HDP deputies question why Ankara resettles Arabs to Kurdish-populated towns in Northern Syria

Opposition deputies from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) put forward parliamentary questions denouncing the Turkish government’s efforts at demographic engineering to make Kurds a minority in towns where they are the majority. The parliamentary questions also claimed that destroying the demographics of an area constituted a crime against humanity.

Duvar English

Deputies from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) put forward parliamentary questions regarding the resettlement of ethnic Arabs in Northern Syrian towns where the Kurdish population is the majority, the Mesopotamia Agency reported on April 23.

The parliamentary questions, addressed at Vice President Fuat Oktay and Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu, also stated that the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) had violated Syria's territorial integrity with its armed operations Peace Spring, Olive Branch and Euphrates Shield.

Ayşe Sürücü a HDP depurty for Şanlıurfa said that thousands of Syrian Arabs had been resettled from their homes in Jarablus to the Kurdish towns of Serêkanî (Ceylanpınar in Turkish) in Turkey and Girê Spî in Northern Syria.

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"When you examine the interventions into the demographic structure of the region, it's obvious that the goal is to make Kurds a minority in Kurdish towns," Sürücü said.

One parliamentary question asked why the Turkish government was resettling Syrian Arabs in the Kurdish provinces of Serêkanî and Girê Spî in Northern Syria.

"Do you know that destroying a region's demographic structure is a crime against humanity? Do you realize that what you're doing is destroying demographics?" was another question. 

Another parliamentary question noted that even though the Turkish government is aware of the origins of each Syrian migrant, it insists on resettling them in the majority-Kurdish Rojava region. 

One question asked who had resettled the Kurdish population that was forced to evacuate the Syrian town of Afrin and questioned whether there was any truth to rumors that families of the Turkey backed Sunni Arab rebels, Al Qaida and ISIS now lived there. 

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