Fatwa Announced from Mosques to Kill Kurds in Rojava, Say Survivors of Massacre

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Three of the families who fled to the desert to survive the massacre committed by Al-Nusra and FSA militants in the Tel Aran and Tel Hasil districts of Aleppo arrived in Afrin. Out of the 3 families that consisted of about 40 people, only 13 were able to save their lives.

The women who could get out alive, said they did not know where their families and villagers were, Fırat News agency (ANF) reported.

They announced fatwa from mosques

Having run away from Tel Hasil with her mother Bêzê Abdulla, sisters Emine Kalo, Cevahir Kalo, Beşir Kalo, Zehra Kalo and six children, 25-year-old Kevser Kalo told about the atrocities of Jabhat al-Nusra:

When the imam entered the mosque to recite the azan, they did not let him recite it.  Instead, they read their ordinance on Kurds. They said ‘it is time to annihilate Kurds’. They announced from the loudspeaker on the minaret that ‘the belongings and honor of Kurds are halal to you’.

They shot my cousin Cuma Diban Kalo before my eyes. They did not let us touch his corpse. They abducted his mother Arife Tarbuş, sisters Şems, Rukiye, Meyedde, Rabia Kalo and his one-year-old daughter.

They had to wait until dark to escape from the armed gangs, said Kevser Kalo.

When it got dark, we took our children and set out. We reached the desert after walking for about two hours in the dark. Our children were hungry and thirsty. But there was nothing to do.

We heard voices around us and not a long time passed before we realized that they were families trying to save their lives. We stayed in the middle of the desert for three days. Then, we somehow made it to Aleppo, and then we came here.

The fear of women could be felt through their words and the look in their eyes. “Our neighbor was killed before our eyes,” Kalo said and added that Hamam’s two wives and 5 children have been kidnapped by the gangs. “We had about 20 families in the village but we all lost one another,” she stated.

We are massacred because we are Kurdish

The remarks of Verdê Hawa, a member of the Hawa family who escaped from Tel Aran, reveal the ferocity of the situation in the region:

We have saved our lives by escaping from our village to the desert with our three children. They killed Semir and Ali from our family before our eyes. We were able to come here after walking under the burning sun of the desert for three days. They have committed this massacre because we are Kurds. We have no crime other than being Kurds.