KOBANI, Syria (North Press) – It is a nerve-wracking time for residents who live in villages near the Syrian-Turkish border. News of possible Turkish military operation and shelling brings new rounds of worry.
The 52-year-old Ghazal Mahmoud, who lives with her disabled husband in the village of Khorkhoy on the Syrian-Turkish border, about 40 km west of Kobani, northern Syria, cannot sleep for fear of being buried under the rubble if Turkey shelled her village during the night hours.
Sleep is near impossible in the Syrian areas that have been under almost constant Turkish bombardment since November 20.
Since November 20, 2022, Turkish air force has launched intense airstrikes on all AANES-held areas on Syrian-Turkish border in addition to bombarding areas which are more than 40 km away from the border such as the Global Coalition military base and Hawl Camp in Hasakah and the village of Makman in the northern countryside of Deir ez-Zor.
The violent Turkish bombardment caused a state of panic among the residents of Kobani and its countryside, who may forcibly displace if any Turkish operation takes place.
“My children are suffering from insomnia, bed-wetting and nightmares due to what they have been experiencing of bomb blasts, smoke column, and the aircraft sounds,” Mahmoud said.
During the past week, Turkey used warplanes to bomb several areas on the Syrian border for the first time after its military operation against areas of Sere Kaniye and Tel Abyad 2019.
In October 2019, Turkish forces and their affiliated armed opposition factions, also known as Syrian National Army (SNA), launched a military operation named “Peace Spring” on the two cities of Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain), north of Hasakah, and Tel Abyad, north of Raqqa. As a result, about 300.000 original inhabitants have been displaced and the area has been under Turkey and its SNA control since then.
Several areas extending from northwest of Aleppo in the west up to Derik (al-Malikiyah) in the far northeast were targeted by Turkish artillery, fighter jets and drones. Kobani had the lion’s share in this Turkish bombardment.
Residents were able to rescue their children into a safer village in the south. They left everything behind. After ten days of ground and air military escalation, the Turkish forces continue to intermittently target villages on the border strip in Kobani and Zirgan (Abu Rasin), north of Hasakah and the northern countryside of Aleppo.
Residents of the targeted areas find it wearied that the joint Russian-Turkish patrols pass through their villages, amidst the ongoing Turkish artillery shelling.
Niyazi Osso, 41, from the village of Khorkhoy, said, “Despite the passage of the joint Russian-Turkish patrols through the village, and seeing with certainty that there are no military manifestations in the village, the shelling does not stop.”
Nearly 40 densely populated villages on the Syrian-Turkish border are exposed to shelling, in full view of the guarantor countries without making any action to stop the Turkish attacks.
“Over the past ten days, our children have faced difficulties in falling asleep. How long are we going to stay like this?” Osso wondered.
Osso pointed out that the children are suffering from psychological crises caused by the bombing with its horrors, the sounds of the shelling and airstrikes, “This is a psychological warfare.”
The Turkish border guards target the villagers including farmers, cattle herders, children, women and men with live bullets according to Osso.
“Turkey is practicing a psychological war against us and seeks to intimidate the population and sows panic among them,” said Abdo Beknadi, 57, from the village of Boban, 24 km west of Kobani.
“It is like the law of the jungle, the strong attacks the weak. The guarantor countries are here only to prolong the Syrian crisis,” Beknadi added.
Beknadi agreed with Osso that the children are the most affected by the Turkish aggression.
Muslim Ahmad, a resident of the village of Seftak, west of Kobani, stressed that the psychological pressure on the villagers is great, “people are suffering due to the ongoing Turkish bombing.”
“On a daily basis, our villages are bombed, Turkey is targeting our villages throughout the day, there is no time for sleeping we live under great stress.” Ahmad stressed.