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ORSAM<br />
CENTER FOR MIDDLE EASTERN STRATEGIC STUDIES<br />
Muhyiddin Kermo al Cebeli abu Tariq: My<br />
nephew was killed during the explosion in the<br />
dormitory where university students stayed<br />
in Aleppo on 15 January 2013. He was a senior<br />
student in the Department of Agricultural<br />
Engineering. I heard it through someone I<br />
knew from Aleppo on the phone. There was<br />
an annual exam in the Faculty of Engineering<br />
at University of Aleppo on that very day. As<br />
Aleppo is located in a central position, the<br />
exam was organized at the University where<br />
the army seized the area. All students from<br />
the neighboring provinces and districts came<br />
to stay in the dormitory of the University the<br />
night before the exam day. After a certain<br />
hour, all the inner and external doors of the<br />
dormitory were locked. Nobody knows the<br />
exact number of students who stayed at the<br />
dormitory at that night, but faculty members<br />
inside know it. When students as well as<br />
the supervisors and observers from abroad<br />
Aleppo were in the dorm, an aircraft dropped<br />
barrel bombs on the building where both<br />
students and some officials stayed in. At the<br />
end of the bombardment, hundreds of people<br />
were killed and hundreds of others were injured.<br />
It is alleged that it was a pogrom. The<br />
future Agricultural Engineers, Civil Engineers<br />
and Architects were all killed.<br />
* This interview was made by Feyyat Özyazar<br />
in Reyhanlı district of Hatay on 15 January<br />
2013.<br />
An Interview with Musa Saleh al Hassaviy<br />
abu Haled who came from Syria to Turkey<br />
and settled in Reyhanlı district of Hatay<br />
Musa Saleh al Hassaviy abu Haled, who is a<br />
farmer, came to Turkey due to the lack of raw<br />
material to do agriculture. He says they lost<br />
their hope for the future when the civil war<br />
broke out.<br />
ORSAM: Could you tell us about yourself?<br />
Musa Saleh al Hassaviy abu Haled: I am<br />
from Salkin district of Idlib Province, Syria.<br />
I am 46 years old. I am a father of 3 children.<br />
I am a farmer. We live together with my old<br />
parents and my handicapped sister.<br />
ORSAM: Could you tell us about your life<br />
before the civil war in Syria, what you went<br />
through during the civil war, and what<br />
brought you to Turkey?<br />
Musa Saleh al Hassaviy abu Haled: Our<br />
lands, orchards, and whatever we had were all<br />
damaged during the civil war. There was no<br />
hope for our future either because we did not<br />
have raw material, fuel, electricity to do agriculture.<br />
We could not do agriculture. Sakin<br />
turned into a place where everywhere was destroyed,<br />
set on fire and roads were damaged.<br />
On the one hand the army, and on the other<br />
hand Jaish al Hur destroyed a great number<br />
of houses as a result of the conflicts. Lots of<br />
people were killed. Peasants, who were completely<br />
innocents, were damaged most. People<br />
were tortured, beaten and killed. Fields<br />
were set on fire, crops were destroyed. They<br />
were completely innocent. They did not know<br />
the reason they were tortured. There was no<br />
authority to put an end to this torture and<br />
massacre, or to complain.<br />
I suffered a lot as well. I had a responsibility<br />
for my family, and they could not stand to<br />
those circumstances in Syria anymore. We<br />
only took our clothes and came to Turkey. We<br />
live in a village called Harran in Reyhanlı district<br />
of Hatay. I work for a farmer here. Many<br />
people coming from various parts of Syria<br />
were settled in this village. Syrians, who know<br />
farming, work as onion and olive collectors.<br />
70<br />
ORSAM<br />
Report No: 157, May 2013
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