Afrin's oppressed and exiled populations of Kurds, Arabs and Turkmens cling to the hope of returning home once the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) and Free Syrian Army (FSA) fully liberate the region of the PKK's Syrian affiliates.
With more than 100,000 refugees returning to areas such as Jarablus, al-Bab, al-Rai and Azaz, which were liberated in Turkey's Operation Euphrates Shield, Afrin's displaced people are also looking forward to the end of Operation Olive Branch.
Having fallen into the hands of the PKK-affiliated Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its armed People's Protection Units (YPG) in 2012, after the Assad regime's withdrawal, Afrin has been exploited by the terrorist group. Human rights violations, including forced migration, child soldier recruitment and unjustified executions were rife in the region.
Operation Euphrates Shield in northern Syria, which cleared more than 2,000 square kilometers of territory of Daesh and YPG terrorists between Aug. 24, 2016 and March 2017, enabled locals to return safely. Both the Turkish government and nongovernmental organizations have since pursued efforts to rebuild key infrastructure in the area.
National Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli briefed Parliament yesterday on Operation Olive Branch in Afrin and said it has been carried out meticulously so far, and civilians are expected to return after the area is totally cleared of terrorists, just as "100,000 Syrians returned following Operation Euphrates Shield."
"We don't have an eye on any other country's land. The operation will not be over until the terrorist threat is completely elminated," he said.
Mustafa Ekinci, the coordinator of Turkey's state-run Kurdish language TV channel TRT Kurdi, told Daily Sabah earlier this month that about 350,000 Kurds who fled Syria currently live in refugee camps that are supported by Turkey's governmental humanitarian organizations in northern Iraq.
"Therefore, calling Operation Olive Branch 'anti-Kurdish' is nonsense. If Turkey was attacking Kurds, then why did these people escape YPG zones and seek refuge in Turkey," he said.
Kurdish people who fled the PYD's oppression and took shelter in Turkey told Daily Sabah that they were waiting for Operation Olive Branch to end successfully.
"We couldn't live with the PYD. There was no order. If you had 100 cans of oil, 25 would be confiscated by the PYD," said Selahaddin Mustafa, 48.
Muhammed Abdullah, an Arab who used to live in Afrin, shared a similar story.
"Life was relatively more difficult as I was an Arab. I had to pay taxes. Nearly half the money I earned was taken by the PYD in the name of taxes," Abdullah said. "So I fled."
According to a 2016 report by the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), the PYD committed multiple human rights violations, including ethnic cleansing and abuse against women, children, and journalists.
The report revealed that 500 civilians including children were executed by the PYD, while Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen, and Yazidis were forced to migrate. The PYD also recruited many children in the areas it controlled.
In August 2015, the KurdWatch, a monitoring group watching Kurdish rights' violations in Syria, also claimed in a report that the PYD forcibly recruits and deploys child soldiers as young as 12.
On Jan. 28, a video titled "30 young men and women from Aleppo join the resistance of the century" surfaced on a YouTube account controlled by the pro-PYD Kurdish news agency, ANHA, which clearly revealed the terrorist group's recruitment of children.
Meanwhile, Turkish soldiers rescued a disabled woman from Hammam, a town in northwestern Syria's Afrin, on Monday.
The disabled woman, who was found in critical condition during in the village, was initially rescued by an armored ambulance of the Turkish Ministry of Health and brought to a first aid tent belonging to Turkey's National Medical Research Team (UMKE), set up on the borderline. After an initial checkup, she was referred to a state hospital in Hatay.
"Our soldiers found her alone and on the verge of death because of PYD [YPG] elements in Hammam, which is just on the other side of Turkey's border," said district governor of Kumlu, Hatay, Adnan Karaosmanoğlu.
Turkey's Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) has delivered coal to over 230 families and food packages to 150 families in Syria.
As part of the foundation's winter projecti "there are millions cold outside," the aid was delivered to families in Yazi Bagh, a village at the foot of Mount Bursaya that was recently liberated during Operation Olive Branch, and in Aleppo's Azaz district, which was liberated during Turkey's Operation Euphrates Shield.
"We have delivered aid to Syrian Arabs, Turkmens and Kurds who live in difficult conditions in Yazi Bagh village," an İHH media representative told Anadolu Agency.
A number of Syrian NGOs yesterday also voiced their support for Operation Olive Branch at a meeting in Istanbul.
"We are favoring Syria's territorial integrity against the forces who try to divide it. We support the Free Syrian Army's inclusion of Operation Olive Branch with the Turkish army, against separatist PYD and PKK forces," one of the representatives said in the meeting.
Turkey, the U.S., the EU, and the U.K. list the PKK as an armed terrorist organization, which has been raging an armed conflict against the Turkish state since the mid-1980s.
The PKK-affiliated Syrian PYD and its armed YPG also function under the umbrella network of the Kurdish Communities Union (KCK), which is led by imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan.
Although the PKK was headquartered in Syria until 1998, currently the PKK is controlled from its headquarters in northern Iraq's Qandil Mountains.
The KCK terrorist group function under the names of the PKK in Turkey, the Kurdistan Democratic Solution Party (PÇDK) in Iraq, the PYD in Syria and the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) in Iran.
