ALEPPO, Syria (North Press) – 59-year-old Muhammad Azizi, resident of the village of Aqiba in Sherawa district south of Afrin, northern Syria, cannot plow his land, only 2 kilometers from areas occupied by Turkish forces and their affiliated Syrian opposition factions, or even pruning trees for fear of Turkish shells.
Residents of several villages in Sherawa south of Afrin, north of Aleppo Governorate, that are not run by the Turkish forces and their affiliated factions, also known as Syrian National Army (SNA), cannot live a normal life due to daily Turkish military escalation.
They live in constant fear and worry as Turkey continues threatening to launch a new military escalation against Syria’s north, especially their villages are situated on contact lines with villages run by Turkey and SNA factions.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has recently announced plans to carry out another major military cross-border incursion into northern Syria. Erdogan specified his targets in the two northern Syrian cities of Manbij and Tel Rifaat.
On July 1, Erdogan said that Ankara’s new military operation in northern Syria could begin at any moment.
“I always say that we can start [the incursion] at any moment at night. We should not worry and rush, especially since we are working in the area,” Erdogan told reporters after returning from the NATO summit in Madrid.
Aziz said, “We want to feel rested, we want peace, we want to live in safety.”
“I did not cultivate my land, I cannot cultivate or plow it,” he added.
The Turkish forces and the SNA factions took control over Afrin and its countryside in March 2018.
But several villages in Sherawa district including: Soghana, Aqiba, Ziyara, al-Kherba, Mayasah, Zarna’it, Burj al-Qas, Zouq al-Kabi, Ibbin, Kalouta were not taken under the control of Turkey and the SNA, then the Syrian government forces took control of them after Kurdish People’s Protection Unites withdrew from.
However, the government forces’ presence in these villages does not curb Turkey and its affiliated SNA factions from subjecting the villages to daily artillery shelling fired from their positions in Afrin.
Residents in these villages cannot work on their lands because the Turkish-held areas are so close. In the past three years, their crops were burnt due to the Turkish shelling.
“Residents are threatened to be displaced, as they do not known what to do,” he stressed.
About 500 families reside in the village of Aqiba, 80 of which are internally displaced families that fled Afrin in 2018 during Turkish operation Olive Branch.
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.
Tareq Bakkour, resident of the village of Ibbin, which is only 3 km from contact lines, said that his village is also subjected to daily shelling, resulting in material losses in the residents’ properties.
He added that residents of the village witness instable conditions and insecurity coinciding with fear of being displaced at any time.
“They do not know to where they resort because the attack may start at any time,” he stressed.
About 360 families reside in Ibbin, 107 of which are displaced families from other villages of Afrin.
The 63-year-old Azima Haydar, who rejects to leave her home in Ibbin, wondered, “What does Turkey want from us? They keep shelling us in the morning and at night.”
While sitting in front of her house, she went further saying, “We did not occupy its land, we did not attack it. We did nothing against it.”
She said with a sigh, “We stay the whole night awaken, fearing the shelling, we cannot sleep at night.”
Haydar, like other residents, has not been able to head to her land or even cultivate it for three years in the row due to the Turkish shelling.
“We cannot head to our lands for fear of shelling because shells fall on the village at any time,” she concluded.