Qatar has been accused of supporting ethnic cleansing in North and East Syria through funding of projects alongside Turkey aimed at demographic change in the region.
Murad Ismael, the president and co-founder of Sinjar Academy, took to X to say, “Qatar effectively supports ethnic cleansing”, attaching a thread by Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) which describes the ongoing projects in North and East Syria.
Ismael was responding to an image posted by QRCS of “13 fully fledged residential villages constructed by #QRCS in cooperation with partners in #Turkey & northern #Syria, with 3,672 apartments for 22,000 IDPs & 7,000 jobs created in construction works of buildings, roads, water supply, electricity & sewage systems”.
This new settlement “has all utilities & services to ensure better life for residents, including mosques, schools, clinics, shops, greens, kids areas, footpaths, streets, water supply, electricity & sewage networks”, QRCS said.
“The Qatari Red Crescent violates international laws and helps Turkey build settlements on occupied Syrian Kurdish lands, carrying out a demographic change, displacing its original Kurdish population, and settling families of terrorist Islamic factions in those settlements,” Kurdish activist account ‘Rojava Security’ said on X.
Refugees who have been forced to migrate from northern Syria’s Afrin (Efrîn) due to the Turkish occupation in the region have defiantly spoken out about the policies of the Turkish state and Qatar in the region, saying they are aimed at destroying and changing the fabric of the city.
“Qatar Red Crescent is building colonial houses in co-operation with the Turkish state. These houses are not built for the people of Afrin. Those who are placed in these houses are families brought from Quneytirayê and Xûta,” migrant Fatme Dewûd said. “The main reason for this is to change the demographic structure of the region. We tell the Turkish state and its partners that they cannot change the demographic structure of the region and our identity,” she added.
Turkey’s occupation and demographic changes
On 20 January 2018, the Turkish government announced the start of the offensive “Operation Olive Branch” against the Kurdish city of Afrin.
Until Turkey’s ground offensive displaced nearly 300,000 Kurdish residents, the city had been a relatively peaceful area where civilians affected by the Syrian civil war had sought refuge.
Amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, reports from January 2024 point to a controversial and unconfirmed relocation of thousands of Hamas members to Afrin.
Visual evidence from the region and reports from Kurdish sources have previously suggested Turkish and Qatari collaboration in a plan to relocate Palestinian families to Afrin.
