A month after the collapse of the 61-year Baath regime in Syria, Syrian refugees in neighboring Iraq are longing to return home, but the PKK/YPG terrorist group’s occupation remains a major obstacle.
Syrians displaced by the civil war that broke out in 2011 have been living under strenuous conditions at the Domiz refugee camp in northern Iraq’s Duhok region, which is under the control of Iraq’s Kurdish Regional Government (KRG).
The news of Bashar Assad’s toppling in a lightning anti-regime offensive last month has sparked joy and hope among the displaced Syrians. Many, however, complain they can only return home once their hometowns are liberated from the PKK/YPG.
The YPG is the Syrian offshoot of the PKK, a group responsible for the killings of thousands over the past few decades in Türkiye. The PKK has waged its terror campaign initially to establish a so-called Kurdish state in southeast Türkiye and parts of Iraq and Syria.
The PKK/YPG has occupied swathes of northern Syria since 2015 with the help of the United States, which calls it its ally under the pretext of driving out Daesh remnants.
Muhammad Salih Dervish, who did mandatory service in Assad’s army, has been dreaming of returning to his home since he fled Syria’s Qamishli region and took refuge in Duhok 13 years ago.
“Syrians want there to be a dialogue between ethnic and religious groups and Kurds in Syria to ally with Damascus,” Dervish, 35, told Anadolu Agency (AA). “That is the only way we can have security and peace.”
The fall of Assad’s regime has sparked intense fighting between the PKK/YPG and Ankara-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) in northern Syria, which has taken back several key towns from the terrorist group in the past month.
Türkiye, which has mounted several operations against the PKK/YPG in northern Syria, has urged the group to disband and its non-Syrian fighters to leave Syria.
Syria’s de-facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, said the YPG would be integrated into the new national army.
Kurds of Syria don’t want war or conflict, Muhammad Hussain Yahya, another Duhok resident longing to return home, said.
“I will only return home if problems in Syria are resolved,” the 65-year-old said.
The 72-year-old Hediye Ramazan Şahin lamented the lack of security due to the PKK/YPG’s occupation in northern Syria.
“We cannot return to Syria now because we would not be able to leave our village in Derik,” she said. “We are afraid without making sure security is facilitated there. Nobody there (regions occupied by the PKK/YPG) is able to leave their homes. They are afraid.”