The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) press spokesperson Farhad Shami shared a video of himself standing on the Tishreen Dam, northeast Syria, after Turkish media had made claims that the dam was in the hands of the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA).
Turkey’s Ministry of Defense announced in a statement – shared by the national Turkish media agency Anadolu Ajansi on 26 December – that both the Tishreen Dam and the city of Manbij are under the control of the Syrian National Army (SNA), which are Islamist mercenaries used as a proxy force by the Turkish state.
As a response, both fighters of the Manbij (Minbîc) Military Council (MMC) and the SDF spokesperson recorded videos on the Tishreen dam, refuting the claims and telling the story of the resistance taking place there.
The Tishreen Dam has been a key battleground between the Turkish-backed SNA and the SDF, the official military wing of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), for the past 18 days.
In the video, Shami states that the Tishreen Dam is “completely under the control of the SDF” and that the claims of the Turkish media are part of the “psychological warfare by the Turkish state to improve the moral of their [SNA] mercenaries”.
Shami can be seen on top of the dam at dusk, talking about the resistance of the SDF and the MMC against the SNA backed by Turkish military air support, stating that “at least 450 [SNA] mercenaries have been killed and dozens of armoured vehicles” have been destroyed by the SDF during the defense of the Tishreen Dam.
He highlighted the importance of the resistance, saying that “this is not war against a dam, or against a village, this is a war against everything” and “this resistance will prove our existence and clarify our future inside Syria”. Shami emphasised that “this resistance will let our future become bright” because “without this resistance we’ll have to bow our necks and nothing of us will be left in Syria”.
