While the Kurdish population in particular is being systematically expelled from the areas occupied by Turkey in northern Syria, the Turkish state is pursuing an intensive settlement policy.

One of these occupied areas is the region of Girê Spî (Tal Abyad). The formerly multicultural, self-governing region was occupied by Turkey in 2019 and is now controlled by the Turkish intelligence service and jihadist mercenaries. According to the Girê Spî Cantol Council, more than 100,000 people had to flee the region after the Turkish invasion.

People loyal to the Turkish regime are now being resettled in their place. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), Turkish authorities have deported more than 160 Syrian refugees, including women and children, through the border crossings between Syria and Turkey towards Gire Spi (Tal Abyad) and Serekaniye (Ras Al-Ain) within the “Peace Spring” area on Wednesday.

According to SOHR, a group of young men among the deported people were sent to the Gire Spi area without their families.

In parallel, three young Syrian refugees were arrested after they passed the border towards the “Peace Spring” area by Ankara-backed factions, in order to obtain ransoms for their release.

“The suffering of the Syrians continues after their deportation to the areas that are controlled by Turkish forces and their proxies, amid the continued forced deportation processes by the Turkish authorities,” said SOHR, stressing that Turkey seeks to settle the deportees in the complexes built in the north of Syria under the name of “Safe Return” and to bring about a demographic change in the area.

According to SOHR, the deported people are subjected to violations and pressure by the factions while they cross through Jilan Banar crossing separating between Gire Spi and Serekaniye, and have their contents and steal the expensive and valuable items inspected and searched.

During the month of July, ANHA documented the arrival of more than 250 refugees to the occupied canton via the Girê Spî (Tal Abyad) border crossing. The Turkish state deported 160 Syrian refugees, most of them from the cities of Hama, Aleppo, Idlib and other cities in the first week of this month. This was followed by the deportation of 42 others as part of its settlement project in the occupied areas. During the past week, Turkey deported 4 families and a number of young people to be settled in the Girê Spî Canton.

According to a local source from the occupied canton, these refugees are settled in the homes of the forcibly displaced people, seizing the property of the indigenous population and cultivating their fields in cooperation with the mercenaries of the Turkish occupation.

Speaking to ANHA, the deputy co-chair of the Girê Spî Canton Council, Heza Mihemed, warned of the consequences of the resettlement policy and the change of the region’s demography. He noted that the Turkish state tried to annex these lands to his alleged empire.

Mihemed remarked that the Turkish state was deporting the Syrian refugees as part of a well-thought-out plan aimed at settling them in the homes and properties of the forcibly displaced people who emigrated due to the Turkish occupation of the canton following the aggression of October 9, 2019.

ANHA has documented the entry of more than 22,000 refugees into the occupied Girê Spî canton since the Turkish authorities announced in early April 2022 that one million refugees would be deported to the occupied areas of Syria.