QAMİŞLO, ROJAVA
Tents were opened in Qamishlo for the people of Serekaniye who forced into emigration by the attacks of the Turkish state. Set up 10 days ago, the tents have become a community centre for the peoples of the region who gather here, providing whatever aid they have to offer to the displaced. Today, we extended our microphones to the peoples.
A mother of 4, Emine, from Qamishlo explained the current situation in the tents. Explaining that people from Serêkaniyê have migrated as a result of the occupation attacks and now live in tents, Emine said: “we are here supporting them.”
“The massacre of Erdogan, the heavy weapons and chemical weapons he is using has forced women to flee their homes with nothing but their children. He wants to remove them from their lands.
Speaking on Erdogan’s current plans as to the future of the region, the mother added “[Erdogan] speaks a lot about this region, but let me tell you what is really happening. There is no hostility in our communities, there is no massacre.
He is training ISIS and sending them towards us. For the past 25/26 days, so many of our people have become refugees. Our women, our children have fled to the desserts. You have wounded them, you have killed them.”
Emine, a member of the convoy which travelled to Serekaniye to remove wounded civilians, stated: “I am one of the people who went to Serekaniye. There were so many wounded, it is full of corpses. Let us bring our wounded and corpses, where is your sense of humanity? Where are the human rights organisations, why don’t they come to see with their own eyes? Condemning is not enough, these people’s homes are now filled with ISIS.
As the peoples, we have been living communally for years now. There was no ISIS here. With the Arabs, Kurds, Syriacs we have an organised life. We have defeated ISIS together but now Erdogan is training more and sending them to us.”
Mother Emine concluded by saying: “We are on our land. And we promise, he can send his tanks and he can send his warplanes but we will not leave these lands. Don’t think you can break us, as Kurds we are not what we used to be. We are educated, we are philosophical. Our heart and our conscious are clean. Don’t assume we are scared, you can train your ISIS to fight us but we will not take a step off these lands even if you rip our souls from our bodies. You can kill us and our children but we are not going. And we promise on the blood of our martyrs: roses grow from where the blood of our martyrs fall. We swear to the martyrs we have given to the earth, we will not surrender our land.”
Also speaking to our agency, mother Meryem highlighted that “Today marks the 10th day of our tent action here and we continue uninterrupted.”
On the ongoing attacks, mother Meryem reiterated that “Erdogan with his bombs and warplanes kills children. Let him not hit us with planes, if he wants a war lets fight chest-to-chest. We are not scared of him.
All of these people have fled Serekaniye, they have been placed in Qamishlo and Heseke, yet Erdogan says I will place 3 million refugees in the houses of our people. But what about the people he has forced into a refuge?
Let Erdogan and Erdogan’s gangs know that we are never scared. We are not scared of his cannons, we are not scared of his tanks.”
NC / Berçem Roza- Firaz Mountain
