Statement on the fourth anniversary of the Turkish forces' control of the Kurdish region of Afrin

Ark News… On the eighteenth of March of this year is the fourth anniversary of the Turkish forces’ control over the Kurdish region of Afrin, with the participation of the Syrian armed factions affiliated with it, and these forces took full control of the city and its towns and villages and imposed its security and administrative authority there.

Which led to the displacement of tens of thousands of its residents, and increased the suffering of those who remained in it, and clinging to their land, making them vulnerable to various types of violations and crimes, including confiscation of private property and imposing exorbitant royalties on people, bulldozing olive fields, looting and sabotaging archaeological sites, in addition to settling large numbers of displaced families from other Syrian regions in villages and towns with the aim of carrying out a demographic change targeting the Kurdish presence there.

Despite the monitoring of these crimes and violations committed by a number of armed factions by international humanitarian and human rights organizations, and their responsibility for them has been proven, the suffering of the people of Afrin continues as long as they live at the mercy and orders of those factions.

The Kurdish National Council, while emphasizing its condemnation of these violations and crimes committed against our people in Afrin, will not hesitate to expose all of this and demands the international community, humanitarian and human rights organizations, and United Nations organizations and bodies to stop them, and calls for the expulsion of these armed groups from the populated areas in Afrin, towns, and villages subordinate to it and handing over its management to its original inhabitants.

It also calls on the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces to commit to implementing the agreement signed with the Kurdish National Council regarding work to stop violations and facilitate the safe return of the displaced to their homes.

The Council calls on the sponsoring countries the political process to expedite the activation of the Geneva process and UN Resolution 2254 to find a solution that ends the suffering of all Syrians everywhere and ensures the building of a democratic, pluralistic, federal Syria, whose constitution recognizes the national rights of the Kurdish people, and all other components.

The General Secretariat of the Kurdish National Council in Syria

17/3/2022

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