Locals in northern Syria were forced by the PKK terrorist group's Syrian offshoot, the People's Protection Unit (YPG), to close their stores and to participate in an anti-Turkish rally amid Ankara's signal for an offensive to eliminate YPG terrorists from the region.

The daily lives of people living in regions held by the YPG have been substantially disrupted by the atrocities of the terrorist group that is aiming to maintain its foothold in the region by means of oppression.

In the latest incident, the YPG forced about a hundred local people to close their shops and join protests against Turkey in the northern Syrian cities, including Ayn al-Arab and Qamishli. They were also forced to carry placards of the PKK and posters of the PKK's imprisoned leader Abdullah Öcalan. Öcalan has been kept in prison since 1999 on a treason conviction and a subsequent death penalty, which was transformed into an aggravated life sentence after the removal of the death penalty in 2002.

Turkey sees no difference between the PKK, a group also listed on U.S. and EU terror lists, and the YPG in Syria, as the two groups are organically linked and have fluid movement of members between their lines. The YPG has been conscripting young children and forcing them to serve for their terrorist activities. The YPG also attempts to indoctrinate students at school.

In relation to the issue, a diplomatic source told Daily Sabah previously that in primary school textbooks published and distributed by the YPG in Syria, it was seen that PKK members who carried out terror attacks in Turkey were introduced as "heroes" and "martyrs," which also indicates the clear links between the two terrorist groups.

The source added that in the textbook, Zeynep Kınacı, code named "Zilan," the first suicide bomber of the PKK, was introduced as a "heroine." The terrorist was responsible for the deaths of eight Turkish soldiers during a military flag hand-over ceremony on June 30, 1996 in Tunceli, Turkey. The source stressed that this shows the clear link between the two terrorist groups using the same rhetoric and pointed out that they are creating grave security threats for Ankara by indoctrinating small children.

The atrocities of the YPG have been also stressed in various reports. In a previous report by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHO) it was stressed that school attendance and access to education have been affected in Hasakah following the reported decision by the Kurdish Self-Administration (KSA) to halt all buses transporting school children to and from KSA areas to attend Syrian regime schools that are teaching the regime curriculum.