FİDAN ABDULLAH

 Shahba- Two devastating earthquakes struck Turkey, Kurdistan and Syria on February 6, 2023. According to the received reports, the Turkish state has accelerated its efforts to change the demographic structure of the region, especially Afrin, after the earthquakes. On February 12, the Turkish state announced that it would build a “City of Honor” in an area damaged by the earthquake by realizing a project to build a settlement in the Afrin Canton.

‘The aim is to depopulate the region’

Dalal Sheikho, an earthquake survivor, told us that since the Turkish state's occupation of the Afrin canton in North and East Syria, has settled armed groups members in their houses by carrying out a policy aiming to change the demographic structure of the region and to Turkify the local people of the region. Noting that the Turkish state has turned the humanitarian disaster into an opportunity, Dalal Sheikho said, “In the occupied Afrin Canton, the houses of civilians are being demolished. The Turkish state has settled people from other regions in Afrin to destroy the original identity of Afrin.”

 ‘We will not hand over our homeland to the occupiers’

Another displaced woman of Afrin, Fatima Othman said that the Turkish state claims it intervenes in the internal affairs of Syria to protect the Syrian people in its statements, “However, the aim of the Turkish state was revealed after this humanitarian disaster. After the deadly earthquake, the Turkish state did not provide any help or support to the people of Afrin. Many people lost their lives before the aid reached the earthquake victims. Afrin is our homeland; we will not hand over the land of our grandparents to the occupiers. We are absolutely against the occupation and demographic change aimed by the occupying Turkish state.”

Call on international and human rights organizations

Expressing her sadness over what happened in Afrin, Fatima Rasho said, “The Turkish state did not help some regions after the earthquakes that struck Syria and Turkey. The Turkish state aims to change the demographic structure of the region and spread its policy in the region by discriminating among people. International and human rights organizations should not ignore the crimes committed by the Turkish state in the region.”