ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The first group of Syrian refugees has been resettled in northern Syria from Turkey, Turkish media reported on Friday, a month and a half after Turkish forces and their Syrian proxies launched a military offensive to push Kurdish forces back from the border.
About 70 Syrians who had been sheltering in Sanliurfa, southeast Turkey, crossed the border from Ceylanpinar to Sari Kani (Ras al-Ain), state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
“We have been living in Turkey for seven years. I’m so happy we are returning to our country,” one refugee, Muazzin al-Muhammad, told Anadolu.
Turkey launched its Operation Peace Spring on October 9 with the goal of forcing the Kurdish forces back from the border and establishing a 32-kilometre deep so-called safe zone along the frontier. Ankara considers the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) a terror organization.
Turkey is hosting some 3.6 million Syrian refugees fleeing the civil war and Erdogan has anticipated resettling as many as two to three million in the northern Syria “safe zone.”
The Kurdish forces and local administration of northern Syria accuse Turkey of carrying out ethnic cleansing and demographic change by forcing Kurds from their homes and repopulating the area with Syrians who are not originally from the area.
There “is the danger of the annihilation of the Kurdish people in addition to demographic change. There could be ethnic cleansing. There is a great threat,” Mazloum Abdi, commander of the YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said in an interview. He holds the United States responsible because US President Donald Trump greenlit Turkey’s operation when he pulled American forces out of the line of fire.
At least 300,000 people have been displaced because of Turkey’s offensive, of which 60,000 have returned home, according to the latest figures from the northern Syrian administration, published by the Rojava Information Center. Nearly 500 civilians have been killed and over 1,000 injured. Turkish-backed militias are accused of committing war crimes against the civilian population.
Washington and Moscow separately struck agreements with Turkey to end the offensive last month, but clashes have continued. On Thursday, five Syrian government soldiers, deployed to the north as part of Russia’s deal with Turkey, were killed after their position was shelled by militias backed by Turkey north of Tel Tamir, according to the North Press Agency.
A second group of Syrians who were internally displaced have returned to their homes in northern Syria, according to Turkey’s Defense Ministry.
A group of 295 Syrians who had sought refuge in Jarabulus, a city in northern Syria currently under the control of Turkish-backed forces, “returned to their homes and lands” in the Gire Spi (Tal Abyad) area, the ministry stated on Thursday.
Some 400,000 Syrian refugees have also been resettled in Afrin, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said yesterday in a parliamentary budget meeting. Turkey took control of the Kurdish enclave in northwest Syria in a military offensive in early 2018.
