Afrin Post – Special
Activists circulated news about Russian efforts to transfer the displaced of the occupied Kurdish region of Afrin, from Shahba to the east of the Euphrates, in particular “Raqqa”, which raised suspicion about what might await the displaced and the future of Afrin later, if the displaced were removed from their city, instead of working to return them to it and expel the occupation and the Muslim Brotherhood’s militants and their families from the settlers.
To clarify the truth of that, Afrinpost contacted Ms. Ilham Ahmed, chief executive of the “Syrian Democratic Council”, who said that “what the activists are circulating about news of the request of the Russians to transfer the Afrin migrants to Raqqa, falls within the framework of the special war practiced by the countries occupying Syrian territory.
She followed : “Afrin has its true owners, and they are now forcibly displaced by the Turkish state and its mercenaries, and so far, many reports have been issued indicating the tragic conditions and great suffering of the residents of Afrin, who have not left their homes and properties”, (referring to the Kurds remaining in Afrin).
She added: “In addition to the tragedy of those who were abandoned, those who are now residing in temporary camps in the city of Tal Refaat and Al-Shahba, and a large section currently residing in Aleppo, Manbij, Qamishlo, Hasaka, Kobani, and everyone is waiting to return to its original place of Afrin.”
Stressing: “We did not receive any such request from the Russian side, and if this happened, it falls within the framework of ethnic cleansing, just as the massacres committed against the Armenians.”
“Ahmad” added to “Afrinpost”: “What I know from the Russian-Turkish agreement is that it is temporary, that is, a truce to create conditions for other battles. Turkey is trying in various ways to convert the agreement to a permanent depth of 30 km, but this distance brings the scheme to the borders of Aleppo Therefore, Aleppo has entered into the plan of the de-escalation and thus under the influence of Turkish influence. ”
Noting that “Turkey wants all of Syria, not 35 km, it claims that Damascus is the property of the Turkish sultans.” Continuing: “Therefore, I say that de-escalation agreements do not benefit the Syrians and Syria, but rather are understandings of the processes of displacement and the evacuation of Syria from its citizens, and turning it into battlefields. ongoing”.
On the third of March, for the first time since the occupation of Afrin, the Russian Ministry of Defense accused the Turkish occupation authorities of settling the Turkmen in areas from which the Kurds were expelled, which led to a fundamental change in the demographic composition of these areas, according to the head of the Russian Center for Reconciliation in Syria, Navy Major General Oleg Goraflov.
The Reconciliation Center pointed out that the number of forcibly displaced persons from the indigenous population of Afrin as a result of the Turkish invasion called the “Olive Branch”, has reached about 250 thousand people, most of them Kurds, in addition to the displacement of more than 135 thousand people, the majority of whom are also Kurds, as a result of the Turkish invasion called Operation The “Spring of Peace,” through which the Turkish occupation forces and Islamic militias affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, occupied the sector between the cities of Sere Kaniye / Ras al-Ain and Gire Spi / Tel Abyad.
It is known that Russia has had the most prominent role in the process of relinquishing Afrin within the Astana meetings with Turkey, in exchange for the evacuation of areas in the countryside of Damascus, Homs, Hama, and Idlib from the Islamic militias affiliated with the Turkish occupation and the Muslim Brotherhood, and forcibly displaced people from Afrin in the Shahba regions, in front of the Russian points, especially in the village of Al-Wahshiya, demanding that Moscow correct its mistake and return Afrin to its people, and allow them to govern themselves within a decentralized Syria, stressing that this will guarantee a decent life for them without anyone dominating them.
The people of Afrin affirm that their main concern at present is to return to their villages and cities that have been invaded by the militants and their settlers ’followers who are members of the Muslim Brotherhood, and who have wreaked corruption in the region that they have not witnessed for hundreds of years.
During their short occupation period, the militants kidnapped and tortured Kurdish civilians, obtained financial ransoms, seized their properties, settled their homes and villages, prevented them from returning to them, racial discrimination against them, deprived them of aid, stolen their properties, homes, cars, farms, olive seasons, and various agricultural seasons.
The militants and their settler families also violated the sanctuaries of the region, destroying the sacred shrines, cutting down the perennial trees and desecrating the shrines of the martyrs, and they had the upper hand in justifying the Turkish invasion of the region, through slander and claim that the Kurds want to divide Syria, to prove the nine years of the national war of the Kurds, and the treason of the Muslim Brotherhood and its subordination to the Turkish occupier seeking to carve out the Syrian lands and restore the long dead so-called “Ottoman caliphate”.
The Commander-in-Chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces, Mazloum Abdi, had confirmed on February 1, during statements carried by the newspaper “Ozgur Politika”, that the process of liberating Afrin will not take long, and continued that “the time has come to re-liberate the areas of Afrin”, indicating that it will happen “ When time and conditions permit, “and that those areas will return to their true owners”, and that Turkey and the militants of the Muslim Brotherhood “could not break our forces,” indicating that they still constitute “a concern for Turkish forces.”
