Sere-Kaniye Council: We fear demographic changes in areas of security mechanism

Faraj Muhammad, the co-chair of Sere-Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) Council in northeastern Syria said they have concerns regarding Arabizing the region if Turkey intervened under the cover of “security mechanism”, and to repeat Afrin scenario and the Arab belt which was implemented by Syrian government in 1975, through a change that the demography of the region was exposed to.

Faraj Muhammad told North-Press that they have serious concerns on the regard of letting the Syrian refugees in, who are being prepared in camps inside Turkey, to be sent to north and eastern Syria, especially since Turkey has already managed to smuggle armed opposition groups fighters into the city of Sere Kaniye in late 2012, as he said.

As for his view regarding the proposed safe zone, Faraj Muhammad, the co-chair of Sere-Kaniye Council pointed out that they also need a safe area that “deters Turkey from its threats”, and respects the will of the local people of north and eastern Syria, adding that the area would be run by “representatives of the region’s own sons in the Autonomous Administration, as its security would be protected by the Internal Security Forces (Asayish) and the local military council forces”.

Regarding patrolling mission in the designated area, the co-chair said that “we have no problem in conducting joint patrols of the U.S. forces and the Turkish army, as long as the U.S. side is the guarantor of the agreement”.

Faraj Muhammad reiterated his call for Syrian refugees from the region to return to their homes and villages, “instead of leaving it vulnerable to housing by Syrian refugees from other regions, whom Turkey is seeking to insert them into the region,” referring to housing Syrian refugees from Damascus, Homs and other areas, like what had happened in the Kurdish region of Afrin.

Moreover, Muhammed said that Turkey aims to dismember and Arabize the region, pointing at the same time to the participation of the Arab component in Autonomous Administration boards and bodies, and the long history of the co-existence between Arabs and Kurds in the region.

It is noteworthy that the “security mechanism” was agreed on on August 7, between the United States, Turkey and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), of which the return of refugees to the area covered by the agreement, between Sere-Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) and Gre Spi (Tal Abyad), without identifying refugees by their original regions.