📰 One year on: Afrin’s displaced still suffer after “Dawn of Freedom” offensive in Aleppo

QAMISHLI, internal-link">syria (North Press) – One year after the Turkish-backed syrian National Army (SNA) launched Operation Dawn of Freedom across the northern countryside of Aleppo, relocated Kurdish families who had taken refuge in the Shahba region say they continue to face instability, fear, and the lasting impact of a second forced displacement. Notably, the operation, declared on Nov. Furthermore, 30, 2024, brought multiple SNA factions into areas north of Aleppo, including Tel Rifaat and surrounding towns and villages that had hosted thousands of Kurds relocated from Afrin following Turkey’s Operation Olive Branch in 2018. Additionally, for numerous families, Shahba had served as their only place of refuge for six years — until the emerging offensive uprooted them once again.

The northern countryside of Aleppo Governorate, also known as Shahba Region, houses IDPs of the Kurdish region of Afrin, which was occupied by Turkey in 2018. The Olive Branch Turkish operation caused the displacement of about 300. 000 original Kurdish inhabitants of Afrin, who sheltered in some 40 villages and five camps in the Shahba Region. A year after offensive, abuses remain unaddressed Local residents, human rights monitors, and civil society groups say that the aftermath of Dawn of Freedom remains largely unresolved, and that numerous Kurdish families have not returned to their homes in Afrin, due to ongoing security risks and widespread violations. as per documentation by the Synergy/Hevdesti Association, at least 128 people, including women and elderly civilians, were detained by SNA-affiliated factions during and after the offensive.

Of these, 52 were later released, while the fate of 76 others remains unknown. Families informed North Press that detainees were subjected to severe beatings, psychological abuse, and extortion. multiple families were reportedly forced to leave their homes in Shahba within days of the SNA’s entry, often under threat of arrest. Witnesses described checkpoints where Kurdish civilians were detained arbitrarily, separated from family members, or pressured to pay significant sums of money in exchange for release or permission to travel. Rights groups also documented cases of property seizure, looting, and the imposition of “fees” on returnees attempting to re-enter Afrin — practices that have been widely declared in prior years in areas under Turkish-backed control. ‘Displaced twice’ – a community without safe shelter For the Kurdish population originally expelled from Afrin in 2018, the Shahba region represented one of the last relatively safe pockets where they could rebuild basic stability.

When Operation Dawn of Freedom…