Afrinpost-Special
The Turkish occupation facilitates the way for the Kurds to leave the occupied Afrin region in northern Syria towards Turkey, in order to serve the demographic change that it is wrought with the hands of settlers, contributing to forced displacement and systematic ethnic cleansing.
In this regard, the Afrinpost correspondent in Bulbul district center said that the Turkish occupation and the Islamic militias affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, who call themselves the “Syrian National Army / Free Army,” are facilitating the exit of the Kurds from Afrin, and even encouraging them for that, and he added that this happened with Kurdish citizens only.
The reporter added that a week ago, a group was trying to cross the border with smuggling was stopped, and he added: “They were two Kurds and five Arabs. The Turkish officer at the police station allowed the Kurds to cross, but he brought the Arabs back to Afrin again.”
The correspondent indicated that a settler offered to a Kurdish woman take out her son for $ 250 and take him to Istanbul, but she refused and told him that they would remain in Afrin.
The correspondent added, quoting the citizen: “The settler told us that Afrin has become to Turkey, and Turkey will oppress the Kurds, so go out to Europe and rest yourselves.”
At the end of last July, a report issued by the Kurdish Center for Legal Studies and Consultations “YASA” with the British “Ceasefire Centre for Civilian Rights”, entitled “Cultivation of chaos: Afrin after the Olive Branch operation,” said that “the Turkish occupation of Afrin in the northwest Syria, has changed the demographic character of the region.
The report is based on “more than 120 interviews conducted with people from the original residents of Afrin, since the region fell under Turkish control more than two years ago,” and documents violations against the population, including killings, arbitrary arrests, torture, sexual violence, looting, robbery and attacks on livelihoods.
The report concluded that “the presence of the factions causes the continued displacement of the population and put obstacles in the way of the return of the majority of Afrin residents who are Kurds. Meanwhile, thousands of families who were brought from other parts of Syria have been resettled in houses that belong to the original Kurdish population who were displaced from the area during its invasion. ”
The report indicated that “these operations and what is taking place in the region are not a side effect of the military operation and the invasion, but it appears to be one of its main objectives.” That “their percentage was more than 95 percent at the time of the Turkish invasion, while it is now estimated at less than 40 percent.”
