Turkey’s settlement project aims for civil war – IDPs of northeast Syria 
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – In a statement published Monday, the Committee of Displaced Persons of Serekaniye warned of Turkey’s settlement project and its long-term negative impacts on northern Syria saying it aims for a “civil and bloody war.”
The committee criticized the Turkish project, saying they “reject and condemn these aggressive and dirty plans that violate international laws and covenants.”
“The Committee of Displaced Persons of Serekaniye” is a committee of the IDPs of Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) region who fled their homes following the Turkish military operation in 2019.
“We view them with great (disastrous) danger through politicizing the refugee file [issue] and exploiting it for political gains,” the statement said.
The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a project on May 3 to settle one million Syrian refugees in the areas controlled by Turkey and the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) in northern Syria.
The statement pointed that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has been implanting these plans since it took control in 2002. They have exploited “the changes on the ground in the Middle East region, by providing” political, logistical and military “support for (Muslim Brotherhoods) and radical political currents and terrorist organizations” the statement read.
Turkey also seized lands of neighboring countries and established huge military bases in it, the statement said.
In October 2019, the Turkish forces and the affiliated Syrian armed opposition factions, known as Syria National Army (SNA), launched a military operation which was called “Peace Spring” where it occupied both Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) and Tel Abyad regions.
The committee claimed that the settlement project and other schemes by Turkey “aim to include this occupied Syrian geography and change its legal, demographic, and historical reality, and is an attempt to remove it from any negotiations for the Syrian file [cause] in the future.”
The committee called on the international community, the US and Russia in particular, for immediate intervention “to stop the implementation of these settlement project that will perpetuate the occupation and destroy peace initiatives aimed at finding solutions to the Syrian crisis,” and prevent Turkey of setting “the ground for bloody civil wars in the region.”
The committee also sent a letter to the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, explaining the fallouts of Turkey’s project and asking for immediate intervention.