People from Afrin (Efrin), which has faced attacks from occupying Turkey, have turned their camps into zones of resistance.

Afrin’s displaced population has begun to organise from within, seeing this as key to recovering their occupied lands.

It has been three years since Turkey launched the Afrin offensive, causing inhabitants of Afrin to migrate to Shahba (Şehba). People living in camps and ruined houses in various points of Shahba continue to resist while they wait for the day when they will be able to return to their homeland.

Eighty-one-year-old Cemil Eli Hemo has lived in the Berxwedan Camp (Resistance Camp) in the Shahba Canton in Fafîn district since he was displaced from Afrin. Hemo demanded that Afrin be cleared of its invaders and said international forces and the Damascus government remained silent on Turkey’s attacks in 2018. “Turkish-backed mercenaries murdered everyone including women, children and the elderly”, he said. “Attacks on Afrin took place with Russia’s approval. That is an international conspiracy”.