, up to 300,000 civilians fled the Turkish invasion, according to the statistics of the Autonomous Administration of Afrin Region which is currently operating in Aleppo northern countryside.   

Some of the displaced people sheltered in five camps namely al-Awda, Afrin, Barkhodan, Sardam and Shahba, others distributed on 42 villages and towns in Aleppo northern countryside while some families moved to other Syrian towns and cities, most notably to areas run by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES). 

Muhammad is living with his family in a small house in the village of al-Ahdath in the northern countryside of Aleppo, after he left his home, property and lands during his displacement.

“We all have our share of this war, the enemy is merciless,” referring to the Turkish forces and their affiliated factions.

Despite his tragedy, Muhammad tried to help the wounded and transported them to the medical points. He was among those who transported the bodies of civilians who died in the massacre of the Mahmoudiya neighborhood in Afrin city to the northern countryside of Aleppo.

On March 16, 2018, Turkish forces bombed the Mahmoudiya neighborhood in Afrin city, killing more than 20 civilians and wounding about 43 others.

Due to the intensity of the bombing, the families of the victims were unable to bury the bodies in Afrin, so they were taken to the village of Ahras in the northern countryside of Aleppo and buried there.

May Allah take revenge for me   

Abdullah Kenno, 55, shares the same pain, but he perceived his calamity to be much bigger. Abdullah lost 11 members of his family, including children. 

Kenno hails from Kashta’ar village in the northern countryside of Aleppo. In 2013, he fled the battles between the Syrian armed opposition factions and the Syrian government forces and headed to Gobalah village that administratively follows Sherawa district, south of Afrin.  

He could not imagine that the woes of war and tragedy will follow him to Afrin and that another calamity awaits for him there; a calamity that will be engraved on his mind and stick there forever. 

On February 18, 2018, a Turkish drone bombarded his house killing his two wives, seven children, his daughter-in-law and his five-month grandson. His house and car were demolished and his cattle all died.

Kenno recalls moments of the bombardment, every single detail. It was 12.00 pm and the sky was clear, the children were playing outside and the clothes were hanged on the washing line.

“All of sudden, everything vanished and all became charred bodies lying on the ground.”

Kenno was injured with shrapnel in all his body and lost consciousness. He could not attend the burial ceremonies held for his family a medical team did for them hastily due to consecutive shelling. 

Kenno lived extremely hard days alone. The rest of his family displaced to Fafin town in Aleppo northern countryside.

“I have lost everything, my children and my family. May Allah revenge for me,” he said.  

Reporting by Nariman Hesso