Turkey continues Turkification policy in its held areas northern Syria
JARABLUS, Syria (North Press) – The governor of the Turkish state of Gaziantep opened, yesterday, a new Turkish center called Scientific Research and visited a center for teaching the Turkish language in the city of Jarablus, east of the city of Aleppo in northern Syria.
“The governor of Gaziantep Daoud Gul opened a center specialized in scientific research at Ahmad Salim Mulla School in the center of Jarablus, after visiting the city of Afrin,” an exclusive source told North Press.
In 2016, Turkish forces and Turkish-backed armed opposition groups took control over the city of Jarablus.
The Turkish forces are controlling different parts of northern Syria through Turkish-backed armed opposition factions in Jarablus, Azaz, al-Bab, and Afrin in the northern countryside of Aleppo.
The source noted to the visit of the Turkish governor to the Younes Emra center specialized in teaching and publishing the Turkish language, along with officials and members of the local council of Jarablus.
Late in 2021, Turkish officials opened the first center of the Anadolu Turkish Academy in the city of Azaz in the northern countryside of Aleppo, as part of the ongoing policy of Turkification of the areas run by Turkey.
The region includes faculties of the Turkish University of Gaziantep, divided between the Faculty of Economics in the city of al-Bab, the Faculty of Sharia in Azaz, and the Faculty of Education in Afrin.
Turkey, through imposing certain culture, seeks to find a foothold in Syria and impose a de facto policy on the areas it controls in the northwest of the country, in cooperation with the affiliated armed factions.
Turkey has imposed Turkish language in the educational curricula at all levels as part of Turkey’s policy of Turkification and demographic change in its areas of control.
It should be mentioned that Turkey has opened several schools and centers in the areas under its control in northwest Syria to teach the Turkish language.
Activists and observers argue that Turkey is paving the way, through education and other means, for expansionist plans similar to the scenario of The Sanjak of Alexandretta, which was taken by Turkey in 1936.
According to activists and observers, Turkey is strengthening its policy of Turkification, to give the civil and cultural sectors a Turkish character with the aim of annex these areas to it. This, of course, contradicts the official Turkish statements that keep talking about the unity and integrity of the Syrian territories.