Despite ongoing Turkish attacks, Tel Tamr bakery open for business

TEL TAMR, Syria – Pillows of warm bread shuffle along the conveyor belt at the Tel Tamr, slowly deflating as they cool. The industrial oven at the Tel Tamr bakery has been providing Tel Tamr, Abu Rasayn (Zarkan), and the surrounding countryside with bread since it went into operation in 2010. Even when parts of the baker and oven were damaged in attacks by the Islamic State in 2015, it never stopped churning out bread.

With the Islamic State gone, it’s now the Turkish occupation and its allies in the Syrian National Army, a collection of militias formed and funded by Turkey, including several espousing Islamist ideologies, that are at the gates.

“Despite the attacks, the bakery has not stopped working. This is a sign of strength and determination against the occupation and its mercenaries,” said Abdul Rahman Mahmoud, a villager from the Tel Tamr countryside to Hawar News Agency.

The bakery employs 35 workers, “Kurds, Arabs, and Syriacs,” according to Hassan Suleiman, the administrator of the bakery, and operates 15 hours a day, producing 11,000 packs of 16 loaves.

The bakery used to produce 9,000 packs per day but due to mass displacement of an estimated 300,000 civilians caused by the Turkish invasion, production had to increase.

The bread is distributed to the people through the neighborhood and village communes that make up the Democratic Autonomous Administration, the governing body of the region.