Syrian Kurdish official decries US position on Afrin’s demographic changes
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Co-Chair of the External Relations Department of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) Bedran Çiya Kurd on Friday criticized a statement of the US State Department spokesperson on Afrin’s demography.
Everyone remembers the incident when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan raised a map, at the United Nations General Assembly meeting, which showed the areas to which three million Syrians should be forcibly deported.
— Bedran Çiya Kurd (@BedranCiyakurd) August 4, 2023
The main goal of this map is the elimination of Kurdish…
“We also see that the most recent statement that was issued by the US State Department @StateDept that said that the deportation operation of refugees to the region does not constitute a demographic change in Afrin is incorrect,” Bedran Çiya Kurd posted on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
He said this will further contribute “to the creation of further complexion of the conditions in clear consistency with Turkish demands.”
On Wednesday, US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller rejected the notion of Turkey having any intention to manipulate the demography in Afrin, in response to a question raised by a reporter.
Moreover, Miller noted that “refugee returns to Syria should be voluntary, safe, dignified, sustainable, and coordinated with [the] UNHCR.”
“And while we do not oppose individual voluntary returns, the conditions in Syria today do not allow for organized large-scale returns, and we have been very clear about this with our foreign partners, including Türkiye,” he told reporters.
Read More: Turkey labels US concern for Afrin's displaced 'terror smear'
In May 2018, Heather Nauert, the spokesperson for the US State Department, expressed concern that the Turkish assault had led to the displacement of 140,000 individuals that were “not being allowed back into their homes.”
Turkey recently stepped up the deportation of Syrians to northwestern and northeastern Syria.
Bedran Çiya Kurd in his tweet also called this a “flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and the rights of refugees.”
The Syrian Kurdish official called on the US to take “a deterrent stance towards these Turkish practices, and stop the processes of demographic change in Afrin.”
On March 18, 2018, Turkey and Turkish-backed rebels occupied the Kurdish enclave of Afrin during the Operation Olive Branch.
At the beginning of the offensive to capture Afrin, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed that 55 percent of the population was Arab and that the Kurds there were from elsewhere. The operation had significant changes in Afrin’s Kurdish demography.
Read More: Kurds becoming a minority in Kurdish region of Afrin: Statement
Kurds made up 96 percent of Afrin's population before 2011 but now represent about 25 percent, read a statement cosigned by 25 organizations and published by Human Rights Organisation – Afrin-Syria (HRO) in 2021.
Moreover, a report by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) published in June 2018, suggested that “permitting ethnic Arabs to occupy houses of Kurds (in Afrin) may be an intentional attempt to change the ethnic composition of the area permanently.”
Read More: Syrian Kurdish opposition group opposes Erdogan's plan to return 1 million Syrian refugees
In May 2022, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he is working on a new project that will allow the voluntary return of a million Syrian refugees to 13 regions in northern Syria currently under Turkish control
At the time, the Kurdish National Council (KNC) expressed worries over his statement, and called on Turkey to abandon its plan to return one million Syrians, expressing fears over demographic changes in northern Syria.
Nadine Maenza, the former Chair of the official US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), told Kurdistan 24 that “clearly State Department Spokesperson Matt Miller must be uninformed about Turkey’s intentions. I believe most in the Administration are well aware.”
“Even President Erdogan admits he is seeking demographic change in Afrin, [and he] indicated earlier that he was returning Afrin to what he called “its rightful owners.”
“Will these refugees be allowed to move into homes of Kurds, Yazidis, and Christians who were forced to flee during the Turkish invasion, or had their property forcefully taken by the Islamists militias that run Afrin?”