Weary of the oppressive policies implemented by various groups affiliated with the PKK terrorist group in northern Syria, Syrian tribes have welcomed Turkey's Operation Peace Spring.
Locals have unanimously expressed that they hope the operation will bring stability as soon as possible to the region and pave the way for the return of 2 million fellow Syrians who were forced to flee.
"We want peace and serenity in Syria. All Arabs, Kurds, Syriacs and other ethnic groups are brothers. We want our future to be guaranteed," Sheikh Modar al-Asaad, spokesman of the Supreme Council of the Syrian Tribes and Clans, told Daily Sabah.
Turkey launched Operation Peace Spring on Oct. 9, the third in a series of cross-border, anti-terror operations in northern Syria targeting terrorists linked with Daesh and the PKK's Syrian affiliate People's Protection Units (YPG). So far, the number of villages liberated in northern Syria's Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ayn districts has reached 42 including two district centers. Stressing that millions of Syrians have fled to neighboring regions and countries since the beginning of the civil war, the spokesman said Syrian tribes hope that the operation will facilitate the return of refugees to their hometown.
Operation Peace Spring aims to establish a terror-free safe zone for Syrians to return to the area east of the Euphrates River, which is controlled by YPG terrorists. Before the operation, a detailed plan was prepared by Ankara regarding the resettlement of Syrian refugees to northern Syria.
According to the plan, a large amount of construction will be launched within the 30-40 kilometer-deep safe zone in northern Syria with the eventual goal being to resettle about 1 million Syrians within the area east of the Euphrates. Speaking on the oppressive policies of the YPG, Sheikh Modar al-Asaad said the terrorist organization has taken many civilians hostage and is not letting them cross to other areas to flee the fighting. He added that a lot of people have also been forcibly conscripted recently.
"The militants are entering every house in the areas of its control to take people up to 50 years old under military service. Resistant locals are threatened with the death penalty," he said. Locals in YPG-controlled areas have long suffered from YPG atrocities, the terrorist organization has a lengthy record of human rights abuses, ranging from kidnappings of suspected persons, recruiting child soldiers, torture, ethnic cleansing and forced displacement in Syria.
He added that some tribes have already switched their allegiance and have started to fight alongside the Syrian National Army (SNA), while many others are waiting for the YPG to lose its grip so they can stop fighting for them.
Last week, Syrian Kurdish groups declared their support to Operation Peace Spring by pointing to the YPG oppression.
"Many people from Arab and Kurdish regions captured by terrorist groups have been forced to migrate in recent years. Many Kurds were arrested, and human rights in the region have been violated, which reminded us of the dictatorship and discrimination carried out by the Assad regime during the Baath rule," Syria's Independent Kurdish Association and Kurdish National Action Front said in a joint statement.
