To destroy life, Turkey burns Syrian crops

Mohamed Abdel-Ghaffar

Turkey’s interests in north Syria is still on and growing, as shown by the two recent military operations that the Turkish army launched, allowing it to occupy main lands in the north, military and culturally.

But first, Turkey sought to destroy all aspects of a normal life, as part of the physiological war against Syrian citizens, to strangle any potential opposition or resistance that might hinder its devious schemes in the region.

Among these crimes are near-daily incinerations carried out in areas controlled by the Democratic Union Party in northern Syria. The fires has so far torched seven thousand acres since mid-May in Afrin alone.

Despite that ISIS claimed responsibility in May for burning crops under the control of SDF forces in northern east Syria, especially in Aleppo, Raqqah, and Hasakah, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights published in June 2019 a CCTV footage showing a Turkish border control soldier setting fire to crops on the Syrian borders.

The Turkish side also opens fire at civilian protection forces that seek to reach the area to control the flames, claiming that they get “too close” to the Turkish borders.

Military officials from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) coalition have been affirming that Turkey and Daesh sleeper cells are all responsible for burning Kurdish crops.

Moreover, Turkish forces reportedly fired incendiary weapons on May 29 toward agricultural lands in the village of Abu al-Soun near Sari Kani city on the Syrian-Turkish border, setting fire to around 60 acres of agricultural land.

Similarities between actions by Turkey and Daesh raise questions about the relation between the terrorist organization and Receb Tayyip Erdogan’s regime, and is the terrorist organization following a Turkish scheme by torching Syrian lands.

This operation is not the first of its kind to be carried out by the Turkish army in Syria, where its forces burned olive and vine crops in Afrin during an operation that it launched within the area.