According to KurdPress, thousands of Syrian Kurds who were displaced from the city of Serikani seven years ago following the military operation of Turkey and its allied armed groups are still waiting to return to their homes; while, according to them, a number of former Turkish-backed forces are still living in their homes.Ahmed Ossi, 26, who now lives in the al-Tala' camp near Hasakah, said the gunmen who entered Serekani during the fighting are now living in people's homes and are even telling the original owners that they have no right to return. "They want us to forget that these houses belonged to us," he said. "We hope that the Kurdish autonomous administration, the Syrian government and especially the defense ministry will facilitate our return as soon as possible," he said.

In 2019, Turkey, along with its allied armed groups, took parts of the northern Syrian border strip, including Serekani, from Kurdish forces. Many members of these groups have since settled in the area with their families.

According to UN figures, despite the end of the Syrian civil war, there are still about 5.5 million people are internally displaced. In the al-Tala’a camp, many families have built small shelters with mud and bricks in addition to tents to protect themselves from the intense summer heat and winter cold. Kobar Qader, a 43-year-old mother of seven, says the promise of return has been repeated many times but has never been fulfilled. “As long as others live in our homes, there is no sense of security to return. We want to return to our homes without fear or intimidation,” she added.

Human rights groups have previously reported that a number of homes and property belonging to Kurdish residents in the area have been confiscated or looted since the 2019 military offensive. The return of the Syrian Kurds is one of the pillars of an agreement reached in January between the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Damascus government to integrate the self-governing institutions into the Syrian government.However, while some of the displaced people in the Afrin region have been able to return to their homes, the residents of Serekani are still waiting for this part of the agreement to be implemented.

Abdul Karim Omar, a representative of the Syrian Arab Republic in Damascus, considered the return of the displaced people of Serekani to be one of the most important unimplemented clauses of the agreement. Also, Jawan Issa, a member of the committee representing the displaced people in the region, said that measures such as field visits and mine clearance have begun, but the security situation and continued Turkish influence in the region remain the main obstacles to the return of the residents.

In contrast, a local official in Hasakah province, who did not want to be named, announced that dozens of families have already returned to Serekani and that in cases where armed forces were present in people's homes, the houses were evacuated after the owners approached them.According to him, some of the displaced people are also worried about reprisals due to their links to the SDF and prefer to return to the region only through official government channels.

“This tent will never replace the house I left seven years ago,” said Fatena Abdul Qader, a 65-year-old woman who still lives in the camp, with tears in her eyes. “I wish to return to the land of Serikani and spend the last days of my life there.”