“We are determined to continue to struggle for freedom”

As a result of the attacks by the Turkish state and its gangs on Shehba and Tall Reefat on 29 November, the people who were forced to migrate from the region on 2 December were settled in the safe areas run by the Democratic Autonomous Administration of Northern and Eastern Syria. Hêvin Cemil Dawud is one of those who were forced to migrate from Shehba to Qamishlo.

Dawud was forced to migrate twice due to the attacks of the Turkish state and its gangs. In 2018, when Turkey and its gangs occupied Afrin, she was forced to move. With her were her five daughters and three sons. The family settled in Shehba, and they were forced to migrate again after the new attack.

Dawûd fled from Shehba together with old people, children and ill people. She said: “What did we do to those who expelled us from our lands?”

She said that they faced uncertainty and fear, and added: “Afrin is the land of our grandmothers and grandfathers, and we will win back our lands by resisting.”

In this period when she feels the weight of war, the losses experienced also create deep pain in her. She said that her 19-year-old son died of illness, and added that she also lost her husband twenty years ago. In anger, she asked: “Where can we go?”

Hêvîn Cemîl Dawûd said: “We didn’t do anything wrong, we just want to live in peace. Babies died on the roads, the elderly and ill people were helpless. We will continue to reclaim those rights that were taken from us until we die.”