Rights Organization: Opposition’s violations under the supervision of Turkey aim to displace the Kurds from Afrin

ARK News: A Human Rights Organization, on Monday, said that Turkey-packed militias continue to commit violations against Kurdish civilians in Afrin in western Kurdistan (Syrian Kurdistan) under the supervision of the Turkish government and the Syrian interim government in order to displace them from the region.

"The Turkish government, in coordination with the Syrian interim government and the National Coalition, supervise all violations by armed factions of various names in order to clamp down on the region's indigenous population from the Kurds in order to force them to leave," the Afrin Human Rights Organization said in a statement to ARK News.

The statement added that these practices come despite the Kurds clung to their land and continue to bear the atrocities of crimes and inhuman violations committed since the entry of the Turkish occupation forces to this day, but “they become more and more convinced not to allow them to implement their plan of demographic change and demographics of the people of the region to complement the projects that the Syrian regime was striving to implement by some of its agents, after the people of the region engaged in demonstrations against the regime in Damascus and to accompany the Syrian revolution at the beginning of the start eight years ago”.

The statement said: "It is precisely here that the reactions of the governing authorities of the region began today to avenge their nationals on flimsy pretexts by supporting and belonging to the organization of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its self-management and compulsory service in that administration”, pointing out that “most of those who consider themselves free revolutionaries were formerly belonging to the Syrian Baath Party and the Muslim Brotherhood, except the joining of a number of ISIS and HTS (formerly al-Nusra Front) terrorists."

Crimes against humanity:

The statement said: “After the armed militias under the supervision of the Turkish occupation forces committing crimes against the Kurdish citizens in the Afrin region, here today they are once again committing their humanitarian crime against the cultural and civilizational heritage as they have committed in several archaeological sites (Prophet Hori - Tel Jenderes .. by stealing the winged basalt lion statue in the archaeological hill of Ain Dara, which requires heavy equipment to be transported from a huge crane and a large truck car, as well as the disappearance of archaeological finds from the warehouse of expeditions belonging to the temple”, and “it also increased the exposure to the site as a result of the Turkish bombing during the invasion of the region of the destruction of parts of the statue and the conversion of the site surrounding the temple to a military headquarters where training on live weapons”.


"The Organization said “We hold the Turkish authorities and the Syrian interim government responsible for the disappearance and the theft of Basalt al-Assad by committing this crime, we also hold them responsible for the looting and theft of other relics in scattered locations in the region in order to eradicate the cultural, civilization and human heritage of the region's indigenous Kurds, and, as we appeal with the rest of the Kurdish citizens all international institutions and directorates of antiquities and museums of the world to do their humanitarian role to preserve those sites from theft, looting, bulldozing and destruction”.

Detention of Kurdish civilians:

The Organization’s statement made clear said that “on Sunday morning on 17/11/2019, a peasant from the town of Basouta, accompanied by a number of workers (about 15 workers) while they are going on their work, found three unidentified bodies thrown in the orchards, they then informed the armed elements of al-Hamzat faction who control of the village and who in turn surrounded the place and detained the workers pending investigation."

The statement added "according to our sources in the city of Afrin, the bodies belong to three settlers of armed militias from Harasta city in Damascus countryside, as a result of differences between them and armed elements and settlers affiliated with the Turkish forces of the Turkmen component over their right to seize more than 20 hectares of fertile agricultural land (irrigated) belonging to the Kurdish citizens who were forcibly displaced in the village of Astir and some hectares of land belonging to the village of “Coqê” and the city center of Afrin, which led to fighting among themselves on Saturday”, adding that ”after the dead bodies were taken at night in late by a military vehicle to the headquarters of the Turkish military in the city and thrown among the orchards of Basouta village”.

Continued cases of kidnapping and assault:

The statement said: “An armed militias of Ahrar Al-Sharqiya faction assaulted a Kurdish citizen in the city of Afrin in the neighborhood of Mahmuodiya under the pretext of making noise and disturbing him during the cutting of firewood with electric saw, they beat him brutally, which led badly wounded to him, then to be transferred to the hospital and receiving treatment.

unidentified armed men wearing military uniforms and riding a military vehicle (gang) kidnapped, on Sunday, 17/11/2019, the son of Taher (olive oil trader) from Habou village of Mabata town in Afrin city and took him to an unknown destination so far, in order to blackmail and get the ransom, according to the same source.

The Human Rights Organization in Afrin said: “Armed militias belonging to the faction of Sultan Suleiman Shah al-Amshat, led by Muhammad al-Jassim, alias Abu Amsha, controlling Shiye town, on Sunday, 17/11/2019 kidnapped the citizen Mohammed Mustafa Sheikho, 32 years of Shiye town on charges of compulsory service in the previous administration of the PYD as a result of being tainted and taken to the city of Afrin by the commander of the same faction with his own car called Mohammed Jassim Abu Amsha and handed over to the military police (Political Security) without knowing his fate so fate.

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