Turkey to settle Palestinians into its besieged areas – How the plight of Afrin’s inherent population unabatedly continues
In the attempt to perpetuate its racist and inhumane policy of demographic change in the occupied city of Afrin, the Turkish army has resorted to new methods and practices, to reduce the percentage of Afrin’s inherent ethnic Kurdish population by settling Palestinians into the besieged city.
While Palestinians had been subjected to discriminatory policies and human rights violations in numerous countries for decades, in particularly forced displacement, the citizens of Afrin are currently suffering the same fate as the Turkish army and its loyal oppositional militias continue to perpetrate the most heinous crimes against Afrin’s residents, including extrajudicial killings, expulsion, and torture. Simultaneously, local and International organizations are used under a „humanitarian“ label for the sake of establishing residential settlements that preponderantly seek to systematically change Afrin’s demographic composition through ethnic cleansing and forced deportation.
Palestinian-dominated organizations used to play a major and crucial role in effectively implementing Turkey’s sought-after policies of demographic change inside those areas that are controlled by Turkish-backed oppositional militias. The spokesperson for Afrin’s local human rights organization, Ibrahim Sheikho, revealed very important information about the unprecedented activity of Palestinian associations which contributed to the construction of residential settlements in Afrin and its countryside, such as the „Live in Dignity“ association that established the „Basma“ settlement in the village of Shadera, located in the Sherawa district in the North of Aleppo as well as the „Khair Ummah“ and „Wafaa Al-Muhsinin“ associations which established the „Za’im“ settlement within the agricultural lands of the Kafr Safra village, situated in the Jinderes district in the countryside of Afrin.
During an interview with Target Platform, Ibrahim Sheikho confirmed that there are 500 Palestinian families in the Afrin region alone, while the number of Palestinians in northern Syria reaches 7500 people, who were brought from Daraa and the Yarmouk camp in the countryside of Damascus, in addition to the camps of Nairab and Handarat, located in the Aleppo countryside.
Ibrahim Sheikho further stated that there is a person named Abbas Mansour who belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood. Its mission is to collect money inside the Palestinian territories and use them to support the construction of residential settlements in Afrin, concomitant with the publication of a report by the „Jerusalem Post“ newspaper earlier this year on the work of Palestinian organizations which cooperate with the Turkish government. The „Live in Dignity“ association’s headquarters is located in the city of Tira, inside Israel, and is linked to several Gulf State organizations, such as the „Al-Rahma“ Foundation and the Qatari Charity.
The continuous perpetration of ethnic cleansing and forced displacement for the sake of asserting a demographic change in Afrin through the establishment of residential settlements is further supported by several Palestinian organizations, notably the „Living in Dignity“ association and the „Charitable Al-Falah“ association, headed by Ramadan Tanboura, which established 3 settlement communities. In addition, the „Khair Ummah“ and „Wafaa Al-Muhsinin“ associations are clearly affiliated with the extremist Muslim Brotherhood and participated in the establishment of 18 residential settlements in Afrin and its countryside with the support of Qatari and Kuwaiti associations and the Turkish army. The most prominent settlement is the “Basma” settlement in the Yazidi village of Shadira and “Jabal Qadhiqli” in addition to the settlement of “Afraz” and “Jabil Ahlam”.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry, however, expressed its anger and outrage through an official response to the letter of the „Afrin Notables Committee“ regarding the construction of residential settlements for Palestinians in the area since 2018, whereby the Ministry confirmed its staunch rejection of any plans to settle Palestinians into the mainly Kurdish-inhabited city of Afrin and invigorated that those associations that participate in the construction of the settlements do not represent Palestine. The Ministry further demanded the cessation of human rights violations and the expropriation of the Kurds’ property in Afrin.
Meanwhile, the international community of States continues to silently condone the crimes and infringements that are being perpetrated in Afrin since the city’s occupation in 2018, leading to the inherent residents being further exposed to forced displacement, uprooting, sheer violence, and severe impoverishment.