Deliberate demographic change, theft, and seizure of Afrini properties by Turkey and affiliated groups
Afrin – North-Press Agency
Muhammad al-Ahmed
Since its control over the Syrian-Kurdish region of Afrin in March of last year, Turkey has followed the policy of demographic change, which is manifested in the recruitment of residents of other Syrian regions and settling them in the homes of the local people of Afrin, and the policy of forced displacement against the local people, in addition to changing the names of the streets, squares, villages, shops, markets and schools, and imposing the Turkish language curricula in the region.
After displacing about 350 thousand people from Afrin, Turkey intends to bring the people of Eastern Ghouta (eastern Damascus), Idlib, and other areas of Syria to settle in the homes of the displaced people of Afrin, in conjunction with the forced displacement of the indigenous people of the region, to carry out kidnappings and threatening them with death and demanding a ransom, in addition to the distribution of local people's properties among them.
Turkey is trying, through the approach of demographic change, to implement the Turkish on the region, to convert it from Kurdish and Arabic into Turkish.
"North Press" obtained pictures from inside Afrin region, documenting the demographic change operations in the region, where the names of schools were replaced into the Turkish language, in addition to raising the Turkish flags on all the buildings and villages in the region.
On the background of the seizure and sharing of the properties of the people of Afrin, the Turkish-backed armed opposition groups have written their names on the shops and homes of the local people.
In this regard, "North Press" has obtained pictures from the region documenting the registration of those armed groups of their names on the walls of the shops and houses, in order to share these properties among them.
The obtained Pictures show the names of these militant groups (Failaq al-Sham, al-Faruq Brigade, Jaysh al-Failaq, Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement, Al-Ghab Sector), the names appear on the pictures written on the walls of the houses and properties of the displaced people of Afrin.
After the Turkish military and its armed opposition groups took control over Afrin, clashes erupted between those militias because of their dispute over the sharing of the seized properties of the local civilians, where disputes and crashes caused the death and injury of dozens of those militants.