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.
