“We did not learn from Afrin; that is how we are in this mess in Idlib,” said a two-star retired major general when news about the harassment of the Turkish army’s Morek observation point by Russian-backed forces broke. Turkey started its second cross-border military operation, this one named Operation Olive Branch, in January 2018, which resulted in the capture of Afrin province in northern Syria (the first was Operation Euphrates Shield). Completed in the span of two months, this operation is seen as a military success in Ankara. Unlike Operation Euphrates Shield, which mobilized twice as many Free Syrian Army (FSA) soldiers as the Turkish army, Operation Olive Branch relied on Turkish soldiers (on a three-to-one ratio with the FSA) — mainly commando units and gendarmerie. Today, the Afrin area is controlled by Turkish-backed forces. Turkey has been insistent on a safe zone and is determined to push Kurdish forces away from its border. The Olive Branch mission was to cleanse the region from the Kurdish People’s Protection Units. Yet all Afrinis suffer under ethnic, cultural and religious cleansing.

Turkish Radio and Television reports that Afrin, now “freed of terror," continues to operate at a "normal pace.” Nevertheless, the same report says that gendarmeries continue their training to combat terrorism and battle mines and traps. What really has happened in Afrin since March 2018?

Al-Monitor spoke with Afrin residents, researchers, senior Democratic Union Party officials, as well as members of the Turkish armed forces who have participated in Operation Olive Branch. Three categories require attention: the destruction of historic and holy sites, confiscation of property and natural wealth, and kidnapping of Afrin residents for ransom. The end goal of all three tactics seems twofold: the expulsion of Kurds, Alevis and Yazidis, or the Sunnification and Arabization of Afrin, and accruing financial gains to pay off FSA militias.

General Secretary of the Kurdish Democratic Unity Party in Syria Muhyadin Sheik Aley told Al-Monitor, “As soon as the Turkish forces and their mercenaries entered the city of Afrin and its environs, they began to destroy the most prominent monuments, most notably a monument of Newroz Kawa, which has great importance for Kurds because of its meanings of freedom and beauty in the mythology of the people of Afrin.