Turkish settlements in Syria crime against humanity – Suwayda’s politicians
SUWAYDA, Syria (North Press) – Politicians in the southern governorate of Syria’s Suwayda said that settlements Turkey is establishing in northern Syria is no more than a process of ethnic cleansing against the region’s population and a crime against humanity.
In early May, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that his country is making the necessary preparations for a project that allows the voluntary return of one million Syrians to 13 regions.
He added that aid organizations will finance this project. The project targets refugees who have got temporary protection ID (Kimlik), and it gives them the right to benefit from the houses for either 5 or 10 years.
The number of the settlements Turkey built in Idlib has reached about 50, most of them near Mashhad Rouhin area, north of Idlib, according to North Press reporters.
While 45 settlements were built in Afrin, Azaz and Jarablus, north and east of Aleppo governorate in the latter half of 2021 and the first half of 2022.
Samir Azzam, a politician oppositionist from Suwayda, said that the Turkish project is an ethnic cleansing targeting the region’s population and a crime against humanity under international law.
Afflicted Kurdish people should not count on international law and the United Nations; instead they have the right to resist militarily, politically and legally, according to Azzam.
The Turkish plan “violates the international law and attacks the Syrian sovereignty,” lawyer Adel al-Hadi told North Press.
“The plan also violates contravention of international humanitarian law because it changes the demography of the region,” al-Hadi added.
Syrian refugees have the right to go back to their homes from which they fled, not to be settled in the lands of other Syrians, according to the lawyer.
The Turkish occupation always cares about its own interests and seeks to create new reasons for conflict that may last for years and destroy the Syrian social fabric, he added.
Fawaz Khayio, a Journalist who is also a resident of Suwayda governorate, told North Press that the Turkish goal of this plan is to alter the demography to the detriment of the Kurds.
“Many are deported in order to disperse many,” he said.
No one can ignore “Erdogen’s aspiration to obsess and expand into Arab’s territories,” according to Khew.
“We cannot trust the Turkish term Safe Zone because the goal of the project is to devour more Syrian lands,” he said.
He further explained that Turkey is legitimating the Turkish language, raising its flags over many Islamists’ headquarters and adapting the Turkish curriculum in schools in the areas it occupies.
Turkey is trying to expel the Syrians from its cities claiming that they impose an economic burden on Turkey, but in reality, they support the Turkish economy in many projects, he added.