Two years after Turkey's attack on Afrin, Syrian Kurds vow resistance

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – On the second anniversary of Turkey’s cross-border attack on the northwestern Syrian city of Afrin,  the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), promised to continue its resistance to “liberate Afrin” from Turkish backed-groups that now occupy it.

“We will continue our struggle in every way in order for our people to be able to return to their sacred land,” the YPG General Command said in a statement on Tuesday.

Two years have passed since Turkey and Turkish-backed groups launched their so-called “Operation Olive Branch” on Jan. 21, 2018, resulting in Ankara’s control of the Kurdish-majority region amid widespread accusations of war crimes, including intentional ethnic cleansing. 

Although Kurdish fighters lost Afrin to Turkey and Syrian rebels two months later in March, the YPG promised it would continue its resistance, targeting rebel forces backed by Turkey.

“They commit every kind of human rights violations and demographic change,” the YPG leadership said about Turkey’s operation. “The occupation started with Afrin and continues with Girê Spî (Tal Abyad) and Serêkaniyê (Ras al-Ain) and without knowing any borders carries out a massacre and genocide against our people and the people of Northern Syria.”

After Turkey occupied Afrin, it settled thousands of Syrian Arabs there who been displaced from other areas in the country by offensives conducted by the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Since thousands of Kurds from the city remain displaced from their homes, the demography of Afrin was substantially altered by Turkey and armed groups on the ground it backs.

Read More: Syrian Kurdish enclave of Afrin: from forced conversions to demographic change 

The pro-Turkish government news agency Daily Sabah claimed, “Turkey has striven to bring about a sense of normality for residents of the liberated areas, allowing locals to return to their homes.” 

The UN and human rights organizations, however, give quite a different narrative of events.

According to a June 2018 report by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), there have been strong indications of an intentional campaign of forced demographic change since Turkey took over Afrin from Kurdish forces in March 2018.  

Read More: UN report details large-scale human rights abuses in Afrin 

Also, Human Rights Watch (HRW) in January 2018 said Turkish-backed rebels in Afrin continue to violate the human rights of civilians by destroying and looting property. 

Read More: HRW calls for end to ‘cycle of abuse’ in Afrin, compensation for victims 

Syrian Kurds are now worried about Ankara’s threats that it will repeat a similar scenario in other areas by settling one million Syrian refugees now based in Turkey in territory it seized from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in October along a 20-mile stretch of its border between Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ain.

The YPG provides the military leadership of the SDF, which has been America’s principal partner in the fight against the Islamic State in Syria. Turkey has long regarded the YPG as the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), with whom it has fought a decades-long conflict over Kurdish rights in Turkey.

“The occupation and demographic change which they day by day are carrying out is a continuation of the occupation of Afrin which started 2 years ago. Today, in the cities of Girê Spî and Serêkaniyê, they are expanding their fascist occupation and are changing the demographics of the region,” the YPG said.

The Kurdish military group blamed the world for being silent “against the occupation” of the two towns and for also remaining “silent against the occupation of Afrin which started two years ago and still see the occupation carried out by the Turkish state as legitimate and have shown no effort in taking necessary action against this occupation.”

The YPG and the allied Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) said they will not remain silent about Turkey’s actions. “We commit ourselves to the struggle and resistance with the aim of liberating Afrin and our people.” 

“We also commit ourselves more than ever before to resist against the occupiers and their expanding occupation and to more than ever before protect the value of our people and the achievements of the revolution.”

Editing by John J. Catherine