Turkey to appoint one governor in northern Syria
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Turkish media outlets reported on Tuesday that the Turkish government is planning to designate a governor in the areas under its occupation in northern Syria.
Türkiye newspaper reported that Turkey had previously appointed seven governors in the areas it controls in northern Syria. However, it adopts a new approach that involves appointing only one governor.
The newspaper outlined the establishment of a new system to coordinate between Ankara and local councils it had founded in 13 towns and cities in northern Syria including Afrin, Azaz, Jarablus, al-Bab, Tel Abyad, and Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain).
Turkey launched three military operations against northern and northeastern areas in Syria. The first was “Euphrates Shield” operation in 2016 where it occupied Jarablus and al-Bab, the second was “Olive Branch” operation in 2018 where it occupied Afrin, and the third was “Peace Spring” in 2019 which resulted in the occupation of the two cities of Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) and Tel Abyad with their countryside.
Those operations led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of the original people and settling instead of them the families of the militants of Turkish-backed armed opposition factions, known as the Syrian National Army (SNA), that assisted Turkey in its three operations. This step resulted in the change of the demography of northern Syria.
“Undoubtedly, Turkey aims to consolidate its occupation of those areas and, may be, to hold a referendum to announce it a Turkish province as it did in Cyprus,” said Hussein Naaso, a Germany-based lawyer and human rights activist.
In an exclusive statement to North Press, Naaso described the step as a crime and a violation of the international law. “As an occupation state, Turkey must preserve the civil and judicial administrations in the occupied areas according to the Geneva Conventions and their protocols in addition to the Hague Conventions.”
“However, as Turkey is an influential member of NATO and occupies an important geopolitical position that allows it to make benefit from the American-Russian contradictions, it disregards all the international conventions and keeps imposing its will on the neighboring countries like Syria and Iraq through military interventions,” Hussein Naaso noted.