HESNA MIHEMED

Shahba-The Turkish state and its mercenaries occupied Afrin in 2018. After the Turkish occupation, thousands of people had to leave Afrin and settled in Shahba and its Shêrawa town. While the Turkish state and its mercenaries keep attacking the region, they have killed many civilians in the last five years. Reacting to the ongoing attacks on the region, the women of Afrin and Sherawa said, “No one can break our will.”

 ‘The Turkish state inflicts all kinds of cruelty’

“The Turkish state attacks civilians,” Berivan Heyder, a resident of the Ziyaret village of Sherawa town, said, “The Turkish state inflicts all kinds of cruelty to annihilate the Kurds. The resistance of the people of Shehba and Afrin has echoed all over the world. The Turkish state uses all kinds of war policies for its own interests; however, our resistance is a strong response to its attacks.”

 ‘We will liberate Afrin’

Îman Mustafa, who lives in Sherawa’s Aqibe village, said their resistance and struggle against the occupation would achieve success. “We strongly condemn the Turkish occupation in our country. Arabs, Turkmen and Kurds live in Shehba and Sherawa regions. The Turkish state attacks these regions every day by targeting civilians, including children and women. The aim of these attacks is to depopulate these regions; however, they will fail. The Kurdish people are resisting people. We will keep resisting the attacks and stay in our homeland. We will liberate Afrin and return to our homeland.”

‘We are determined to resist’

 Fatimê Elîko, a displaced woman of Afrin living in Sherawa’s Aqibe village, said, “We have been living away from our homeland for five years. Erdoğan (Turkish President) and his mercenaries attack us every day. Their attacks cannot scare us and we are determined to resist. We will resist these genocidal policies and attacks to the end.”