Syrian refugees from Kobani take shelter in abandoned Turkish houses
- 10 years ago
The abandoned building in Musa Anter has no roof, only walls.
But this is now home for a Syrian family from the area around Kobani.
When Hüseyin El Mustafa heard ISIL was coming, he brought his wife and nine children to the Kurdish village on the other side of the Turkish border.
They are still close enough to the region they left to hear the fighting.
Our correspondent Bora Bayraktar visited the village, which is named after a Kurdish dissident.
“Close to the war zone people are trying to find ways to live. Some Syrian families are repairing abandoned houses in small villages like this, to find a shelter and begin a new life for themselves,” he said.
The ceiling is the priority for Hüseyin, whose sons are setting about fixing it.
When they asked who owned the house, the family were told by villagers it was abandoned and theirs to use.
Meanwhile their thoughts are with those who stayed in Syria.
“Two of my relatives have been injured. Another is fighting in Kobani against ISIL. Other than that we have nobody left in Kobani. One of those injured is in a critical condition. We took him to hospital in Turkey,” Hüseyin el Mustafa said.
Hüseyin does not know how he is going to support his family in their new home.
He is one of 200,000 from Syria who have sought shelter in Turkey – many of whom are in camps or with relatives.
Once they have finished building the house, Hüseyin’s sons want to return to Kobani to join the fight against the extremists.
Their father passes the time with other villagers, monitoring the border for signs of Islamist infiltration.
But this is now home for a Syrian family from the area around Kobani.
When Hüseyin El Mustafa heard ISIL was coming, he brought his wife and nine children to the Kurdish village on the other side of the Turkish border.
They are still close enough to the region they left to hear the fighting.
Our correspondent Bora Bayraktar visited the village, which is named after a Kurdish dissident.
“Close to the war zone people are trying to find ways to live. Some Syrian families are repairing abandoned houses in small villages like this, to find a shelter and begin a new life for themselves,” he said.
The ceiling is the priority for Hüseyin, whose sons are setting about fixing it.
When they asked who owned the house, the family were told by villagers it was abandoned and theirs to use.
Meanwhile their thoughts are with those who stayed in Syria.
“Two of my relatives have been injured. Another is fighting in Kobani against ISIL. Other than that we have nobody left in Kobani. One of those injured is in a critical condition. We took him to hospital in Turkey,” Hüseyin el Mustafa said.
Hüseyin does not know how he is going to support his family in their new home.
He is one of 200,000 from Syria who have sought shelter in Turkey – many of whom are in camps or with relatives.
Once they have finished building the house, Hüseyin’s sons want to return to Kobani to join the fight against the extremists.
Their father passes the time with other villagers, monitoring the border for signs of Islamist infiltration.