Citizens of northern Syria are protesting the terrorist group PKK’s Syrian offshoot YPG’s plans for a so-called local election.
Residents of the Tal Rifaat district who were forcibly displaced into tents near the Turkish border after the YPG occupied their homes and plots say the terrorists’ plans are “unacceptable.”
Mahmoud Allito, a tent city resident in Tal Rifaat, told Anadolu Agency (AA) that most of his fellow residents, nearly 7,250 families, forced to abandon their homes in Tal Rifaat are now unable to return despite being very close to it.
“There are only 200 original families left in Tal Rifaat. Holding such an 'election' while the people of Tal Rifaat aren’t there is unacceptable. How can (the YPG) think they can represent Tal Rifaat?” Alito said. “They drove nearly 250,000 away from their homes. How are you going to let them rule lands that aren’t theirs? We refuse their rule on lands that don’t belong to them.”
Another Tal Rifaat native, Omar Charrad, recalled that the forced displacement of 250,000 people began with YPG attacks in 2016.
“These people live in tents because they don’t want to live under the organization’s rule. How can they talk about an 'election' while the people of Tal Rifaat aren’t there? Which humanity are they talking about? There can only be real elections once we return and only the real owners can rule Tal Rifaat,” Charrad said.
Tal Rifaat natives have been waiting for eight years to return home. Bashir Allito, who belongs to a prominent Tal Rifaat household, said he never lost hope of returning to his home “that is only 8 kilometers (4.97 miles) away.”
“We preserve the hope of going back to Tal Rifaat, which is occupied by the terrorist organization that deprives our people of health care, education and welfare,” he said.
The YPG has occupied nearly 48 villages and areas of Tal Rifaat and the rulers are “foreigners from the Qandil Mountain,” Allito added, referring to the PKK’s stronghold in the northern Iraqi region.
The YPG’s so-called elections cannot take place when there are no locals to speak of, Allito continued.
“What is real is that non-Syrians connected to external forces are trying to wield power in Tal Rifaat. They have changed the demographic of the region. This election is not acceptable,” he said.
Residents took to the streets in Jarablus, Azaz, Afrin, al-Bab and Tal Abyad districts last week in protest of the YPG’s plans, carrying banners declaring: “We will not accept terrorists exploit Syria to threaten neighboring countries,” “PKK’s plans to divide Syria will not succeed,” “Racist terrorist group cannot hold elections,” and more.
After decades of a bloody campaign for a so-called Kurdish state encompassing Türkiye and Iraq, the PKK strives for legitimacy in Syria’s north, notably with a so-called local election in the coming months in regions controlled by the YPG.
The PKK, which always promoted itself as a “political party,” accentuates it recently in a bid to cultivate international support. The United States has already thrown its full support to the group’s Syrian wing under the guise of cooperation against another terrorist group, Daesh.
Its plan to organize "elections" is viewed as null and void in Syria, which has been mired in a civil war since 2011.
A U.N. resolution adopted in 2015 by the U.N. Security Council, which the U.S. is also a party to, calls for a cease-fire and political settlement in the war-torn country and highlights that the only sustainable solution to the crisis in Syria is an inclusive and Syrian-led political process. It calls for commitment to Syria’s unity and territorial integrity.
The terrorist group conveniently contravened the resolution and launched a “local election” process in northeastern Syria. It initially set the date as May 30 before postponing it to June 11. So-called elections are planned in regions and towns, including Jazeera, Deir ez-Zor, Raqqa, Tabqa, Manbij and Afrin, where YPG has strongholds. Turkish sources say the PKK aims to achieve an “autonomous” status first in Syria before moving to the next stage of its plan: an independent state.
Syrian Kurdish National Council (ENKS), a local political party, announced that it would boycott the elections. The party’s secretary-general, Muhammad Ismail, was quoted by media that they viewed the elections as “illegitimate.” More political parties are expected to join this boycott.
Last year, the group hired a U.S.-based PR firm to represent its interests in Washington, according to the Turkish media, in another bid to gain legitimacy.
Taking advantage of the power vacuum created by the Syrian civil war in 2011, the PKK/YPG has since 2015 occupied several Syrian provinces, including Arab-majority Deir el-Zour, a resource-rich region bordering Iraq, bisected by the Euphrates River and home to dozens of tribal communities.
The terrorist group has forced many locals to migrate, bringing in its militants to change the regional demographic structure, conducting arbitrary arrests, kidnapping children of local tribes for forced recruitment, and assassinating tribe leaders to yoke local groups.
It has also seized the region's oil wells – Syria's largest – and smuggles oil to the Syrian regime, despite U.S. sanctions, to generate revenue for its activities.
Since then, U.S. forces in Syria have trained thousands of YPG/PKK terrorists in their military bases in the region under the pretext of combating terrorism.
The U.S. has also provided YPG/PKK terrorists with huge amounts of weapons and combat equipment.
Türkiye, which has troops inside Syria and Turkish-backed opposition groups in Syria's northwest, routinely clashes with the PKK/YPG, which seeks to establish a terror corridor along the country's border.
Since 2016, Türkiye has carried out successive ground operations – Euphrates Shield in 2016, Olive Branch in 2018 and Peace Spring in 2019 – to expel the PKK/YPG and Daesh forces from border areas of northern Syria, as well as Iraq and to enable the peaceful settlement of residents.
Ankara, which has taken some steps for possible normalization with Damascus last year, has also repeatedly called on its NATO ally to cut off support to the PKK/YPG, something heavily weighing on bilateral relations.
