ALEPPO, Syria (North Press) – With the sounds of Turkish shells intensifying on the town of Tel Rifaat and other villages in Aleppo northern countryside, Hajer Arabo, 47, is afraid of a new displacement and does not know where she would end up.
On May 23, Erdogan announced taking steps to complete the so-called remained portions of the “safe zone” plan along Turkey’s southern border saying, “We will soon take new steps regarding the incomplete portions of the project we started on the 30 km deep safe zone we established along our southern border.”
The Turkish “safe zone” is an area of 30-35 km (19-22 miles) deep into Syrian territory that Turkey started establishing in 2019 to house Syrian refugees in an area along its border with Syria, as well as to keep it free from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which it regards as terrorists.
On May 25, Turkey’s National Security Council said that Turkey’s “existing and future military operations along its southern borders were necessary for the country’s security.” In the meeting, Erdogan delivered a speech to the MPs of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and said, “Turkish military would continue to rid its neighbour of terrorists” refers to the SDF.
On June 1, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan renewed his threats of launching a military operation on northern Syria, and specified his targets in the two Syrian cities of Manbij and Tel Rifaat, which include many Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
Arabo wondered where she would go in case Turkey launched its operation.
“Where are we going to go? We do not have any shelter. They took Afrin, the people’s livelihoods and properties. What else do they want?” the IDP, who was displaced from Sharran district in Afrin countryside, said.
A state of concern is prevailing among Afrin IDPs in Tel Rifaat town in Aleppo northern countryside after the latest Turkish threats.
In a house where some rooms lack windows and doors in the center of Tel Rifaat, the widowed woman lives with her five children after she was displaced from her home due to the Turkish military operation “Olive Branch” on Afrin in 2018.
Arabo added that her father suffered from disc problems and had a heart attack, her mother suffered a stroke, which left her partially paralyzed, and her grandson suffered from a birth defect.
“I swear we have hated our lives. We ask our lord to have mercy on us. We forbid the children from playing on the street in fear of the shelling,” she noted.
The only shelter
There are about 16.000 displaced families from Afrin distributed over 42 villages and towns in Aleppo northern countryside, in addition to 1.870 families, comprising 7.500 individuals, now living in the camps of Barkhodan, Sardam, Afrin, al-Awda, and Shahba, according to the Social Affairs and Labor Board of the Afrin region, currently operating in Aleppo northern countryside (also known as Shahba region).
Tel Rifaat houses 3.692 displaced families from Afrin, comprising about 14.783 individuals.
In addition, it also houses 630 families of the Tel Rifaat original inhabitants, comprising about 3.000 individuals, according to the Afrin and Shahba council in the town.
On May 7, a Turkish suicide drone targeted a house near a children’s playground in Tel Rifaat, causing damage to the house in which an IDP from Afrin lives.
Since the beginning of May, the Turkish forces have intensified their shelling on the Aleppo northern countryside villages, targeting them almost daily.
The fears of Muhammad Rashid, 55, an IDP from the village of Bulbul in Afrin countryside, are not different from those of the other IDPs from Afrin who resides in the areas that Turkey said it would attack.
“Turkey brings back the same feelings and memories each time it threatens of a new military operation. Tel Rifaat is the only shelter left for us,” the man, who resides in Tel Rifaat, said.
“Syrians are for sale”
Rashid said that Turkey, by establishing a “safe zone” with a depth of 30 kilometers, is aiming at “creating a black belt of mercenaries” to replace them with the original inhabitants and change the region’s demography.
In 2013, Rashid and his family were displaced from Aleppo when the Free Syrian Army (FSA) takeover of the city and headed towards Afrin, to leave it later to Tel Rifaat during the Turkish attacks on Afrin.
“We got deprived of our home in Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood in the city of Aleppo after it was totally obliterated due to the war,” said the man’s wife, Fatima Abdo, 54, after her husband could not express his thoughts anymore.
In February 2018, a Turkish fighter jet destroyed Rashid’s home in Afrin, turning it into rubble within seconds, according to the wife.
What worsens their suffering is that one of their sons, Luqman, 16, suffers from convulsions and is in dire need of medication.
Rashid, who had two heart attacks following his displacement, hopes that the big powers would not allow Turkey to carry out its operation.
Muhammad Mamo, 44, does not rule out a Turkish military incursion, as “it is all deals and Syrians are just items that could be sold and bought.”
Mamo also called on Russia, humanitarian organizations and Syrian government to prevent Turkey from “occupying other parts of Syria.”
He stressed the need for “the Syrian government to stand with its people this time and not remain silent as it did during the occupation of Afrin, Sere kaniye and Tel Abyad.”