Displaced Kurds set out for home once again
About 689 families — roughly 7,000 people — living at the Serêkaniyê camp in the Hasakah countryside have finished preparations to return to their homes in villages tied to Serêkaniyê, Til Temir and Zirgan, after provincial and regional security units guaranteed their safety.
RastinewsAbout 689 families, roughly 7,000 people, living at the Serêkaniyê camp in the Hasakah countryside have begun striking their tents and loading belongings onto trucks to return home.
"Security guaranteed"
The Serêkaniyê Displaced Persons Committee press office said provincial and regional security units had guaranteed safety, and announced that a second convoy of Serêkaniyê residents would set out to return home. The convoy covers residents of Serêkaniyê's city center as well as villages between Til Temir and Zirgan.
First convoy came under attack
A first convoy of Serêkaniyê residents had returned home on August 10. But some of those who went back came under attack in Serêkaniyê and were forced to return to Hasakah once more.
Mines and destruction block the way
Committee member Zehra Semo said in an earlier statement that the area around Serêkaniyê and the rural stretch reaching to the Zirgan-Til Temir line had been mined on three sides, and that much of the city and its surrounding villages had been destroyed during the war. Semo said residents were demanding a return that was "collective and secure, not one by one."
The Serêkaniyê, Til Temir and Zirgan areas were occupied by armed groups affiliated with the Syrian National Army (SNA) after Turkey launched Operation Peace Spring on October 9, 2019, forcing roughly 500,000 civilians to flee the region.