Turkish offensive in northeast Syria uproots farmers, families
Farmers in northeast Syria are concerned about making ends meet — or even having a place to live — after the Turkish offensive led to the looting of their lands and destruction of their crops.
HASAKAH, Syria — Syrian farmers are suffering under the invasion of Turkey and its loyal armed Syrian factions against the Kurdish-Arab Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Following Turkey's Operation Peace Spring, which it launched in early October, farmer Sipan Ahmad said Syrian opposition factions seized house and his cotton fields — the only source of income for his family in Ras al-Ain (Serekaniye), in northeastern Syria.
The violent Turkish airstrikes against Ras al-Ain forced civilians to flee. Farmers, Ahmad included, left without harvesting their cotton. “The Turkish military operation began just as the first phase of the cotton harvest was starting,” Ahmad told Al-Monitor on Dec. 18 at the Washo Kani camp for internally displaced people in rural Hasakah province.
Syrian National Army opposition factions affiliated with Turkey are accused of looting the homes and silos of wheat of civilians in Ras al-Ain. They also have been accused of other human rights violations.
