Kurdistan's Christian villages: 'More and more civilians bombed by Turks'
The complaint of Enishke parish priest Fr. Samir Youssef: "Just yesterday morning the home of a family from our community was hit, the fear is great. They are striking closer and closer to us." A new offensive involving northeastern Syria has been underway for a few weeks now.
Erbil (AsiaNews) - "Every day the Turkish air force bombs our mountains and targets our villages," Fr. Samir Youssef, parish priest of the village of Enishke,Amadiya diocese in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan tells AsiaNews.
Fr. Samir confirms the intensity of the new attacks that - since last December 23, in response to a PKK attack and taking advantage of the international attention focused on Gaza - the Turkish army has been carrying out against the regions controlled by the Kurds in the most close to their borders in Iraq and Syria.
"Yesterday morning the Turks struck near the house of a Christian family - says Fr. Samir - an attack that caused great fear among all the inhabitants of our villages. They have bombed many times in recent days, even in other villages where I am parish priest. They hit very close to me, near my church, it was a very strong bombardment, two or three missiles, one of these fell near a house of a Christian family. I also spoke to the apostolic nuncio in Baghdad about this bombing, asking him to send a message to the Turkish ambassador. It is important to tell and denounce, because they are coming to strike ever closer to us, there are more and more civilians in their sights."
“The father and mother were sitting here in a room – says the parish priest of Enishke.
"The windows of the house were destroyed, causing a profound shock among the families of the area. Pieces of missile entered the house: through the destroyed windows even the children of the family were grazed by the fragments. In recent weeks they have struck several times in the area where these families live, who now live in fear of the repetition of these bombings."
In recent days, from the neighboring north-east of Syria, it was the Syrian Orthodox archbishop of Jazira and Euphrates Mar Maurice Amsih who denounced the Turkish bombings which are heavily affecting civilians. From his Church which includes the provinces of Hassaké and Deir-El-Zor, he had defined them as operations "devoid of humanity and which violate international charters and treaties".
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