Idlib: Türkische Kolonie

In Idlib, einer der letzten verbleibenden Gebiete in Nordwestyrien, die nicht unter Kontrolle des Assad-Regimes stehen übt die Türkei de facto die Kontrolle aus. Was das konkret für die Bewohner heißt, beschreibt ein Artikel in Middle East Eye:

The province is a so-called de-escalation zone, agreed by Iran, Turkey and Russia last May in Astana. But in recent months, residents have endured repeated government air strikes and in-fighting among rebel groups that control the area - and fully expect worse to come.

"When I want to say to the bad people, whether they were armed or not, that you are corrupt, you take bribes and so, I can't anymore…they will arrest me."

"The clear reason for stopping the attacks against us nowadays is because Assad has another mission to achieve in southern Syria," Khalid Dames, a former resident of Aleppo, now living in Idlib City told MEE.

"Whenever he finishes, he will turn his eyes toward us and here is when the tragedy will begin."

Under the shadow of this threat, residents say Turkey's control is steadily increasing in Idlib, creating a pocket of eerie normalcy, but also fears that there is a new dictatorship in town.

"We reached a point that we can't talk badly about Turkey or criticise them for their bad behaviour," said Hamed al-Ahmad, 36, a goods supplier in Haram, a Syrian city near the Turkish border.

"Which is like how we used to under regime rule: if you speak badly about Assad, you will be arrested." (...)

(The Turks) "are controlling all of the services from water, phones, electricity, fuel prices," he said. "A state on a border during a war has to be involved in everything inside the neighbouring country as we have an enormous effect on Turkey."

But with this functionality in Syria's last rebel-held province also comes unchecked power and a return to a familiar dictatorial feel, said some residents.

"When I want to say to the bad people, whether they were armed or not, that you are corrupt, you take bribes and so, I can't anymore…they will arrest me at night in my house or in the street with a van," said Ahmad. "This is what the Turks also brought us – back to the state of fear and oppression."

In Afrin derweil siedelt die Türkei gezielt arabische Flüchtlinge aus anderen Teilen Syriens an:

Civilian and military sources in Afrin say that “dozens” of other Eastern Ghouta families, with few other options, have moved into the vacant homes.

The Syrian government’s seizure of Eastern Ghouta in mid-April sent thousands of newly homeless residents to the opposition-held north in a series of evacuations.

There, some of the displaced have been resettled in the empty houses of Kurdish residents who fled Afrin in recent months before advancing Turkish and FSA forces. Several witnesses in Afrin, as well as displaced Kurdish homeowners, told Syria Direct in recent days that private residences are being seized and given away by Turkish-backed militias.