Kurdish refugees reject government-run camp in Turkey
Kurdish refugees from Kobani are shunning the well-funded and staffed AFAD Suruc camp to stay in nearby municipal-run camps with fewer facilities.
![Kurdish refugees from the Syrian town of Kobani wait to fill their bottles around a clean water source at a refugee camp in the border town of Suruc Kurdish refugees from the Syrian town of Kobani wait to fill their bottles around a clean water source at a refugee camp in the border town of Suruc, Sanliurfa province, February 1, 2015. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT) - RTR4NRTZ](/sites/default/files/styles/article_hero_medium/public/almpics/2015/03/RTR4NRTZ.jpg/RTR4NRTZ.jpg?h=7cb15be6&itok=QkJKk8Or)
SURUC, Turkey — This time last year, Mustafa Hamcu was lord and master of a 22-hectare farm in northern Syria, where his 15-member family raised livestock and grew wheat, lentils and sesame. Today, Hamcu is “lord” of a large gray tent in a refugee camp in Turkey, where he greets visitors sitting cross-legged on a carpet, surrounded by his wife, brother and 12 children.
Hamcu, an aging man with black eyebrows under his red-and-white headscarf, has a presence. The adult members of his family watch him respectfully as he ponders a question before answering, “There is nothing left of our farm, just the walls.” Last September, Islamic State (IS) militants rampaged through Biri Vaki, a village outside Kobani, in northern Syria.