Humanitarian aid for northern Syria

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) has reiterated its demands that all border crossings from Turkey to Syria should be opened – especially to the region of Afrin. Aid organizations, media workers, and independent observation missions must be granted unrestricted access to everyone affected in the disaster area: “Over the past five years, only weapons and Islamist fighters could cross the border. This must change – immediately,” demanded Dr. Kamal Sido, Middle East Consultant of the Society for Threatened Peoples, on Monday in Göttingen. “Demands to the Assad regime in Damascus are futile. He does not control the border. Only Turkey can decide whether aid deliveries can pass the border or not.” The STP has received further reports from Afrin according to which the Turkish occupying forces and their mercenaries are confiscating relief supplies intended for the Kurdish-controlled regions. In order to verify this, it would be necessary to send independent observers to the region.

The STP welcomes the fact that several German politicians are willing to grant earthquake victims shelter in Germany. “However, this would support Erdogan’s ambitions with regard to an ethnic cleansing of the Afrin region. For the people, it would be better if German citizens from Afrin, like me, were to provide financial support to their family members in their former homeland,” Sido said. “Many of the people in the region want stay there – despite the Islamist occupation and despite the earthquake. They are not willing to let Turkey and its Islamist mercenaries take hold of the country. Also, it would be easier and financially cheaper for Germany to help them directly in northern Syria.”

For this reason, the STP demanded that German citizens from Afrin should be allowed to travel from Turkey to Syria without being arrested. This would also allow to verify whether the border crossings are really open for humanitarian aid. “In the course of such a visit, I would personally also want to visit the graves of my mother and my father. Over the last few years, many Kurdish cemeteries in Turkish-occupied Afrin have been defiled,” Sido reported.

Shortly after the earthquake, the STP had reported on a Turkish attack on the region of Tell Rifaat in northern Syria – where many Kurdish people found shelter after being expelled or forced to flee from the Turkish army in 2018. Following emphatic denial, the Turkish ambassador to Germany has meanwhile admitted that there had been an “incident”. Against this background, the STP reiterated its demands: All attacks, no matter from which side, must end! Further, Erdogan’s wrongful plans for an invasion of Kurdish and other areas in Syria must be stopped. The Turkish troops that have been occupying Afrin since March 2018 must leave the region. These forces must return to their home country to help the suffering people in Turkey.