Operation Olive Branch is continuing as planned. We are not taking into consideration any of the criticisms that the operation is progressing slowly. Because both the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) and Turkish soldiers consider the lives of the civilians on the ground their priority. They are taking great care.
As Operation Olive Branch progresses step by step, it is now clear that the Afrin leg is merely a stage. Turkey declared to the world at the highest level that the intervention targeting the terrorist organizations will continue along the entire Syrian border “from the Mediterranean to the Iraqi border.”
At this stage of the fight against terrorism, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made another very important statement the previous day. In that statement he said, “This operation is as much the requirement of our millennium-old neighborliness as it is of our border security. Of course, the 3.5 million guests staying in camps, in container cities in our country will not be here forever. Our struggle is going to continue until these people return home.”
I believe that President Erdoğan’s statement that “The 3.5 million guests will not be here forever” is not a discourse aimed at the outside alone. This is because the millions of people who came from Syria have a heavy price on Turkey’s sociology. And that price is paid by the people living together with Syrians in the neighborhoods, the street and suburbs.
In some of our cities, our sociology has changed. Our signs changed. Our tastes, the way we talk, the way we walk changed. Our apartment lifestyle changed. Our house state changed. Our language changed.
We opened our doors wide for the Syrians fleeing Bashar Assad’s oppression, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) affiliated Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its armed People’s Protection Units (YPG) terrorism, Daesh’s violence and sought refuge in Turkey. We did this by challenging many social risks. We did it without differentiating between any ethnic origin, sect or religion.
Turkmens came as did the Arabs, Kurds, Yazidis, Nusayris, Sunnis and Shiites. We never asked any of them why they came.
It wasn’t only the elderly, the children and women who came; many youths who we thought would defend their country also came.
When we saw them in their homes or on the streets, we didn’t ask them, “Why didn’t you stay and defend your country?” Because we were hoping that this dirty war would end. That Syria’s oppressors would go. That the PYD/YPG-PKK and Daesh would not reach their goals. That those who came would return to their homes, jobs and homeland.
There is a huge young male population among not only the 3.5 million Syrians living in camps or container cities, but also those who have settled in our cities. If these youths are concerned about a “Homeland watch,” about “What is homeland defense?”, then today is the day. The time is now. Because we have come to the end in Syria now, and at the final turn, the path has been paved for Syria’s true owners to have a say.
Turkey is helping not only by hosting them, opening its doors to everyone who comes, paving the way for the settlements of Syrians in all Turkish cities. It is also helping Syrians by fighting the terrorist groups that occupied Syrian territory, wreaked havoc there and forced the locals to migrate.
But at this stage, we getting hurt. We are in grief. Turkish soldiers are being martyred, they are dying. Even in that state, the nation is supporting this fight as one. They don’t say a word to the young Syrians they see when walking on the road.
Right at this point, is there not a duty on the young Syrian men who have taken refuge in Turkey?
Do they not have a responsibility?
Something should be done, at least to prevent them from looking down, turning the other way when walking outside, right?
There was an article in Yeni Şafak daily yesterday that drew my attention and led me to discuss this topic. Kıymet Sezer’s article mentioned the call by Rafi Raju Abu, who is the Ukla Syria High Council president, and the leader of the Shaitat Tribe, which comprises 80 percent of Syrian tribes and peoples, to the youth to clear their land of terrorist organizations.
In the article Abu Ukla says:
“I am calling on the Syrian youth in Turkey to come and defend their homeland. Come so we can save it from the hands of terror, let us support our Turkish friends.”
To be honest, I wonder how many of the young Syrian men staying in Turkey as guests will respond to this call.
Otherwise, one day all this will be over. A new order will be established in Syria. Then, some of those staying in Turkey will never be able to look up from the ground. Yet those who join the homeland defense, will be the hero of a story that will be told for generations.
Am I wrong?
