Turkey seeks demographic change in Syria – Raqqa activists
RAQQA, Syria (North Press) – The Turkish project of returning Syrian refugees and settling them in northern Syria is an extensive demographic change process, activists from Raqqa, north Syria, told North Press on Tuesday.
On May 3, the Turkish President revealed preparations for a new project that would allow the “voluntary return” of one million Syrian refugees to the Turkish-controlled areas in northern Syria.
Ibrahim Issa, a civil activist and head of the Raqqa Youth Union, said the Turkish government clearly announces its intention to change the demographic of the areas along the Syrian-Turkish border.
Turkey, through its intervention in Syria, has only caused destruction and vast waves of refugees and IDPs, Issa added.
The activist considered that adopting the Turkish project will produce future demographic crises among the population of those areas, on the grounds that Turkish behavior will produce social hostilities and provoke strife among the Syrians because the Syrians will not be sent back to their own cities. Rather they will be settled in the regions controlled by Turkey in the north like Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain), Tel Abyad, Afrin and Jarablus.
Issa called on the Syrian refugees in Turkey not to be used to serve Turkey’s interests and political purposes.
Zuhair al-Hassan, a civil activist from Raqqa, said that Turkey began the demographic change since the first years of its intervention in Syria by establishing Turkish schools, Turkifying institutions and their names, using the Turkish language, and raising the Turkish flags in the areas under its control.
The Syrian refugees have the right to return to their cities and villages if they are safe, but deporting them to other areas and building settlements for them is totally unfair, al-Hassan added.
“The upcoming Turkish elections are behind the deportation program, so that Turkish President Erdogan would prevent his political opponents from using the refugees issue in the electoral battle,” al-Hassan noted.
He pointed out that the “voluntary return” that Turkish officials are talking about is a fantasy, and that what is actually happening is forced deportations carried out by the Turkish security services against Syrian refugees.