ALEPPO, Syria (North Press) – Hussien Ajami, 47, still remembers in heartbreak and agony the last hours in which he spent in packing his small bag, and how he took the last bus along with his wife and two little daughters fleeing his hometown, the town of al-Fu’ah in Idlib countryside,in mid-2018.
Ajami, who is staying in the city of Aleppo, sees that Turkey is the reason why he has become an IDP similar to thousands of his town’s residents, saying, “Turkey indirectly displaced us from our area and replaced us with its affiliated factions.”
The displaced people of the two Shia towns of Kafriya and al-Fu’ah in the northern countryside of Idlib, who are now staying in Aleppo, blame Turkey for their displacement from their homes and lands, especially since the two towns were subjected to a stifling siege during the Syrian war by opposition factions supported by Turkey, which ended with an agreement to evacuate all the residents.
Al-Fu’ah and Kafriya are two Shia towns in Idlib Governorate which were besieged by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS-formerly al-Nusra Front) from 2015 to 2018. The siege was broken after reaching a deal between Syrian government and the HTS stipulating the evacuation of the inhabitants of the two towns and settling them in the city of Aleppo.
Pre-war period, the population of the two towns was estimated at about 50.000, but the number gradually decreased with the start of the war and the faction’s taking control over Idlib. Some displaced to Aleppo and Damascus, while others preferred to stay in their houses.
These two towns have faced a stifling siege imposed by the opposition factions in 2017, alongside being under intense and heavy shelling.
The situation continued until an agreement was issued in 2018, under the auspices of Turkey, Iran, Qatar and Russia, for the so-called Four Towns Agreement. This agreement stipulated the evacuation of the opposition militants with their families from the towns of Zabadani and Madaya in Ghouta in Rif Dimashq Governorate in exchange for the evacuation of the residents of the towns of al-Fu’ah and Kafriya in Idlib.
Currently, there are about 2.500 displaced people from al-Fu’ah and Kafriya in al-Marjah neighborhood eastern Aleppo, and about 3.000 people in al-Hasya area in the southeastern countryside of Homs, while others are distributed in other Syrian regions and some of them had left the country.
Jawad Ghannam, 34, from Kafriya, has the same opinion likewise as he also believes that they were displaced from their homes based on Turkish-Iranian understandings and agreements.
Ghannam, who lives in Aleppo, pointed out that, like the rest of the displaced people from the two towns, they live in difficult conditions, especially in al-Marjah neighborhood and al-Hasya area in Homs countryside, where they “live below the poverty line.”
“The residents left their property and livelihoods and fled the hell of the siege, but after they fled they were left to their destiny and no one paid attention to them,” he added referring to their lack of support.
Years after the incident, Batoul Abbas, 33, still remembers the days she lived under shelling and the scenes she witnessed when the opposition targeted, on April 15, 2017, a convoy of buses carrying civilians evacuated from the two towns in the Rashidin area west of Aleppo. 100 casualties were recorded then according to media reports.
“They did not just displace or uproot us, but they pursued us while we were fleeing and bombed innocent people and turning them into pieces,” said Abbas who miraculously survived the bombing.
The woman, who lives in a dingy apartment in al-Marjah neighborhood, added that she was able to take only some clothes from her home in al-Fu’ah for her and her children, “and everything I owned has become loot for the armed people [opposition factions].”
“The elderly and young people recognize that what was happened was a Turkish plan of a demographic change in northern Syria so they can take full advantage of it,” she added.