The Turkish state continues to stockpile weapons and forces in Azaz, Rai, Exterîn and Marea to invade Efrîn and Shehba and they are trying to open up new areas for stockpiling. The Turkish state had already built extensions on their existing outposts in the area, and now they have declared some villages “military zones”.

KURDISH VILLAGES EVACUATED

The villagers have been given time to evacuate the villages in Azaz, Exterîn, Rai and Shehba. The Kurdish villages are ones with borders to Jaysh Al Suwar and YPG forces in Shehba. The villages forced to be evacuated in one day are: Ğuz, Tweys, Qubbesin, Eble, Tel Tana, Teletin, Şudud and Baruze.

The villagers are told that the villages have been declared military zones for the attacks on Shehba, and that they need to evacuate the area so more stockpiling can be done.

VILLAGER: “WORSE THAN ISIS”

A villager from Shudud who wishes to remain anonymous stated that the Turkish state is no different from ISIS and continued:

“Turkmen groups who are gangs allied with Turkey took over our village for some time. It was just the beginning of the revolution back then. Some groups were not fully under Turkey’s control. They were actual Turkmens, so they didn’t pressure us too much. Then Al Nusra and ISIS took over our village. They were oppressive towards us. They confiscated part of our property. But the Turkish state told us ‘You have no business here, you don’t belong here, go wherever you will.’ What the Turkish state and the army did to us, even ISIS didn’t do.”

VILLAGES EVACUATED BY TURKISH ARMY COMMANDERS

Turkey is trying to hide from the international community their plans of attack and invasion along with their allied groups, but the stockpiling they have done in the area proves what they are doing with their army forces. Meanwhile, though they try to show that the so-called FSA groups are doing the evacuations, the villagers say it is the Turkish army officials that command the evacuation of villages.

A villager from Tweys who wishes to remain anonymous said the following:

“The Turkish state is trying to make it look like it is the FSA everywhere and that they are doing these things. We know the groups called the FSA very well. We know who is in these groups. The groups Turkey tries to push as the FSA now have almost zero Syrians in them. And the actual Syrians who are there are individuals working for the Turkish intelligence MİT. I know all of them very well. They were intelligence agents for the Baath regime in the past, and now they work for the Turkish MİT. Those who demand we evacuate our villages, the people who actually speak with us on this issue, were the officers of the Turkish army. They didn’t speak any language other than Turkish.”

“ARE THE INTERNATIONAL POWERS ASLEEP?”

The villager from Tweys stressed that entering a country’s territory with your army and commanders demanding the evacuation of villages are scandalous and criminal according to international law, that it is an invasion, and continued:

“This is our country, our land. No force can remove us from here. In the beginning the US, Russia and many other countries talked of the territorial integrity and the unity of Syria. But now, the Turkish state’s army has entered our territory, they have invaded our lands, and are pushing us out of our villages and our homes. No peep from any of these powers. We as Syrian citizens see this as an invasion. Are the powers who are silent in the face of this invasion asleep? If they are not sleeping, they are complicit in this invasion. We as the Syrian citizens want them to know that we see this, and we know. When the day comes, we want them to know that we will be suing them as well according to international law.”

PEOPLE OF MAREA THREATENED TO “BE READY”

As the Turkish army wants to declare Kurdish villages military zones and evacuate them, the people of Marea were asked to be prepared. The people were told to evacuate Marea in two hours when the attack on Shehba starts, and that they would be informed of it two hours before.