A member of the Syrian parliament told that Turkey has caused a demographic change in Afrin
Jan 2, 2024. Posted by Balkan Periscope - Hellas
A Kurdish
politician on Monday claimed that Turkey has settled 10,000 Palestinians in the
Kurdish city of Afrin in northern Syria, adding that Kurds no longer constitute
a majority.
Since March 2018, when the 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 Arab countries, including Palestine.
Abdulrahman
Apo, a Kurdish politician from Afrin who no longer lives in the city, told
Rudaw’s Dilbxwin Dara on Monday that 10,000 Palestinians have been settled in
Afrin since its invasion by Ankara.
“Despite
the construction of 22 settlements in the Afrin region, all 360 villages [of
the city] have been turned into settlements. In addition to Syrian Arabs,
10,000 Palestinians are stationed in Afrin,” claimed the politician.
He also
said that Kurds used to make up 97 percent of the city’s population but they
are currently a minority, constituting only 35-40 percent of the population.
Palestinians
have also funded the establishment of settlements in Afrin.
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.
A member of
the Syrian parliament told Rudaw on in 2022 that Turkey has caused a
demographic change in Afrin.
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.”
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