What does a missing statue of the famous Kurdish legend, Kawa the Blacksmith, have to do with stolen olive trees in the Afrin region of Syria? It is the the latest signal of the true intention of Turkey’s “Operation Olive Branch” in Northwest Syria – to annex the land, steal the olives and the olive trees, and wage ethnic cleansing against the indigenous Kurdish population of Afrin.
Turkish-backed militias recently removed the iconic Kurdish statue of Kawa the Blacksmith, replacing it with a large, shiny, army-green design representing a cluster of olives representing Operation Olive Branch. Kawa the Blacksmith is considered a Kurdish hero who resisted a tyrannical Iranian leader who had killed two of his children, mobilizing fellow villagers to fight against oppression. The replacement of this statue represents the true vision Turkey has for Afrin – they want the Kurds out, they want to erase Kurdish cultural symbols, and they want to control the region’s most lucrative industry, the olive industry.
More than 2,500 olive trees were uprooted and 600 cherry trees – most of them stolen from productive orchards – were uprooted by Turkish militia members just for firewood. Olive oil from Afrin and other products have been observed in Turkish markets and labeled as Turkish products.
Turkey’s Operation Olive Branch was “an excuse to hide its real goals,” Ibrahim Sheiko, head of the Afrin Human Rights Organization, operating out of an Al Shebha refugee camp, told the North Pulse News Network.
Sheiko calls Turkey’s actions “violations and crimes against the indigenous Kurdish population in the Afrin region and elsewhere.”
The Turkish occupation also deliberately destroyed archeological sites during military operations, including Tel Andara, Nabi Hori Castle, and the Marmarun site, says Sheiko. Under the Turkish occupation, Turkish-backed militias were also allowed to use bulldozers and heavy machinery to excavate ancient sites to search for treasure to sell on the black market. These actions further erase Kurdish history, and irreparably damage a historical record that is thousands of years old.
The Afrin region of Syria has been occupied by Turkey since 2018, when the Turkish military rolled their tanks into the once-flourishing, democratic, fertile region of Afrin near the Mediterranean coast. The invasion of Afrin has resulted in the displacement of more than 400,000 people, mostly ethnic Kurds. The vast majority of these evacuated to other regions of Syria, Al Sheba, Aleppo, and the region northeast of the Euphrates controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces.
Now, the soldiers of the Turkish-backed militias, operating under the name “Syrian National Army,” have moved into the homes stolen from the displaced Kurdish population. Before “Operation Olive Branch,” there were 50,855 school students. Now there are 13,000 students. These students are learning in the Turkish language and are overseen by Turkish officials, walking to school under the Turkish flag.
The same militias who removed the statue have also stolen the harvest of millions of olive trees, bringing them to Turkey, and literally uprooted the trees and trucked them back across the border with Turkey.
Image Source: North Press Agency