Turkey completes construction of new settlement in Syria’s Afrin
AFRIN, Syria (North Press) – Local organizations, under Turkish coordination and Saudi support, have finished construction of a new settlement south of Afrin, northern Aleppo, in tandem with bulldozing works by other organizations in another area for building a new settlement.
Exclusive sources told North Press that a local association has almost finished construction works of a new settlement on the foot of a mountain overlooking the village of Shadereh, about 18 kilometers south of Afrin city.
The sources added that the new settlement included over 50 housing units with a mosque, an institute for teaching the Quran, and a pitch.
Syrian IDPs from the countryside of Aleppo and Damascus will be settled in the settlement in the coming days, the source suggested.
The sources noted that finishing the construction of the settlement coincided with bulldozing works on vast swaths of mountains near the village of Iskan, south of Afrin, paving the way for building new settlements over a space of about 30 Hectares.
Early this month, the Turkey-based International Association for Relief and Development (ONSUR), with Palestinian support, finished the building of al-Amal 2 settlement in Jabal al-Ahlam area in southeastern Afrin within a complex of five settlements.
In January 2018, Turkish forces and Turkish-backed armed opposition factions, aka Syrian National Army (SNA), launched a military operation dubbed “Olive Branch” against Afrin region to push away the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) under the pretext of protecting “Turkish national security.”
The operation caused the displacement of about 300,000 of the original inhabitants of the Kurds of Afrin who have been taking shelter in 42 villages and five camps in Aleppo northern countryside, locally known as Shahba region, since then.