afrinpost – Exclusive
Our reporter stated that excavation is still continuing at the cemetery located near Afrin University, and the bodies of six martyrs were exhumed this morning, bringing the total number of exhumed bodies to 41, which were transferred to an unknown location.
The reporter added that the excavation process was preceded by threatening civilians in the vicinity of the consequences of filming the excavation process, in order for the Turkish version of the story to remain only the source of the news, and to promote the lie that the bodies belonged to fighters who were liquidated, and not the victims of the massacres carried out by Turkish bombing during the aggression on Afrin region.
After more than three years, the Turkish pro-government outlets came out yesterday, Wednesday, with a fabricated story, saying that a cemetery containing 35 bodies had been found in Afrin city, after the security authorities had received a report, and the excavation work resulted in finding 35 bodies wrapped in bags and buried at a depth of 15-20 meters.
The cemetery, where victims of Turkish aggression massacres buried:
The Turkish version of the story was based mainly on “the secret cemetery” lie, and the pro-government agency claimed that preliminary investigations showed that the unidentified bodies were executed shortly before the so-called Olive Branch operation.
The established fact is that the cemetery was well-known, and the graves had gravestones and visited regularly by the families of the martyrs in the first two years of the occupation during the holidays, and the martyrs buried there were civilians and soldiers died in the Turkish bombing, including children. Moreover, the first attack on the cemetery after The Turkish occupation of Afrin was when IDPs, brought in by Turkey, dumped rubble left over from construction on the graves in the cemetery.
The made-up story, circulated by the Turkish media and Muslim Brotherhood outlets, exceeded all limits of imagination, as the agency contradicted itself by publishing pictures not showing the alleged deep depths of burial, depending on what it reported. Furthermore, the place of founded cemetery within a residential neighborhood directly surrounded by apartment buildings, denies the story of the secret cemetery, and contrary to the agency’s version, the bags did not appear, as the bodies were wrapped in shrouds.
The story of the executing those who refused to bear arms in Afrin was never mentioned before, and it is superficial to believe the possibility of concealing an event of this magnitude that takes place in a residential neighborhood before the people eyes, to remain a secret for more than three years.
The agency also contradicted itself when it mentioned that the graves are recent and that the “supposed execution” took place shortly before the aggression, meaning that the grave traces were not disappeared with the occupation of the city and supposed to be clear then, especially with the assumption of digging up at great depths, so why It was not immediately disclosed, and remains to this day?
Records of demolishing and desecrating graves:
On March 21, 2018, the Turkish Anadolu Agency published the news of a discovered cemetery, under the headline: “The Turkish army finds a recent cemetery for terrorists killed in Olive Branch operation.” with pictures of Turkish soldiers standing in the cemetery. The cemetery Avesta Khabur cemetery in Afrin, which holds the bodies of dozens of fighters died during the resistance to the Turkish aggression. After a period of time, The Turkish authorities bulldozed that cemetery and turned it into a livestock market.
It is worth noting that the shrines of the martyrs were targeted during the aggression many times, and Ankara has already boasted of using high-precision weapons targeting many shrines of the martyrs, as: (the shrine of the martyr Rafiq in Metîna village, and the shrine of the martyr Seydo in Qaziqli mount in the village of Kefer Sefrê), and desecrating the sanctity of the cemeteries with tanks. Not only that, but the cemeteries in many villages, especially the old ones, were exhumed, and the shrines and the tombstones with Kurdish language writings were attacked. Adding to that the graves in the Yazidi villages and religious shrines which were not spared from exhumation and vandalism.
Al-Mahmoudiya massacre:
On the morning of the 16th of March 2018, the massacre of al-Mahmoudiya neighborhood occurred, due to the direct aerial bombardment on the convoy of civilians fleeing from their villages. No exact number of killed and injured people was reported on that day, when also the main Avrin Hospital in the city was bombed, and more than ten people were killed, including two female citizens in labor. The hospital was out of service, and all the martyrs were buried in the city in the different spaces in the city, along with the bodies of male and female fighters.
The citizens who survived al-Mahmoudiya massacre on 3/16/2018 gave a detailed account of the bloody aggression, and confirmed that they were within a convoy of cars coming from the villages, seeking a safe haven in the city after the bombing intensified on their villages, to face death at the entrance to the city. They also talked about the difficulty of movement as the drones continued to fly in the air in the countryside and the city, they mentioned the bodies of the martyrs, as well as the injured children, women and the elderly, and the difficulty of accessing their bodies.
One of the facts that all the people of Afrin know is that the bodies of the martyrs in the last days were buried in a hurry, due to the continuous siege and bombardment.
The purpose behind the fabricated news:
The Turkish authorities are trying to exploit the fabricated news on several fronts, to legitimize the occupation and exonerate themselves from committing massacres against civilians, while at the same time accusing the Kurds of terrorism. In this way the material evidence proving its guilt of committing the massacres, which is mentioned in dozens of human rights and media reports, is manipulated.
