CENTRAL NEWS
In the last 6 months, nearly 30 women and children were killed for not living according to ISIS rules in the Hol Camp, which is regarded as one of the most dangerous camps in the world and is ignored by international aid organizations including the UN.
The camp’s inhabitants have continuously stated that they had been punished by the ‘El Xisbe’ executions teams for reasons such as wearing colourful clothes, not being covered, listening to music, sending their children to school, and talking with the camp administration without permission.
The living spaces created for those who flee the wars around the world are called ‘refugee/asylum/immigrant camps. The camps are, firstly, relatively safe zones for civilians in inter-country warfare. Secondly, they are sheltering areas for civilians displaced by civil war or occupation. In almost all of the world’s examples, the responsibility of these camps lies with the United Nations (UN).
The Hol Camp near Hesekê is none of the above.
The Hol exception
ISIS emerged in 2014 under the name of ‘Islamic State of Iraq and Damascus’. The territorial dominance of this structure, which started invasion attacks in the region by spreading a climate of fear with the massacres it carried out in Syria and Iraq, was terminated in Northern and Eastern Syria by the hands of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Women and children of the ISIS members who came out in Baxoz were brought to the camp and settled there.
They came from 48 countries to invade
The Hol Camp is home to women and children from 48 different countries who had travelled to Syria and Iraq in the name of creating ‘jihad.” Hol is a topic which international aid organizations, including the UN, ignore.
Countries refuse to accept their own citizens, and no international institution offers the necessary support to the camp, including ensuring security or providing resources. The entire burden of the camp is left to the autonomous administration of North East Syria and several voluntary organizations.
The Hol Camp, which is the 6th largest camp in the world in terms of number density, is under the attack of the occupying Turkish state which attempts to relocate the ISIS members into newly formed armies.
It is seen that women from all over the world, who act together with this dark structure, try to revive the same dark mentality in the camp where they come with their children, after being cunned into ’jihad marriage’.
30 women and children killed in 6 months
According to the information given by the camp administration in the Hol Camp, which is known as one of the most dangerous camps in the world; In the last 6 months, nearly 30 women and children were killed. In fact, the identities are clear, but none of the other families speak out because of fear. It is said that almost all of the massacred women and children were slaughtered for not living according to Islamic rules. It must be noted that the rules to which have been referred as ‘Islamic’ are in fact the rules of ISIS rather than Islam.
ISIS women mobilised inside the camps during the first days of the invasion attacks by the Turkish state against Rojava and North-East Syria. Gathering, the women shouted slogans in favour of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The increase in the number of murders committed by ISIS women, which acted simultaneously with the occupation attacks, is extraordinary.
When we ask the women who want to maintain the ISIS mentality in the camp, “Women were killed here, what is the reason?” almost all of them answered, “We don’t know but if they did not deserve it they would not have been killed.”
These women do not send their children to the schools opened by charities and instead give lessons that instil their dirty ideologies. The head of girls in the camp are covered from the age of 4-6 years, children are wrapped in hijabs and burqas. Girls and the mothers of those who are not wearing hijabs over the age of 6 are punished.
They kill women under orders from ‘court’
ISIS members who set up a scout and execution team are judging and punishing people through the ‘Sharia Court.’
Those who can be identified as being murdered by the ISIS women in the camp are as follows:
- On July 28, a 30-year-old Indonesian pregnant woman named Sodermini was found dead. According to the doctor’s report, the cause of death was severe assault.
- On 3 July, a public security officer was stabbed in the back by a woman.
- In August, a 14-year-old Azerbaijani girl was killed by her grandmother for not wearing a headscarf.
- Also in August, an Uzbek woman and her 2-year-old child were burned to death in their tent.
- On October 5, the Homeland Security Forces found a woman’s body in the 8th district of the camp. Of Moroccan nationality, the woman was discovered to be drowned to death.
- On October 24, a person staying in the camp was massacred.
- On December 4, the body of a 50-year-old woman named Fatima Abdulellah, who was identified as Pakistani, was found. Fatima was killed by ISIS women on the grounds that she did not act according to the ISIS rules.
They communicate with the orders from Turkey
The ISIS members who hope to benefit from the invasion attacks of the Turkish state are trying to reintroduce their inhuman methods in the camp. The testimonies of the witnesses reveal the events in the camp in a striking correlation with the invasion attacks.
An Azeri, who did not reveal her name for security reasons, stated that the phones which were sneaked into the camp were being used by the ISIS family members to contact former ISIS commanders in Turkey. The woman confessed that this is where they received orders and instructions.
Stating that Turkish and Russian women are particularly effective in the camp, the woman said that these women are the ones who identify those who do not act according to the ISIS lifestyle.
According to the woman, the duty of the scouts is to identify the women who want to get away from the ISIS thought and lifestyle in the camp.
The execution team ‘El Xisbe’
Another woman from Uzbekistan spoke from where the former woman left off.
Esma, whose real name will not be revealed for her safety, states that the Sharia Court ’was established in the second stage and that these women who were found guilty were tried together with their children and sentenced to various penalties.
Esma said that she participated in some of the women’s courts and said that three months ago an execution team called El Xisbe was established to punish women who did not adopt the ISIS lifestyle.
The name El Xisbe stands out as a clear sign that ISIS is reorganizing in the camp, because it is known that the ‘moral police’ formed by women in the cities being occupied by ISIS was also called El Xisbe.
Esma says that women are punished for reasons such as wearing colourful clothes, not covering up girls over 6 years of age, listening to music, sending their children to school, and talking with the camp administration without permission.
Noting that the execution team’s job is not just killing, Esma explains that many women are facing punishment such as violence, torture, the burning of their tent, and the abduction of their children.
‘She was a witch, she deserved it!’
The questions asked to women living in the camp are either go unanswered or a familiar propaganda is faced.
72-year-old Emine Kaya from Turkey travelled to Rojava 6 years ago with her son, daughter and husband joined ISIS. When asked, “do you know that women are being killed in this camp?” the response given was “I don’t know, I didn’t see anything.”
Emine continued, “I want to go to Turkey, I’ve been trying to get out for 6 years, I’m stuck here.” Responding to the question, “Are you not afraid to go?” Emine replied, “No, they do nothing to us. They didn’t say anything on the way here, and they don’t say anything on the way back.”
Ayşeh from Azerbaijan also stated that she moved to Syria from Turkey 6 years ago to ‘serve the jihad.’ Ayşeh, who married 4 ISIS members and has 4 children, said, “The conditions are very difficult. I want to get out of here before something happens to me.” When asked what she was afraid of, the question was left unanswered.
The 60-year-old Kyrgyz Hanife Nur Mihemmed stated that she moved to Syria through Turkey with her two daughters 5 years ago to ‘serve the jihad.’ Asked about the rising murders in the camp, Hanife replied: “I didn’t see it, so I don’t know, but if someone was killed, she deserved it.”
The response of Iman El Eli summarizes that the ISIS mentality has started to reorganize in the camp: “Yes, there are women who have been killed. Nobody gets killed without a good reason. Why doesn’t anybody kill me, if they get killed, they deserve it. Nobody ever gets killed unless she went outside of the rules of Allah-u Ta’ala, and was involved in kuff (activity forbidden by ISIS). She deserved to be killed. I didn’t see it, but if she deserved it, she was killed!”
Feryal Hamid al-Nawaf supports the same views; “I have not seen anything. I don’t know who’s doing it. But if she is a witch, she deserves to be burned and killed. ”
The danger increased after 9 October
Hol Camp Camp Administrative Affairs Officer Hemrîn El Hesen said that ISIS members who have been encouraged by the Turkish invasion since October 9 have put great pressure on the women staying in the camp.
“Women who do not live according to ISIS rules and want their children to be educated are selected as targets. This mentality is a danger not only for this place but for the whole world,” Hemrîn criticized the insensitivity of the international organizations towards the camp.
Hol Camp Administrative Affairs Officer Hemrîn El Hesen criticized the insensitivity of international organizations to the camp. Stating that the camp, which is home to 74 thousand people, is the size of a city and that the most dangerous criminals in the world remain in this camp, Hemrîn said that the lack of education, especially for children, constitutes a big problem.
UNICEF had stated that 6 international aid organizations, including Save the Children, have some activities for children. Hemrîn informed these activities were suspended and that most aid organisation had withdrawn since the Turkish states invasion attempts which were launched on October 9.
Hemrîn informed that there are 14 schools for the Iraqi and Syrian children in the camp. “Even though the education is lacking, children between the ages of 6 and 12 attend these classes. However, 7 thousand 139 children in the section where foreign nationals remain can not receive an education. One of the reasons for this is that refugees are not seen as refugees, and the second is that the ISIS women do not want their children to receive an education.”
Noting that 80 per cent of the camp’s expenses were left to the Autonomous Administration of North-East Syria, Hemrîn pointed out that ISIS women brought from Baxoz are in great danger.
Especially after the Turkish occupation of 9 October, there was a peak activity in the camp, Hemrîn said. “Our internal security forces are trying to take the necessary measures. However, women are burned and killed in the camps. In 6 months, 30 women were burned or strangled to death. The reason for all is the same: opening your face, dressing in colour, not wanting your child to be covered. Women who do not live according to ISIS rules and want their children to be educated are selected as targets. This mentality is a danger not only for this place but for the whole world. ”
Statistical data on Hol Camp
The Hol Camp is located right next to the town of Hol in the east of the city of the province of Hesekê in Rojava. The world’s 6th most crowded camp, Hol, is ignored by international organizations.The camp was originally founded by the Syrian regime in 1991 as a shelter for Palestinian refugees, the refugee camp was later evacuated. The camp, which hosted Iraqi immigrants who fled after ISIS’s invasion of Mosul in 2014, became under the control of the Autonomous Administration of North-East Syria in 2016.
At the beginning of 2019, the camp, where 20,000 people stayed, increased threefold following the termination of the ISIS territorial rule in Dêrazor on 21 March.
Following the liberation of Dêrazor, nearly 50,000 women and children from ISIS were placed in the camp.
According to the information given by the Hol Camp Administration, the number of people staying in the camp is as follows:
- Citizens of Iraq: 30 thousand
- Citizens of Syria: 26 thousand
- Foreign nationalities: 18 thousand 023
- Women of foreign nationality: 10 thousand 884
- Children: 7 thousand 139 (3 thousand 496 of them are girls and 3 643 of them are boys)
- Total camp population: 74 thousand 023
All foreign nationals are from Baxoz plus women from 48 different countries and their children. Some of these countries include Russia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Chechnya, Tunisia, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, France, Egypt, Lebanon, Germany, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Australia, Finland, USA, China (Uighurs), India, and Italy.
The camp consists of a total of 8 separate sections with the Iraqi and Syrians in separate sections, and the women from 48 other countries and their children are kept in a separate section.
Fatma KOÇAK
Kurdistan Strategic Research Center
