HASAKAH/ALEPPO, Syria (North Press) – IDPs of Afrin, Ras al-Ain (Sere Kaniye) and Tel Abyad, which are run by Turkey and the Turkish-backed armed factions, believe that granting their right to return to their lands is represented in the Social Contract of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES).
The Social Contract, which acts as northeast Syria’s constitution, is a set of theoretical and practical foundations, laws, and organizational rules which are established to determine the relationship between the administration and the people, and to clarify the rights and duties of individuals and officials within society.
In July 2021, a 30-member mini-committee was formed to prepare a draft for the social contract, which will be considered as a constitution to regulate the work of the AANES on the political, economic and social aspects. After the mini-committee finished its work, the extended committee sessions began.
The committee consists of 157 members who are representatives of the AANES, political parties, civil society institutions, human rights and jurists, and social and tribal activities.
“The Turkish occupation seized possessions and shops of the IDPs of Afrin, Sere Kaniye and Tel Abyad and settled families of the mercenaries in exchange as they stole everything,” Mahmoud Jamil, the judge and spokesman of the committee of the displaced people of Sere Kaniye, said.
Since the IDPs of those areas are suffering the most, “Turkish occupation should be brought to an end through negotiations with the Turkish state,” he added.
The committee was founded in July 2021 and aims to serve the people of Sere Kaniye and its villages as well as to end the occupation and prevail peace and stability by all possible means.
This committee emerged from a series of meetings, and it represents people of Sere Kaniye and seeks to follow the IDPs’ affairs, smooth their sufferings, and work to return them to their city, according to Jamil.
He called for “confirming the right of defense and resistance according to the international conventions to liberate these areas from the Turkish occupation.”
In 2014, the AANES approved the first Social Contract in the Jazira, Kobani and Afrin areas before the region witnessed a change in the areas of control and influence.
Waiting recognition
In the northern countryside of Aleppo particularly in Sardam Camp, where the 45-year-old IDP Hassan Othman, who hails from Rajo district in Afrin, is residing, hopes that the committee which is preparing the Social Contract takes the issue of IDPs in consideration.
He hopes that the UN officially recognizes camps in Shahba area “We are facing many difficulties in camps.”
IDPs of Afrin insist to stay in the camps in order to be close to their homeland.
“They have to consider all the violations carried out inside Afrin on a daily basis,” Othman added.
“We have been displaced for three years in camps and accommodation centers enduring summer’s heat and the harsh weather in winter,” Riyad Mar’ei, an IDP of Sere Kaniye, said.
Mar’ei pointed out that the lack of international support and recognition have increased the IDPs sufferings , “We appeal to those drafting the AANES’ Social Contract include a special article revealing that we were forcibly displaced from our homes.”
He called for an agreement that grants the IDPs the right to return and to consider and raise their issue in front of the international community and the committees and delegations that visit areas in northeast Syria.
Threatened identity
Zaloukh Bakr, co-chair of Afrin Region Council, said articles of the Social Contract are transparent and comprehensive. “Our discussions concentrated on the areas held by the Turkish forces and the SNA. The Social Contract meets the aspiration of the IDPs of Afrin who currently live in Shahba area in Aleppo northern countryside.”
The contract consists of seven chapters of 95 articles, and it is a democratic charter, each chapter complements the other, according to Bakr.
The Kurdish cause and protection of the occupied territories from demographic change were the topics headed the discussions, she said.
Ala’ddin Jamil Ali, a 40-year-old man of Sere Kaniye, believes the deals likely to take place should include the return of the IDPs to their hometowns, preserving the rights of the people and establishing a civil democratic administration.
It has been a while since the AANES is preparing for a Social Contract for the people of NE Syria despite their various communities and religions. “All people participate in the Social Contract,” Ali added.
“We have faced challenges and difficulties for three years in order to live and teach our children. But I am afraid if this situation continues, our identity will get lost,” Ali noted.
The Turkish forces and Turkish-backed armed factions controlled Afrin in 2018 and Sere Kaniye in 2019 in two separate military actions launched against Northeast Syria under the pretext of preserving national security.
Under the suffering of Afrin IDPs in squatter camps and in villages situated in Aleppo northern countryside, the Syrian government siege imposed on the area and the recurrent Turkish shelling had duplicated the suffering.
Arin Ali, a 33-year-old girl of Afrin who was displaced to Sardam Camp, said “This Social Contract gives us a hope for a possible return to home.”