World, Life, Middle East, Operation Peace Spring

N.Syria: Returnee finds home turned into terrorist base

6-year refugee and Ras al-Ayn resident Muhammed Rummane finds terrorist YPG/PKK's posters, flags hung on walls of home

Omer Koparan and Adham Kako  | 25.10.2019 - Update : 25.10.2019
N.Syria: Returnee finds home turned into terrorist base

RAS AL-AYN, Syria

A Syrian refugee in Turkey displaced by YPG/PKK terrorists in Ras al-Ayn, northern Syria, returned home thanks to Turkey’s anti-terror Operation Peace Spring.

After living in Turkey for six years, Muhammed Rummane returned to his house to find it had been converted into a headquarters of the YPG/PKK terrorist group.

On Oct. 9, Turkey launched Operation Peace Spring to eliminate terrorists from northern Syria east of the Euphrates River in order to secure Turkey’s borders, aid in the safe return of Syrian refugees, and ensure Syria’s territorial integrity.

Ankara agreed with Washington on Oct. 17 to pause its operation to allow YPG/PKK terrorists to withdraw from the planned safe zone.

"This is the house I designed with my own hands," Rummane told Anadolu Agency.

"I bought this house 30 years ago with my own money, and my children grew up in this house. [YPG/PKK terrorists] turned my house into a headquarters," he added.

Rummane angrily pointed to posters of the terror group's ringleaders and so-called flags hanging on the walls and said: “This is the poster of Abdullah Ocalan, the terrorist they see as god. These are their filthy flags they hung here on the wall.

"This poster also belongs to the pig Ocalan," he added, pointing another wall.

Rummane said the Syrian regime withdrew from Ras al-Ayn in 2013 and gave its control to the YPG/PKK terrorists, and that these terrorists expelled him and his family from the district.

Showing his gratitude to be back in his home town, Rummane said: "We shed blood for this land, we are the real owners."

On Oct. 22, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin held a meeting in Russia's Black Sea resort town of Sochi.

Ankara and Moscow reached a deal under which YPG/PKK terrorists will pull back 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) south of Turkey’s border with northern Syria within 150 hours and security forces from Turkey and Russia will conduct joint patrols there.

In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union -- has been responsible for the deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children and infants. The YPG is the Syrian offshoot of the PKK.

* Writing by Erdogan Cagatay Zontur

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