Turkey backs new opposition governance to mend Afrin
A local council in Afrin, Syria, is being formed to help restore the city's services and improve people's quality of life.
ALEPPO, Syria — The city of Afrin, which is part of the larger Afrin district in northern Aleppo province, is getting an interim governing council to help rebuild services now that Turkey has wrested control of the area from Kurdish groups that Ankara considers terrorists.
The National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces — also known as the Syrian National Coalition — announced that the local council will be headed by Zuhair Haidar, with Abdo Nabhan as its deputy head. An executive board also was elected.
"The local council is the first step toward electing several local councils for all the areas affiliated with the Free Aleppo Governorate Council in order to restore stability and ensure the return of the displaced to their lands," the coalition announced April 12.
Turkey and its allied Free Syrian Army (FSA), a Turkish-backed coalition of rebels that opposes the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian civil war, were able to seize Afrin city March 18 as part of Turkey's Operation Olive Branch. The Turkish Armed Forces launched that operation Jan. 20 to fight the Kurdish People’s Protection Units — the armed wing of the US-supported, Kurdish nationalist Democratic Union Party.
