{"id":112283,"date":"2024-03-18T17:10:36","date_gmt":"2024-03-18T17:10:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/npasyria.com\/en\/?p=112283"},"modified":"2024-03-18T17:11:36","modified_gmt":"2024-03-18T17:11:36","slug":"turkey-russia-bartered-syrias-afrin-for-ghouta-in-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/npasyria.com\/en\/112283\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey, Russia bartered Syria’s Afrin for Ghouta in 2018 \u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Jwan Shekaki<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) \u2013<\/strong> It was so disheartening to look at the scenes of destruction and looting carried out by militants of the so-called Syrian National Army (SNA) when they entered the Kurdish city of Afrin in northwestern Syria on March 18, 2018 following 58 days of fighting between the Turkish army and its affiliated SNA factions on one side and the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) on the other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, Turkish and Russian leaders agreed on bartering Afrin for Eastern Ghouta. The deal was closed successfully, and the two governments bought off the silence of the international community.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

March 18, 2024, marks the sixth anniversary of the Turkish occupation of Afrin. Since then, the displaced families continues to gulp the bitterness of displacement, while those preferred to stay in their birthplace have been subjected to all methods of human rights violations. Just a few days ago, a 16-year-old young boy called Ahmad Khaled Ma’mo was brutally stabbed and killed in the town of Jindires by a settler from Idlib. One year ago in the same town, five men from one family were shot to death by militants of Ahrar al-Sharqiya, a faction that was sanctioned by the U.S. Department of Treasury, for celebrating Newroz Day.     <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On January 13, 2018, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that there would be an action \u201cwithin a week\u2026if the terrorists in Afrin do not surrender.\u201d Claiming that there had been more than 700 attacks from Afrin in 2017. Presidential spokesperson at the time, Ibrahim Kalin, referred to Article 51 of the UN Charter and \u201cTurkey\u2019s right to self-defense\u201d in explaining the justification for the operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhere you see destruction, death, robbery and violence, you know, the Turks passed there,” the great Frenchman, Victor Hugo, said about the Turks. Turkey has played a very negative role in the Syrian conflict since its start in 2011 through supporting the armed groups and occupying several cities and towns in northern Syria. Before invading Afrin, it utilized its media and adopted a policy of sedition and incitement between Syrian communities (the participation of the armed opposition factions in the Turkish aggression against the Kurds is a case in point). It defamed the YPG claiming that it was affiliated with terrorist groups. It also adopted the policy of a racist discourse, inciting murder and destruction and encouraging the Arabs to fight the Kurds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe whole issue is this: 55 percent of Afrin is Arab, 35 percent are the Kurds who were later relocated, and about seven percent are Turkmen. We aim to give Afrin back to its rightful owners,\u201d Erdogan said at a rally in the Bursa Province in January 2018. However, the reality is different, as the Arabs constituted only 5 percent of the Afrin population, and there are no Turkmen in Afrin at all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the Syrian crisis, Afrin became within the Russian sphere of influence both on the ground and in the air. And there were two military bases of the Russian forces that were evacuated days before the Turkish invasion as a result of an agreement between the governments of Turkey and Russia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erdogan praised Russia\u2019s stance as the operation was beginning by saying \u201cAfrin will be dealt with. We discussed this with our Russian friends, we are in agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In March 2017, the YPG and Russia agreed on the establishment of two Russian military bases in Afrin, one in the town of Jindires in southwest of Afrin and the other in the villages of Kafr Janneh in the northeast of Afrin. In exchange, Russian forces pledged to protect Afrin from Turkish airstrikes, according to a military source from the YPG who refused to be named for security reasons. However, one day before the Turkish invasion \u2013 on Jan. 19, 2018 \u2013 the Russian forces withdrew from the two bases without informing the military and political administration of Afrin. The Autonomous Administration of Afrin became well acquainted that it was war drums.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The abrupt withdrawal came following a visit by Turkish top officials including Hakan Fidan, former director of the National Intelligence Organization and Hulusi Akar, former Chief of General Staff to Moscow to negotiate, make the concessions needed, and to accept the Russian conditions. The conditions included that Turkey must stop backing Islamist armed factions in Idlib Governorate and must accept that the military operations of the Syrian government forces in the eastern countryside of Idlib are not a violation to the de-escalation agreement between Russian and Turkey. On the other side, Russian must withdraw from Afrin and not to interfere in the so-called Olive Branch Operation, according to RT Arabic at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Once, the Russians said to the Syrian regime: Afrin or Damascus?” a military source from the YPG said. He added that this also was an implicit agreement between Russia and Turkey regarding expelling the opposition members from the Eastern Ghouta and sending them to the north of the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn one of our meetings with them [Russians], they literally said, \u2018We got things from the Turks that are worth ten times your Afrin\u2019,\u201d Hevi Mustafa, co-chair of the Democratic Autonomous Administration in Afrin at the time, told North Press in 2021<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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