When the Assad regime fell, Syrians were thrilled that their cities and villages were liberated. After years of war, they could return to their original homes. Thousands of Syrians from abroad, neighboring countries, and different governorates within Syria came back to their houses in their original cities, towns and villages.

But one segment of the Syrian population finds itself in a different situation. The people of Afrin and Sere Kaniye, whose villages and cities are considered “occupied” by one party to the conflict and “liberated” by another, have been forgotten for many years. For many, return is still difficult — if not impossible. They feel sorrow, agony and pain amidst the difficult days that Syria has been through since December 8th.

Kurds in other Kurdish areas, like Kobane and Qamishlo, are currently occupied with discussions and negotiations, at the local and global level, in order to maintain stability and determine the region’s future. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have been engaged in conflict with the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) factions in the vicinity of the Tishreen dam and the Qaraqozaq Bridge. Since the fall of the Assad regime, Turkey has been employing these SNA groups to destabilize SDF held-areas and attempt to occupy the Kurdish city of Kobani.

After 13 years of conflict in Syria, Syrians in other areas are unaware of the events that happened in Kurdish areas in north Syria. Many do not know basic facts about the Kurds and their existence in Syria. As such, it is no surprise that they do not understand that these areas are still occupied. Some influencers, journalists, and media workers who are pro-Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and even pro-Turkey and SNA factions consider these areas as “liberated.” This is why they do not speak about the violations against the original inhabitants of those two areas during the last seven years.

In this context, the people of Afrin and Sere Kaniye are left alone to wonder: What will be their future away from their homes? When will they be able to return back, if the Turkish-backed factions that commit a variety of violations against their families and relatives, who never left Afrin and Sere Kaniye, are still there?

Displaced Kurds and human rights activists from these regions believe there will be no solution unless they can return to their regions, participate in their own governance, and pursue justice for perpetrators of violations.

Seven Years of Displacement

On March 18th, 2018, Turkey occupied Afrin after a two-month military campaign known as ‘Operation Olive Branch.’ This campaign was aimed at emptying Afrin of its original inhabitants, most of whom were Kurds, and settling people from other parts of Syria, most of whom were Sunni Arabs, in their place. On the first day of the campaign, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan falsely claimed that Afrin was not a Kurdish-majority city and promised that Turkey would ‘return’ it to its ‘original owners.’

Among the individuals moved into Afrin were civilian Syrians, including refugees illegally deported from Turkey into Syria, as well as members of the militias and formations that had been backed by Turkey during the conflict.

As many as 300,000 original inhabitants of Afrin were forcibly displaced. Many went to nearby villages and towns in Aleppo’s northern countryside, known as the Shahba region.

In 2019, Syrian Kurds were shocked once again by Turkey’s occupation of another Kurdish majority area, Sere Kaniyeh (or Ras al – Ain,  as the former regime had named it to Arabize the Kurdish region). As a result, hundreds of thousands of people left Sere Kaniye, heading to Qamishlo, Kobani and Hasakah. Once again, Turkey moved predominantly non-Kurdish Syrians from other parts of Syria into the border region in order to change its demographics.

Displaced communities from Afrin and Sere Kaniye continued to suffer following the conclusion of hostilities in 2018 and 2019. In Shahba, Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES) authorities established five IDP camps. The Kurds of Afrin spent six years and 11 months under indescribably harsh conditions there, facing constant Turkish shelling and frequent blockade by the former regime of Bashar al-Assad.

Camps for IDPs from Sere Kaniye were established by DAANES authorities in Hasakah. These communities have endured a lack of water due to Turkey’s shutdowns of the Alouk Water Station, as well as periodic Turkish strikes in the region.

When HTS began military operations against the Assad regime, Turkish-backed SNA factions took advantage of the situation to attack Shahba. also launched an operation to take over the control of Shahba.

To prevent any further violations, the SDF reached an agreement with HTS to evacuate the IDPs to SDF-held Tabqa. In less than an hour, the Kurds in Shahba were informed that they would be evacuated and a convoy of more than 100,000 people took off. While the SDF coordinated with HTS and the Global Coalition to ensure the convoy’s protection, SNA militiamen injured and abducted dozens of fleeing IDPs over the course of several days.

Those that have reached northeast Syria struggle to access fuel, water, housing, and other necessities amidst instability and years of Turkish strikes on the region’s infrastructure.

Turkey-Backed Militias Target Returnees

Many displaced families from Afrin and Serekaniye have attempted to return to their homes following the fall of the Assad regime. According to Ibrahim Shekho, an activist and director of the Afrin Human Rights Organization, 1,500 families went back to Afrin after evacuating Shahba.

Turkey-backed militias immediately targeted returnees. The Military Police and other factions arrested men who had recently returned to Afrin from Shahba on charges of serving the military or working in Autonomous Administration institutions, either in Afrin before 2018 or in Shahba. They were released on ransom.

In the Shiyeh district, the Sultan Suleiman Shah Division, known locally as Al-Amshat, banned people who recently returned from going back to their houses, and imposed a fee of $15,000 on every family that requested their house back. Those who could not pay, about 20 families, are still in Jinderes district. The same group has imposed large royalties of $15,000 or $20,000 on villagers attempting to harvest olives in Shiyeh and threatened to arrest them if they did not pay. To avoid arrest, many men kept a low profile and slept outside.

“These royalties forced some people to sell their tractors, cars, gold, or ask for money from their refugee relatives abroad. Many who could not pay the royalties went to Aleppo, although they had not left Afrin since the occupation,” Sheikho said.

At a January 13th protest organized by displaced residents of Sere Kaniye, Simon Jurjus expressed his frustration at not being able to return to his home. ‘When the Assad regime fell, all Syrians felt joy, but we, the displaced, still cannot celebrate. We remain far from our city,” he said.

Displaced Serekaniye resident Ahmad al-Khudur said, “I am not able to return to my village because of the shelling and the factions will arrest me. Whoever returns will be arrested, killed or will be released only for ransom. This has already happened with residents from our village who returned, on the pretext that they came from the areas controlled by the SDF.”

Demographic Change Policies Persist

Syrians who were moved into the occupied zones under Turkish supervision remain in homes and properties belonging to the original residents of Afrin and Serekaniye, further impeding returns.

Turkish authorities justified the transfer of these populations to occupied territories by claiming that they could not safely return to regime-held areas. “After the fall of the regime, we were optimistic that these Arab settlers would return to their homes [in formerly regime-held areas], Afrin inhabitants would go back to theirs, and that this would end the demographic change in Syria that was Turkey’s main aim and that has reached almost 80%,” Sheikho said.

This has not been the case in practice. “Those who occupy our homes have been saying that the regime abandoned us. But now the regime has fallen, why don’t they go back to their homes?” wondered Ibrahim Alo, one of the thousands of displaced people from Sere Kaniyeh who has been in Tal Tamer since the invasion in 2019.

Local sources believe that Turkey is to blame. Abd al-Halim Suleiman, a journalist from Sere Kaniye who fled after the Turkish invasion, said sources within the city told him that militants, unarmed persons, and their families, especially those who came from areas like Homs and Hama, want to return to their homes. Many have already left and many neighborhoods have been evacuated.

“In general, all those who are not from the eastern region want to return to their home areas. But, those from the eastern areas (Tal Hamis, Hasakah, Deir ez-Zor) are divided into two groups: one that wants the situation to be safer first, and the other, who are related to militants, who do not want to return currently,” Suleiman explained.

“Those who left either returned through the Ceylanpinar crossing from Turkey because they had the requisite identity card, through trafficking, or through Autonomous Administration areas,” he added.

The SDF have called on those involved in fighting against them to surrender in exchange for support in returning to their homes. It is Turkey that prevents the factions and their families from leaving. Turkish authorities either encourage them to stay with steps like salary increases or force them to stay by ordering the Military Police to arrest those who intend to return.

A commander within the Turkish-backed SNA stated that many of the settlers who entered Afrin after the Turkish invasion have begun leaving the city. “They are moving to distant villages such as Mabrouka, seeking ways to escape back to their original regions in Homs and Hama. Many of them see no reason to remain in Sere Kaniye, especially after the fall of the regime,” he added.

One SNA leader said that the Sultan Murad division had arrested 25 gunmen who were attempting to cross into the SDF areas and surrender themselves to return to their homes and handed them over to the Military Police.

Lack of Justice

The presence of militias and the persistence of Turkey’s demographic change project are not the only obstacles that displaced Kurdish communities from Afrin and Serekaniye see today. They fear that Syria’s new authorities may be reinforcing impunity for the violations that forced them to flee and continue to prevent them from returning home.

The new government’s self-declared ‘Victory Conference’ dashed the hopes of many Afrin and Serekaniye residents. Leaders from groups like the Sultan Suleiman Shah Division, the Hamza Division, and Ahrar al-Sharqiyah, all infamous for violations in Afrin and Serekaniye, were present at the conference — and have been given positions in Syria’s new security structure.

Lonjin Abdo survived detention in the Hamza Division’s prisons in Afrin. Today, she is the Executive Director of the Lelun Organization. She expressed her frustration with the inclusion of these groups in the new army: “No justice is complete unless those who committed violations are held accountable and prosecuted”.

“In this transitional period, I consider it difficult to achieve justice while human rights abusers are appointed to leadership positions and presenting themselves as Syria’s “liberators”, like Sayf Abo Baker, the leader of the Hamza Division, who was given an official role within the military,” Abdo said.

Suad Mistefa is the mother of Hevrin Khalaf, a Kurdish politician assassinated by Ahrar al-Sharqiyah militiamen during the Turkish invasion of Sere Kaniye. She also expressed outrage at the ‘Victory Conference,’ demanding that her daughter’s killers be brought to justice — not rewarded.

“I do not accept that Hevrin’s murderers have a role in the future of Syria. How can murderers, criminals and gangs have a role? I condemn the participation of my daughter’s killer in a congress that took place in front of the eyes of the whole world,” she said.

Conclusion

Several issues must be resolved to guarantee the safe return of the original populations of Afrin and Serekaniye.

Before anything else, Turkey must immediately end its occupation of Syrian territory. So far, there have been only limited steps towards restoring Syrian sovereignty in Afrin and Sere Kaniye. A transitional government military parade recently entered Afrin and exited it after a few hours. The primary result of this visit was the arrest by the Turkey-backed Military Police of four Kurdish men who had raised Kurdistan Region flags when the convoy entered.

Any intra-Syrian political settlement to resolve the status of Kurdish areas under DAANES control must include Afrin and Sere Kaniye, too.

“When Afrin was occupied, its Kurdish identity was eliminated. We, as the people of Afrin, want to restore this identity again by strengthening its national presence with other Kurdish areas in Syria. Therefore, all Kurdish political and non-political actors should not renounce Afrin, and any solution put forward for Kurdish areas must include Afrin. Otherwise, we will lose it to Turkey for good,” Ibrahim Sheikho said.

That solution must give the original inhabitants of those regions the power to govern themselves. “The people of Sere Kaniye want their area to be managed only by them. They do not want an external administration or strangers to take control,” said Abd al-Halim Suleiman.

Transitional justice efforts must include survivors from Afrin and Sere Kaniye and punish, not reward, perpetrators of abuses in those regions. “As Syrians, we must recognize the seriousness of the lack of justice when perpetrators are in positions in the interim or future government. Violations against civilians, especially by factions such as ‘al-Amshat’, should not be condoned,” Lonjin Abdo said.

(Photo: Hawar News)