Turkish-backed SNA arrests teachers in Syria’s Tel Abyad
RAQQA, Syria (North Press) – On Saturday, the Turkish-backed armed opposition factions, aka the Syrian National Army (SNA), arrested employees of the Education Directorate in the city of Tel Abyad, northern Raqqa Governorate, north Syria, for criticizing the imposition of the Turkish language in schools.
A source in the Local Council of Tel Abyad stated that five teachers were dismissed from their positions and arrested by the General Security Agency of the SNA.
Since its occupation of areas in north and northwest Syria, Turkey has imposed its work and language on the population and changed the names of landmarks to Turkish names.
In October 2019, Turkish forces, along with the SNA, occupied the city of Tel Abyad and its surrounding areas after a military operation dubbed ‘Peace Spring’. About 175,000 people were displaced from the area.
The source further told North Press that the decision to dismiss and arrest them came after the employees objected to Turkish attempts to impose a decision making the Turkish language mandatory in all levels of education, both in public and private sectors, considering it as “an erasure of the area’s identity and the language of its people.”
The source also mentioned that the homes of the teachers in Tel Abyad were raided without allowing their families to appoint lawyers to review the charges against them, while the SNA considers the rejection of the Turkish language as “treason and collaboration with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).”
The Turkish-occupied areas of Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) and Tal Abyad are witnessing a cultural assimilation with a Turkish influence in the fields of education and culture through infiltrated educational institutions, such as the Yunus Emre Cultural Institute, which aims to Turkify 300,000 Syrian children.