Sirin Mohammed

Aleppo-Despite the signing of the Safe Return Agreement for the displaced from areas attacked by the Turkish occupation and its mercenaries years ago, there has been no real implementation, and those who returned have faced multiple violations.
The agreement, signed on March 10th between the head of the Syrian Interim Government, Ahmad al-Shara’ (al-Jolani), and the commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces, Mazloum Abdi, included a clause guaranteeing the return of all displaced Syrians to their towns and villages, with the necessary protection provided by the Syrian government.
“Until when?”
However, the city—occupied by Turkey and its mercenaries since the spring of 2018—remains unsafe, and the militants refuse to return properties to their rightful owners.
Sabah Khalil, who was displaced for the second time to the Ashrafieh neighborhood, said that all the people of Afrin long for a safe return to their lands, homes, properties, heritage, and way of life, explaining that violations against residents and returnees continue:
“They kill civilians, loot properties, lands, houses, and shops,” she said, questioning, “There was an agreement stating that the mercenaries should leave Afrin, but they haven’t—why, and until when?”
She continued,
“Isn’t this our land and our homes? Why won’t they leave them?”
Like many other displaced people, she has grown weary of tent life and longs for stability in her home.
“We were displaced twice: the first time in 2018, when the Turkish state and its so-called National Army occupied Afrin and its villages, and the second time in 2024, after the fall of the Ba’ath regime, when Turkish-backed mercenaries attacked al-Shahba and drove Afrin’s people toward the regions of North and East Syria.”
Exhausted by years of war, Sabah Khalil believes that Kurds are being targeted:
“Every country’s leader grants their people rights. When Leader Abdullah Öcalan rose up and called for the freedom of the Kurdish people, encouraging us to speak and preserve our mother tongue, Kurdish, he was kidnapped and imprisoned on the Turkish occupation’s Imrali Island to suppress the Kurdish cause.”
Yet, despite the pain, she remains hopeful, clinging to determination and the will to return:
“All the mercenaries from the Sultan Suleiman Shah (Amshat) and al-Hamzat factions occupying Afrin must know that we will never give up our land or our properties. From the seven-year-old child to the seventy-year-old elder—we will all struggle to return to Afrin.”

“They cut down olive trees to break people’s spirit”
Young woman Hevi Mohammed said,
“There are many violations against residents and the city—killings, kidnappings, thefts, even the destruction of nature. The mercenaries cut down olive trees that are hundreds of years old just to torment the people.”
Although these groups claim to fight for “Islamic freedom,” their actions, Hevi added, completely contradict those claims:
“They are now occupying our home and land in Afrin and refuse to return them. The Kurds of Afrin suffer constant assaults and violations by these mercenaries—this is the greatest injustice and cruelty they face.”