By Nilay Kar Onum
ISTANBUL
“Even if no one remains, we will be there to defend our land,” says 30-year-old Turkmen Tahsin Kosar, determinedly – “It is our motherland; we cannot leave it.”
Kosar is just one of many Syrian Turkmen who have fled to the Turkish border district of Yayladagi in Hatay from northwestern Syria, after conflict began in 2011.
A representative of the Turkmen ‘Sultan Abdulhamid’ militia, Kosar, together with his family, came to the Turkey three years ago.
They were forced to leave close relatives in Bayirbucak, which has been under heavy attack by Syrian government forces backed by Russian warplanes in recent weeks.
The border region is also the source of a recent diplomatic spat between Ankara and Moscow after Turkish F-16s shot down an unidentified warplane on Tuesday after it repeatedly ignored warnings that it was violating Turkish airspace. It was later announced by the Russian officials it was a Russian fighter jet.
Kosar regularly tries to go to Turkmen areas near his village to support his relatives and countrymen but says he cannot recognize his own land anymore after shelling which has scarred the landscape.
“Not many safe places or undestroyed buildings remain” he says.
Turkmens are a Turkic ethnic group based largely in Syria and Iraq, where they live alongside large Arab and Kurdish populations. The Turkmen community, which includes Sunni and Shia Muslims, shares close cultural ties with Turkey.
Around 1,700 Syrian Turkmen arrived in southern Turkey over the last three days from heavily hit Bayirbucak, Hatay province governor Ercan Topaca said on Sunday. This number is expected to increase.
Living conditions are poor there; there is no proper electricity, water or phone connections in most of the villages, meaning many Turkmens across the border in Turkey cannot contact their relatives in Syria.
Another Turkmen, 38-year-old Ahmed Varsay, complains about the fierce shelling there. His brother is among the Turkmen fighters there trying to protect their homes.
“I have not been able to contact my brother for two days. I can hear the bombardment from here [Yayladagi] and see the smoke rising from the area. It is very bitter,” he says, adding: “Turkmens are in very difficult position there.”
Varsay, who was a farmer in his town before the violence, is now mainly busy with running aid activities in Yayladagi for Turkmens.
Twenty-nine-year-old Muhammed Abdullah has been studying medicine in Istanbul for 18 months. As a Syrian Turkmen, he is luckier than his many peers, who cannot find any opportunity to study because of the war in their land.
But Abdullah says he cannot stand idly by:
"I cannot even sleep comfortably while our relatives and lands are under attack there. I am busy with university here, but half of me is with my relatives there who are in a very difficult situation."
He is glad of Turkey's support and its recent humanitarian aid to the Turkmen region but wants a safe zone to be established there plus military support.
"We can meet our humanitarian needs like food anyway but if we cannot get military support, then we will lose Bayirbucak. If we lose Bayirbucak, Turkey's border will also be in danger,” he says.
Abdullah adds: “This is not just Bayirbucak issue; it is also Turkey’s issue. Turkmens are preserving the border with Turkey."
Yusuf Mahli, chairman of the Istanbul-based Syrian Turkmens’ Education and Development Association, also points to what he calls the “Daesh excuse” used to justify hitting Turkmen villages.
“There is a massacre in Bayirbucak under the name of fighting against Daesh," Mahli says: "There is no Daesh there and no connection between Turkmens and Daesh. The most affected people by Daesh are Turkmens."
“We thank Turkey for its support and its sensitivities over the region," he adds, "It also very pleasing to see solidarity with Turkey, accepting us as an indivisible part.”
Although they are weak in terms of military equipment, Syrian Turkmen have not lost hope of preserving their land.
"We will defend our lands until the last drop of our blood. We are very hopeful that we will win the fighting there,” Kosar says, adding:
“Even if we lose everything there materially, it will be enough to know that our own lands still belong to us.”
