Turkish steps to obliterate cultural identity in occupied areas in northern Syria

Several steps taken by Turkey in the areas it occupies in northern Syria showed hidden intentions that are now surfacing with the continuation of the direct Turkish occupation of the Syrian lands.

Starting from Afrin, to al-Bab, Jarablus, Girê Spî and Serêkaniyê, the Turkish policy is not different, showing recently that it is seeking to nibble parts of Syria in the framework of a more comprehensive expansion plan that the Turkish authorities are working on in the Middle East region.

Obliteration of civilization, heritage and a demographic change!

Jassem Tarmash, the Cultural Relations Coordinator at the Culture and Art Center in the city of Manbij said: "The occupation in all its forms seeks to carry out a demographic change in the region, and the actions of the Turkish occupation in the occupied areas; the destruction and looting of archaeological sites aim at the demographic change. The occupation in general is changing the names of cities and schools, hospitals and public places."

He added: "We are a people subjected to annihilation and cultural invasion in all forms, and many forms of occupation and racist practices have passed on us. During the days of ISIS' occupation of our lands, the same practices and violations of the Turkish occupation carried out; obliteration of our civilization and our heritage."

Jassem Tarmash believes that awareness and adherence to the homeland, history, heritage and culture is a stronger and more organized way through which they can confront the objectives and plans of the occupation.

After its occupation of parts of the Syrian territories, the Turkish occupation deliberately taught the Turkish language in schools alongside Arabic and made it an official language, and raised the Turkish flag in the institutions it opened, the streets and public places.

This is in addition to the occupation's work to displace a large portion of the region's indigenous population, especially in Afrin, Girê Spî and Serêkaniyê, and it worked to resettle other Syrian families who support it and the families of mercenaries working under its control, in implementation of the policy of demographic change.

Early this year, the city of Jarablus witnessed the opening of a school bearing the name of the Turkish ruler "Ahmed Turgay Imam Giler," a move that Syrians said was a Turkification of the region and a change in its cultural and demographic face.

ISIS-like policy

For his part, the Member of the Culture and Art Center in the city of Manbij, Asaad Bakro, believes that "the policy of looting and destroying antiquities and displacing the population from their areas began since ISIS terrorist organization took control of the region, and today, the Turkish occupation and its mercenaries are following the same policy in the occupied areas in addition to acts of kidnapping and starvation."

He continued: "The actions carried out by the Turkish occupation in Afrin and Tel Abyad of displacement, plundering of the region's wealth, imposing the Turkish currency, displacing the indigenous people and settling the mercenaries' families in their place aimed at obliterating the identity and cultural monuments and removing them from their original identity. By time, these actions will change the region's culture and national belonging."

Asaad Bakro stressed the need for Turkey to respect the international treaties related to the protection of cultures, and for the international community to take radical solutions to the demographic change processes carried out by the Turkish occupation in the occupied territories.

He explained: "These areas are part of the Syrian lands, and we must stand up to the occupier, struggle to preserve our land and our cultural identity from dissolution, and not to be drawn into other matters.

The Turkish occupation army and its mercenaries recently dredged the most important archaeological hill in Girê Spî, which is the hill known as Tel Sahlan, located near the village of Khirbet al-Raz in the canton, as it dates back, according to the archaeological missions that visited the region, to the third millennium BC.

The archaeological site of Tel Sahlan is not the only site that has been bulldozed, as several sites in Girê Spî area were subjected to the same practices, including the two archeological cities of al-Far and al-Sabi al-Abyad, in addition to taking the site of Tel Kafifa as a military point.

Sources from the region say that the Turkish occupation and its mercenaries aim to plunder the region's antiquities, as they did in Afrin in order to complement the policy of obliterating the cultural and civilizational identity of the region by removing its history and everything that links the region to its past.

D.H