ALEPPO, Syria (North Press) – Since Turkey announced to launch a military operation on Syria’s north, feelings of anxiety have not left the 51-year-old woman, Samiha al-Arabi, an IDP from the village of Tel Ada in Haerm in the countryside of Idlib Governorate, northwest Syria.
In the town of Tel Rifaat in a house that is barely enough for them, al-Arabi lives with 11 members of her family. Anyway, she prefers to stay there instead of moving for the third time.
On May 23, Erdogan announced taking steps to complete the so-called remained portions of the “safe zone” plan along Turkey’s southern border saying, “We will soon take new steps regarding the incomplete portions of the project we started on the 30 km deep safe zone we established along our southern border.”
The Turkish “safe zone” is an area of 30-35 km (19-22 miles) deep into Syrian territory that Turkey started establishing in 2019 to house Syrian refugees in an area along its border with Syria, as well as to keep it free from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which it regards as terrorists.
On June 1, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan renewed his threats of launching a military operation on northern Syria, and specified his targets in the two Syrian cities of Manbij and Tel Rifaat, which include many Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
“We got tired and we do not want to be displaced anymore. All what we need is peace, the expulsion of Turkey from Syrian territory and going back home,” al-Arabi said.
Residents and IDPs from Afrin, Aleppo and Idlib in the town of Tel Rifaat are worried of the last Turkish threats to launch a military operation against the area.
The town of Tel Rifaat, which is 35 km to the north of the city of Aleppo, was controlled by then Free Syrian Army (FSA), armed factions affiliated with Turkey which turned to be Syria National Army (SNA), in 2012 following the withdrawal of Syrian government forces.
The FSA factions in Tel Rifaat and Azaz, southeast of Afrin, always fired shells at Afrin countryside which became a source of panic and horror among the civilians and led to casualties and material damage. This forced the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) to launch an operation in 2016 to wipe away the FSA factions from Tel Rifaat and the surrounding villages.
Since then, the town has been a shelter for Afrin displaced people since 2018 following the Turkish invasion of Afrin and its countryside which resulted in the displacement of about 300,000 of the original inhabitants.
Since Turkey started its threats, residents and IDPs in Tel Rifaat started to recall displacement memories, especially that some of them had suffered of before.
In 2013, after battles took place between government forces and Turkish-backed opposition factions at her area, al-Arabi and her family were displaced to the village of Diwan Foqani in Jindires district in the countryside of Afrin.
During the Turkish military operation that was launched in 2018 against Afrin, she was forced to move again with Afrin’s residents to the northern countryside of Aleppo, also known as Shahba region, to end up with Tel Rifaat.
“Where shall we go?”
There are 3.692 displaced families that include 14.783 people from Afrin and 35 displaced families from Idlib live in Tel Rifaat, according to statistics carried out by Autonomous Administration of Afrin, which is currently operating in the northern countryside of Aleepo.
There are also 630 families that include about 3.000 people of original residents in the town, according to the same source.
The Kurdish Autonomous Administration was founded in Afrin in 2014 and it ran the affairs of the Afrin and its countryside. Now, it is operating in Shahba region after Turkey invaded Afrin and occupied it in 2018.
The military operation on Afrin led to the displacement of approximately 300.000 people, where part of them settled in the camps of al-Awda, Afrin, Barkhodan, Sardam, and Shahba, while others were distributed among 42 villages and towns in Shahba region. Another part moved towards cities in northeastern Syria, while others immigrated abroad.
The 60-year-old Zainab Othman, an IDP from the village of Qantara in Maabatli district in Afrin and lives in Tel Rifaat, is still suffering from shock and fear she has faced when Turkish forces shelled her house last Friday.
Frequent shelling on the area is frightening Othman who said, “Where shall we go if Turkey shelled Tel Rifaat?”
The town has been subjected to frequent shelling and drone attack by the Turkish forces and their affiliated SNA factions.
On June 17, a local source told North Press that the Turkish forces targeted the town from its military base in the town of Marea, north of Aleppo, with two artillery shells.
“We live in constant anxiety”
When shelling takes place, Othman fears about her children especially that one of her sons, who used to work for Internal Security Forces (Asayish) during the Turkish military operation on Afrin, died in the shelling.
The woman who hopes to go back to her home, which is only a few kilometers away, said angrily, “If Turkey leaves us alone, we will be fine. Although we did not violate its borders, it is fighting every Kurd, wherever he is.”
Since early this month, the Turkish forces have been escalating shelling on villages in the northern countryside of Aleppo.
Amina Abdurrazaq, 54, an IDP from the village of Tel Ada and lives in Tel Rifaat, is also afraid of the ongoing incidents.
Abdurrazaq hopes that Ankara will not be able to carry out its threats, saying, “We have nowhere to go now, we cannot sleep at night out of the sounds of shelling on the town and we live in constant anxiety.”
Regarding to the safe zone, the woman said, “we and Syrian people would be safer, without Turkish and foreign interventions.”