Northern Syria tribes’ Elders: Turkey aims at occupying our regions through the safe zone
Tal Abyad – North-Press Agency
Fattah Issa / Jihad Nabo
A group of tribes’ elders and figures in north and eastern Syria said that Turkey has occupying ideas hiding behind the proposed safe zone “as to take over more Syrian territories and displace its people, like it has done in other Syrian areas of which it controls”.
The tribes’ elders have explained that “just as Turkey demands the security of its borders, the people of north and eastern Syria are demanding the protection of their borders against Turkish threats which are launched from time to time,” stressing that the proposed safe zone should include local forces from the region itself”.
Sheikh Muhammad al-Mashi of al-Bubnah tribe from the city of Manbij told North-Press that they do not need a safe zone, “because we are safe and live in a state of stability in this area”, stressing that no confrontation has occurred between their forces and the Turkish forces in the area to make it necessary to establish a safe zone.
Safe Zone Target
Sheikh Al-Mashi pointed out that the Turkish threats “create sedition in the region”,noting that “Turkey’s goal is to divide then occupy the region, as similar to what the Ottomans had earlier done”, adding that there are no disagreements between the region’s components of the Arab tribes as well as the Kurdish, Circassian, Armenian, and Christian components.
For his part, Sheikh Muhammad Aref al-Hamdoon, a spokesman for the Syrian tribe of al-Sharabin, said that the idea of the safe zone that Turkey demands is aimed at “occupying the region”, noting that there are evidences of “Turkey’s violations of killing and displacing civilians in several Syrian territories, such as Afrin, Azaz and Idlib”.
Al-Hamdoun commented that “the Turkish occupation will not differentiate between the components of the region if they could intervene through the forces which it had already prepared, as it already has bloody culture”, pointing out that “the Turkish President Erdogan is not only the enemy of one component in the region, rather, he antagonizes all components of the region, as he holds an extremist ideology which aims to divide the country and practice violations against local civilians”.
Patrols
Regarding running patrols between the Global Coalition and Turkey in the region, Sheikh Hassan al-Youssef of al- Buassaf tribe, pointed out that “they have no problem with running patrols in the region to maintain security and stability, and prevent collision between the local forces of the region and the Turkish ones”, stressing that “the Arab tribes don’t accept any Turkish interferences in northern Syria”.
Securing the borders
In turn, Sheikh Asaad Yassin of al-Turkman tribe said: “We don’t object the idea of securing the borders with Turkey”, pointing out that “there is no justification for the Turkish threats regarding securing its borders though”.
Yassin added: “The Global Coalition forces alongside with the local forces of the region must be deployed in the safe zone”, explaining that “what Turkey has done in some areas of Syria wasn’t aimed at achieving safety, rather, it tended for occupation”, while demanding the departure of all of the foreign forces from their areas”.
The security mechanism was agreed on between the United States, Turkey and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on August 7, covering areas between Sere-Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) and Gre Spi (Tal Abyad).