Ankara Attempting to Annex Occupied Lands in Northern Syria

Ankara has embarked on changing streets' names and numbers in the occupied town of Afrin under fresh attempts to annex the region to its soil, local sources said Friday.

News ID: 71689

Date: 10 August 2018 - 16:07

TEHRAN (Defapress)-The sources reported that Afrin Local City Council affiliated to the Ankara-backed Free Army has embarked on renaming streets and squares in the town.

The sources said that some of the streets and squares have been named after Turkish figures, adding that the names of streets are written in both Arabic and Turkish alphabets.

They went on to say that the Ankara-backed militants have changed al-Saraya Square to Recep Tayyip Erdogan Square and Kawa Square to Olive Branch Square that is the codename of a military operation by the Turkish troops in the region.

Last month, the sources said that the Ankara-backed forces made industrious efforts to issue Turkish identity cards for the residents of the occupied town of Afrin.

The sources further said that residents of Afrin referred as refugees in these identity cards, adding that but residents of Afrin were allowed to use their Syrian identity cards.

The sources went on to say that the Ankara forces embarked on erecting checkpoint at the entrances of Afrin to register identity details of Arabs and Kurds to issue new Turkish identity cards for them.

The Ankara forces threatened to burn the houses of all those who refused to cooperate with them in the new ID plan.

In the meantime, Spokesman for the Turkish Foreign Ministry Hami Aksoy claimed that the Turkish forces will continue their presence in Afrin on a temporary basis.

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