MANBIJ, Syria (North Press) – In a village located on contact lines between the Manbij Military Council (MMC), affiliated with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), and Turkish forces, Faysal fears the prospect of Turkish shells hitting his land and obliterating his wheat crops for this season after spending large sums of money planting it.
Faysal al-Issa, 42, from the village of al-Jat in northern Manbij in north Syria, told North Press that Turkish forces and Turkish-backed opposition factions, also known as the Syrian National Army (SNA), deliberately target their villages every year when it is harvest time, causing them great losses.
Villages on contact lines are under constant shelling. Random shells that hit farmlands planted with wheat set fire to the crops and thus causing immense losses.
The farmer, who planted four hectares of land with wheat, is perturbed with fears over the possibility of losing the crops due to fires caused by shelling of Turkish forces and their affiliated SNA, which target his land each season.
The border regions and villages on contact lines are subjected to such attacks which, sometimes, set fire to the crops.
Fires cause catastrophic losses for the population, especially since the majority depend on agriculture as their main source of income and invest so much in it.
While farmers who own lands far from frontlines are mostly spared from the shelling, they are not spared from the high costs of planting wheat. The recent low prices of one kilogram of wheat has been their sole concern.
Few kilometers away on the contact line, Adham shares the same fear as his peers. It is his and his family’s main source of income on which he built many hopes and dreams.
Adham al-Abadi, 38, from the village of al-Awshariya in northern Manbij, said he fears the Turkish shelling. Every year he feels reluctant to plant his land, “but the difficult economic conditions force me to take risks to provide for my five-member family.”
“We have big hopes and ambitions this season. It was a good year with much rain that revived the crops. But we need someone to protect our lands and crops from shells and to stop Turkish forces from committing violations against the people of the region,” he added.
Ghanem, from the village of al-Kawikli in northwest Manbij, fears for his crops which he has no idea how to protect from the repeated shelling.
Ghanem al-Ali, 45, said that each season the people of the village “go through hard times from the beginning of planting till the harvest time. We fear for our livelihood due to being close to the contact lines that separate between the MMC forces on one hand and the Turkish forces and Turkish-backed SNA on the other.”
He told North Press that they harvest their crops by hiring daily workers since owners of combine harvesters refuse to go to these dangerous villages for they might be targeted by Turkish snipers.
This exacerbates the suffering of locals during the harvest and increases their expenses. Farmers are thinking about halting cultivation altogether. “We will just have to quit farming until things are better,” Ghanem said.