Turkey prevents Kurds from returning to Rojava

Kurdish citizens who wish to return to Rojava are detained at the border gates by Turkish intelligence, and a ransom is asked.

Kurdish youth who migrated to Turkey due to the war in Syria are detained by Turkish intelligence as they arrive at border crossings to return to their homeland.

The Turkish state has invaded areas of Syria like Jarablus, Azaz and Bab under the guise of “Euphrates Shield”, and is now taking into custody the Kurdish youth who want to leave the migrant camps in Turkey to return home. The Turkish state had already closed off all border gates to Northern Syrian provinces where citizens forced to migrate to Turkey wanted to return to, and allow passage for citizens only through gates in areas under their invasion like Jarablus, Azaz and Bab on religious holidays. They detain and torture Kurdish youth who want to cross these gates to return home.

Kawa Mihemed who lives in Kobanê was detained at the Al Salama border gate by Turkish intelligence as he wanted to go back home. Kawa had crossed to Turkey for work in 2013 and has endured many hardships on his way back. Kawa wanted to go from Azaz to Kobanê some months ago, and he was detained by gangs to be delivered to Turkish intelligence. Kawa said he was captured when his ID papers showed that he is from Kobanê, and was imprisoned after allegations that he was going to join the YPG.

Kawa was taken to a prison close to the Azaz border and saw dozens of other young Kurdish men there captured with the same allegations. The gangs told them they would be freed if they paid the gangs, and Kawa was released when his family paid off the gangs. Kawa said the gangs let him stay in the cities controlled by the “Euphrates Shield” groups, but he was threatened by one more year in prison if he left those areas. Kawa later managed to return to Kobanê with ID papers he managed to have made.
Kawa said the prison he was held in was turned into a torture center and added: “Gangs under the Turkish intelligence killed young people there.”