Uprooting was a necessary option to save their children. They were left behind by brothers, elderly parents, relatives and friends
War. Smell of death. Lament. Unfair struggles for the right to a homeland. Xenitemos. Three women who came to Greece from the lands bombed by the Turks in Northern Syria speak to "Ethnos tis Kyriakis" about the extermination of civilians in the neighborhoods they lost forever but also about the atrocities of the jihadists, who - as they say - were the "front" Of the Turkish army.
Uprooting for them was a necessary choice to save their children. They were left behind by brothers, elderly parents who were unable to move and friends killed by the bombing. Today they live in the Kurdish camp in Lavrio, where we met them on Thursday morning. All of them with a mobile phone in hand, were constantly trying to communicate with their people in the war zone. With each call, the pulse rose. The news from their homeland in the last 24 hours only causes pain and sadness.
They miraculously escaped
Leila lived with her family in the city of Ras al-Ain, where most of the bombing took place since the beginning of the Turkish invasion. The Syrian Democratic Council, which governs Rozava, even called for humanitarian aid in the city, as many people were trapped and many were killed and injured.
The Kurds in the area did not have food and water for two 24 hours. Leila left Ras al-Ain three months ago with her husband and four children: "If we had not left, it is very likely that my children would not be alive today. The city has been devastated by the bombing. My brother, who is there with his children, told me that they left the house at night and when they returned in the morning they found it bombed.
They miraculously escaped. But no one knows for how long. I left to save the children. I knew that Erdogan wanted to kill all the Kurds in Syria. He did it in his own way even before the invasion. That has always been his goal. " Leila wanted to take her elderly mother to Greece, but it was impossible for her to move: "We have lost relatives and friends from the bombs. My mother is still alive, but I'm afraid for her. It does not move easily.
Many Arabs live in our city, who are linked to ISIS and are killing the Kurdish population. "They are men who, if you give them money, can do anything." The family arrived in our country via Evros, after first having to sleep three nights on the street and another three at the Police Detention Center.
"They killed my girlfriend"
Mervin Hamad, 26, a mother of two, hails from the city of Tel Abyad, the second-largest area after Ras al-Ain, which was hit by Turkish forces. She tries to keep in touch with her relatives, but this is not always possible: "Yesterday I managed to talk to my own people. I was told that my 19-year-old girlfriend was killed in Tel Abyad.
She was a nurse and went to the local hospital to help the injured. She was not holding a gun, they did not ask her anything. They just killed her. She was just a young nurse. I have lost friends, neighbors and five of my cousins. They put ISIS terrorists on the front lines of the war. People who shout "Allah is great" and kill with greater fury than the soldiers. "They believe that if they kill a Kurd they will go to paradise."
Mervin first left northern Syria in 2013, when Assad launched military operations. She lived in Turkey until 2017 and then returned to her homeland for two months in order to see her family.
"The last time I was in Rojava and I was in hospital, I met Greeks who were helping us care for the wounded and organize," he said. Realizing how dangerous things remain there for her children, she left Tel Abyad again: "I and the children were saved. "But I have left behind my brothers and my parents, who survived the bombings and were forced to move to Raqqa." In Turkey, she lived in the Urfa region, near the border with Syria: "I believe in the connection of the jihadists with the Erdogan regime, because I saw it with my own eyes.
In Urfa, where I was, I saw jihadists moving around freely, as if nothing was happening. They did not even bother to change their attire so that you would not understand them. In Syria, things are much worse. ISIS fighters sell women and children in bazaars. Unfortunately, I believe that they will come to Greece and to Europe in general. "Turkish forces let them escape from prisons." The 26-year-old and her family paid 400 Turkish pounds to a ring of traffickers to pass through Evros in Greece. In their first attempt, as he describes, hooded commandos, without insignia, repatriated them to Turkey. In their second attempt, they managed to cross our country by bus that took them to Athens. "I want to go back to Rojava and if I did not have children I would have already done so. All we want is to be able to live in our homes. "We Kurds did not provoke any war, as Erdogan claims," Mervin said. In February 2018, Salih Khalil lost her husband, following an airstrike by the Turkish army in Afrin.
She arrived in Greece four months ago, with her three children. He says the Turkish government first hit Afrin and then resumed its military operations, aiming to seize all Kurdish territory. The current situation, back in her homeland, is described as a nightmare for women: "First they take the women out of the houses for reasons I do not need to explain to you… They are all obliged to wear a burqa. Only the eyes should be visible. Then they take the children and force them to learn Turkish. The men are forced to work in olive groves, to get after the harvest. A relative of mine who had his own olive groves is forced to work all day without getting anything himself. "In fact, they make men go to mosques and pray for the good of Turkey and its wars."
Saliha lost in the bombings, in addition to her husband, her sister's child, her cousins and her uncles. While living in a village in Afrin, he heard Turks, he said, training jihadists: "It was a short distance from my house. On the border of Syria with Turkey. I listened to them. They shouted slogans when they were training. Slogans such as "Allah is great". "They are people who are on the front lines of the war."
Source: Nation