KOBANI, Syria (North Press) – Officials of local organizations in Kobani say that most donors have reduced their support for the projects they are implementing and stopped their relief support due to the ongoing Turkish threats.
The city of Kobani includes seven local organizations, only two of which operate effectively, according to Khalil Muslim, an employee in the Office of Humanitarian Affairs in the Euphrates region.
There are also seven international organizations within the city, only two of which are operating effectively, while before the Turkish invasion of Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) and Tel Abyad in 2019 there were more than 20 organizations.
At that time, the Turkish military operation forced most humanitarian organizations to stop their work and activities in Kobani, and they headed to other cities such as Raqqa and Manbij.
Muslim further explained that when any international organization wants to support a local organization, it has assessments and follow-up of its work on the ground, but due to Turkish threats and bombing, it cannot implement those assessments.
The projects, which are currently implemented by local organizations, are small, and do not last more than two or three months, while no big projects are implemented in the region, according to Muslim.
According to officials of local organizations in Kobani, the donors are asking them to implement projects in areas that are at least 10 km far from the Turkish border, which deprives the residents of the border villages from these development projects.
Ishak Bozi, the executive director of the Kobani Relief and Development Organization, said that the current support and funding provided to them is very limited.
The projects of the Kobani organization before the Turkish occupation of Sere Kaniye and Tel Abyad, were over a long period, as projects and grants lasted from ten months to a full year, Bozi added.
The Kobani Relief and Development Organization is concerned with implementing development projects and providing relief assistance.
Bozi pointed out that IDPs in the region ask them for aid on a daily basis, but the local organizations in the region do not receive relief support to provide it to the IDPs.
The Euphrates region includes about 3.000 displaced families from Sere Kaniye, Tel Abyad and Afrin, according to statistics from the Office of Humanitarian Affairs in the region.
The Euphrates region is an administrative division by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) that includes the cities of Kobani, Sirrin, Ain Issa and Raqqa, in addition to their countryside.
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 SDF defeated ISIS militarily there.
Most of the donors we contact for support tell us that the region is unstable, the region is threatened with invasion, projects cannot be implemented because of the invasion, Bozi stressed.
The executive director of the Kobani Relief and Development Organization calls on donors, organizations and supporting bodies to provide support and aid to Kobani and its countryside as well as the villages on the border strip.
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.
“The time has come to clear these lands from the terrorist organizations,” Erdogan threatened during Tehran Summit.
Tehran Summit, on July 19, brought together presidents of each of Iran, Russia and Turkey with the Syrian issue and Turkish threats on the top of its agenda.