Turkish soldiers kill, hurt dozens of sheep in Rojava, claims owner
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Turkish border guards opened fire on a flock of sheep and its owner in a village in Qamishli northeast Syria (Rojava) on Tuesday, killing and injuring dozens of them, the owner of the livestock told Rudaw.
Talaat Bashir, from the village of Tuke, told Rudaw’s Nedal Zayno that a lack of rain this winter had forced him to wander further to find greener pastures for his sheep to graze on.
“We have land near the border, so we went there. However, we saw two Turkish soldiers approaching us. They looked at us but everything was fine because we were near our livestock and they were at their observation point,” Bashir said.
“After 15 minutes, we heard the sound of a vehicle behind stones. They began their patrol and later fired at us with snipers.
“One bullet hit half a meter near me and another hit near my uncle. We had seven children with us as well. We all ran away, the sheep too. Some of our sheep were killed and injured and some probably left behind.”
Bashir does not remember exactly how many sheep were killed or left behind, saying he cannot even return to the area to search for the sheep, because he fears being attacked again.
Turkey and its Syrian proxies have invaded a number of Kurdish areas in northern Syria since 2016 after expelling Kurdish fighters. They invaded the towns of Sari Kani (Ras al-Ain) and Gire Spi (Tal Abyad) in October 2019. Russia and the US reached separate agreements with Turkey to suspend the invasion. Advances of Turkish forces have stopped since then, but clashes continue between Ankara’s Syrian proxies and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Russia and Turkey agreed to remove SDF from Qamishli and other bordering areas and conduct joint patrols there. The SDF claims that they are not present in these areas, saying the security has been handed over to local forces, but Turkey has said otherwise.
Bashir blamed the Russians for failing to protect locals. He also condemned Kurdish political parties for their “silence” over the violations committed against them.
Talaat Bashir, from the village of Tuke, told Rudaw’s Nedal Zayno that a lack of rain this winter had forced him to wander further to find greener pastures for his sheep to graze on.
“We have land near the border, so we went there. However, we saw two Turkish soldiers approaching us. They looked at us but everything was fine because we were near our livestock and they were at their observation point,” Bashir said.
“After 15 minutes, we heard the sound of a vehicle behind stones. They began their patrol and later fired at us with snipers.
“One bullet hit half a meter near me and another hit near my uncle. We had seven children with us as well. We all ran away, the sheep too. Some of our sheep were killed and injured and some probably left behind.”
Bashir does not remember exactly how many sheep were killed or left behind, saying he cannot even return to the area to search for the sheep, because he fears being attacked again.
Turkey and its Syrian proxies have invaded a number of Kurdish areas in northern Syria since 2016 after expelling Kurdish fighters. They invaded the towns of Sari Kani (Ras al-Ain) and Gire Spi (Tal Abyad) in October 2019. Russia and the US reached separate agreements with Turkey to suspend the invasion. Advances of Turkish forces have stopped since then, but clashes continue between Ankara’s Syrian proxies and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Russia and Turkey agreed to remove SDF from Qamishli and other bordering areas and conduct joint patrols there. The SDF claims that they are not present in these areas, saying the security has been handed over to local forces, but Turkey has said otherwise.
Bashir blamed the Russians for failing to protect locals. He also condemned Kurdish political parties for their “silence” over the violations committed against them.