Afrin Dispatch
Notes and photographs from recent day trips to the city
See previous dispatches here
Last month, on the 21st and 23rd, I made two day trips to Afrin, spending time walking around the city as well as talking to two local political figures. Both days I traveled from Aleppo via servis/micro bus, which departs from the Bab al-Janain garage and costs 25,000 Syrian Lira (old), approximately $1.85 at the time.
Several people I spoke to were surprised that the Afrin servis now departs from the Bab al-Janain garage as previously it left from al-Ashrafiyah. This centrally located garage hosts dozens of buses to different parts of the Aleppo and Idlib countryside so it makes sense that one can get a ride to Afrin from here, however removing rides from al-Ashrafiyah represents an inconvenience to the bulk of the passengers: Kurds regularly travelling between the two. This move and the history of Aleppo-Afrin servis routes warrants further examination.
The ride itself takes approximately an hour, with the bus exiting Aleppo city via the recently renovated Lairamoun circle in the direction of A‘zaz and Gaziantep before veering west at the al-Shatt checkpoint and entering the Afrin district. Given the significant rains experienced by Syria this previous winter and spring, the northern Aleppo countryside was still quite green; a patchwork of grasslands dotted with red poppies and olive plantations extending across low, gently rolling hills.
At Menagh Air Base one can make out the barrier walls of the small Turkish outpost erected in early 2025, one of only several new Turkish bases built following the fall of the regime (and the collapse of the SDF’s northern Aleppo pocket). On one of the days I made the trip I saw a Turkish Army Kirpi parked guarding the Air Base entrance road about 20m off the highway.
