Turkey settles 21,000 non-indigenous people in Syria’s Tel Abyad
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Armed opposition factions, also known as the Syrian National Army (SNA), supported by Turkey have settled 21,000 non-indigenous people in the city of Tel Abyad in the northern countryside of Raqqa, northern Syria on the border with Turkey.
Hawar (ANHA), a local Kurdish news agency, cited an informed source in the city as saying that the number of the people crossed the border from Turkey to Tel Abyad has exceeded 21,000 since April 2022.
Tel Abyad, along with the city of Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain), have been under the occupation of Turkey and its affiliated SNA factions since 2019 following a military operation dubbed “Peace Spring” to push away the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) which the Turkish state sees as an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
The operation led to the displacement of more than 300,000 indigenous people. Most of the displaced were forced to relocate to camps established by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), including Washokani and Sere Kaniye camps in Hasakah, Tel al-Samen camp in Raqqa, and Newroz camp in Derik (al-Malikiyah), in addition to others.
The AANES was first formed in 2014 in the Kurdish-majority regions of Afrin, Kobani and Jazira in northern Syria following the withdrawal of the government forces. Later, it was expanded to Manbij, Tabqa, Raqqa, Hasakah and Deir ez-Zor after the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) defeated ISIS militarily.
In May 2022, Turkey’s Minister for Internal Affairs Suleyman Soylu unveiled a project to build 13 settlements that include 250 units in Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain), Tel Abyad and Jarablus in northern Syria.
ANHA said that about 9,181 people have been settled in Tel Abyad in the past three months.
The settlers are from the governorates of Aleppo, Homs, Idlib, and Eastern Ghouta, according to the Kurdish news agency.