Local council in Syria’s Aleppo condemns international silence on Turkish escalation
ALEPPO, Syria (North Press) – On Monday, the Local Council of the town of Tel Rifaat in Aleppo northern countryside condemned the silence of the world states regarding Turkish military escalation on areas of north and east Syria.
This came in a statement released by the council which read that “The Turkish military escalation against areas in north and northeast Syria violates all international covenants and announces Turkey’s intention to expand its occupying projects.”
The town of Tel Rifaat, 35 km north of the city of Aleppo, has been a shelter for Afrin displaced people since 2018 following the Turkish invasion of Afrin and its countryside which resulted in the displacement of about 300,000 of the original inhabitants.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has recently announced plans to carry out another major military cross-border incursion into northern Syria. Erdogan specified his targets in the two northern Syrian cities of Manbij and Tel Rifaat.
“Turkey’s goal of its potential invasion is to evacuate the area from its original inhabitants and to settle those who serve its interests instead, through a process of demographic change as it had practiced in Afrin, Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) and Tel Abyad,” the statement added.
For a month, Tel Rifaat and other villages and towns of Aleppo northern countryside, also known as Shahba region, have been witnessing Turkish bombing and shelling on almost a daily basis.