{"id":59307,"date":"2021-05-12T19:57:29","date_gmt":"2021-05-12T19:57:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/npasyria.com\/en\/?p=59307"},"modified":"2021-05-12T19:57:30","modified_gmt":"2021-05-12T19:57:30","slug":"no-eid-al-fitr-joy-for-syrians-displaced-by-turkish-invasion-of-sere-kaniye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/npasyria.com\/en\/59307\/","title":{"rendered":"No Eid al-Fitr joy for Syrians displaced by Turkish invasion of Sere Kaniye"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

HASAKAH, Syria (North Press) \u2013 <\/strong>Sitting in their tents in the suffocating heat, internally displaced (IDP) women from Sere Kaniye remember the joys of Eid al-Fitr holiday, which marks the end of the Ramadan fast for Muslims. What used to mark two days filled with gifts, food, and fun is now just another day for these refugees, displaced by a Turkish invasion and occupation of their homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Meysa Harun sits outside her tent, her eyes filled with tears as she remembers the Eid al-Fitr of years gone by. \u201cOur Eid was so nice before; we used to visit our dead. We brought and read our Quran\u2026but now, we don\u2019t visit our dead. We go to the martyrs\u2019 cemetery.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harun\u2019s family has given 15 martyrs during the war in Syria, and in 2019 they, along with tens of thousands of others like them, were displaced when Turkey and their affiliated opposition groups invaded and occupied Sere Kaniye and Tel Abyad. Like many other families, they fled to the spartan Washokani Camp, which was built quickly for the waves of the displaced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was happy and joyous. They went to visit their dead, returned, and made food, and visited each other. Now one visits one another\u2026there is no Eid here,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harun and her young children have no breadwinner after the death of the father and the martyrdom of Meysa\u2019s son. She makes it clear that though they may consider themselves as such, she does not see the militant proxies who invaded her home as Muslims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow are they Muslims?\u201d she questions. \u201cThey say \u2018Allahu Akbar\u2019 and \u2018I am a Muslim\u2019 and are Muslims? Islam is not just \u2018Allahu Akbar,\u2019\u201d she explains. \u201cMuslims must respect each other, and not fight each other. But they fought people, killed people, and did bad things\u2026Islam is not with them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMay Erdogan never have peace,\u201d she says plainly. \u201cNot in this world or the next.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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35-year-old mother-of-five Iman Omar, a white headscarf wrapped around her face, talks of the suffering they experience at the camp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During a typical Eid al-Fitr, parents will spend the days prior browsing shops and markets for new clothing and candy to bring joy to their children and cook a special, often expensive, meal to mark the breaking of the fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Omar has bought no clothing nor sweets for any of her five children, and can hardly do anything in the camp\u2019s bleak conditions. She says she has no electricity or any way to keep cool as summer enters its peak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Autonomous Administration has helped us a lot. It provided us with tents and other things,\u201d she says, but adds, \u201cwe and our children are not happy anymore.\u201d Omar voiced her hope to return to her home in Sere Kaniye by the next feast of Eid al-Adha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Noura Khalil works as a facilitator in the camp, counseling and preparing games for the children there. \u201cWe have created this space to relieve children, yet they still feel sadness and pain,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the past two years, she says, Eid has been a sad affair, unlike those before it. Like every other person suffering in the camp, Khalil adamantly expresses her wish that one day everyone, including the children, will be able to return to their homes in Sere Kaniye and celebrate like they once did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reporting by Dilbreen Moosa<\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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