​​​​​​​Repercussions of devastating earthquake on the Kurds by Ankara- Damascus

The Kurds were affected more than others in the earthquake that hit Bakur Kurdistan and Turkey, and affected large areas of Syria, as they suffer from a clear policy of racial discrimination, and they were left alone, and they did not have a relief or answer to save them from the horror of the disaster and remove the rubble from them.

In the occupied and afflicted district of Janders, the most affected area by the earthquake, the Kurds live at the mercy of the occupation. No aid has reached them, nor have the rubble been lifted from them, and no one cares about their plight.

530 Kurds from Afrin lost their lives under the rubble

In occupied Afrin, about 1,100 indigenous people lost their lives, including 530 Kurds, of whom 400 to 450 are residents of Janders alone. While the fate of hundreds of others under the rubble has not yet been known, and the delay of the machineries and their systematic inaction raised the number of victims and the rescue of the Kurds, according to the Human Rights Organization in Afrin.

serious events

A racist policy is pursued against the Kurds in the occupied Afrin canton, and strange and dangerous events occurred in it after the earthquake, as no machineries were provided to remove the rubble, and the neighborhoods were distributed among the mercenary groups, and the rubble was sold to them and they removed it to steal gold and money, and the mercenaries built tents on the road between Janders and Afrin, they settled settlers from other Syrian cities.

Qatari aid is a curse

Over the first 10 days of the earthquake, no assistance was provided, and the assistance provided by the country teams was in the name of humanity; It contributed to changing the demography of the region, by placing caravans (prefabricated mobile homes) in the neighborhoods of Afrin, which were used earlier in the 2022 World Cup, and thus this aid has become a curse for the population.

Mercenary leaders oversee aid in Janders

The two mercenaries, Abu Amsha and Seif Abu Bakr, personally supervise the aid that is distributed in Janders, and these two mercenaries have a long record of shedding the blood of the Kurds and displacing them.

The Kurds did not receive 5% of the aid

A special source confirmed to ANHA’s agency from inside the occupied city of Afrin, "The aid was distributed to strangers who came to Janders from Idlib and other regions to obtain aid, while the indigenous people did not receive any assistance."

According to the Human Rights Organization in Afrin, the Kurds did not receive 5% of the aid, who buy tents from the settlers who obtained them.

They built tents on top of the ruins of their destroyed homes

A few days ago, the so-called "local council" registered the names of the residents to deport them to other camps, and expelled those who built tents on top of the ruins of their destroyed homes, in a message expressing the extent of their adherence to their land.

Why Janders?

According to the statistics of the Human Rights Organization in Afrin, the population of Janders before the occupation exceeded 35,000 people, most of whom were Kurds, and it decreased to less than 15,000 after its occupation by Turkey in 2018. The occupation and mercenaries want to seize Janders; Being an agricultural area besides olive trees, it is also located 8 km from the Hammam border crossing.

Damascus Government obstructs the delivery of aid

On the other hand, the Damascus government has obstructed the sending of any kind of aid to areas not under its control. The people of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods who were affected; As a result of the earthquake, they were unable to stay, and they went to stay under tents in al-Shahba, as a result of the cold weather.

Between (1200/1500) families have been displaced

According to the Human Rights Organization in Afrin, between (1,200/1,500) families were displaced under catastrophic conditions from Aleppo to al-Shahba, and the Damascus government's checkpoints provoked them and took money from them.

The buildings were not built according to the urban structural system

It is known that the composition of the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods is popular, as the buildings are cracked due to the war that raged in the country and has been going on for 12 years. The water networks are irregular, and the water that seeps into the basements of the buildings makes the soil; Easy to slide.

These neighborhoods are neglected

The buildings were built in the areas inhabited by the bourgeois class according to the construction system, while the areas (Sheikh Maqsoud, Ashrafieh, Kalasa, al-Shaar, al-Masharqa, al-Firdaws, Salah Al-Din) inhabited by the working class were neglected and marginalized.

Unlike the rest of the Syrian regions, the Damascus government excluded the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods from aid, and did not send any committee to inspect the cracked buildings that are at risk of collapse, which reveals the racism of dealing with the Kurds and the components of the region.

Efforts of the People's Municipality and Autonomous Administration

The People's Municipality intervened in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood immediately, and inspected the buildings, so that 12 buildings needed to be removed, 400 damaged and cracked buildings in need of restoration, and 12 buildings that could not be inhabited and repaired, according to the engineering standard specifications.

In order not to displace the people of the Ashrafieh and Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhoods affected by the earthquake, the General Council set up 6 tents, in addition to supervising 6 temporary shelters.

While the Autonomous Administration provided aid, consisting of 10 fuel tanks, and the Kurdish Red Crescent provided 6 tents, 3 large and 3 small, as well as a quantity of blankets.

The neighborhood is besieged... They want to destroy its social system

The resistance developed by the people of Sheikh Maqsoud according to the Autonomous Administration system and their implementation of the People's Revolutionary War prevented the neighborhood from falling into the hands of the Turkish occupation mercenaries, after fierce resistance.

The Damascus government is afraid of the administrative system that was established in the two neighborhoods, so it besieges them and prevents the entry of relief, food and medical materials to them, through the checkpoints surrounding the neighborhood that are supervised by the "Fourth Division", and by applying the siege, it wants the residents of the two neighborhoods to surrender, and to extend its control over them as it was before 2011, and the destruction of the advanced project in them.

Discrimination and racism haunt the Kurds in Northern Kurdistan as well

Several kilometers away, on the other side of the borders set by the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1923 that divided Kurdistan, the situation of the Kurds is not much different, as the state's racism pursues them there as well.

The Turkish occupation state is in great trouble after the earthquake. For not taking measures that would save the lives of millions of residents, and for neglecting the conditions for building earthquake-resistant buildings for years.

The Turkish authorities are taking advantage of the disaster to displace the Alawite Kurds

After the devastating earthquake that struck Bakur Kurdistan and Turkey with a magnitude of 7.8, the Kurds in Hatay, Maraş, Diluk and Amed were affected. The Turkish authorities did not send machineries to remove the rubble from them, and the failure of its organizations to deliver relief aid to them appeared, following a racist policy towards the Kurds.

The Alawite Kurds suffer more than others in Maraş, from the lack of aid received by them. The convoys do not reach the needy due to the obstacles put in place by the authorities, taking advantage of this disaster. To displace them from their cities, where even a tent was not distributed to them to protect them from the cold of winter.

Turkish attempts to transfer the Kurds to Turkish cities

The earthquake came as an opportunity for the occupied Turkish state. To make a demographic change, there are attempts to empty the cities of the Kurds and great fear in this regard, and transfer them to the large Turkish cities, and this is what is happening against the Alawite Kurds to impose the Sunni faith on them and eliminate their culture.

In the face of these measures, social institutions and organizations rallied, and to close the path to immigration, the Peoples' Democratic Party set up tents for residents to stay near their homes. In order to thwart projects to change the population structure, and to provide the people's aid that is collected on them.

An old displacement policy that continues in different forms and methods

The policy of displacement and ethnic cleansing, which began in 1925, with the introduction of the “East Reform” law, continues to this day in various forms and methods, as it eliminated Sheikh Saeed’s revolution, displaced a large part of the Kurds to large Turkish cities, and eliminated the Gili Zilan uprising, then the Afghans were settled rather than the Kurds.

Turkey occupied Afrin, Girê Spî / Tal Abyad, and Serêkaniyê/ Ras al-Ain, and displaced the residents of these cities and settled strangers in their place, so that Erdogan would raise his head again and displace the Kurds through this disaster.

T/ Satt.

ANHA