IDPs of Serêkaniyê, Girê Spî: Resistance is best choice to recover our territories

 Five years have passed since the Turkish occupation and its Syrian mercenaries launched an attack on the city of Serêkaniyê in Jazera Canton and the city of Tal Abyad/Girê Spî in the Euphrates Canton on October 9, 2019.

 In this attack, more than 300,000 people were forcibly displaced from their homes, which were subjected to destruction, looting and plunder.

 The displaced headed to camps in the region established by the Autonomous Administration, while others were distributed in the cities of the North and East Syria region.

 Muhammad al-Mahidi hails from the village of Sheikh Shibli in the countryside of occupied Serêkaniyê, and now lives in the Serekaniye camp for displaced people located in the al-Taie neighborhood south of Hasaka, which houses 15,649 people distributed among 2,519 families displaced from occupied Serêkaniyê.

 Hope to return

 Al-Mahdi would never accept that the camp remains his place of residence, and he yearns to return to his city, so he clings to the hope of returning home.

 " We cannot accept that the camp becomes our place of residence, even though we are all children of one city. Memory always takes us back to our lands. We used to live in peace together" Al-Mahdi said.

The forty-year-old displaced woman Fatima Al-Muhammad with her children. Her tent was burned, due to the UN organizations deliberately neglect the camp, she was unable to obtain a new tent, so she built mud walls to be a shelter for her children.

"We have been suffering inside these tents for five years, and when I built this room, my memory took me back to my home," Fatima Al-Muhammad said.

She concluded her speech by saying: "As we left it, we will return to it safely."

 The Serêkaniyê camp is not the only one that houses the displaced people of this city, as about 16,026 people, distributed among 2,260 displaced families live in the "Washokani" camp near the village of Tuwaina west of the city of Hasaka.

 In this camp, the forty-year-old displaced person, Hussein Hassan indicates that he has been enduring the pain of displacement for 5 years.

Hassan, like other people from Serêkaniyê, wishes to return to his area and live in peace and confirms that the only wish for everyone living in the camp is to return home.

 The land is ours

 The Girê Spî camp in the countryside of Ain Issa city, which was established by the Autonomous Administration on November 22, 2019 houses more than 7,000 displaced people.

 Among these displaced people is Abdul Razzaq Al-Omar, who lives in his fifties and is the father of 9 children and currently lives in one of the tents.

 "My suffering is similar to the suffering of hundreds of thousands of people from the occupied areas whose lands were usurped by the Turkish occupation state." Al-Omar said.

  Al-Omar owned a house in the occupied town of Suluk, but after he was displaced, the Turkish occupier completely bulldozed his house under the pretext of building a military base near it.

 "Returning to our land is inevitable and necessary, even if it takes a long time" he added.

  He continues: "The Turkish occupier thinks that with its occupation policy of changing the names of schools and streets and housing the families of its mercenaries in our homes, it will change the features of our land, but it is wrong. The land is ours, and  we will return it by resistance of our children and fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces.

 As for the forty-year-old displaced woman, Adula Al-Khalil, from the occupied city of Girê Spî and the mother of 5 children, she also lives in the Girê Spî displaced persons camp, and confirms that the occupation of their city came as a result of international deals. She recalls the close relationship between the Turkish occupation and ISIS mercenaries during their occupation of the city of Girê Spî.

 Al-Khalil confirms that returning to her city is inevitable through resistance and standing with the Syrian Democratic Forces.

 "We have a major role in the resistance, as we mothers are pushing our children to the resistance in order to recover our land, and we will sacrifice everything we have to expel the Turkish occupier from our land."

  No choice but resistance

 Khalil Al-Ali, a 30-year-old displaced person, father of 4 children from the city of Girê Spî and a resident of the same camp, says: " Occupation of our land is a painful memory for everyone who lost their home and land, but at the same time it is a motivation for them to escalate their resistance in order to recover it."

 Al-Ali still keeps the key to his house that he left under the bombing of the Turkish occupier.

He concludes his speech by saying: "We will return to our land through resistance, struggle, solidarity and standing with the Syrian Democratic Forces."

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ANHA

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