A seven-month-long effort orchestrated by Turkish and Syrian private companies has culminated in some regions of Syria’s northwestern Idlib province finally being able to experience 24-hour uninterrupted electricity for the first time in six years.
The cooperative effort restored electricity lines that had been damaged by forces loyal to the Bashar Assad regime and its backers Russia and Iran.
The electricity that has been provided to some districts in Idlib during this first stage will be expanded to the whole province as repairs on the infrastructure continue.
Useme Ebu Zayed, head of one of the Syrian partners in the project, spoke to Anadolu Agency (AA) about the effort to get electricity from Turkey to Syria in coordination with a private Turkish company.
"We started the distribution of electricity in Idlib. We are carrying out our project in several processes including preparation, completing the electricity network stations and implementation," he stated.
Abu Omar, who has a business in Idlib, said that before electricity came from Turkey, the province had only two hours of electricity. "Today we have 24 hours of electricity."
The Idlib de-escalation zone was forged under an agreement between Turkey and Russia. The area has been the subject of multiple cease-fire agreements, which have been frequently violated by the Assad regime and its allies.
Most recently, a fragile truce was brokered between Moscow and Ankara in March 2020 in response to months of fighting by the Russia-backed regime. Almost a million people have fled the Assad regime’s offensive, yet the regime still frequently carries out attacks on civilians, hindering most from returning to their homes and forcing them to stay in makeshift camps.
For years, the Assad regime has ignored the needs and safety of the Syrian people, only eyeing further gains of territory and crushing the opposition. With this aim, the regime has bombed vital facilities including schools, hospitals and residential areas, causing the displacement of almost half of the country’s population while adopting policies to make their lives more difficult.
Despite the dire condition of the country and its people, the Assad regime announced that it will hold elections on May 26. The vote is expected to keep Assad in power in the country devastated by a decade of civil war.