Kurdish forces, People’s Protection Units (YPG), controlled Afrin after Syrian regime forces withdrew from it in the beginning of an uprising in the country in 2011. The YPG established Afrin Canton which included the city and some surrounding areas. However, Turkey and its Syrian mercenaries invaded the city in 2018, causing the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Kurds as well as committing crimes against those who stayed.
Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which has been internationally recognized as a terrorist organization, in mid-October took control of Afrin city following clashes with pro-Turkey forces over the assassination of an activist. The US has called on the HTS to “immediately” withdraw from the city.
Russia, which considers HTS a terrorist organization, has supported Syrian regime in the fight against the HTS for years, especially in Idlib province.
Elbrus Kutrashev, Russian ambassador to Iraq, talked to Rudaw's Halabja Saadun on Tuesday about the unrest in Afrin.
“Regarding the situation in Afrin, this [what is happening there] is definitely a drama. This was the biggest Kurdish canton in Syria but now it has been invaded. We hear bad news that demographic changes are being carried out in the region,” he said.
The Kurdish population fell by more than 60 percent in only the first two years of the Turkish invasion, according to the Afrin-based Human Rights Organization. According to UN estimates, upwards of 150,000 Kurds have been displaced, most of them displaced to Shahba camp in Tel Rifaat, north of Aleppo.
