AMMAN (CNS): The Syrian Democratic Council, which oversees the autonomous northeast of Syria, condemned Turkey cutting off water supply to the area’s main city, Hassakeh, for nearly four straight weeks. Humanitarian groups have repeatedly accused Turkey of “weaponising water” since its military takeover of the region in October 2019.
“Turkey has cut off water from reaching the city of Hassakeh and the surrounding countryside, which is home to more than a million people. This is a crime against humanity,” Gabriel Shamoun, the council’s vice president, said. A Syriac Christian, Shamoun is also Syriac Union Party official.
The council warned that Turkey is risking hundreds of thousands of lives in the midst of the Covid-19 coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic and soaring temperatures.
Parts of Syria’s north where Kurds, Christians and Yazidis have enjoyed religious freedom in recent years but are reportedly under attack again by mainly Turkish military and their allied Syrian Islamist fighters. They reportedly cut off the vital supply of water from the Alok pumping station August 13 for the eighth time since they invaded and took over the Ras al-Ain area in October, observers said.
They added that the measure is choking the inhabitants of the region’s main city, Hassakeh, with the hope of trying to force its inhabitants into submission.
One resident, who only provided his first name, George, said wells on the outskirts of the city required about 12 days to fill up the reservoir, and only then could water be distributed. He said he had already lost several relatives to Covid-19.
The Alok pumping station provides drinking water for around 800,000 people and is also the main source of water for tankers supplying potable water to tens of thousands of inhabitants. However, it was rendered inoperable during the Turkish invasion and service has been only partially restored.
Withholding water is a tactic also that was also used by Islamic State militants in northern Iraq, when they cut water supplies to Qaraqosh and other towns of the Ninevah Plain before their 2014 invasion.
The Al-Himme pumping station nearer to the city only covers less than a third of people’s needs, according to UNICEF. A number of times, the agency has warned that if people are forced to rely on unsafe water from shallow wells, children and others face increased risk of waterborne diseases. Tankers transporting potable water are expensive and beyond many people’s financial means.
Shamoun urged the United States (US), the United Nations (UN) and Russia, the Syrian government’s main backer, to pressure Turkey to pump water to Hassakeh, saying it was using water as a “provocation” against the autonomous region.
Kurds and Syriac Christians from the area have been the US’s chief allies in fighting Islamic State militants in Syria and ending its territorial caliphate. The US troop pullback in October 2019 and the subsequent Turkish offensive raised fears of an Islamic State resurgence.
The Damascus-based head of the Syriac Orthodox Church, Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II of Antioch, demanded the international community stop Turkey’s flagrant actions.
“Using water as a weapon—which is not the first time—is a barbaric act and a flagrant violation of fundamental human rights. Yet, there has been no response from the international community to this atrocity, despite the constant appeal of the people of the region,” he wrote in an August 21 letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
People in Afrin, as well as in the autonomous northeast, had the ability to choose their own faith and religious beliefs until militant Islamists working with the Turkish military invaded in January 2018.
Since then, Christians, Yazidis and other religious minorities have been persecuted; their homes, businesses and properties have been taken over by troops and many have been forced to flee. However, those who converted to Christianity face particular danger from the Islamists.
