SORGÜL ŞÊXO

Hasakah-In Zirgan, a town of Hasakah Canton, people are under attacks and siege. The Turkish drones often fly over the town and there are military posts 500 meters west of the town. The people of the town are always monitored by radars.

‘We can only graze sheep around the town’

Shepherds are sometimes targeted in the town by invaders. Fatima Hiso, one of the shepherds, grazes 10 sheep around the town every day. 50-year-old Fatima Hiso has 11 children and 17 grandchildren.

“Now, there is no attack in the town. But during bombardments, we hide in shelters. We cannot graze our sheep in the west of the town for security reasons. We can only graze sheep around the town. During the bombardment, we keep sheep in barns and feed them there. If there is no bombardment, we can graze them in the agriculture fields around Zirgan.

Fatima Hiso spoke about the bombardment on Zirgan last year. “Last year, the Turkish army bombed the mosque in the town while I was grazing five sheep around it. That time, my son and his wife were inside the mosque. They narrowly escaped death.”

‘War crimes are committed on our land every day’

“The Turkish state has committed war crimes on our land every day,” Fatima Hiso said. “If Russia, the US and other countries did not support the Turkish state, the Turkish army would not carry out its attacks on us today.”

‘These darkest days will end one day’

Fatima Hiso believes that the darkest days that they have been experiencing will end one day. “We will have good days again. We will not surrender our land to the invaders because we buried our daughters and sons here. The Turkish state should know very well that these lands are our lands and they will always be our lands,” said Fatima Hiso while grazing sheep around the houses destroyed by the Turkish attacks targeting civilians and children.