ALEPPO — For weeks, displaced persons from Tell Rifaat and surrounding towns in Syria have been protesting near the Bab al-Salameh border crossing with Turkey in northern Aleppo province, demanding they be allowed to return to their areas, which have been under the control of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) since February 2016.

The displaced from Tell Rifaat and more than 40 other towns, villages and ranches including Tell Qarah, Kafr Naya and Shaykh Issa, have been living for years in camps north of Azaz, in Sajou and around the Bab al-Salameh crossing. Bachir Aleito Abu al-Kheir, head of the Tell Rifaat political office, told Al-Monitor more than 100,000 people were displaced from the area.

The protests follow an Oct. 22 agreement between Russia and Turkey regarding a safe zone in Manbij, Tell Rifaat and the area of Syria east of the Euphrates. The deal allows Syrian regime forces to take control over all these areas from the YPG, which is supposed to withdraw. Russian and Syrian regime forces are present there, but the YPG still retained control as of Nov. 19.

The deal says all YPG members and weapons shall be removed from Manbij and Tell Rifaat, but the pact didn't guarantee that the displaced or the armed opposition could return.