Seven Years After the Turkish Attack on Northern Syria: Displaced Kurds Still Cannot Return to Their Homeland

Despite contrary promises by the Islamist regime in Syria, displaced Kurds are still unable to return to their home region of Serêkaniyê (Ras al-Ain) because their safety and property rights are not guaranteed, criticizes the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP). On October 9, 2019, Turkey attacked and captured the Kurdish region of Serêkaniyê. Turkish troops and allied Islamist militias displaced hundreds of thousands of Kurds as well as members of other ethnic and religious minorities, such as Assyrians-Arameans, Armenians, Circassians, Christians, Yazidis, and Sunni Muslims who reject Islamism. So far, 1,100 families have returned to Serêkaniyê. However, only three of them are Kurdish families. These three Kurdish families live in surrounding villages, not in the city of Serêkaniyê itself.

An agreement between the Islamist regime in Damascus and the now-dissolved Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) dated January 29, 2026, had guaranteed the right of return to all displaced persons. Subsequently, on August 10, 2026, a first group of returnees arrived in Serêkaniyê from a refugee camp north of al-Hasaka.

“Pro-Turkish, Arab-Sunni settlers attacked primarily the arriving Kurdish families. There were only a few Kurdish families among the returnees to begin with. Almost all of them have returned to the refugee camps in northeastern Syria due to the attacks,” reports Dr. Kamal Sido, the STP’s Middle East Advisor. In addition, pro-Turkish militias and their families continue to occupy many Kurdish homes and lands in the region. “As long as the property rights of the Kurds are not enforced against the armed settlers supported by Turkey, and the safety of the Kurdish returnees is not guaranteed, the displaced Kurds will not be able to return,” he emphasizes.

Displaced Kurds sharply criticize both the Islamist regime in Syria and Turkey, as well as the SDF, and are demanding conditions for a safe return. “Is this a tacit Arabization and Islamization of Serêkaniyê? Why are the regime in Damascus and the former SDF remaining silent and not explaining why Kurds cannot return? It is not convincing that the existing landmines are the reason, since these are also dangerous for the Arab-Sunni population and not just for Kurds. The regime in Damascus and the now-dissolved SDF must answer these open questions,” demands Kurdish activist Muhyedin Isso—who was himself displaced from Serêkaniyê (Ras al-Ain) and now lives in Germany—in a statement to STP.

Background

On October 9, 2019, Turkey—with the tacit approval of the U.S., other NATO governments, and Russia—launched an attack in violation of international law on the northern Syrian regions of Serêkaniyê (Ras al-Ain) and Tall Abyad. These areas had previously been liberated from the “Islamic State” (IS) by the SDF. During and as a result of this invasion, Turkish troops and Syrian Islamists—including members of the HTS militia led by the current ruler al-Scharaa—committed countless war crimes and human rights violations against the civilian population. Kurdish forces and their Arab and Assyrian-Aramaic allies, as well as the Muslim, Christian, and Yazidi populations who were fighting against IS, were outright betrayed by their Western allies.