Turkish attacks inflict heavy losses on olive farmers in Manbij

The Turkish occupation state continues its attacks on NE Syria, targeting service facilities and energy, in addition to agricultural crops such as wheat and barley at harvest time.

Today, it is targeting olive fields in Manbij Canton with the start of the harvest season as one of the means of war against the peoples of the region.

The people of Manbij Canton rely primarily on rain-fed agriculture and the cultivation of trees such as pistachios, grapes and olives, as the number of olive trees in the countryside of Manbij amounts to seven hundred and twenty-three thousand and nine trees, according to the Agriculture and Irrigation Body in Manbij Canton.

According to the people of Manbij Canton, the number of olive trees that are within the range of the artillery of the occupying Turkish state is estimated at 250 thousand trees in the villages and towns of the western countryside of Manbij Canton.

They are distributed as follows: the villages of Ilan (50,000 trees), Jablat al-Hamra (13,000 trees), al-Hawtah village (5,000 trees), al-Kawkli (75,000 trees), al-Sayyada (12,000 trees), al-Dandaniyah (24,300 trees), al-Buwayhj (60,000 trees), al-Boughaz (10,000 trees), and al-Dhi’b Kabir (Qart Wiran) (10,000 trees).

Olive farmers in the mentioned villages estimate their losses this year at 1,755,000 US dollars, considering that their 259,300 trees produce approximately 27,000 cans of oil, and the price of a can according to the local market is approximately 65 US dollars.

"We are now in the olive harvest season and we are suffering from the bombing of the Turkish occupation state, which prevents us from harvesting the fruits of our trees," Tamer Al-Tamer, a farmer from the village of Al-Dandaniya told ANHA agency.

Al-Tamer condemned the ongoing targeting of the people and their source of livelihood, pointing out that their inability to harvest their trees during the season causes a major economic crisis for the people, as they depend primarily on agriculture.

Al-Karim Al-Hushu, an olive farmer in the village of Ilan (Al-Yalni), said: "Our village is constantly exposed to attacks by the Turkish occupation state."

Al-Hushu believes that these attacks carried out by the Turkish occupation state and mercenaries are a type of war that Turkey continues in order to displace them from their land and replace them with mercenaries.

For his part, citizen Ahmed Al-Muhammad said: " Last year I picked the pistachio crop under the bombing and shells, while I was unable to pick the olives due to the intensity of the targeting."

Citizen Mohammed al-Hassan from the village of al-Sayyada said : "We face difficulties because we are unable to harvest our crops."

Al-Hassan explained that this year, the Turkish occupation army burned more than 100 olive trees during the wheat harvest season.

Al-Hassan confirmed at the end of his speech: "Our attachment to our land is greater than anything and we will not leave our rights and our land to the occupier and the mercenaries. "

a.k

ANHA