QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – One year after the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) launched Operation Dawn of Freedom across the northern countryside of Aleppo, displaced Kurdish families who had taken refuge in the Shahba region say they continue to face instability, fear, and the lasting impact of a second forced displacement.
The operation, announced on Nov. 30, 2024, brought multiple SNA factions into areas north of Aleppo, including Tel Rifaat and surrounding towns and villages that had hosted thousands of Kurds displaced from Afrin following Turkey’s Operation Olive Branch in 2018.
For many families, Shahba had served as their only place of refuge for six years — until the new offensive uprooted them once again.
The northern countryside of Aleppo Governorate, also known as Shahba Region, houses IDPs of the Kurdish region of Afrin, which was occupied by Turkey in 2018. The Olive Branch Turkish operation caused the displacement of about 300.000 original Kurdish inhabitants of Afrin, who sheltered in some 40 villages and five camps in the Shahba Region.
A year after offensive, abuses remain unaddressed
Local residents, human rights monitors, and civil society groups say that the aftermath of Dawn of Freedom remains largely unresolved, and that many Kurdish families have not returned to their homes in Afrin, due to ongoing security risks and widespread violations.
According to documentation by the Synergy/Hevdesti Association, at least 128 people, including women and elderly civilians, were detained by SNA-affiliated factions during and after the offensive. Of these, 52 were later released, while the fate of 76 others remains unknown. Families told North Press that detainees were subjected to severe beatings, psychological abuse, and extortion.
Several families were reportedly forced to leave their homes in Shahba within days of the SNA’s entry, often under threat of arrest. Witnesses described checkpoints where Kurdish civilians were detained arbitrarily, separated from family members, or pressured to pay large sums of money in exchange for release or permission to travel.
Rights groups also documented cases of property seizure, looting, and the imposition of “fees” on returnees attempting to re-enter Afrin — practices that have been widely reported in prior years in areas under Turkish-backed control.
‘Displaced twice’ – a community without safe shelter
For the Kurdish population originally expelled from Afrin in 2018, the Shahba region represented one of the last relatively safe pockets where they could rebuild basic stability. When Operation Dawn of Freedom began, civilians described scenes of renewed panic and mass flight, with no designated safe corridors and no prior warning.
Many families fled east toward Manbij, Raqqa, and Hasakah, while others attempted the risky journey back to Afrin, where arrests and property confiscation awaited many of them.
A displaced woman from Afrin told North Press that the offensive “destroyed what little stability we had. First we lost Afrin. Then we lost Shahba. There is nowhere left for us to call home.”
Demographic pressure and ongoing concerns
Human rights organizations say the pattern of abuses following Dawn of Freedom mirrors earlier violations documented in Afrin, Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain), and Tel Abyad — regions where Kurdish communities faced forced displacement after Turkish-backed operations.
Analysts argue that the campaign contributed to a deeper demographic shift in the northern countryside of Aleppo, pushing out Kurdish families while enabling the expansion of factional influence.
The lack of accountability or guarantees for safe return one year later, observers say, raises concerns that the impact of the campaign will be long-lasting, further complicating efforts toward local reconciliation or humanitarian stabilization.
Calls for protection and international monitoring
On the first anniversary of the offensive, Syrian rights groups renewed their calls for immediate disclosure of detainees’ fate, protection mechanisms for displaced families, and an end to extortion and property seizures.
They also urged humanitarian actors to increase support for families now spread across multiple displacement locations with deteriorating living conditions.
Twelve months after Dawn of Freedom, many Kurds displaced from Afrin remain scattered and unable to return to either Afrin. For them, the anniversary is not a political marker — it is a reminder of lost homes, fragmented families, and a crisis that has entered its seventh year with no solution in sight.