North-eastern Syria: Prevent Turkey's new war against Kurds!

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) warns that the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is planning new attacks in north-eastern Syria – in areas that are mainly inhabited by Kurds, but also by Christian Assyrians/Chaldeans/Arameans, Armenians, and Yazidis. "Turkey's NATO partners – especially Germany and the United States – must prevent a tragedy similar to the attacks against Afrin, which is now occupied by Turkey," stated Kamal Sido, the STP's Middle East Correspondent, in Göttingen on Thursday, referring to the tragic fate of the people in Afrin. If the Turkish army were to carry out further attacks, hundreds of thousands of people might be forced to flee from the north-east of Syria, which had so far been relatively quiet and stable.

In Afrin, thousands of people had lost their lives in attacks by the Islamist-backed Turkish army (from January to March, 2018). At least 3,000 people were abducted, and around 250,000 Kurds, Yazidis, Alevis, and Christians were expelled. The region has since been occupied by Turkey. Every day, the STP receives frightening reports of murders, kidnappings, raids, arson, and abuse of women. Further, Sido emphasized that since the Islamic sharia law was introduced in Afrin, it is not possible for women, Christians, Yazidis, Alevis, and even moderate Muslims to live there in peace.

On Wednesday, Erdogan announced that his army would soon start a military offensive in northeastern Syria to "protect" the people from "a separatist terrorist organization", by which Erdogan means the political forces of the Kurds and other ethnic groups who managed to defend the region between the Euphrates and the Tigris from brutal attacks by Islamic State and other radical Islamist groups for years. Erdogan had even provided support for some of the Islamist militias.

Header image: Brookings Institution via Flickr