Humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Turkish occupied Hasaka
While Turkey professes support and solidarity with people in distant lands, it finds no contradiction in denying as basic a right as water to people in the lands it occupies.
By IAR Desk
In an ugly show of strength Turkey has added to the suffering of the already troubled enclave of Hasaka in Northeast Syria. After a military attack last year, apparently to “clean up” the region’s terrorist network, Turkey has now resorted to cutting off water supply to more than a million Syrian citizens in Hasaka and its vicinity, which has been in it’s control since October 2019.
Since August 13, Turkish-backed groups have cut the flow of water from the Alouk water station, which Syrian authorities say is affecting almost a million people.
The current crisis has apparently arisen because of inadequate power supply by Kurdish authorities to Hasaka. According to the Rojava Information Center (RIC), Turkey is demanding 70MW of power to be delivered into the areas that it has controlled since October 2019. This, however, claims the RIC, is unrealistic.
However, analysts say this may be a pressure tactic by Turkey on Russia because of the confrontation between the two in Libya.
In any case this has translated into more misery and more health hazard for the residents there, given the extraordinary situation the entire world finds itself battling the Covid-19 pandemic. The agony is further compounded by the soaring temperatures in the region.
According to the health authority of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), there are a total of 362 recorded coronavirus cases and 25 deaths in northeast Syria.
Because of the stoppage of drinking water supply people in the province have had to resort to finding unhealthy means as substitution.
Through Russian mediation, Kurdish-led authorities in northeastern Syria have been providing electricity to the Turkish-occupied areas in exchange for the flow of water. But Turkish-backed groups have continued tocut off the water, demanding higher levels of power.
On Saturday, August 22, an agreement was supposedly reached between Russia and Turkey to resume the flow of water, reported Kurdistan 24.net. But local sources say that, so far, no water has yet reached Hasakah city.
Turkey’s actions have received widespread condemnation. Numerous civil society organizations as well as the Syrian and Russian government authorities have criticised the move.
On Monday, August 24, 89 civil society organizations in a joint statement condemned Turkey’s deliberate shutting off of access to water for thousands of people, amid an increase in COVID-19 cases in northeast Syria.
“Sporadic water cuts have forced the population of Syria’s northeast to rely on unsafe alternatives, endangering their lives on top of their fight against COVID-19,” the organizations said in their common statement.
Syria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Dr. Bashar Al-Jaafari, has urged the UN Chief Antonio Guterres to take immediate action in order to put an end to the “Turkish occupation’s crime of cutting off water supplies” for more than a million Syrian citizens in and around Hasaka city.
On August 25, Hamouda Sabbagh, Speaker of the People’s Assembly in Syria called on the heads and members of parliaments in all international, regional and Arab parliamentary organizations to exert all forms of pressure on the Turkish regime to “immediately stop this heinous crime and deliver drinking water immediately to more than a million Syrian citizens in the city of Hasaka and its vicinity,” Syrian Arab News Agency reported.
Even earlier, on August 21, HH Ignatius Aphrem II, in a letter addressed to UN General Secretary, Antonio Guterres, urged UN and European Union intervention to “address immediately this calamity”. The Patriarch of Antioch and All the East called the situation a “humanitarian catastrophe”.
“For more than 10 days armed factions supported by the Turkish occupation have deliberately cut off water from the population, thus subjecting them, especially children, elderly and vulnerable people, to thirst and critical health conditions. This comes at a time when the spread of Covid-19 virus is taking its toll on the entire country,” the letter said. “Using water as a weapon…..is a barbaric act and a flagrant violation of fundamental human rights,” and it is “appropriate to characterize this humane act as a crime against humanity.”
A week has passed since but the weaponsation of water continues.
While Turkey professes support and solidarity with people in distant lands, most recently hosting militants from the Hamas group in a show of solidarity with the Palestinians, it finds no contradiction in denying as basic a right as water to people in the lands it occupies. While President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan calls for supporting and defending the rights of Muslims across the world in places under his control people, overwhelmingly Muslim, are undergoing a humanitarian catastrophe. All entreaties and pleas for restoration of basic human rights have fallen on deaf years till now. The agony of Hasaka continues.
