Turkey builds illegal settlements in Yezidi village in Syria’s occupied Afrin
AFRIN, Syria (North Press) – Last week, local councils affiliated with Turkish authorities distributed lands to families of Syrian opposition militants near the Yezidi village of Baflon in Afrin’s Sharran district.
This took place within the framework of the Turkish demographic change policy in the Syrian territories that Turkey and its affiliated armed opposition groups control.
Settlers, who came to Afrin from different parts of Syria, started building houses near Baflon Mountain, media close to the opposition reported.
“Local councils affiliated with Turkey distributed land to about 70 families,” Ibrahim Sheikho, co-chair of the Human Rights Organization in Afrin, told North Press.
Those families are “the Turkish-backed armed opposition groups’ families, who came from different parts of Syria,” he pointed out.
“Building houses near Baflon village will be funded and supported by organizations affiliated with Qatar and Kuwait; those organizations have given $200 to each family,” he added.
With these projects, “Turkey aims to settle families of the opposition groups in Afrin after it has displaced its indigenous residents,” according to Sheikho.
The German NGO Welthungerhilfe made the decision to stop cladding and restoration work on 400 homes in the cities of Azaz and Afrin.
This took place after 28 human rights and civil organizations protested against the settlement project that aimed to settle armed opposition groups’ families in the homes.