One year since Girê Spi occupation.. drastic consequences and damage

A year after Turkey occupied the Girê Spi / Tal Abyad canton, we elaborate on the occupation’s catastrophic results and severe damage at all levels, while the co-chair of the canton called on the international community to pressure Turkey to secure the safe return of the displaced to their cities and villages.

9 October, 2020 03:54

Ain Issa

A full year has passed since the Turkish aggression on the regions of northern and eastern Syria on the 9^th of October of last year, after which the city of Serekaniye / Ras al-Ain, Girê Spi / Tal Abyad and their countryside were occupied.

During this year, the Turkish occupation and its mercenaries committed the most heinous types of crimes against civilians in the areas it occupied; killing, displacement and looting of property and other practices that are inconsistent with international laws and norms.

The Girê Spi Canton Council, which is based in Ain Issa district, documented the practices committed by the Turkish occupation and its mercenaries against civilians and their property at all levels.

′ Nearly 100,000 displaced people from Girê Spi and its countryside’

It has documented nearly 100,000 displaced people from the canton, its countryside, and the western and eastern countryside of Ain Issa, and was able to accommodate 3,531 of them in a camp established near the town of Tal Al-Samen, while the rest of the displaced are distributed in the city of Raqqa and Tabqa and their countryside.

As for the physical damage to the property of the people, the council documented burning of more than 63 thousand dunums of agricultural land during the harvest season, which were deliberately burned by mercenaries directly or by shells that rain down on the agricultural fields.

‘113 houses destroyed’

113 houses in the district and its countryside due to indiscriminate shelling or deliberate demolition, as the destruction of 25 houses by military bulldozers was documented in the village of Shirkrak alone, and 48 in the villages of the town of Al-Jarn, while the rest of the houses are distributed in the villages of Ain Isa and Suluk district.

‘43 civilians lost their lives, 31 others were injured’

The indiscriminate shelling by the Turkish occupier and its mercenaries resulted in dozens of deaths and injuries among civilians, as the number of those who lost their lives as a result of the military operations reached 43 civilians, while the injuries reached 31 according to their statistics, in addition to documenting a number of kidnappings and arrests that affected a number of young men in the canton include: "Yassin Muhammad, Muhammad Bashir Hamidi, Jumah Ibrahim, and three brothers, who are Fouad, Tariq, and Hadi Abdel-Karim Al-Sheikh."

The educational reality was greatly affected after the occupation, as the occupation and its mercenaries directly targeted schools, and stopped education in 288 schools in the areas it occupied, and the number of destroyed schools reached 11 schools, while 40 schools were turned into military points. The Autonomous Administration, including 20 schools, are closed, due to the frequent targeting of mercenaries to the villages in which these schools are located.

Due to the closure of these schools, more than 20 thousand students were deprived of education out of 38,750 students in Girê Spi, in addition to 5 thousand students in the areas located on the frontlines.

‘Archaeological sites destroyed and looted’

Among the practices aimed at by the Turkish occupation is to obliterate the identity of the peoples of the areas it occupies. It has bulldozed and looted several archaeological sites in the district, including “Dahliz hill in the area of Suluk, the archaeological Tel Sahlan in the village of Khirbet al-Raz, and two sites in the village of Hammam al-Turkman, which are the city of Al-Far and al-Sabay al-Abyad".

In order to starve the people of the region, the Turkish occupation plundered the crops stored in each of the silos of Dahliz and Sakhrat, which are estimated at 20 thousand tons, and also removed the silos hidden Al-Salem "Qaz Ali village" for final service, in which the strategic stock of wheat for dozens of villages is stored in that area.

All these crimes and violations against the people of the occupied territories are committed amid the international community and human rights organizations’ inaction, even if it is to denounce these practices.

In this regard, the co-chair of the Girê Spi district, Hamid al-Abd called on the international community to move and put pressure on Turkey, which is pursuing a systematic Turkification policy against citizens in the occupied territories in full view of the world, to secure the return of the displaced to their cities and villages it occupied.

J.O

ANHA