Why displaced Syrians in Lebanon face an agonizing dilemma amid mounting hostility 

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Syrian children eat together from a pan on the floor of a tent at a refugee camp on the outskirts of the town of Zahle in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley on January 26, 2018. (AFP/File photo)
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Faced with extreme poverty and mounting hostility, many displaced Syrians in Lebanon see onward migration, as their only option. (AFP/File photo)
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Syrians refugees prepare to leave Lebanon towards Syrian territory through the Wadi Hamid crossing in Arsal on October 26, 2022, the first step in a new repatriation plan slammed by rights groups. (AFP/File photo)
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Supporters of the Lebanese Forces attend the funeral of Pascal Suleiman, a party coordinator in the Byblos (Jbeil) area north of Beirut, on April 12, 2024. Sleiman was killed on April 8 in what the Lebanese army said was a carjacking by Syrian gang members, who took his body to Syria. (AFP)
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Updated 19 April 2024
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Why displaced Syrians in Lebanon face an agonizing dilemma amid mounting hostility 

  • Lebanon hosts the greatest number of refugees per capita of any country in the world, placing additional strain on its economy 
  • The recent murder of a Lebanese Forces party official has triggered a fresh wave of violence and vitriol against Syrians 

LONDON: Syrian refugees in Lebanon are in an impossible fix, unable to safely return home while also facing mounting hostility from host communities and local authorities, especially following the death of a Lebanese Forces party official, allegedly at the hands of Syrian criminals.

Pascal Suleiman, the Byblos District coordinator of the Christian-based party, was reportedly kidnapped and later killed in a Syrian area near the Lebanese border. Seven Syrian nationals were arrested on suspicion of killing Suleiman in what was dubbed a botched carjacking.




The killing of Pascal Suleiman, the Byblos District coordinator of the Christian-based Lebanese Forces party, is being blamed on Syrians but party leaders are not convinced. (AFP/File Photo) 

The Lebanese Forces and its allies were not fully convinced that Syrians were behind the killing, which took place in an area controlled by its Hezbollah rivals, suggesting that Lebanese authorities were using the Syrians as a convenient patsy.

Although the scapegoating of Syrians in Lebanon has been commonplace since the Syrian civil war began in 2011, dispersing millions of refugees throughout the region, the murder of Suleiman has triggered a fresh wave of violence and vitriol against displaced households.

INNUMBERS

90% Syrian households in Lebanon living in extreme poverty.

52% Live in dangerous, sub-standard or overcrowded shelters. 80% Lack legal residency, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation.

100k Resettled from Lebanon to third countries since 2011.

Haneen, a Syrian university student whose name has been changed for her safety, described recently witnessing a group of Lebanese men assaulting and hurling abuse at a man they labeled “Souri” (Syrian). 

“The slaps were so loud, I felt as if they were falling on my face,” she told Arab News.

Videos have emerged on social media in recent days showing Lebanese Forces supporters venting their fury on random Syrians in the street — many of them refugees. Angry mobs also vandalized cars with Syrian license plates and looted Syrian-owned businesses.




People march in Lebanon's northern port city of Tripoli on April 28, 2023, to protest against the forcible deportation of Syrian refugees. (AFP/File)

Other videos showed Lebanese men on motorcycles roaming the streets in various parts of the country, including Keserwan and Burj Hamoud, where they ordered Syrian occupants to leave their homes and businesses within 48 hours.

Intercommunal tensions in Lebanon have been stoked further by the rhetoric of Lebanese politicians, who frequently blame the country’s many ills on the presence of more than 1.5 million Syrian refugees.




Infographic courtesy of Access Center For Human Rights (ACHR)

Between April and May 2023, the Lebanese army arbitrarily arrested and deported thousands of Syrians, according to Human Rights Watch.




Infographic courtesy of Access Center For Human Rights (ACHR)

In a recent press conference, Bassam Mawlawi, the acting interior minister, said the country “will become stricter in granting residency permits and dealing with (Syrians) residing in Lebanon illegally.”

He claimed that “many crimes are being committed by Syrians” and stressed that the “Syrian presence in Lebanon can no longer be tolerated and is unacceptable.”

In October last year, he even sought to portray Syrian refugees as a danger to the country’s “existence” and “a threat to Lebanon’s demographics and identity.”




Lebanese Interior Minister Bassam al-Mawlawi speaks during a press conference on April 9, 2024, about the killing of local politician Pascal Suleiman on April 9, 2024. Lebanese officials blamed Syrian refugees, but leaders of the Lebanese Forces party were unconvinced. (AFP/File photo)

Echoing these sentiments was Abdallah Bou Habib, the acting foreign minister, who during a visit to the Greek capital Athens on April 8 described the number of Syrians in Lebanon as “a problem.”

Just days before Suleiman’s death, Amin Salam, Lebanon’s economy minister, said the caretaker government should declare a “state of emergency” regarding Syrian refugees.

Karam Shaar, a senior fellow at the Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy, a nonpartisan Washington think tank, said Lebanese politicians were showing signs of “hysteria” over the Syrian presence in Lebanon.


ALSO READ: Lebanon PM warns Syrian refugees pose ‘danger to the nation’


While “part of that is understandable and fair,” Shaar told Arab News that “part of it is just Lebanese politicians scapegoating their failures and pinning them on Syrians.”

Omar Al-Ghazzi, an associate professor of media and communications at the London School of Economics, acknowledged that the influx had “made long-standing economic problems worse, whether in terms of infrastructure, public services and unemployment, particularly as Lebanese leaders stand accused of making financial profit from international aid.

“However, rather than blaming leaders and the political system for the collapsed economy in Lebanon, it became a convenient narrative to blame Syrians.”




Lebanese demonstrators clash with security forces during a protest demanding better pay and living conditions in the capital Beirut on April 18, 2023 amid deteriorating living conditions, as the currency plummeted to new lows against the dollar. (AFP/File photo)

Furthermore, he told Arab News: “Sunni-Shiite tensions during the Syrian war, and Christian fears of Muslim dominance, have made any discussion of Syrian refugees take the form of a toxic and violent discourse — as if anti-Syrianness is the one thing that the divided Lebanese could agree on.”

Anti-Syrian sentiments in Lebanon did not first emerge with the influx of refugees after 2011. They have far deeper historical roots. 

“Since Lebanon’s independence, Lebanese political culture has sustained a sense of superiority over the country’s Arab neighbors, mainly Palestinians and Syrians, as well as a sense of being threatened by their presence and influence,” said Al-Ghazzi.

“Following the end of the Lebanese civil war, the hegemony of the Syrian regime in Lebanon exacerbated an anti-Syrianness that often took the shape of discrimination against Syrian laborers.”




Tens of thousands of Lebanese citizens pack Martyrs Square in downtown Beirut on March 14, 2005, to press demands for justice for assassinated former prime minister Rafiq Hariri and for an end to Syrian military domination of Lebanon. (AFP/File photo)

However, Al-Ghazzi believes “this renewed racism cannot be separated from the rise of fascism and anti-immigrant sentiment in the West that gives legitimacy to nationalist chauvinism on a global scale.

“Sadly, it is marginalized and vulnerable Syrians who are paying the price of this politics. In Lebanon, they face daily acts of discrimination, humiliation and violence as they have to confront bleak prospects whether they stay in Lebanon, attempt illegal migration to Europe, or go to Syria.”

The arrival of Syrian refugees over the past decade has placed a burden on Lebanon’s already stretched services and infrastructure.

Lebanon hosts the greatest number of refugees per capita of any country in the world, according to Lisa Abou Khaled, spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, in Lebanon.

“UNHCR fully recognizes the impact this is having on the country, notably while it is facing the worst economic crisis in its modern history, pushing the most vulnerable to the brink,” she told Arab News.

Likewise, Shaar of the Newlines Institute said: “Lebanon’s economy is actually struggling, and yet the number of Syrians is on the rise — just from natural increases. So, the problem that Lebanon faces is real.”

He stressed the need for “a systemic solution to this crisis — a concerted effort to actually address it because otherwise, my main worry is that there will be more xenophobic rhetoric and attacks against Syrians.”

In the last five years, Lebanon’s currency has lost more than 98 percent of its value, according to the World Bank. The spillover from the ongoing war in Gaza has also dealt a major blow to the country’s stability.




AFP infographic showing the extent of the depreciation of the Lebanese lira as of early 2021. A recent report of the World Bank says Lebanon’s currency has lost more than 98 percent of its value in the last five years. 

To make matters worse, funding for UN agencies to assist displaced communities is drying up fast amid the world’s multiple, overlapping humanitarian emergencies. 

According to Abou Khaled, “in 2024, UNHCR and the World Food Programme are able to assist 88,000 fewer refugee families than in 2023 with cash and food assistance, reflecting a 32 percent decrease in the number of beneficiaries.”

Syrian refugees in Lebanon are among the most vulnerable populations, with approximately 90 percent of households living in extreme poverty and 80 percent lacking legal residency.




In this picture taken on June 13, 2023, Syrian children play between tents at a refugee camp in Saadnayel in eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. (AFP)

Jasmin Lilian Diab, director of the Institute for Migration Studies at the Lebanese American University, said that “depriving Syrian refugees of proper documentation not only violates their fundamental human rights but also exacerbates their vulnerability.

“Without legal status, refugees face barriers accessing essential services such as healthcare, education, and employment, further marginalizing them within Lebanese society,” she told Arab News.

“This lack of documentation also increases the risk of exploitation, abuse, and detention, leaving refugees without legal recourse or protection. More recently, this has made them increasingly vulnerable to deportation amid ongoing raids and crackdowns.”

For Abou Khaled of UNHCR, housing is also a major concern. “More than half of the Syrian population (52 percent) live in dangerous, sub-standard or overcrowded shelters with the worst/most dangerous conditions reported in Mount Lebanon, (the) south and Beirut,” she said.




Syrian refugees salvage belongings from the wreckage of their shelters at a camp set on fire overnight in the northern Lebanese town of Bhanine on December 27, 2020, following a fight between members of the camp and a local Lebanese family. (AFP/File photo)

In March, a huge fire broke out in a Syrian refugee camp in Wadi Al-Arnab in the northeastern town of Arsal. The inferno, reportedly caused by an electrical fault, devoured more than 36 makeshift tents.

The fire was only the latest in a series of similar incidents to befall this vulnerable population. A similar blaze occurred in Hanine in Bint Jbeil District during a heatwave in July 2023, while another broke out in October 2022, reducing 93 tents to ashes.

Those living in rented accommodation are hardly better off. Average monthly rents in Lebanese pounds have “increased by 553 percent in 2023; from LBP 863,000 in 2022 to over 5.6 million LBP in 2023,” said Abou Khaled.

For Syrian refugees, unable to live under these circumstances but too frightened to return home, where they might face arrest, persecution, or conscription by the regime or one of the country’s armed factions, the most practical way out seems to be onward migration.




Displaced Syrians leave Lebanon towards Syrian territory through the Wadi Hamid crossing in Arsal on October 26, 2022. (AFP/File photo)

“UNHCR does not hinder the return of refugees to Syria,” said Abou Khaled. The UN agency “is also actively working to support durable solutions for Syrian refugees, including resettlement to third countries, and return to Syria.”

She added: “Resettlement allows responsibility sharing and show of solidarity with host countries like Lebanon, supporting large refugee populations.” This, however, “depends on quotas UNHCR receives by resettlement countries.

“Overall, since 2011 and up to the end of 2023, about 100,000 refugees have been resettled from Lebanon to third countries. In 2023, there was a 9.25-percent increase in resettlement departures when compared to 2022, and the highest number recorded since 2017.”

For many Syrians in Lebanon, onward migration through legal routes is out of reach. Hundreds have instead resorted to making the dangerous sea journey to the EU’s easternmost state, Cyprus, which is a mere 160 km from Lebanon.




Caption

Earlier this month, Cyprus expressed concern over the sudden surge in arrivals of Syrian refugees from Lebanon. With more than 600 Syrians crossing in small boats, the island’s reception capacity has reached breaking point, Reuters reported.

Shaar suspects “the number will only increase going forward as the situation becomes worse and worse” in Lebanon.

Diab of the Institute for Migration Studies at LAU said that “while sea journeys to Europe may seem like the only option for some Syrian refugees in Lebanon, safe alternatives do exist in theory — albeit a much slower process that many refugees cannot afford to wait for.”
 

 


Ukraine’s Zelensky says in UAE for official visit

Updated 5 sec ago
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Ukraine’s Zelensky says in UAE for official visit

  • The UAE has been an important mediator between Russia and Ukraine, helping with prisoner exchanges
KYIV: Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday he had arrived in the United Arab Emirates for a visit with a “large humanitarian program,” ahead of an expected meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
Zelensky posted a video of him getting off the plane in UAE and holding talks with officials.
“An official visit with the First Lady to the United Arab Emirates,” Zelensky said on Telegram.
“The priority is to bring even more of our people home from captivity. As well as investment and economic partnership. A large humanitarian program,” he added.
He said this week that he planned to visit the country – as well as Turkiye and Saudi Arabia – in the coming days.
But he said on Friday that he had no plans to meet with Russian or US officials there.
Moscow and Washington are preparing for a summit between their two leaders, with Europe and Kyiv worried they will try to settle the three-year war in Ukraine without them.
The UAE has been an important mediator between Russia and Ukraine, helping with prisoner exchanges and the return of Ukrainian children from Russia, throughout the war.

In northern Syria, displaced owners return to houses with no roofs

Updated 17 February 2025
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In northern Syria, displaced owners return to houses with no roofs

  • An aerial video of the area shows rows of houses that are still standing but with their roofs missing

MARAAT AL-NUMAN, Syria: After a decade of war and displacement, many Syrians are returning to their homes, only to find them looted and roofless.
In towns like Maarat Al-Numan and Kfar Nabl in northern Syria, residents who fled years ago have returned since the fall of former President Bashad Assad but are now confronting the harsh reality of widespread theft and destruction.
Strategically located on the route between the cities of Aleppo and Damascus, Maarat Al-Numan became a touchpoint in the Syrian civil war.
Assad’s forces seized the area back from rebel control in 2020. After that, groups affiliated with Assad looted houses and demolished some of them to extract valuable materials and furniture, human rights groups said. Steel and wires were taken out of rooftops to be sold.
An aerial video of the area shows rows of houses that are still standing but with their roofs missing.
Anmar Zaatour, a resident who left in 2019, said he came back in 2025 to find his home destroyed.
“There was nowhere to put our children,” he said. “This destruction isn’t from the bombing, it was the military. And it’s not just mine, it’s my neighbors, and friends.”
Zakaria Al-Awwad burst into tears of mixed joy and sorrow upon his return to Maarat Al-Numan. His house was destroyed, “one of the first ones to get hit,” he said.
“There is no place like home,” he said. “Even if I have to put on a sheet of cloth, it is better than anything else. We have freedom now, and that is priceless.”
Others were more circumspect about the future.
“The problem is, it’s impossible to resume a life without a roof,” said returning resident Hassan Barbesh. “Maarat Al-Numan is an impoverished town. It’s a very difficult task to start from scratch.”
 

 


Netanyahu signals he’s moving ahead with Trump’s idea to transfer Palestinians from Gaza

Updated 17 February 2025
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Netanyahu signals he’s moving ahead with Trump’s idea to transfer Palestinians from Gaza

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday signaled that he was moving ahead with US President Donald Trump’s proposal to transfer the Palestinian population out of Gaza, calling it “the only viable plan to enable a different future” for the region.
Netanyahu discussed the plan with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who kicked off a Middle East visit by endorsing Israel’s war aims in Gaza, saying Hamas “must be eradicated.” That created further doubt around the shaky ceasefire as talks on its second phase are yet to begin.
Rubio, in his upcoming stops in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, is likely to face more pushback from Arab leaders over Trump’s proposal, which includes redeveloping Gaza under US ownership. Netanyahu has said all emigration from Gaza should be “voluntary,” but rights groups and other critics say that the plan amounts to coercion given the territory’s vast destruction.
Netanyahu said he and Trump have a “common strategy” for Gaza. Echoing Trump, he said “the gates of hell would be open” if Hamas doesn’t release dozens of remaining hostages abducted in the militant group’s attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that triggered the 16-month war.
The ceasefire’s first phase ends in two weeks. Negotiations were meant to begin two weeks ago on the second phase, in which Hamas would release dozens of remaining hostages in exchange for more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting truce and the withdrawal of Israeli forces
Trump’s special Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, told Fox News that “phase two is absolutely going to begin” and he had ”very productive” calls Sunday with Netanyahu and officials from Egypt and Qatar, which serve as mediators, about continuing talks this week. He also said hostages to be released include 19 Israeli soldiers and “we believe all of them are alive.”
Netanyahu’s office said Israel’s security Cabinet would meet Monday to discuss the second phase.
Trump later told journalists it is “up to Israel what the next step is, in consultation with me.”
In another sign of closing ranks, Israel’s Defense Ministry said it received a shipment of 2,000-pound (900-kilogram) MK-84 munitions from the United States. The Biden administration paused a shipment of such bombs last year over concerns about civilian casualties in Gaza.
Resuming the war could doom hostages
This week marks 500 days of the war. Netanyahu has signaled readiness to resume the fighting after the ceasefire’s current phase, though it could be a death sentence for remaining hostages.
Rubio said peace becomes impossible as long as Hamas “stands as a force that can govern or as a force that can administer or as a force that can threaten by use of violence,” adding, “It must be eradicated.”
Hamas reasserted control over Gaza when the ceasefire began last month, despite suffering heavy losses.
Netanyahu has offered Hamas a chance to surrender and send top leaders into exile. Hamas has rejected that scenario and insists on Palestinian rule. Spokesman Abdul Latif Al-Qanou told The Associated Press the group accepts a Palestinian unity government or a technocratic committee to run Gaza.
Netanyahu instructed negotiators to leave for Cairo on Monday to discuss further implementation of the ceasefire’s first phase, as issues over delivery of shelter materials continue.
The Israeli military, meanwhile, said it carried out an airstrike on people who approached forces in southern Gaza. The Hamas-run Interior Ministry said it killed three of its police officers while they secured the entry of aid trucks near Rafah on the Egyptian border.
‘If someone has a better plan ... that’s great’
In an interview last week, Rubio indicated that Trump’s Gaza proposal was in part aimed at pressuring Arab states to make their own postwar plan that would be acceptable to Israel.
Rubio also appeared to suggest that Arab countries send troops to combat Hamas.
“If the Arab countries have a better plan, then that’s great,” Rubio said Thursday on the “Clay and Buck Show.”
But “Hamas has guns,” he added. “Someone has to confront those guys. It’s not going to be American soldiers. And if the countries in the region can’t figure that piece out, then Israel is going to have to do it.”
Rubio wasn’t scheduled to meet with Palestinians on his trip.
Arabs have limited options
For Arab leaders, facilitating the mass expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza or battling Palestinian militants on behalf of Israel are nightmare scenarios that would bring fierce domestic criticism and potentially destabilize an already volatile region.
Egypt hosts an Arab summit on Feb. 27 and is working with other countries on a counterproposal that would allow for Gaza’s rebuilding without removing its population. Human rights groups say the expulsion of Palestinians would likely violate international law.
Egypt has warned that any mass influx of Palestinians from Gaza would undermine its nearly half-century peace treaty with Israel, a cornerstone of US influence in the region.
The UAE and Saudi Arabia also have rejected any mass displacement of Palestinians.
The UAE was the driving force behind the 2020 Abraham Accords in which four Arab states — Bahrain, the UAE, Morocco and Sudan — normalized relations with Israel during Trump’s previous term. Trump hopes to expand the accords to include Saudi Arabia, potentially offering closer US defense ties, but the kingdom has said it won’t normalize relations with Israel without a pathway to a Palestinian state.
Rubio won’t be visiting Egypt or Jordan, close US allies at peace with Israel that have refused to accept any influx of Palestinian refugees. Trump has suggested he might slash US aid if they don’t comply, which could be devastating for their economies.
Rubio is also skipping Qatar.
Arab and Muslim countries have conditioned any support for postwar Gaza on a return to Palestinian governance with a pathway to statehood in Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories that Israel seized in the 1967 Mideast war.
Israel has ruled out a Palestinian state and any role in Gaza for the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, whose forces were driven out when Hamas seized power there in 2007.
 


US military says airstrike in Syria kills leader of Al-Qaeda affiliate Hurras al-Din

Updated 17 February 2025
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US military says airstrike in Syria kills leader of Al-Qaeda affiliate Hurras al-Din

RIYADH: A senior official of an Al-Qaeda affiliate was killed during an airstrike by American forces in northwest Syria, the US Central Command, or Centcom said on Sunday.

In a statement posted on the X platform, CENTCOM said the "precision airstrike" targeted and killed "a senior finance and logistics official in the terrorist organization Hurras al-Din (HaD), an Al-Qaeda affiliate."

It said the operation "is part of CENTCOM's ongoing commitment, along with partners in the region, to disrupt and degrade efforts by terrorists to plan, organize, and conduct attacks" against civilians and military personnel from the US and its allies.

"We will continue to relentlessly pursue terrorists in order to defend our homeland, and US, allied, and partner personnel in the region,” the statement quoted Centcom chief Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla as saying.

Last January 30 in Syria, a Hurras al-Din leader was also reported killed in a US military airstrike that targetted his vehicle on a highway near the village of Batabo in northwest Syria.

The US military has around 900 troops in Syria as part of the international coalition against the Daesh group. The coalition was established in 2014 to help combat the armed group, which had taken over vast swaths of Iraq and Syria.

(With AFP)

 

 


Turkish opposition party delegation meets with Kurdish leader in Iraq as part of PKK peace efforts

Updated 17 February 2025
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Turkish opposition party delegation meets with Kurdish leader in Iraq as part of PKK peace efforts

  • Ocalan, 75, founded the PKK, in 1978, which began an armed insurrection for an autonomous Kurdish state in Turkiye’s southeast in 1984, costing tens of thousands of lives

BAGHDAD: A Turkish opposition party delegation arrived in Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region Sunday against the backdrop of peace efforts between Ankara and a banned Kurdish separatist movement in Turkiye.
The delegation led by Sirri Sureyya Onder and Pervin Buldan, two senior officials with the pro-Kurdish People’s Equality and Democracy Party, or DEM, in Turkiye, met with Masoud Barzani, the head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party — the dominant Kurdish party in Iraq — in Irbil Sunday.
Barzani’s office said in a statement that they discussed “the peace process in Turkiye” and that the Turkish delegation conveyed a message from Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned leader of Turkiye’s banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.
Barzani “stressed the need for all parties to intensify their efforts and endeavors to enable the peace process to achieve the desired results” and reiterated “his full readiness to provide assistance and support to the peace process in Turkiye and make it a success,” the statement said.
The DEM party has long pressed for greater democracy in Turkiye and rights for the country’s Kurdish population, and also to improve conditions for the imprisoned Ocalan.
Ocalan, 75, founded the PKK, in 1978, which began an armed insurrection for an autonomous Kurdish state in Turkiye’s southeast in 1984, costing tens of thousands of lives. The group is considered a terrorist organization by Turkiye and its Western allies. The central Iraqi government in Baghdad announced a ban on the group, which maintains bases in northern Iraq, last year.
Captured in 1999 and convicted of treason, Ocalan has been serving a life sentence on Imrali island in the Marmara Sea.
The government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has traditionally had an antagonistic relationship with the left-wing DEM party, frequently ousting its elected officials on charges of ties to the PKK and replacing them with state appointed officials.
However, this icy relationship began thawing last October, when Erdogan’s coalition partner, far-right nationalist politician Devlet Bahceli suggested that Ocalan could be granted parole, if his group renounces violence and disbands.
The peace effort comes at a time when Erdogan may need support from the DEM party in parliament to enact a new constitution that could allow him to stay in power for unlimited terms.
The Turkish Constitution doesn’t allow Erdogan, who has been in power since 2003 as prime minister and later as president, to run for office again unless an early election is called — something that would also require the support of the pro-Kurdish party.
Even as the latest peace efforts are underway, Erdogan’s government has widened a crackdown on the opposition, arresting journalists and politicians. Several elected Kurdish mayors have been ousted from office and replaced with state appointed officials, the latest this Saturday, when the mayor of Van municipality in eastern Turkiye was removed from his post and replaced with the state-appointed governor.
Meanwhile, conflict is ongoing between Turkish-backed armed groups and Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria.
Turkiye views the Syrian Democratic Forces, a US-backed military Kurdish alliance in Syria, as an extension of the PKK. The SDF is in negotiations with the new government in Damascus following the ouster of then Syrian President Bashar Assad in a rebel offensive.
While most former insurgent groups have agreed to dissolve and integrate into the new Syrian army, the SDF has refused so far.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Saturday that the government would reconsider its military presence in northeastern Syria if that country’s new leaders eliminate the presence of the PKK in the area. Also Saturday, Kurds in northeastern Syria staged a mass protest to demand Ocalan’s release.