Protests in Aleppo western countryside along with tension between Turkish forces and HTS

Idlib residents protest against opening a crossing with the Syrian government

North-Press Agency

 

Residents and IDPs from the Idlib region and Aleppo countryside protested against the agreement between the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group and Syrian government forces to open a commercial crossing in Miznaz area in the western countryside of Aleppo, amid escalating tension between HTS and Turkish forces in the region.

 

Hundreds of residents and IDPs of the Idlib region and the western countryside of Aleppo headed to the road leading to Miznaz from the town of Maarat al-Nasan, in protest against the HTS (formerly al-Nusra Front) decision to open a commercial crossing with the areas under the control of Syrian government forces as a result of an agreement between the two parties. 

 

Members of HTS arrived at the sit-in in an attempt to disperse it, and HTS bulldozers tried to remove the earthen berms that the Turkish forces had raised at their point in the town of Ketyan, which is located on the road leading to the town of Maarat al-Nasan, and from there to the crossing that is to be opened.

 

Turkish forces, which are stationed in the town of Ketyan, mobilized in rejection of the removal of the earthen berms by members of the HTS, who in turn gathered near the Turkish point, insisting on their removal, according to a field source.

 

The decision to open the crossing was widely disapproved of, and calls for the crossing to be closed and the agreement to be withdrawn were widespread.

 

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the Response Coordinators Team expressed its condemnation of continuous attempts and the surprising insistence by HTS to open the crossings with Syrian government forces, and to promote its usefulness and revitalization concerning the economic conditions of the population of northern Syria. 

 

The statement pointed out that the opening of these crossings does not bring any economic benefit to civilians in northern Syrian, but rather it provides economic benefit for the two controlling parties, i.e. the government forces and HTS.

 

The statement noted that HTS uses the matter of higher prices to put pressure on northwest Syria with the aim of suppressing the population and forcing them to accept the opening of the commercial crossings with the Syrian government forces.