Tribal leaders from Syria’s Raqqa reject Turkey’s settlement plan
RAQQA, Syria (North Press) – In a meeting held Saturday in Raqqa, a city northern Syria, tribal leaders expressed their rejection of the Turkish settlement project and its repercussions on the security and stability of the region.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a project on May 3 to settle one million Syrian refugees in 13 areas controlled by Turkey and the Turkish-backed armed opposition factions, also known as Syrian National Army (SNA), in northern Syria.
The tribal leaders met at the invitation of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) to discuss the military and political developments in Syria.
Sheikh Hamed al-Faraj, leader of al-Welda tribe in Raqqa, said on Sunday that Arab tribes reject the Turkish plan to deport one million Syrian refugees from Turkey and forcibly settle them in northern Syria.
The dignitaries issued a statement at the end of the meeting, in which they condemned the Turkish project.
Early in May, Turkish Minister of the Interior, Suleyman Soylu, said that his country plans to build about 250,000 homes in northern Syria with the aim of providing the voluntary return of one million Syrians.
Carrying out the project would “threaten the unity of the Syrian territory and the Syrian people,” the statement said.
“The Arab tribes reject the project of settling one million Syrian refugees, which leads to serious demographic change in northern Syria,” al-Faraj told North Press.
The recently announced Turkish project to settle the Syrian refugees in areas from which the original inhabitants were displaced by Turkish military operations has sparked official and popular resentment in northern Syria because it alters local demographics at the expense of the Kurds.
Al-Faraj pointed out that implementing the project “will have negative impacts on the peaceful coexistence of the Syrians and deprive the IDPs [who fled their homes in northern Syria following the Turkish military operations] the possibility of returning to them in the future.”