Mizgin Taher, 44, is a Kurdish opera singer from Sare Kani (Ras al-Ain), northern Syria. She was displaced to Qamishli following the Turkish invasion of the Kurdish-held area known as Rojava.
Taher sang for her fellow Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) on Friday in the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli on the Turkish border, which is under Kurdish administrative control and protected by the Russian military police .
The event was organized by local cultural institutions as an act of solidarity with the displaced.
Turkey’s Operation Peace Spring against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northern Syria, which began on October 9, has led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people.
The operation, which aims to clear swathes of northern Syria in order to resettle Syrian refugees from elsewhere in the country has been slammed as "ethnic cleansing" by both Kurds and the international community.
Mustafa Bali, head of the SDF’s media office, told Rudaw last week that nearly 400,000 people have been displaced from Sari Kani and Gire Spi (Tel Abyad), which were both taken over by Turkish-backed Syrian proxy groups.
"This is a genocide and a very dangerous demographic change,” Bali added.
Photos: AFP / DELIL SOULEIMAN