afrinpost
Today, Wednesday, 32 human rights and civil organizations issued a joint statement condemning the Turkish occupation of Afrin and demanding its end and the prosecution of the perpetrators for their crimes.
The statement stated, “The occupation of Afrin has caused disasters and tragedies, violations and crimes committed against the Kurdish inhabitants of Afrin clinging to their land in a remarkable increase in quantity and methods. All kind of crimes were practiced by the occupation and its mercenaries during the past three years of the occupation, including deliberate killing under torture, kidnappings, forced disappearances, systematic torture, forced displacement of the population, changing the region’s demography, cutting down fruitful trees, destroying cultural monuments and landmarks, forced marriage and rape of women in the detention centers, attacks on religious shrines of the Yazidi Kurds, and many other crimes.
The statement indicated that all violations occur while the international community watching, accusing it of deafness and dumbness, questioning its credibility, and accusing it of bias towards its interests and favoring them over moral and humanitarian values and legal principles.
The statement also indicated that the crimes and violations in Afrin fall under the category of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and that was confirmed by official international reports, especially the report issued by the International Commission of Inquiry on Syria in October of last year, as well as the report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and Amnesty International with the testimony of dozens of local human rights organizations, which clearly indicated Turkey’s responsibility as an occupying power for war crimes, which embarrassed Turkey legally in front of the international community, which prompted it to intervene and bring paid media outlets to Afrin to distort and falsify facts and instruct directly its associates and leaders from the Coalition to carry out fake moves, making field visits to the Afrin region, to meet with the people, and forming formal committee called “Restitution of Rights”, make false promises to the Kurds related to cultural rights and celebrating their National Day, Nowruz.
The statement saw that the visit of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Coalition delegation to the Kurdistan region of Iraq aimed to exploit the Kurdistan region position and influence with the Kurds and to come up with a media agenda directed to the international community stating the Kurds ’consent and their approval of the conditions in their regions under the rule of the Turkish occupation, to evade responsibility for these crimes and justify them under the name“ individual actions”, given that what is perpetrated systematic ethnic cleansing of the Kurds in the Afrin region and a systematic change of its demographics to obliterate its Kurdish identity, and its humanitarian and religious specialty.
The statement described the international silence as disgraceful, as it also mentioned the complicity of some Kurdish forces with the Turkish occupation and their miserable attempts to polish and whiten its ugly face.
The statement concluded that the signatories took the responsibility of exposing the occupation, documenting its crimes and conveying them to the international community and international human rights organizations, and asking them to fulfill their responsibilities by pressuring Turkey to deter it from continuing its crimes and abiding by its legal responsibilities as an occupying state and urging it to end its occupation of Kurdish areas and withdraw from it with its mercenaries. So the forcibly displaced people return to their homes and homes in a safe and voluntary manner and managing themselves under the auspices and protection of the United Nations until a comprehensive and lasting peaceful solution to the Syrian problem is found in accordance with Security Council Resolution 2254.
The Signatories:
1- The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
2- The Kurdish Legal Authority
3- Society for Threatened Peoples – Germany
4- Afrinpost News Network
5- Violations Documentation Center in Northern Syria
6- Afrin Media Center
7- Ezidna Foundation
8- German Kurdish Forum
9- The Kurdish Society Association in Stuttgart
10- Hêvî Kurdish Association – Belgium
11- Human Rights Organization – Afrin
12- Kurdish Civil Society Organization in Europe
13- Human Rights Organization in Syria (MAF)
14- Mahabad Organization for Human Rights
15- Union of Yazidis of Syria
16 – Justice Center for Human Rights
17- Lykulin Center for Legal Studies and Research – Germany
18- Rojava Center for Strategic Studies
19- Syria Human Rights Defense Initiative
20- Human Rights Organization in Aljazeera
21- Human Rights Organization in the Euphrates
22- Lawyers Union of Afrin region
23- The Committee for Human Rights in Syria (MAF)
24- The Kurdish Association for the Defense of Human Rights – Austria
25- Kurds without borders
26- Civil society institutions in Al-Shahba area
27 – Lawyers Union in North and East Syria
28- Lawyers Union in Aljazeera region
29- Zagros Center for Human Rights – Switzerland
30- Working Group for Afrin
31 – Union of Switzerland’s Kurds
32- Association of Zacon
33- The Syrian Center for the Defense of Human Rights
