After the Turkish-led forces had captured Afrin District (Afrin Canton) in early 2018, they began to implement a resettlement policy by moving their mostly Arab fighters[44] and refugees from southern Syria[45] into the empty homes that belonged to displaced locals.[46] The previous owners, most of them Kurds or Yazidis, were often prevented from returning to Afrin.[44][45] Though some Kurdish militias of the TFSA and the Turkish-backed civilian councils opposed these resettlement policies, most TFSA units fully supported them.[45] Refugees from Eastern Ghouta, Damascus, said that they were part of "an organised demographic change" which was supposed to replace the Kurdish population of Afrin with an Arab majority.[44]