Hasakah- A civilian was killed and four civilians, including two women, were injured in the attack carried out in Tell Tamer, a town in western NE Syria’s Hasakah city, on July 24. The town has been subjected to the ongoing attacks of Turkey and Turkish-backed factions aiming to depopulate the town. We interviewed the women in the streets of Tell Tamer about the ongoing attacks on their town. They say they will resist attacks and threats and they will not leave their town to protect their honor.

“Protecting our hometown, country and honor is important”

Nûra Şêxmûs Bab El-Xêr has been resisting not leaving her homeland although the attacks have been carried out in their town for years. “We have been resisting for two years in order not to leave our village. We have faced many attacks until now. We are determined to stay in our village. We will continue to resist and stay here. We will not leave our homeland until we die. We tell the people, who are surprised that we keep staying in our village despite the attacks, ‘There is no life outside of our homeland, country. I prefer to stay in my village, under bombardment instead of living in another place.’ Because protecting our hometown, country and honor is important,” she says.

“We will resist the invaders as we resisted ISIS and Al-Nusra”

Zilan Mihemed lives in Tell Tamer. Underlining that they have been at risk for years, she says, “Our people should be aware of the risk. The Autonomous Administration has declared a state of emergency and we, as citizens, should take our own measures against all attacks. Threats are not new, we have been attacked for years. The occupying Turkish state has attacked us under different names for 10 years. It uses different factions to attack us. We, as citizens, are ready to fight, we have been resisting for years. Resistance becomes a way of life for us. In the past, ISIS, Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham and Al-Nusra attacked our region but we did not leave our homeland. We will stay here. We will resist the invaders as we resisted ISIS and Al-Nusra. We will resist and support our fighters to the end.”

“We will stand by our fighters”

“Together with the Autonomous Administration, we mobilize. Now, we are thinking and discussing how we can support our fighters and how we can organize ourselves better. Yes, we have fighters protecting and defending us. But we are also responsible for defending our region. We will always stand by our fighters,” Zilan Mihemed says.