The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

“Afrin is ours” | Hundreds of people of Afrin participate in march for 5th anniversary of being displaced

Aleppo province: Hundreds of displaced people of Afrin and residents of Al-Shuhabaa in northern Aleppo countryside went out on mass march in Tel Refaat city under the slogan of “Afrin is ours and will remain ours”, amid chants denouncing the Turkish presence in Afrin, with raising pictures of the victims who died during the operation.

This coincided with the fifth anniversary of the military “Olive Branch” operation in Afrin.

January 20, all Syrians mark the 5th anniversary of onset of “Olive Branch” military operation which was launched by Turkish forces and their proxy factions on Afrin canton. On that day, January 20, 2018, Turkish fighter jets executed intensive and violent airstrikes on the canton’s populated villages and towns, causing horrific war crimes against unarmed civilians and disregarding all international lows and conventions, amid “shameful” silence by the international community.

The Turkish incursion then led to the displacement of a third of the indigenous inhabitants who sought shelter in refugee camps and almost-complete devastated houses in different Syrian areas, mainly Aleppo countryside. The violations committed by Turkish forces and their proxy factions in Afrin canton have not confined to that military operation, as they started to change the demography of the canton through housing the families of militiamen in residential villages established by Turkish-backed institutions; let alone the seizure and sabotage of archaeological features as a part of efforts to obliterate the Kurdish identity in that canton. In addition, the Turkish language has been adopted as the first language of curriculums, while the Turkish flags have been raised on the canton’s schools, where Turkey has been seeking to impose the “Ottoman identity” in the canton. Ironically, all these violations and reprehensible practices took place in full view of the international community which kept silent and did not lift a finger.