Hashia basks in the sun in the abandoned school where she has lived with her husband for three years, in the town of Tal Tamr, northeast Syria.
She has blue eyes, tribal tattoos on her chin, and wrinkles that don't forgive an age she no longer remembers.
“About 85 ″, says this old woman, who has slept on cement for months until getting a carpet a few days ago.
The woman fled in 2019 from Al Soda, a small village located in the town of Ras al Ayn, very close to the Turkish border, when, during the third incursion by Ankara troops, a bombardment reduced her house to rubble.
Since then, Hashia and about 150 people from Ras al Ayn have been living in the abandoned Tal Tamr school.
In total, thousands of Syrians out of the nearly three million living in the northeast of the country have had to flee their homes due to Turkish attacks.
After the attack in Istanbul on November 13, Turkey, with the aim of defending its border, has intensified its drone attacks against military targets and bombardments on various fronts, such as Tal Tamr, endangering the lives of thousands of people.
Ankara blamed the attack on the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-Arab organization that controls the region and which it accuses of having ties to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK, in Turkish), considered a terrorist group by Turkey. , the European Union and the United States.
The SDF immediately denied involvement in the attack.
It is estimated that since the last major Turkish operation, in 2019, between 40,000 and 60,000 people are still living in displacement camps or makeshift settlements.
If Turkey decides to launch an incursion, it would be its fourth since 2016. In August of that year, Ankara began its Operation Euphrates Shield to drive Islamic State jihadists out of northern Aleppo and prevent Kurdish forces from advancing into that territory as well. .
It lasted until March 2017 and displaced close to 40,000 people, mostly from the city of Al Bab, now under their control.
In the following operation in 2018, dubbed Olive Branch, Turkey occupied the city of Afrin and forced the displacement of 150,000 Kurds, according to the UN.
The towns of Ras al Ain and Tal Abyad suffered the last major operation in October 2019, called Spring of Peace, which forced 200,000 people to leave their homes.
It is estimated that since then between 40,000 and 60,000 of them are still living in displacement camps or makeshift settlements.
All Turkish interventions have been full of human rights abuses, according to Amnesty International and Human Rights World complaints.
Residents in Tal Tamr, and especially displaced families in the area, are panicking at the prospect of being targeted next.
Wide view of the courtyard of the abandoned Tal Tamr school, where 25 families displaced from nearby Ras Al Ayn live, since 2019, by Turkish bombing.
You can see the water tanks donated by organizations and the remains of bread that they keep due to the shortage.JIMota
living poorly without dignity
Qudna Fayad Al Nasr is 37 years old and lives in a classroom at the school with her husband, Mohamed Saleh, and their eight children.
They fled in October 2019 from the Ras al Ayn area.
“We are displaced people.
Just a few months ago, while we were sleeping, a missile hit the schoolyard.
Turkey always says that it attacks military structures.
Is this a military structure?
We are suffering and living poorly.
We hardly have enough to drink, to eat, or to dress ourselves… ”, she laments.
But, with her infant son in her arms, this displaced Syrian says they have decided to stay in Tal Tamr because they have nowhere to go.
We are displaced people.
Just a few months ago, while we were sleeping, a missile hit the schoolyard.
Turkey always says that it attacks military structures.
Is this a military structure?
Qudna Fayad Al Nasr, displaced Syrian
Saleh, with his eyes fixed on the ground, joins his wife's conversation.
He says that they came thinking that it would only be a short period of time, but they have been living like this for almost four years now.
“Before the latest Turkish invasion threats, everything was more or less calm.
But since the attacks intensified several weeks ago, we are living much worse ”, he details, recalling his past life in the town, before the Turkish incursion.
“We had land, plantations, chickens, goats, and my children went to school.
We lived in peace and with dignity in Ras al Ayn.
Now we don't know what will happen tomorrow, ”he assures.
Qudna Fayad with the youngest of her children in the room inside the abandoned school where she lives with her husband and their seven other children.JIMota
Sabr Mohamed, 23, his wife and two children also live, terrified, in this abandoned school.
“From here we can hear the fighting.
We are so close.
When the bombardments start, the children cry in fear, ”she laments.
Mohamed's hope is to go to one of the three displacement camps run by the Kurdish authorities for people from Ras al Ayn and Tel Abyad, to get away from the fighting and receive some help.
“There is more security there and food is distributed.
I recently bought two barrels of gasoline for the winter and I have already had to sell one to feed my family,” he explains.
a critical moment
The office of the Military Council of the Assyrian Al Jabour militia, in Tal Tamr, is reached by small passageways.
The place is full of paintings of martyrs.
The head of this faction is Nabil Uard, with a worried face and always aware of his
walkie-talkie .
.
Al Jabour has 150 SDF-affiliated fighters fighting on the Tal Tamr front.
“In 2019, with the international green light, Turkey invaded our territory starting with Ras al Ayn, Tal Abiad and a year before Afrin.
Now the plans are the same”, laments Uard, who assures that they are at a critical moment and that the camps for displaced persons are at maximum capacity.
“There is a constant fear of the possibility of an attack in the city.
People are more and more scared because they see the news.
They are collecting food because of what might happen.
They are preparing for war”, he affirms convinced.
One of the concerns of the authorities in this area of Syria, says Uard, is the recent rapprochement between Damascus and Ankara over the possibility that they come together to threaten them and leave them out of any agreement.
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, faces the elections next June with a popularity in crisis, due to the fall of the Turkish lira and the rejection of his management of the 3.6 million Syrian refugees that the country hosts.
Turkey has so far resettled at least 420,000 Syrians to territories under its control or under the control of pro-Ankara militias.
“Now they are ethnically cleansing the areas they have occupied before the eyes of the whole world.
That is why we have the legitimacy to protect ourselves and our land from Turkish attacks," says Uard.
Security zone in Tal Tamr just three kilometers from the front between Kurdish-Arab forces and Turkish-backed mercenaries.
The fighting can be heard in the city, especially at night.JIMota
Despite the fact that Turkey is resisting starting a ground operation in tense areas such as Kobane, Manbij or Tel Rifaat, the situation on the ground is increasingly worrying.
Shamas Baroot, 29, fights with the Al Jabour militia and arrived from the Tal Tamr front a few days ago.
“The situation there is complicated now.
There are many problems distributing food and water to the fighters because Turkish drones fly over the road 24 hours a day and access is dangerous.
There has been an increase in attacks.
This suggests that there may soon be an operation ”, he explains.
Ahmed Mohamed, 30, lives with his wife and three children in Al Selmas, a town near Tal Tamr, where deaths from the shelling have already begun.
“My children are very scared.
Many people fled from my town and now they are in a camp for displaced persons, but I don't want that for my family”, he assures.
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