“There is fear,” Shekho Dlo, a lawyer in Afrin, told Rudaw English. When a country like Turkey threatens a small region like Afrin, of course people will be afraid, he explained.
Many shops are closed and people are staying in their homes, afraid to go because of the threat of war.
Friday evening, shelling in the north of Afrin injured one woman, Dlo said.
Turkey has threatened to launch an operation against Kurdish forces, the People's Protection Units (YPG), in Afrin. The country’s defence minister said on Friday that the offensive had “de facto” began, noting that Turkish forces were shelling the Kurdish canton across the border.
A Turkish attempt to cross the border with armoured vehicles into northern Afrin, in the Bulbul area, Friday evening was repelled, the YPG stated.
Turkey is also waging a psychological war, said Dlo, trying to scare the people by telling them Russian forces in the area have withdrawn, giving Ankara a greenlight for its campaign, including attacking from the air.
Russia denied the reports.
And Turkey’s mind games won’t succeed, according to Dlo. The people of Afrin will resist alongside the YPG, he said, noting that some are joining armed forces and are ready to fight.
Turkey and the world should know that the fight will not be just against the YPG, but against Kurds, he added.
The PKK, which Turkey claims is the parent organization of the armed YPG and the political party PYD, has pledged to stand in solidarity with the people of Afrin.
“Everyone should know that we are not only at their back, but also side-by-side with them… If [Turkey] rapes Afrin, then PKK will not be just an observer,” PKK co-founder Murad Karayilan said in an interview with pro-PKK TV station Sterk TV.
“As we have said earlier, we as the guerrillas of Kurdistan freedom are the rescuers of all Kurdistan. If the gains and dignity of our nation are raped anywhere, we will be there,” he declared.
Dlo called on the international community to intercede and stop the war, prevent Turkey from attacking Afrin where Arabs and Kurds are living side-by-side.
Ankara has repeatedly said it will not allow the formation of a “terror corridor” along its borders and has argued that preventing the Kurdish forces from expanding their territory is an act of self-defence.
“What Turkey is doing is just to defend itself. There is an actual and a very clear threat to Turkey,” Yasin Aktay, a member of parliament for the ruling AK Party and a senior adviser for Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, told Rudaw on Friday.
“There is no doubt that the PYD is an extension of the PKK, the terrorist organization. This terrorist organization cannot be allowed to be located on the borders of Turkey. The armament of the PYD and their very existence on the border of Turkey creates or provides a legitimacy or justification for Turkey to do anything in order to defend itself,” he asserted.
Aktay said that Russia understands Turkey’s position, but complained that the United States continues to back the Kurdish groups, key allies of the coalition in the war against ISIS.
The United States has urged Turkey not to go ahead with its military operation. “We do not believe that a military operation… serves the cause of regional stability, Syrian stability, or indeed Turkish concerns about the security of their border,” a senior US Department of State official said on Friday.
Though it has not received public backing from either the US or Russia, Turkey continues to increase its activity, reportedly bringing in hundreds of Syrian rebel fighters in preparation for an imminent operation.
YPG spokesperson in Afrin, Rojhat Roj, told Reuters that the shelling on Friday was the heaviest since Ankara began threatening military action on the Kurdish enclave.
Despite the fear, the Kurdish lawyer in Afrin was defiant. “Afrin will succeed,” he said.
