The Committee of Serêkaniyê and Girê Spî IDPs staged a march in Qamishlo city of Cizre Canton under the slogan ‘Safe return to Serêkaniyê’.

The march from 12 March Stadium to the United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Refugees Office was also attended by representatives of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, non-governmental organisations and thousands of IDPs from Serêkaniyê and Qamishlo residents.

The march was followed by a minute of silence, after which Fatma Elî, Head of Washokanî Camp School, read a letter addressed to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, which stated the following:

“Changes are taking place in Syria after the fall of the Assad regime. On this basis, we want our voice to be heard by all international organisations. For more than 5 years, Serêkaniyê and Girê Spî regions have been under the occupation of the Turkish state and its mercenaries. According to UN reports, 85 percent of the local population consisting of Kurds, Arabs, Syriacs and many other communities have been displaced and replaced by tens of thousands of people from Syria. We ask you to take into account the occupation of the Serêkaniyê and Girê Spî regions by the Turkish state and its mercenaries, who have carried out attacks, seizing the property of citizens and destroying the area. All these offences were committed by armed groups under the umbrella of the ‘Free Syrian Army’ (FSA). We hope that you will fulfil our legitimate demand for a safe return as soon as possible.”

The letter was delivered to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees by the Committee of Serêkaniyê IDPs.