ALEPPO, Syria (North Press) – Rengin Khalil, a mother of four children with special needs, is worried about the fate of her children if they are forced to flee again due to Turkish threats.
The mother, who lives with her family in Sardam Camp, south of the village of Tel Susin in the northern countryside of Aleppo, prefers to live in a tent than being displaced again to an unknown place, especially since all her children were born with special needs.
Today, the mother fears another displacement if Turkey along with Turkish-backed armed opposition factions, known as Syrian National Army (SNA), launch a new military operation against north Syria.
Displaced families that have children with special needs feel unrest, since lives of those children are at risk due to their disability which can make fleeing from one place to another a very difficult journey.
Khalil was displaced from her village of Barad in Sherawa district in Afrin countryside, after the SNA factions, backed by Turkey, seized Afrin in March 2018 following “Olive Branch” military operation.
The IDPs’ fears are increasing as Turkey continues threatening the area.
In June 27, in a speech after charring a government meeting, at the Presidential Complex in Ankara; Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stressed that the new military operation in northern Syria would start any time.
“We will start a new operation in Syria as soon as the armed forces complete their readiness and preparations,” Erdogan added.
On June 1, 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 IDPs.
Since releasing these threats, the Turkish forces and the SNA factions have intensified their shelling of the villages and towns of the northern countryside of Aleppo, where the IDPs of Afrin are scattered.
The Turkish military operation on Afrin led to the displacement of approximately 300.000 of the original inhabitants, where part of them settled in the camps of al-Awda, Afrin, Barkhodan, Sardam, and Shahba in the northern countryside of Aleppo.
Another part was distributed among 42 villages and towns in Shahba region (Aleppo northern countryside); some resorted to cities in northeastern Syria, while others immigrated abroad.
Ambiguous fate
Khalil has not forgotten the hard moments she passed through during the first displacement four years ago, when she and her family were forced to flee on foot through a very long route across al-Ahlam Mountain holding one of her children while her husband was holding the others. She fears that this experience repeats again.
Khalil, who is a mother of three children with Brain atrophy, was stunned when her fourth child, who was three years old, passed away a month ago.
The woman, who is in her eighth month of pregnancy, fears that Turkey launches the military operation against villages in Aleppo northern countryside.
“We do not want more wars,” she said while crying.
“We get very afraid when we hear sounds of shelling, we pray to God not to be bombed, so that we will not be forced to flee with our children,” she further explained.
“Children of other people can walk and run without any help but my children are disabled they cannot walk or move without help,” she said.
“If Turkey starts a war on us, how will I escape with these children and what will be their fate, we only want safety and peace, we want to return to our home in Afrin,” the mother cried out.
Humanitarian catastrophe
According to statistics by Social Affairs and Labor Board of Afrin, which is currently operating in Aleppo northern countryside, the number of IDPs with special needs is 901.
About 156 of the disabled IDPs are living in the camps of al-Awda, Afrin, Barkhodan, Sardam, and Shahba, while the other cases are distributed in the villages of Sherawa and the towns and the northern countryside of Aleppo, according to the statistics.
Displacement has doubled hardship and difficulties of daily life for those with special needs due to the bad living conditions of their families.
Fidan Ali, an IDP from the village of Qurna in Bulbul district in Afrin countryside, is a mother of a child with special needs. She also wonders about the unknown fate that awaits her if Turkey invades Syria’s north.
Ali, who lives with her family in Sardam Camp, fears that she will not be able to complete treatment of her child, who suffers from cerebral atrophy, hypoxia, frequent convulsions and poor eyesight, if any Turkish aggression occurs.
Ali has to go to Aleppo twice a month to treat her three-year-old child.
“If we are forced to flee again, I will not be able to treat my child and took him to his doctor,” she said.
“We want to go back to our homes; we can bear living under these tents but not to be displaced again,” she stressed.
She further explained saying that the camp includes children, elderly persons, and sick people.
Like the rest of the IDPs, the mother calls on States concerned with the Syrian issue to assume their responsibilities to prevent any Turkish step that may cause a humanitarian catastrophe.