ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Donations by Palestinian villagers are funding a new settlement in the Kurdish city of Afrin in northern Syria to house displaced Syrian Arabs, an Istanbul based organisation and rights group reported.
Since March 2018, when Turkish army and its Syrian mercenaries occupied Afrin after two months of intense fighting with Kurdish forces, an Arabisation policy of the Kurdish land has been ongoing with funds from the Gulf countries and now from Palestinian residents of a village in Jerusalem whcih was occupied by Israel decades ago.
The Istanbul-based Wafaa Al-Mohsenin foundation, which describes itself as “a non-governmental, humanitarian relief and development NGO that works to serve humanity and develop low-income communities,” said that it completed the construction of 34 houses for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in az-Za’ayyem settlement in northern Syria without mentioning the city. 5
The construction of the first phase of a settlement built for displaced Arabs in Afrin completed on Sunday. The 34 houses were built with “donations by the residents of az-Za’ayyem village in Jerusalem,” added the organisation. The village has been occupied by Israel since 1967.
The organisation also said that the houses were built for the IDPs “to end their suffering that lasted for several years,” noting that each house consists of two rooms, a kitchen and a bathroom. The construction of the second phase of the project, which consists of 80 houses and is funded by the people of Oman, began a few weeks ago and is expected to be completed by winter. Qatar is also funding settlements for Arab IDPs in Afrin.
Rudaw English has reached out to the NGO for a comment.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said on Thursday that the establishment of the settlement was part of an effort to change the demography of the city. The houses are built for those Arabs who were displaced to Afrin following the invasion of the city.
The UK-based war monitor added that the new settlement is located near Kafr Safra village in Jindires, southwest Afrin region. The settlement will consist of 250 houses and include a school, a mosque and shops, it noted.
The People's Protection Units (YPG), a Kurdish force and the backbone of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), took control of Afrin after Syrian regime forces withdrew from the north of the country at the start of the Syrian uprising in 2011. Turkey in January 2018 alongside its Syrian mercenaries launched “Operation Olive Branch” in Afrin, invading the city two months later.
Turkey considers the YPG to be the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), an armed group fighting for the increased rights of Kurds in Turkey but designated a terrorist organization by Ankara. The YPG's alleged links to the PKK have been used as a pretext by Turkey for multiple military operations across the border into northern Syria.
A member of the Syrian parliament told Rudaw on June 10 that Turkey has caused a demographic change in Afrin.
“From the beginning [of the Afrin invasion], [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan worked on clearing the areas and carrying out a demographic change in the bordering areas, especially in the Afrin city. I witnessed Erdogan’s attack on the area with heavy weapons and how the people of this area were being displaced barefooted,” Mohammed Fawaz said.
The parliamentarian claimed that Turkey has transferred the ownership of houses and land to members of its proxy forces. “The purpose is to cause a demographic change in Afrin which used to be mostly populated by our Kurdish brothers. However, this will not last for a long time.”
The Syrians for Truth and Justice (STJ), a rights organisation, said in a report earlier in January that there is a forced demographic change in Afrin.
Bassam Alahmad, co-founder & executive director of STJ, later told Rudaw that following the invasion of Afrin, “tens of thousands of fighters from the opposition and their families were moved in. This is in addition to tens of thousands of civilians [who were moved to Afrin],” he said, adding that these people have been settled in different parts of Afrin.
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