Afrin residents who had to leave their homes following attacks by the invading Turkish state and their allied gangs say they want to return home under United Nations (UN) supervision. Afrin residents say their city was invaded and looted in front of the whole world, and argue that the UN, Russia and international powers created a basis for the invasion.

The people of Afrin stress that they will never accept the Turkish state invasion. They are trying to survive under harsh conditions in villages in Shehba and Afrin’s Sherawa district. The people of Afrin face invasion attacks by the Turkish state on one hand, and the threat of conscription by the Syrian regime on the other. They say they will return to the lands they have lived on for millenia, but the Turkish state and their gangs must be removed from the city. The people of Afrin living under harsh conditions in the Shehba region say they want to return to their lands with the UN and international powers forming security and observation committees.

“UN AND INTERNATIONAL POWERS SHOULD INTERVENE”

Ebû Mihemed left Afrin’s Bilbile district for Shehba due to the Turkish invasion and says they can’t return home as long as the Turkish state and their gangs are in the city, and that they want the UN to intervene. Ebû Mihemed said: “We want to return home. They looted all our homes, but we want to return if the UN and international powers take action. Because there are ISIS gangs there. We can’t return under these conditions. We never declared war against anyone, we were living on our own lands in peace. They declared war on us. The international community must not accept this.”

CLOSE TO A MILLION PEOPLE MIGRATED

Minyad Mihemed had to migrate from the villages of Bilbile and made the following call to the UN: “Doesn’t the United Nations see us? Close to a million people were displaced from their homes in Afrin. We don’t have anything to eat. We sleep on the streets. We don’t have water. They should come and see our situation. We want to return to the lands of our ancestors. They should come, form their commissions, form their observation committees. We want to return to our lands. This is a duty for the UN. They must do this. Because one million people have been displaced.”

“THEY TURNED A BLIND EYE TO ONE MILLION PEOPLE BEING DISPLACED”

Cemil Ehmed said the whole world has turned a blind eye to the barbarism of the Turkish state in Afrin: “How can the United Nations, the European Union and human rights organizations ignore the displacement of one million people? This is not acceptable. We don’t have anything to eat, we don’t have clean water. There is no electricity, no medicine. Our people are dying from lack of doctors. But they have shut their eyes to our plight.”

Afrin resident Ferîde Hemo said: “We barely escaped with our lives. We couldn’t save anything else. This is how we came, wearing these clothes. We are hungry, we don’t have anything to wear, we don’t have anywhere to sleep. We can’t fulfill any of our needs”

AFRIN RESIDENT TO TURKS: “WHAT HARM HAVE WE DONE TO YOU?”

The young Afrin resident Celal Reşîd who wants to leave Shera’s Îkîdamê village said he wanted to call on the Turkish people in Turkish, and said: “They declared war on us, while we were living in peace on our lands. They made plans over us. We have suffered greatly here. We can’t return to our lands. We can never go back as long as the gangs and the Turkish state are there. They pillaged everything we have, they are harrassing everybody. And the whole world just watches. These people are ISIS members, but the world ignores this. They should come and investigate the gangs the Turkish state is settling on our lands. Who are these people? We want to return home under the supervision of the UN. I want to say this to the Turkish people: What harm have we ever done to you? How are the gangs you settle there better than us? What about how we were brothers?”

“TURKISH STATE ACTED BARBARICALLY”

Mother Fatma left Jindirese and is trying to rebuild her life in a partly demolished house in the Shehba region. She said the Turkish state’s actions were barbaric and added: “I moved from Jindirese. We resisted for 50 days. But it was one jet after the other. They were bombing every street, every house one by one. They tore down all our homes. Many bodies are still trapped under the rubble. We left our lands with these barbaric attacks against us. My animals were inside as we left the house, I wanted to let them out but I couldn’t even do that. They even killed our animals. These are barbaric, vile people. May Allah condemn them. But we will never abandon our lands to them.”