Turkey Attempting to Annex Occupied Lands in Northern Syria

The Turkish army and Ankara-backed militants on Saturday banned Syrian identify cards in the town of Azaz in Northern Aleppo in a move widely seen as a prelude to the annexation of Northern Syria occupied territories to Turkey.

A local council, affiliated to the Turkish army, announced via a circular that people have to use newly-issued Turkish ID cards.

In the meantime, local sources reported that the council issued the circular at the order of Turkey’s intelligence service, adding that the Ankara forces had already warned that residents in Northern Syria will be punished if they use their Syrian identity cards.

Ankara has been attempting to annex a part of Northern Syria to its soil in the last 7 years via different measures that also includes bans on Syrian IDs.

In July, well-informed sources reported that the Ankara-backed forces made industrious efforts to issue Turkish identity cards for the residents of the occupied town of Afrin.

The sources further said that residents of Afrin referred as refugees in these identity cards, adding that but residents of Afrin were allowed to use their Syrian identity cards.

The sources went on to say that the Ankara forces embarked on erecting checkpoint at the entrances of Afrin to register identity details of Arabs and Kurds to issue new Turkish identity cards for them.

The Ankara forces threatened to burn the houses of all those who refused to cooperate with them in the new ID plan.

In the meantime, Spokesman for the Turkish Foreign Ministry Hami Aksoy claimed that the Turkish forces will continue their presence in Afrin on a temporary basis.

FARS