Qatari charity opens school in Turkish-occupied Aleppo countryside
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – A Qatari charity announced on Monday opening a new school in the city of al-Bab, run by Turkey and its affiliated armed Syrian opposition factions, north Syria.
It is a secondary school for boys with capacity for about 1.200 students of IDPs and settlers residing in the area.
Photos publicized by Qatar News Agency showed a group of men snipping the ribbon in front of the newly established school with a hanged sign bearing the name of Omran School 2 al-Manhal camp.
Turkish-Qatari works activate under the name of charities, building settlements in the areas of Aleppo countryside including Afrin.
45 settlements were built in Afrin, Azaz and Jarablus, north and east of Aleppo governorate in the latter half of 2021 and the first half of 2022.
Turkey has been building settlements in Idlib, Afrin and northern Aleppo for years to resettle Syrian refugees, residing in Turkey, there. Activists considered this as demographic change of the area.
Syrians for Truth and Justice (STJ) released a report on September 20 which thoroughly sheds light on the construction of settlements in Afrin region, northern Syria, by NGOs and armed factions affiliated with Turkey to settle the families of the militants of the Turkish-backed armed factions.
Following the occupation of Afrin in 2018 by Turkish forces and the SNA factions, hundreds of trees in the area were cut down, where vast spaces of forests were replaced by building settlements.
Turkey has built more than 19 settlements in Afrin region through using organizations like Living in Dignity Charity of the Arab citizens of Israel (48-palestien), White hands (Beyaz Eller), Rahma International Society, and other organizations which are funded by Qatar and Kuwait.
Inaugurating the school comes in the framework of “Sham Deserves drive launched by Qatar Charity at the beginning of 2020,” according to the Agency.
This action, like others, intends to change the demography of the region that Turkey adopts in the Syrian areas it and the affiliated factions, also known as Syrian National Army (SNA), occupy.
The inauguration ceremony was attended by Mishaal Al Hajri, the regional coordinator of Qatar Charity’s Turkey office, Okan Tosun, the general director of Anda organization, and the representatives of the local council and the Directorate of Education of the Interim Government in in al-Bab.
Since 2017, the city of al-Bab in the eastern countryside of Aleppo has been under the control of the Turkish-backed opposition factions.