HASAKAH, Syria (North Press) – Scores of villages in the northern countryside of Hasakah Governorate, northeast Syria, are witnessing a state of calmness after their residents abandoned them, fearing Turkish shelling.
For months, Turkish forces and their affiliated armed opposition factions, also known as Syrian National Army (SNA), have been escalating shelling on the countryside of the town of Tel Tamr in northeastern Syria with artillery and mortar shells. This resulted in displacing most of the villages’ residents and settling in camps established by Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES).
The AANES was first formed in 2014 in the Kurdish-majority regions of Afrin, Kobani and Jazira in northern Syria following the withdrawal of the government forces. Later, it was expanded to Manbij, Tabqa, Raqqa, Hasakah and Deir ez-Zor after the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) defeated ISIS militarily.
Some of them settled in the Assyrian southern villages in Tel Tamr that was abandoned by their original inhabitants after Islamic State (ISIS) attacked them in 2015.
Only 12 families out of nearly 400 ones remained in the village of Umm al-Keif, 4km north of Tel Tamr, which is considered the largest of its villages, according to local council in the town.
The Assyrian village of Tel Juma’a, north of the town, currently contains only a few people, after it was previously inhabited by 3.000 people, according to the council.
While the village of al-Dardara, north of the town, was completely emptied, after it had been home to more than 100 families.
Following the Turkish “Peace Spring” military operation in October 2019, which resulted in the occupation of the two cities of Tel Abyad, north of Raqqa, and Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain), north of Hasakah, Turkey signed two ceasefire agreements, one with Russia and the other with the US.
The agreements stipulate halt of all hostilities there and the withdrawal of the SDF 30 km in depth away from the Turkish border in addition to conducting Turkish-Russian joint patrols in order to monitor the implementation of the agreements.
In some villages, such as the Assyrian Tel Tawil, Qabro al-Qarajneh, Sheikh Ali, Qabr al-Saghir and Bab al-Khair, only few people remained out of a population of more than a thousand.
According to the statistics of the local council, 29 villages in the town are now held by Turkish forces, and 22 have been turned into artillery targets, due to their location on the contact lines.
The countryside of Tel Tamr, or what is known as the Khabur Basin, previously included more than 12.000 people, distributed over 32 villages, but current estimates indicate that the number has decreased to about a thousand people only.
The area is almost empty of its Christian inhabitants, due to the repeated bombing, either by ISIS previously, or the Turkish forces now, said Nabil Warda, member of the General Command of the Assyrian Khabour Guards in a previous statement to North Press.
The Khabour Guards is a military formation operates within the ranks of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and is tasked with protecting the Assyrian villages in the countryside of Tel Tamr.
On May 29, the Turkish forces shelled Mar Sawa Church in the village of Tel Tawil, west of Tel Tamr, causing material damage.