A Worldwide Call from the People of Heseke

This report was published by ANF English on 16 August, 2020. It has been lightly edited for readability.

Emergency call to the whole world to interfere and contribute to save the life of civilians and consider Heseke as a truly afflicted city as Turkey’s mercenaries controlling the Allouk water station are again cutting the water.

For more than 10 days the Turkish proxies controlling the Allouk (Elok) water station are cutting the water from the cities and region of Heseke and Tel Tamir, leaving more than a million people at risk.

The campaign “Make Rojava Green Again” has published a letter by Gulistan, a woman from Heseke (al-Hasakah) who wants to spread her call for solidarity in Arabic and English for the whole world.

“Together with Gulistan and the people of Heseke, and in general with all people of North-East Syria, we call for international solidarity. Share the news and #RiseUp4Rojava!,” said the “Make Rojava Green Again” campaign which shared the following call:

To all relevant international organizations and agencies,

To the whole world,

To everyone who cares about humanity,

Heseke right now is facing a terrible situation due to cutting of water for more than ten days, by Turkey and its proxies, who are controlling Serekaniye (Ras-al-Ain) and all the countryside nearby, where Alouk water station is located. This station is the only source of drinkable water for the whole Tel Tamer and Heseke region. In addition, Heseke is suffering from the shortage of electricity, gas, bread and high prices of daily running costs…

In this bad weather with very high temperature in one hand, and the Corona pandemic in the other hand, it makes the life of more than a million of people in danger and risks.

In those difficult circumstances we have to spread emergency call to the whole world to interfere and contribute to save the life of civilians and consider Heseke as a truly afflicted city.

Turkey’s use of water as a weapon

In the recent months, Turkey has intensified its pressure on North-Eastern Syria using water as a weapon. It is a major attack that is already causing a major environmental and human crisis and affects Mesopotamia as a whole!

If it would continue like this, there is good chance that the whole [of] Mesopotamia, rich [with] its thousand years of history, would turn into a desert…

Examples of Turkish attacks are:

  • Cutting the water flow from the Euphrates river

With their dams, it is estimated that Turkey has the potential to cut the water of the river for 3 years completely. Already now, as the water has been drastically reduced for some weeks, it has a dramatic effect on the agriculture in North-Eastern Syria as well as on the nature. The water of the Euphrates has never been so low in human history!

  • Cutting the Allouk water station

The Allouk water station that gives water to the whole Heseke/Tel Tamir region is situated in the invaded region of Serekaniye and the water is regularly cut for days and weeks. Now it is the 10th time that the Turkish proxies cut the water, letting more than a million people without water for more than 10 days already. The only way to give water to the people is to bring in by thousands of water tankers to all neighborhoods of Heseke. Because the Turkish proxies also never let enough pressure to go out of the station, it doesn’t allow the water depots of Heseke to fill in all neighborhood which means that some of them have been cut from water for months!

  • Reducing the water from the Tigris river

The Turkish state also reduce the level of the Tigris river, another big source of water for agriculture for Rojava. The river is the border between Syria and Turkey and Turkey also prevents locals to use the water or install channels or pumps by shooting at them from the border. While the Turkish side (or should we say the under occupation North Kurdistan) of the river is lush green, the Syrian side is yellow-brown…

  • Polluting rivers

The Turkish proxies are also polluting streams in the invaded areas of Serekaniye and Gire Spî, making the water undrinkable for the regions downstream…