Turkey continues to build colonial settlements in occupied Afrin in northern Syria. In the course of the ethnic cleansing policy, selected groups are settled in the newly built housing blocks by the Turkish state.
Turkey continues to build colonial settlements in occupied Afrin in northern Syria. In the course of the policy of ethnic cleansing, selected groups are settled in the newly built housing blocks by the Turkish state. Settlement construction in the Turkish occupied zone is taking place with the support of "aid organisations" from Qatar, Kuwait and Palestine.
The Turkish state occupied Afrin in spring 2018 with jihadist mercenaries and has since been pursuing a policy of demographic change. Instead of the predominantly Kurdish population, mercenaries are being settled with their families.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that Sakhaa’ charity established a new residential complex with Kuwaiti support and Turkish coordination in the Afrin countryside within the “Olive Branch” area, which is controlled by Turkish forces and their proxies in north-western Aleppo.
According to SOHR, the charity brought in equipment and heavy diggers and earth-moving machinery to the area between the villages of Kafaromah and Qartqlak Sagher in Shera district in Afrin, after uprooting olive and forest trees in preparation for building three residential complexes to settle Turkish-backed militiamen’s families. This coincides with the continued forced deportation of Syrian refugees from Turkey to Syrian territory.
This comes as a part of Turkey’s diligent efforts to change the demography of areas which it occupied in 2018 and 2019 during “Olive Branch” and “Peace Spring” operations, seeking for narrow interests, where nearly a third of the region’s indigenous inhabitants have already been displaced.
On May 6, SOHR sources reported that demographic changes operations continue in the frame of humanitarian work in Afrin by Turkish forces controlling the region.
In the same context, the local council opened “Al-Amal 2” residential village in Tarnada in the Afrin countryside, with Qatari and Palestinian support and under the supervision of a humanitarian organization.
The village holds 500 residential units with complete services, two schools for children, a football stadium, gardens, a clinic, a mosque and an institute to teach the holy Qoran.
Title Photo: SOHR
