Turkey’s deportation of Syrians clear demographic change project – AANES
RAQQA, Syria (North Press) – The Turkish government’s announcement of a project to build settlements and deport refugees from its territory aims at a clear demographic change process after displacing the indigenous residents of northern Syria, an official of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) said on Monday.
Turkish government’s project to build settlements in northern Syria is a demographic change because the indigenous residents of those areas were forcibly displaced due to the Turkish offensives, Sheikhmous Ahmad, co-chair of IDPs and Refugees’ Affairs Office of the AANES said.
On May 3 The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a new plan to deport one million Syrian refugees to areas controlled by Turkey and Turkish-backed Syrian armed opposition factions in northern Syria, and house them in settlements that are scheduled to be built with Qatari and Kuwaiti funding.
This project is planned as a continuation of what Turkey has previously implemented in the Afrin region – by displacing its indigenous Kurdish population after the practices and violations carried out by its forces and its affiliated factions, with the aim of emptying the region of its original inhabitants and settling other Syrians in it, Sheikhmous added.
Those refugees are supposed to return to their original regions and cities through a free and dignified return, and they cannot be resettled in the places of other residents who were displaced to achieve political interests that favor Turkey, he concluded.