(Zaman Al Wasl)- Turkish army has started issuing ID cards for the residents and the newly-settled people in Afrin region near the border amid claims of demographic change by the Kurdish militias, activists told Zaman al-Wasl Monday.
The move evoked fears of the Kurdish rights advocates and authorities who accuse Turkey of 'ethnic repopulation' as observers say Ankara wants to resettle the 3.5 million Syrian refugees in its territory into Afrin.
A Turkish-led assault this year displaced over 137,000 people from Kurdish-majority Afrin to nearby regime zones, or even farther to Kurdish areas in the northeast, according to AFP.
Some of their homes now house other displaced. Around 35,000 of those bussed out of the onetime rebel bastion of Eastern Ghouta near Damascus have resettled in Afrin.
Their houses either destroyed or occupied, Afrin's original residents see return as a distant dream.
"I'm not optimistic. The more time passes, the more entrenched the demographic changes are," Ahmad Yussef, an academic who fled Afrin told AFP.
The local councils in Al-Bab, another territory under the control Turkey, began issuing identification cards in what they called the Euphrates Shield region.
The Turkish government and the local councils of Afrin said the move aimed at controlling security and stability, fighting dormant cells belonging to Kurdish-led militias.
Turkey aims to fight the falsification of official documents that have spread in the Syrian north, pro-opposotion activists say.
Hassan Shendi, member in the Local Council of Afrin, told Zaman al-Wasl that ID cards distribution was not for every person in Afrin and came over security concerns.
Abdo al-Nabhan from Afrin's local council underestimated the demography change fears, assuring that the ID cards will make crossing through the Turkish checkpoints easier.
Zaman Al Wasl
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