Afrin… The Kurds respond to the call to return to Afrin region

ARK News… Dozens of displaced and refugee Kurdish families are returning to their birthplace in the villages and towns of Afrin city in Syrian Kurdistan. A source from the Bulbul town, on Sunday, October 29, 2023, confirmed that dozens of families recently returned to the center of the district and its villages.

On Sunday, three displaced Kurdish families returned to the town center and the villages of Khilalka and Kella, which belong to the same town, according to the informed source.

He reported, "The three families returned from the neighborhoods of Aleppo, and had been living in the Al-Shahba camps in the Aleppo countryside, and the difficulty of leaving the camps due to the tightening of the PYD administration and its fencing of the camps, forces the displaced people to leave illegally towards Aleppo and then Afrin, with huge sums of money."

The source confirmed, "Recently, dozens of residents of the towns have returned to it, given that it is the most harmful town that has faced demographic change."

ARK conducted a special meeting with Muhammad Ismail, Secretary of the Kurdistan Democratic Party - Syria and member of the Presidency of the Kurdistan National Council in Syria, in which he said, “We have serious and persistent plans and attempts to open the offices of the Council and the Kurdistan Democratic Party - Syria in Afrin, and the arrangements are close, with the aim of intensifying the role of the councils.” local communities, embracing returnees, and working to return stolen property.”

Regarding the return process through the Aoun Al-Dadat crossing in Manbij, he stressed, “We have complete coordination on the issue of the return of families through the crossing, and we want the families to return to limit demographic change.”

After the Afrin war between Turkey and the PYD administration, more than 300,000 Kurds were displaced to the Shahba camps, and they became victims of its administration’s policy controlling the camps and the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiya neighborhoods in Aleppo, which prevents the displaced from making their decision to return or head to other areas.

Despite the horrific violations taking place in Afrin, the displaced Kurds decided to return to their hometown, especially after more than five years had passed since they remained in the camps in the Aleppo countryside.

Politicians call for the need to return to limit demographic change in the region.

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