ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Syrian interim President, Ahmed al-Sharaa, met with locals in Afrin on Saturday, the majority of whom were Kurds. During the meeting, he pledged to remove armed groups and put an end to violations in the city, a representative from the Kurdish National Council (KNC/ENKS) who attended the meeting told Rudaw on Sunday.
Sharaa’s office said early Sunday that he had visited Afrin and met with locals on Saturday but did not disclose details of the discussion.
Ahmed Hassan, the head of the local council for the ENKS, told Rudaw’s Nalin Hassan on Sunday that he was among an ENKS delegation that took part in the meeting.
He mentioned that the meeting lasted for about two hours, noting that Sharaa allowed the attendees to speak before delivering his speech.
“We were officially invited to the meeting. Our delegation attended. People from various backgrounds - religious groups, local councils of municipalities, local mayors, and others - were present,” the ENKS official said, adding that no representative from the Turkey-backed armed groups were present in the meeting.
“Ninety-eight percent of them were Kurds from Afrin,” he said, adding that there were also some Arabs who are the indigenous residents of Afrin.
ENKS is a coalition of Kurdish political parties, and is regarded as the main opposition in northeast Syria (Rojava).
ENKS reads out letter, Sharaa promises
The ENKS representative also told Rudaw that they read out a letter from the Kurdish umbrella group to Sharaa which highlighted the dire condition of people in Afrin and violations committed by militants who have controlled the city since 2018.
The ENKS letter, of a copy of which was seen by Rudaw English, begins by saying Kurds were optimistic when they saw the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime by a coalition of rebel groups led by Sharaa’s Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), on December 8.
“However, we, the people of the [Afrin] region, are still suffering and living with numerous injustices and violations that we will present to Your Excellency, hoping you will find comprehensive solutions and set boundaries to these transgressions against your people in Afrin, its nature, and geography,” reads the letter.
The letter also mentions the “brutal and savage” cutting of trees in Afrin which it believes has led to “environmental destruction, climate change, worsening weather conditions, reduced rainfall and snow, and water scarcity - the primary source of life.”
The ENKS letter also called for the return of Afrin’s displaced residents, who have been forced to relocate to other parts of the country and abroad.
The Kurdish group also complained about taxes imposed by militants.
“Some factions continue to impose taxes and levies on the people, arresting and humiliating those unable to pay, and we continue to suffer from the factional situation to this moment,” said the letter. “Hundreds of families returning to their villages are living with relatives because factions allow them to return to their homes only after paying large sums of money, of course in dollars (hundreds of dollars, and sometimes thousands), which discourages some people from returning.”
Sharaa acknowledged the violations in the Kurdish city, saying when his HTS ruled the Idlib city, which is close to Afrin, before controlling Damascus, he had been closely monitoring the developments in Afrin.
“He explained why he chose Afrin as the first city in the vicinity of Aleppo to visit. He said [before he took power] he was in Idlib, which is close to Afrin, and was following the violations in Afrin and even wanted to find a solution for it but there were no opportunities but now the time has changed and will stop the violations. He promised to open an office [in the coming days] to receive complaints from locals.”
Sharaa also said he will replace armed groups with Damascus-linked security forces.
The Damascus-affiliated forces recently briefly visited Afrin and met with local officials. Four of the Kurds who warmly welcomed the force with the Kurdistan flag were later arrested by the local militants and accused of ties with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) - de facto army of Rojava.
Mazloum Abdi, SDF chief, met with Sharaa weeks after the collapse of Assad’s regime. There are ongoing talks between the SDF and Damascus over the future of Rojava.
Sharaa said in Afrin that he had told Abdi that Afrin residents living in the SDF-held areas should be able to return, Hassan said.
Hundreds of thousands of people fled Afrin in 2018 when the militants invaded the city. Most of them live in SDF-held areas.
The ENKS official said the return of Kurds to Afrin continues, adding that dozens of Arab settlers leave the city every day.
“Tens of thousands of Kurds have returned,” he said.
