A year after the second Kurdish tragedy

ARK News… Friday, October 9, 2020, marked the first anniversary of the start of the Turkish military operation on areas in Syrian Kurdistan which left hundreds of martyrs and wounded and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of citizens (more than 300,000) due to the bombing and ground attack on the region.

On Wednesday, October 9, 2019, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the start of the military operation which so-called "Peace Spring" on the cities of Sari Kaniye and Gire Spi, which were controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Syrian Kurdistan.

The Turkish artillery shelling focused on the border area in the city of Gere Spi, resulting in "casualties among civilians and within the ranks of the" SDF "as a result of the continuous artillery and aerial bombardment, at a time when large military reinforcements of" QSD "arrived in the Hammam al-Turkmen area in the northern countryside of Raqqa.

On 12 October, Turkish forces attacked the city and moved to the city center. At the same time, the SDF made a tactical retreat, withdrawing in front of the Turkish forces in response to Turkish artillery shelling of their positions. Clashes continued in the industrial area. Turkish forces continued to move into the city, where they took control of the city center.

On Thursday, October 17, 2019, the SDF accused the Turkish forces of using internationally banned weapons in their attack on the city of Sari Kaniye, such as phosphorous and the burning napalm, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that it could not prove its use, but it documented burns cases that reached Tal Tamr Hospital at that time, perhaps the image and cry of the Kurdish child Muhammad who suffered these burns was still stuck in the minds of the Kurdish people and humanity as a whole.

The battles between the Turkish army and the factions on the one hand and the "QSD" on the other hand continued until October 20, 2019, when Turkey declared its full control over Sari Kaniye, after the withdrawal of the "SDF" 20 miles in accordance with a deal reached with American mediation with Turkey after the ceasefire condition. For five days, which was agreed upon after the siege of the city.

Since the Turkish army’s attack, supported by more than 15,000 armed men from the Syrian factions, and control over the area extending from Sari Kaniye to Gire Spi in Syrian Kurdistan the factions continue their violations of theft, killing, kidnapping, looting, and seizing the homes and properties of Kurdish citizens and the region’s wealth and changing its demographics through the fetching of their families and housing them in place of Kurdish indigenous citizens, and thousands of families are still Kurdish forcibly displaced from their homes and live in tents, schools and temporary centers in very difficult living and humanitarian conditions.

Source: Rebaz News(translation from Arabic)

375