Displaced Syrians demand to return, seek regime-YPG exit
Hundreds of Syrians displaced from Tell Rifaat and its surroundings are demonstrating for the right to return home and for opposition forces — not the regime — to control the area.
ALEPPO — For weeks, displaced persons from Tell Rifaat and surrounding towns in Syria have been protesting near the Bab al-Salameh border crossing with Turkey in northern Aleppo province, demanding they be allowed to return to their areas, which have been under the control of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) since February 2016.
The displaced from Tell Rifaat and more than 40 other towns, villages and ranches including Tell Qarah, Kafr Naya and Shaykh Issa, have been living for years in camps north of Azaz, in Sajou and around the Bab al-Salameh crossing. Bachir Aleito Abu al-Kheir, head of the Tell Rifaat political office, told Al-Monitor more than 100,000 people were displaced from the area.
