“Exact statistics are not available, but after the March 10 agreement, Kurdish returns have significantly increased, to the point where people are returning to their areas minute by minute,” Ahmed Hassan told Rudaw. He is the head of the local council for the Kurdish National Council (ENKS/KNC) - a coalition of Kurdish political parties that is considered the main opposition in northeast Syria (Rojava).
“Arab settlers are also returning in large numbers, and there are villages where no Arabs remain,” Hassan added.
Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa and SDF chief Mazloum Abdi signed a landmark agreement on Monday to integrate the SDF into the Syrian state apparatus. The agreement recognizes the Kurds as an integral part of Syria, includes a countrywide ceasefire, and stipulates the return of displaced Syrians to their hometowns.
In 2018, Turkey and its allied Syrian militias seized control of Afrin, a Kurdish enclave in northwest Syria. Thousands of Kurds fled, many moving to the nearby Shahba region and families displaced from elsewhere in Syria moved into Afrin.
International organizations have recorded numerous human rights violations against Afrin’s Kurdish population since 2018, including killings, kidnappings, looting of agricultural crops, cutting down of olive trees, and imposing taxes on farmers.
Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa visited Afrin in mid-February and met with locals, the majority of whom were Kurds. He pledged to remove armed groups and put an end to the violations, a representative from ENKS who attended the meeting told Rudaw.
Kurds returning to Afrin are no longer subjected to imprisonment or forced to pay levies. Displaced families returning to their homes had been forced to pay fees, ranging from $1,000 to $1,500.
Soran Hussein contributed to this report.
