Inside the ghost town of Shiye in Afrin

AFRIN, Syria — Outlying areas in Afrin district are largely deserted and partially destroyed with few signs of life, as humanitarians say those displaced are "not permitted" to move, and Kurdish leaders claim a demographic change.

 

Video from inside the town of Shiye shows some buildings destroyed, shops with black 'Xs' spray-painted and desolate streets.

 

Afrin includes seven sub-districts: Bulbul, Jandaris, Rajo, Shara, Shiye, Mabata and Afrin city center.

 

The Turkish military and its Free Syrian Army proxy fighters ended a two-month assault on the Kurdish canton last month.

 

As the assault unfolded, people from outlying towns and villages fled to Afrin city. As the proxy fighters, supported by Turkish air cover, entered the city, hundreds of thousands of people fled into the countryside north of Aleppo city.

 

 

The operation began on January 20 and ended on March 18.

 

The UN's humanitarian agency (OCHA) released a report on Thursday, estimating that 137 people from Afrin district have been displaced since January 20. More than 90,000 are in the Tel Rifaat area, 30,000 in Nabul and Zahra, and 15,000 in Kafr Naseh and Fafin.

 

"IDPs are still not permitted to move to Aleppo city or to return to Afrin district, despite earlier indications from the authorities that IDPs with property or family ties might be able to move towards the city," reported OCHA.

 

The French Press Agency (AFP) released photos earlier this week of some markets reopening in the city and children playing near heaps of rubble.

 

Salih Muslim, the co-leader of the ruling Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava), has said the Turkish government is currently implementing a demographic change in Afrin.

 

“That is a very dangerous policy,” Muslim said in a recent interview with Germany's Deutsche Welle outlet. “This must come to an end. Turkey has to withdraw. Otherwise, this will become a new problem.”

 

His comments echo a warning by a conflict monitor.

 

The PYD is the political wing of the mostly-Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG). Turkey conflates the YPG with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), claiming its the Syrian extension of the Turkish party. The Kurdish parties deny the allegations.

 

Afrin is the westernmost of Kurdish three cantons that comprise the self-autonomous Northern Syrian Federation.