Civilians displaced in Turkey's Syria offensive fear for future
Tens of thousands flee - The United Nations has said that 100,000 civilians have been displaced since Wednesday. Most were forced to flee from the border towns of Ras al-Ain and Tal Abyad, which have borne the brunt of Turkey's aerial and ground offensive, as well as from a sting of rural villages between them. Some 70,000 of those who have fled their homes so far escaped towards Hasakah and its eastern districts.
'Verge of disaster' - Some of those who have fled to Hasakah fear that the town, which was already home to 140,000 internally displaced people (IDP), might not be able to accommodate the latest influx of civilians.
Seeking refuge in Tal Tamr - More than 11,000 have arrived in the town of Tal Tamr, according to the latest figures collected by humanitarian actors in the area.
Tens of thousands have fled border region as Turkey's military pushes
into Kurdish-held areas in northeastern Syria, by Farah Najjar, 10/12/19.
Akcakale, Turkey-Syria border - As fighting raged in Ras al-Ain on
Saturday, with Turkey's military claiming to be
in control of the key Syrian border town, civilians
continued to flee the violence.
Ahmed Naso, who fled his
home in Ras al-Ain when Turkey launched its offensive on Wednesday, said
airstrikes that day "came out of nowhere" and that people
"immediately" began evacuating from nearby towns and villages.
"We don't want war, we
just want to live in peace," he told Al Jazeera. "We've seen war
before and we were forced to flee bombardment before."
Along with his wife and
three children, the 56-year-old said he is staying with relatives in Hasakah's
Salhiyeh neighborhood, some 40km from Ras al-Ain, and is unsure if they will
return to their home.
Ankara says its offensive is
aimed at removing Kurdish-led fighters from areas
close to its border. It also says that it wants to establish a so-called
"safe zone" on the Syrian side of the border where some of the
millions of refugees residing in Turkey can be resettled.
The Turkish-led operation
against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a coalition of rebels led by the
Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), was launched soon after the US
announced it was withdrawing its troops from the northeastern region.
The SDF, which spearheaded
the US-led campaign against ISIL, described Washington's
withdrawal announcement as a "stab in the back" but promised to
"defend our land at all costs".
Ankara considers the YPG as
an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The European Union and the United States, which both consider the
PKK a "terrorist" organization, have urged Turkey to exercise
restraint, but Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed not to back down
from the ongoing operation.
"Erdogan has been
talking about this region for years, we didn't expect him to act so
suddenly," Suwar al-Issa, who fled with his wife and son from Ras al-Ain,
said.
"Thousands of families
left and the area is on the verge of a humanitarian disaster," the
26-year-old told Al Jazeera by phone from al-Aziziya district in Hasakah. "If
this situation continues, thousands more will trickle in, but Hasakah can only
take so much," he said.
There are nearly five
million people in the northeast region, including hundreds of thousands of
internally displaced Syrians who fled government-led offensives in other
parts of the war-torn country, according to local officials.
The population consists of
Arabs, Kurds, Turkmens, as well as Syriac Christians - many of whom have been
quick to offer a helping hand to those fleeing the border areas.
Mamosta Fawaz, a teacher in
Tal Tamr, east of Hasakah, told Al Jazeera that civilians made their way to the
village that lies nearly 40 kilometres from Ras al-Ain "from the first day
of the operation".
He said neighborhoods
quickly became overcrowded with some 200 families who were unsure if they
should stay, or continue their journey southwards.
"I broke the locks on
the door of one of the local schools where I teach, and began letting families
in," Fawaz told Al Jazeera.
"Soon after, people in
the village's neighborhood began opening their doors to the families who fled
bombardment," he said.
At least two schools in the
area have been filled since Wednesday, as well as tens of homes. However, it is
still not enough, Fawaz noted "They're anxious, they fear that the
shelling will follow them to these areas as well," he said, adding that
there were not enough food supplies to cover everyone in the area. It has been
especially difficult to accommodate their needs since the fighting impacted a
water station servicing Hasakah, putting it out of
service.
International NGOs and other
aid organizations have meanwhile had limited access to the majority of the
affected IDP areas, according to activists in the town of Qamishli.
One NGO on the ground has
said people are continuing to arrive in Hasakah, especially its outskirts.
"The situation here is
quite tense ... There are a lot of people coming in," Verena Lauble from Cadus,
an independent aid organization, told Al Jazeera.
"The local communities
are helping prepare the schools - they are preparing blankets and non-food
items," Lauble said.
"They're also trying to
set up kitchens, deliver water and food, to support the incoming people,"
she said, adding that hospitals were also preparing for casualties.
Norb
Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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