ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Displaced Kurds from the northern Syrian town of Gri Spi (Tal Abyad) recounted on Tuesday how a peaceful attempt to reclaim their homes after seven years of displacement turned into a nearly nine-hour siege, as angry mobs attacked their convoy and trapped more than 200 people inside a government building.
Asa’ad Qasim Ali, one of the internally-displaced persons (IDPs) in the convoy, told Rudaw that they “were told” to return to their homes by Raqqa’s governor and that they met with the director of Gri Spi district on Monday.
“We went so we could hand over our documents, reclaim our lands, and set a specific timeframe for it [the return],” he said.
Conversely, a security source in the Kurdish-majority Hasaka province in the northeast told Rudaw that the IDP convoy departed to Gri Spi "without any coordination with the government.”
Gri Spi, in addition to Sare Kani (Ras al-Ayn) and Afrin, was targeted by the 2019 Turkish-led offensive, which led to the displacement of thousands of Kurds.
Arab settlers subsequently claimed ownership of their properties, in one instance reportedly demanding $10,000 to evacuate.
After experiencing repeated similar incidents from the settlers following seven years of displacement, the IDP crisis in Afrin has been resolved and convoys of IDPs in Sare Kani have begun returning, in line with promises from Syrian authorities to end internal displacement by the end of 2026, according to the integration agreement reached in late-January with the interim government.
However, the first batch of IDPs arriving in Gri Spi on Monday were met with immediate violence from rioters.
"They attacked our cars … around 70 to 80 vehicles were damaged,” Ali relayed, while expressing gratitude for the lack of casualties.
The IDPs, numbering “between 200 and 300,” were trapped in the district building from around 10:00 am to 6:30 pm. Security forces present at the scene were unable to contain the rioters until additional forces arrived from Raqqa after dusk.
"At first, the security forces were few, but later additional forces came from Raqqa and safely got us out of there,” Ali said.
He further explained that the district director had told them, “We will compensate you; whatever has happened to you now, we will cover your losses and damages.”
Meanwhile, As’ad Musa, a human rights activist, told Rudaw that the unrest stemmed from “lack of coordination,” casting blame on the returnees for not considering the “sensitive” situation in Gri Spi.
“Last week, the lands and properties of our Kurdish citizens residing in the Gri Spi district were returned to them, along with their properties,” he stated, adding that “rumors” were later spread among the IDPs that anyone who goes to the district administration office can retrieve their land and home.
Ali noted that Arab settlers have been residing in around 40 Kurdish villages in Gri Spi.
“They took our lands, farm them, and have seized all of them,” he said.
Ali stated that rioters chanted “Allahu Akbar” as they approached the convoys, heaping insults and stating “you are pigs.”
Soldiers with radical Islamist ideologies previously labeled Kurds as “pigs” in clashes between Aleppo’s Kurdish neighborhoods and Syrian government forces and allied jihadist factions in early 2026, in a derogatory association with a prohibited consumption and physical contact explicitly forbidden in Islam.
Damascus-affiliated factions used the same terms against Kurdish captives - as well as to insult corpses - during their offensive against areas held by Kurdish forces in January.
Kurdish forces at the time accused Damascus of committing "heinous crimes” in “the style of” the Islamic State.
