Syrian grandfather raises 11 orphaned grandchildren

The Syrian war robbed Abderrazaq Khatoun, 83, of one wife and 13 children

Abderrazaq Khatoun rests with some of his 11 orphaned grandchildren in the northern countryside of Syria's north-western province of Idlib. The Syrian war robbed Khatoun of 13 of his children and one of his wives, but he was forced to overcome his grief quickly to raise 11 orphaned grandchildren. Displaced from his native home in central Hama province, the 83-year-old retired farmer and 30 surviving family members have pitched four tents on a strip of land surrounded by olive trees. AFP

Abderrazaq Khatoun reacts as he shows a video taken on the day when rescuers searched for survivors after an air raid that killed seven of his sons. AFP

One of Abderrazaq Khatoun's 11 orphaned grandchildren plays in an encampment in the village of Harbanoush, Idlib. AFP

Abderrazaq Khatoun rests with his 11 orphaned grandchildren inside a tent in an encampment in the village of Harbanoush. AFP

Abderrazaq Khatoun helps his orphaned grandchildren with their school work. AFP

Some of Abderrazaq Khatoun's grandchildren share a meal. AFP

An aerial view of an encampment in the village of Harbanoush where Abderrazaq Khatoun lives with his 11 orphaned grandchildren and other family members. AFP

One of Abderrazaq Khatoun's grandchildren sits outside a tent. AFP

Abderrazaq Khatoun places rocks to protect one of his tents from wind. AFP

Abderrazaq Khatoun smokes a cigarette. AFP

Syria's war robbed Abderrazaq Khatoun, 83, of one wife and 13 children, but he was forced to overcome his grief quickly to raise 11 orphaned grandchildren.

In an encampment in Syria's last major rebel bastion of Idlib, the patriarch says he wears the nickname of "father of the martyrs" with pride, and will do everything to prepare the children for a better future.

Displaced from his native home in central Hama province, Mr Khatoun and 30 surviving family members have pitched four tents on a strip of land surrounded by olive trees in the village of Harbanoush.

Inside one of the tents, Mr Khatoun sat on a long thin mattress, his grandchildren aged from one to 14 huddled around him poring over schoolbooks.

"What did you study today?" he asked the oldest among the boys and girls. "Did you learn the lesson?"

"We did," they replied in enthusiastic unison.

Before the war, Mr Khatoun was a farmer and the proud father of 27 children, born from three different wives and some already well into adulthood.

But Syria's conflict, which enters its eleventh year this month, has torn away a huge chunk of his family for good.

"Since the onset of the revolution, I have given seven martyrs," he said, referring to seven of his sons who died fighting in rebel ranks against government forces.

Then air strikes on a petrol station in the town of Saraqib, where his family had found shelter from advancing regime troops, piled more tragedy on his family.

"I lost seven more members of my family – my wife and children," he said, adding that some of his offspring were small children.

His eyes brimmed with tears as he pulled out his smartphone and played footage of rescue workers searching the rubble in the aftermath of that strike.

"In an instant, I lost them all," said Mr Khatoun, struggling to remember the exact date of the tragedy.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, says a deadly air raid by regime ally Russia hit a petrol station in the town in January 2020.

Syrian war - in pictures 

Syrian soldiers are seen cheering President Bashar Al Assad during his visit to Al Habit on the southern edges of the Idlib province, in a picture released on October 22, 2019. AFP / Syrian Presidency Facebook page

A Turkish gendarme retrieves the body of Syrian refugee Alan Kurdi from a beach in Turkey. Reuters

The guided-missile destroyer 'USS Porter' conducts strikes while in the Mediterranean Sea, on April 7, 2017. AFP / US NAVY

A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency on October 31, 2013, shows the remains of a mortar after an alleged mortar attack by rebel fighters on the Damascus mixed Christian-Druze suburb of Jaramana. AFP / Sana

Displaced Syrians from the south of Idlib province sit out in the open in the countryside west of the town of Dana in the north-west Syrian region on December 23, 2019. AFP

This picture shows a general view of an overcrowded displacement camp near the village of Qah near the Turkish border in Syria's north-west Idlib province, on October 28, 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic crisis. AFP

A picture taken on March 23, 2019, shows the last ISIS bastion in the eastern Syrian village of Baghuz after the defeat of the group. The Kurdish-led forces pronounced the end of ISIS regime on March 23, 2019, after flushing out the diehard militants from their very last bastion in eastern Syria. AFP

Anti-government activists gesture as they gather on the streets of Daraa, 100 kilometres south of the capital Damascus, on March 23, 2011. AFP

Syria's President Bashar Al Assad heading a cabinet meeting in the presidential palace in Damascus in 2013. Sana / AFP

A picture taken on October 3, 2015 shows a Russian army pilot leaving the cockpit of a Russian Sukhoi Su-25 ground attack aircraft at the Hmeimim airbase in the Syrian province of Latakia. AFP

Members of the Free Syrian Army raise their weapons during a patrol in Idlib in north-west Syria on February 18, 2012. AFP

Syrian President Bashar Al Assad is shown shaking hands with government troops in Eastern Ghouta, in the leader's first trip to the former rebel enclave outside Damascus in years, in this handout picture released by the Syrian Presidency on March 18, 2018. Syrian Presidency Facebook page / AFP

Militant fighters wave flags as they take part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa province, on June 30, 2014. Reuters

Syria's war has killed more than 387,000 people and displaced more than half the country's prewar population since it started in 2011 with anti-government protests.

But Mr Khatoun says he has no regrets.

"Losing children is devastating, but defending your land requires sacrifice and I'm proud of them," he said of his sons who died on the battlefield.

"They were in the flower of their youth."

He hopes one day, justice will be done for his sons.

In the meanwhile, "I will teach their children that sacrifice is necessary to defend what is right and demand a dignified life," he said.

Today the Damascus government controls more than 60 per cent of Syria after a string of Russia-backed victories against jihadists and rebels since 2015.

But a ceasefire has since March 2020 largely held in the jihadist-dominated region of Idlib, where two thirds of 2.9 million inhabitants have been displaced from other parts of the country.

Inside one of the family tents, Mr Khatoun's 11 grandchildren crouched in a circle for a meal of flatbread, olives, and dried thyme drenched in olive oil.

The 14-year-old, clutching a toddler on her knee, passed around the bread.

Behind them, some towels hung on a line strung across the canvas wall.

"Some days we go hungry, and some days we eat," said Mr Khatoun, explaining that he was too old to work.

But he said he would do anything for his grandchildren.

I hope "they live happy lives and that they remember the tales of their fathers sacrificing themselves to defend the land," he said.

I want them to "have a house, not a tent, and a car to travel around in," he said.

"I won't deprive them of anything as long as I live."

Batoul, one of his widowed daughters-in-law helps him look after the children, after some of his surviving children left war-torn Syria seeking a better life in neighbouring Turkey and Lebanon.

"We have suffered a lot," she said, mourning her late husband.

But "my father-in-law tries hard to provide us with a dignified life."