In an exclusive interview with Medya News, Khoud Al-Issa, spokesperson of the Zenobia Women's Gathering in North and East Syria, outlines the current attacks against women in Syria and explains why the recent decision of the Syrian interim government to remove Queen Zenobia's name from the national curriculum must be seen as an attempt to erase the history of Syrian women.
In the wake of the people's uprisings against despotic regimes in North Africa and the MiddleEast, the protests against the Assad regime in Syria also began in spring 2011. The Kurds in Rojava (Western Kurdistan), who had been oppressed for decades by the nationalist policiesof the Ba'ath dictatorship, demanded both a fundamental democratisation of Syria and recognition of their political and cultural self-determination. On 19 July 2012, the people of Kobane urged the Syrian military and the state apparatus to withdraw from the city. This was the beginning of the Rojava Revolution.
The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, that includes the Kurdish populated areas of Rojava, has stated that the Tişrin Dam at the Euphrates River is on the verge of collapse due to the intense attacks by Turkish military and affiliated jihadist-terorist groups. The administration emphasized that the destruction of this massive water resource in its region, with a capacity of 1.9 billion cubic meters, threatens the biological life in a long stretch of the Euphrates valley that is ecologically the most diverse landscape in that region. It has called on the international community to stand in solidarity before this major destruction takes place.
The majority of residents of northeastern Syria suffer from electricity and water shortage, especially drinking water. These problems are caused by the severe and continuous decline in the level of Euphrates River, and Turkey’s withholding of its water.
Tishrin Dam, on Euphrates River, in the countryside of Manbij, northern Syria operates for only six hours a day, after 85 percent of its lake water level was depleted.
Ever since devastating twin earthquakes hit Turkey and Syria on the night of 5-6 February killing over 50,000 people and displacing millions, the world’s attention has once again returned to the Turkey-Syria border. A catastrophe for all affected, it has been intensified for Kurds in Turkey and the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria
Tişrîn Dam started to work again on Wednesday after being stopped for a week. According to the new work program, there will be a reduction in the hours of electricity supplied to the region.
An administrator at the Tishrin Dam, on the Euphrates River in northern Syria, said on Wednesday that the dam was put out of commission after its reservoir hit dead level, which is caused by severe shortage of water flow from Turkey.
Latest images show that the waters of the Euphrates River have decreased significantly as a result of the water war waged by the invading Turkish state against the people of North and East Syria.
The lands of North and East Syria are becoming desert due to the Turkish state which has reduced the water flow of the Euphrates River for two years. Decreased and polluted waters also cause many diseases in the region.
Large amounts of the flowing water of the Euphrates River had been remarkably reduced due to continuous blocking the flowing water by Turkish occupation since 5 consecutive months, while the director of the Rojava Dam (Tishreen), Engineer Hammoud al-Hamadin, saying” immeasurable suffering would be brought to the area, in which the river will considerably reduce in autumn season.”
As Turkey is reducing the levels of water in the Euphrates River, the production of electricity supplied to the cities in North and East Syria has dramatically decreased.
