No NATO assistance for arsonist Erdogan

---- Göttingen, February 28, 2020 ---- The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) has accused Turkey of cynicism, stating that the refugee crisis in Syria is being instrumentalized to pursue geostrategic interests. The human rights organization warned against NATO assistance for Turkey, as the country is involved in war crimes in northern Syria. "Turkish President Recip Erdogan is trying to give the impression that he is trying to help solve the Syrian crisis, but he is one of the biggest arsonists himself. In Syria, tens of thousands of people are on the run for fear of attacks by Erdogan's troops and his Islamist allies", explained Ulrich Delius, the STP's director, in Göttingen on Friday. For example, the Turkish army had fired rockets and artillery at refugee camps in the north of Aleppo on Friday night. In the village of Aqiba, a Kurdish family that had fled from Afrin was killed in the attack.

The STP demands an immediate opening of the Turkish-Syrian border for humanitarian reasons, to ensure that aid organizations can provide supplies for refugees on Turkish territory. Due to the closure of the Turkish border, it has become extremely difficult to provide humanitarian care to the needy people in northern Syria.  

The human rights organization also accused the Assad government and its ally Russia of committing war crimes by bombing the civilian population in Idlib. Thus, all parties to the conflict are guilty of failing to protect the civilian population and of violations of international humanitarian law.

Header image: Michal Unolt via Flickr.