Assyrians recall ISIS victims in Syria’s Tel Tamr
Tel Tamr, Syria (North Press) – On Monday, the Assyrians in Tel Tamer, north of Hasakah, northeast Syria, recalled the victims of the Islamic State (ISIS) attack on their villages in 2015, by visiting their tombs and lighting candles amid tears.
On February 23, 2015, ISIS attacked villages in the countryside of Tel Tamer, which are inhabited by Assyrians.
The attack resulted in the kidnapping of 231 Assyrians from the region, who were later released by paying a ransom, while ISIS destroyed 11 churches in Christian villages.
64 fighters from the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Women’s Protection Units (YPJ), the Assyrian Khabour Guard and the Syriac Military Council were killed while they repelled the attack.
The residents of Tel Tamer, located on the banks of the Khabour River, annually commemorate the victims of the attack.
Dozens of Assyrians and members of civil and military institutions participated in the commemoration, which was held at the cemetery of the village of Tel Shannan, east of the town.
Jamila Kako, an administrator in the Assyrian Martyrs’ Families Council, said that 11 people from the Assyrian community lost their lives in that attack.
Kako mentioned that they commemorate the victims of the attack every year, after thousands from the Assyrian Christian community were displaced due to the attack.
Kako, who was among the kidnapped during the attack, expressed her fear of repeating the same scenario through the consecutive targeting of the Turkish forces and the opposition groups on the Assyrian villages in the countryside of Tel Tamr.
At the cemetery, Assyrian officials and clerics delivered speeches, expressing their sadness that the best of the young people lost their lives while defending their land, and affirmed that the cohesion of the peoples of the region could defeat and eliminate ISIS attack later.