NE Syria Administration reveals Turkish demographic change plan in northern Syria
Qamishli – North-Press Agency
Abdulhalim Sulaiman
The Bureau of Foreign Relations of the Autonomous Administration in North and East of Syria has revealed the process of the demographic change which is being conducted by Turkey in the areas it has controlled with its affiliated Syrian armed opposition groups from Sere-Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) to Gre-Spi (Tal Abyad), while rejecting the silence of the international community regarding the ongoing Turkish military invasion in north-eastern Syria, and calling for halting the Turkish assault and returning the IDPs to their areas of which they were displaced by the Turkish military operation.
The statement which was read by the head of the Foreign Relations Bureau, Abdul Karim Omar at the department in the city of Qamishli quoted that, after taking control of the areas of Ras al-Ain and Tal Abyad, the Turkish military displaced more than 300,000 civilians from their villages, towns and cities forcibly and destroyed homes, hospitals and the infrastructure.
"Today and after all of this, Turkey is trying to bring in people who aren't from the mentioned areas and to resettle them there in coordination with the United Nations, in order to achieve purely political objectives aimed at changing the region by all means, and conducting a demographic change under the pretext of returning refugees", he added.
The statement said that, this demographic change "supports the efforts of Islamic State (ISIS) and the terrorist organizations in receiving and resettling terrorism from abroad into Syria".
The Bureau of Foreign Relations in the Autonomous Administration expressed its utter rejection of "these racist Turkish policies", and appealed to the world public opinion to "act and prevent this disaster against the indigenous people and residents of the region".
The statement said that, "it will open the doors to ethnic and societal conflicts in which we are indispensable, it will also fragment the unity of Syrian society and pave the way for the division of Syria, its society and geography".
The statement asked the United Nations "to ignore the study of the Turkish regime’s proposal in resettling the families of mercenaries in our regions, and to work on forming a fact-finding committee in order to learn about the practices of Turkey and its mercenaries, and the situation of the forcibly displaced people as a result of the Turkish aggression".
The request aims to "document the abuses, violations and field executions against the unarmed civilians and to prevent this Turkish project, which will harm the region and cause further instability".
The Foreign Relations Bureau sees that, resolving the issue of millions of displaced refugees outside Syria lies on the United Nations and the Syrian actors, which can "return them to their areas throughout Syria after creating the atmosphere and ensuring stability there".
The statement pointed out to what happened in Afrin region, stressing that, "the Kurdish population made up more than 97% of the population in the region of Afrin, but now it is less than 25% … Not to mention the resettlement operations which took place for mercenaries and their families, and the internationally wanted of war crimes, where some of them are non-Syrian".
The Bureau of Foreign Relations in the Autonomous Administration in northeastern Syria considered the silence of the United Nations regarding the Turkish practices, as encouraging Turkey "to continue its aggression and its racist projects, as this won't serve the future of Syria nor the role of the United Nations in achieving peace and security in the country".