HESNA MIHEMED

Shahba- The Turkish state and Turkish-backed factions occupied Afrin on March 18, 2018, displacing thousands of people to Shahba. However, the Turkish state and its factions have attacked and bombed Shahba and Afrin’s Sherawa town for seven years, killing and injuring many civilians.

The Turkish state has recently intensified its attacks on the region, bombing villages close to the border. Three people living in one of Shahba’s IDPs camp, identified as Ebdulrehîm Xubarî (80), Mihemed Ebdulrehîm Xubarî (40) and Lîlav Elî Bekir (15), were injured in the attacks that took place in recent days. In an interview with NuJINHA, women living in the Sherawa town of Afrin expressed their discomfort against the attacks and bombardments of the Turkish state and Turkish-backed factions.

‘The aim of the attacks is to depopulate the region’

The Turkish state conducts attacks targeting civilians every day to suppress the resistance and will of the people, said Dünya Mihemed, a displaced woman of Afrin living in Shahba. “We have been subjected to attacks for seven years. The aim of the attacks is to depopulate the region by displacing local people. Despite these attacks, we will never leave our homeland and villages to Erdoğan. We resist the attacks and we will resist. We stand with our fighters because they defend our homeland. One day, we will return to Afrin.”

‘We will never leave our region’

The Turkish state has violated the international law and conventions by attacking IDPs camps, Şêrîn Ehmed emphasized. “We strongly condemn the attacks and bombardments of the Turkish state and its factions. The Turkish state has recently intensified its attacks on our region, targeting camps sheltering displaced people. Erdoğan should know very well that we will never leave our region to him.”