Turkmen regions continue to come under heavy attack

Sebati Karakurt – HATAY

AA photo

Turkmen regions in Syria’s northwest are continuing to come under heavy attack by Russian-backed Syrian forces as government forces have taken back the Kızıldağ area that is home to Turkmens.

At the same time, four missiles hit the Sarmada village in Syria, around 10 kilometers from Turkey’s southern Cilvegözü border gate, causing multiple casualties, Doğan News Agency reported Nov. 26.

Syrian forces, with the support of Russian airstrikes and missiles launched from the sea, retook the Kızıldağ region, leading to the withdrawal of Turkmen forces further to the north toward the Syrian border with Turkey. 

A representative of the Sultan Abdülhamid Brigade of the Turkmens, Tahsin Koşkar, told Doğan News Agency that when Kızıldağ fell due to heavy strikes, the Turkmens had to go to Yamadi village, which is a village close to the Turkish border. Relief material is being sent to Yamadi, where there is a tent city. 

Daily Hürriyet reported on Nov. 25 that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces had intensified the shelling of Kızıldağ, a strategic point in northwestern Syria controlled by Turkmen forces.

Four villages in the Bayırbucak region, which is inhabited by Turkmens, were being evacuated on Nov. 26 with people being relocated to camps in Yamadi, daily Hürriyet reported from the southern Turkish province of Hatay, which is close to the regions where Turkmens live in Syria. 

The population of Yamadi is expected to be around 20,000 together with the newly displaced people. 

Jabal al-Turkmen, a mountain in the region that lies south of the mainly Christian town of Kasab, has been coming under bombardment since early Nov. 26, and a big proportion of the mountain has been taken by government forces. 

Four missiles fired by Russian warplanes hit Sarmada village, located on the road to Idlib and just 10 kilometers from the Cilvegözü border gate, caused casualties, Doğan News Agency reported without giving a specific number. It said that trucks carrying ostensible relief material were also targeted. 

Sadettin Molla, a member of the Turkmen Parliament’s office in Yayladağı, a district in southern Turkey that borders Syria, told daily Hürriyet that the villages close to the Turkish border were especially being bombed after Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet due to the alleged violation of Turkey’s airspace on Nov. 24. 

“The airstrikes, which were conducted only by Syrian fighter jets, have been intensified after the G-20 Summit that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin attended,” said Molla, adding that before that date, there had not been such large strikes. 

Clashes continue in the Burj al-Keseb village, which is 25 kilometers from Latakia on Syria’s coast.