Large painting in Qamishli depicts suffering of Afrin people
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – The Social Affairs and Labor Board, affiliated with the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), presented on Sunday a large 58-meter-long painting in the city of Qamishli, northeast Syria.
The painting, which is entitled “The Story of the Land of Olives” and is displayed at the 12 March Stadium, portrays the suffering of Afrin people following the Turkish invasion of Afrin region in 2018.
In March 2018, Turkish forces and their affiliated opposition factions of the Syrian National Army (SNA) invaded Afrin, following a military operation dubbed “Olive Branch”, to push the People’s Protection Units (YPG) out of the region under the pretext of threatening Turkey’s national security. The incursion, which ended after a 58-day resistance, displaced 300,000 people of the Kurdish majority inhabitants of Afrin.
The painting depicted the history of the city of Afrin and the suffering of its inhabitants during the years of war, as well as their displacement.
Rustam Youssef, an official at the AANES Social Affairs and Labor Board of Afrin, said that they presented to the relevant authorities the idea of creating a painting which embodies the stages that the city of Afrin went through and the difficulties it faced during the period before and after its occupation.
Youssef explained that the artwork that was displayed was 58 meters long and 170 centimeters high.
“The artwork represents 58 days of resistance by the people of Afrin against the occupation,” he said. The painting was divided into four sections, which depicts the city of Afrin, and its archaeological sites and nature, in addition to the occupation and the suffering that followed.