Turkish NGO gives settlements to SNA families in Syria’s Afrin
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – As part of demographic change policy, Turkish organization completed the construction of a residential village in the majority-Kurdish region of Afrin, north of Aleppo, northwest Syria, under the pretext of accommodating earthquake victims, human rights said.
The Turkish WIFAK humanitarian association, with support from Palestinian organization, has built a residential village in the town of Jindires, to accommodate settlers and families of the Turkish backed Syrian opposition factions, aka Syrian National Army (SNA), the human rights activists, Ibrahim Sheikho, said.
Sheikho told North Press that that the apartments in the village will be handed over to families of SNA factions, claiming to assist those affected by the earthquake that struck the area on February 6, 2023.
The new settlement consists of approximately 48 residential apartments as the first phase, along with a mosque, a school, and a park. Each apartment has an area of 65 m².
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), 42 of these apartments were distributed to settlers and families of SNA factions who had occupied houses seized from the original owners.
At the beginning of the project, these families were falsely registered as the owners of the demolished houses, which originally belonged to the indigenous Kurdish population of Jindires, added SOHR.
Sheikho further explained that Turkey aims to enforce demographic change in the Afrin area by constructing residential villages and relocating families of settlers and Turkish-baked faction, under the cover of humanitarian aid, claiming to assist displaced and earthquake-affected individuals.
He stressed that these actions are part of Turkey’s continuous violations against the original Kurdish population. Unlike in Afrin, Turkish authorities and affiliated entities have not supported the construction of residential villages to accommodate earthquake victims in Idlib.
This serves as a clear indication of the true motives behind these projects, as numerous villages and settlements have been built in the Afrin region, with settlers and displaced persons being relocated there, while the majority of these villages have been seized by faction militants and leaders, he concluded.
Since its invasion of the Afrin region in March 2018, Turkey, along with its affiliated SNA factions, has been implementing a systematic policy of demographic change.
On March 25, the Turkish Beyaz Eller (White Hands) Association inaugurated 80 new apartments in the settlement known as Basma in the village of Sheikh al-Deir (Shadereh), located about 18 km south of Afrin city.
It is important to note that this settlement was constructed in 2021 by Turkish authorities on agricultural land spanning 10,000 m². The construction involved forcibly removing olive trees that belonged to Ziyad Habib, a resident of Shadereh village.
In 2023, the White Hands association completed the construction of 360 residential apartments, most of which were built with funding from Palestinian, Qatari, and Kuwaiti sources, concluded the human rights activist.