Posted on 05/01/2018 2:42:13 PM PDT by Texas Fossil
Locals in northwest Syria say empty Kurdish homes are being seized by Turkish-backed fighters and given to displaced Arab families.
More than 137,000 Afrin residents remain displaced outside their cities and villages as a result of the Turkish military campaign, leaving entire neighbourhoods vacant and thousands of houses unprotected from looting and illegal seizures, according to Sara Kiyyali, Syrian researcher at Human Rights Watch.
“A lot of those houses are empty right now,” she told Syria Direct this month. “They were primarily Kurdish residents... [and many] are uncomfortable returning to live under Turkish control.”
Muhammad Balou, a PYD supporter who fled Afrin during the Turkish-backed campaign and is now living in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, is one of those residents. He says his family back in Afrin regularly updates him about the fate of his apartment there.
Last week, Balou received word that the lock on his front door was broken and a family from Eastern Ghouta moved into the residence he had spent a lifetime saving for.
“I worked many years to buy my apartment in Afrin, and even took out a loan,” he told Syria Direct. “Now people have entered and begun living there. By what law, I don’t know.”
After losing his home to an Arab family from Eastern Ghouta, Balou says he does not know if or when he may be able to return to Afrin.
“My decision to get out of my city and not to return to it was the right one,” he says. “I am known for my opposition to Operation Olive Branch and to the Turks.”
(Excerpt) Read more at middleeasteye.net ...
Turkey has created a huge problem, that will not be solved soon. By force or not.
The displaced Kurds fled because it was flee or die. Now the Jihadi displaced from southern Syria inhabit the homes, as a gift? Certainly not by the owner.
This is certainly ethnic cleansing. And there are far worse crimes by Turkey that I will not go into now.
In the future these new "residents" will endure the blame that Turkey and Assad are due.
Arm the Kurds — heavily and directly. And recognize Kurdistan.
This will weaken Iran, Turkey, and Syria.
Meanwhile, the world stands aghast because we won’t let thousands of migrants from Central America just walk into our country. That’s the real crime, as far as the MSM-Democrats are concerned.
Arm the Kurds — heavily and directly.
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And make sure to include HUGE NUMBERS of high quality 50 cal sniper rifles properly rigged out and LOTS OF QUALITY AMMUNITION for the weapons. Our special ops forces in the area can provide sniper training (including “train the trainer” training) to Kurdish forces.
Additionally, we need to provide them with anti-tank weapons — in Massive quantities.
ComDem Insanity!
Headshake.
We have in the KRG. But we allowed the Iranians to get a strong foothold. That may be challenged soon.
I wished it was a simple matter to unify the Kurds. It is not simple. But somehow it must happen.
Turkey? sigh. Erdogan will do well to be silent and stop making threats for a while. He may find the adults are weary of his antics.
PRECISELY.
As a precondition, have them grant rights to a large US military base to replace Incirlik Air Base. Then, make them a member of NATO, kick Turkey out.
The Syrian Kurds have both 50 cal and 12.7mm Zagros. Very effective long range sniper’s rifles. And built on the cheap.
They have people who are very capable of using them.
What they have needed but don’t have? Anti-Aircraft ManPads.
They have and are good with ATGM’s. Turkey lost 43+ tanks during the 2 months they spent taking over Afrin. Most due to those weapons. I’ve seen a lot of the video’s, amazing weapons.
We give them those, they'll end up taking down our passenger aircraft.
YPG are not Jihadi’s.
Yes, they are a risk due to being subject to capture.
They do take some training to fire.
Some got in the hands of the Turk Milita’s some time back. They took down a Russian aircraft.
Sultan Erdogan laughs and spits at Donald Trump in Syria.
Iran must be paying Assad a lot of Chinese Yuan to do this.
It’s as good as giving Afrin, Aleppo and Idlib to Turkey.
What hells those provinces will be.
Putin gets his pipeline. Assad? Looks doubtful to me that he will be able to keep the country intact.
If Iran is out, the rules change.
That will be pretty stupid move.
Why aren’t we bombing the Turks?? The evidence for what the Turks have been doing is far stronger than the false flag evidence for Assad using chemical weapons.
Why? At this point they are still NATO members. In spite of ERdogan the Islamist’s antics.
Yeah...but we bomb the Turks, everyone in NATO’s gotta punch themselves in the twig-n-berries.
Iran has no input on this matter. None of the parties (Iran, Syria and Russia) have the ability AND the will to fight an enemy with aviation assets, air defense and armor. ISIS is one thing, but none of them want anything to do with Turkey on what is essentially Turkey's home field. Iran and Syria would get their asses handed to them, while Russia would take heavy losses with no clear victory.
AND they’re protecting Christians (and Yazidis and others.)
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