Seeking Safety in Turkey: Syrian Refugees Describe Horrors of Assad Crackdown
The limit for Mustafa L. came when his next-door neighbors were shot and killed. His wife was eight months pregnant — not an ideal time to be packing and heading to a new country in search of a new future. Many people had already been killed by the Syrian army, randomly and without reason. Still L. and his wife had kept telling themselves that their home village of Zaini was safe and the violence would not reach them.
“But then they arrived in their military jeeps. They jumped out and killed the neighbors. The entire family,” says L. as he sits on the floor and smokes. With his left hand, he rocks his two-month-old daughter’s cradle. He’s smoking a lot these days. “Nerves,” he explains.
His home village of Zaini is a couple of kilometers away from the northwest Syrian city of Jisr al-Shughour, some 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the Syrian-Turkish border. L. suspects that the situation will only get worse and nobody will be safe from the soldiers, insurgents and gangs. Together with his pregnant wife and her sister, L. fled by foot to the border. The three found a place to stay in a tent city on the Syrian side. “That’s where my daughter was born, in April,” he says, smiling. “The Turkish soldiers wouldn’t let us pass but one day it rained and the watchmen retreated. We knew that was our chance. We cut a hole in the fence.”