By Muslum Etgu
SANLIURFA, Turkey (AA) – PKK/PYD terrorist group is reported to have been preventing Syrian Kurds from returning to their homes in Syria’s northern Ayn al-Arab (Kobani) city.
Around 30,000 Kurds had sought refuge in Turkey’s Sanliurfa province after fleeing Kobani in 2014 over attacks by Daesh terrorist group.
“We are afraid of returning [home]. What they [PKK/PYD] do just leave us unsafe; simply we’re afraid,” Mahmud Jamal, a refugee from Kobani, told Anadolu Agency.
He pointed out that the PKK/PYD is controlling everything in Kobani.
"There’s no work and we can’t farm our lands," he said. "We don't even know what to do with the crops as they can take them from our hands.”
Jamal said that the PKK/PYD policy in areas under their control is that "To be with us or die".
Yunus Abbas, another refugee from Syria, said armed groups may harm or kill whoever is not on their side.
“If you care about the people then improve their life in Kobani, provide them with work, don’t oppress them and give them their lands back,” Abbas said.
Syria has remained locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.
Several rounds of subsequent peace talks -- in both Geneva and Kazakh capital Astana -- have failed to end the conflict, in which hundreds of thousands of Syrian civilians are believed to have been killed to date.