Northern Syria: poison gas and executions by the Turkish army?

On Tuesday, the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) demanded the establishment of a commission of inquiry to investigate the serious allegations that Turkey is committing war crimes in northern Syria. “Apparently, the Turkish army is using poison gas in the northern Syrian region of Afrin. The international community should not ignore the alarming reports of doctors and eyewitnesses,” said Kamal Sido, the STP’s Middle East Consultant in Göttingen. “In addition, we were repeatedly informed about executions of Kurds who were captured by the Turkish army or by allied Islamist militias – which would be serious war crimes as well. If there are allegations like this against a NATO partner, they must be investigated. Denials by Turkey are by no means enough!”

According to Sido, there is worrying evidence that recent reports about executions of prisoners of war are true. For example, Turkey has stopped publishing figures about captured Kurds. Now, there are only reports about “neutralized” or “eliminated” members of the Kurdish YPG. The YPG are protecting northern Syria from IS and other radical Islamists.

Further, Sido warned that many statements by the Turkish government are to be seen as “window dressing”, such as the constant assertion that no civilian targets are being attacked in Afrin. Several eyewitnesses informed the human rights activist (by phone) that the Turkish Air Force attacked ten villages in the northern Syrian region on Monday alone. One of the targets was the refugee camp “Robar”, located 18 miles away from the Turkish-Syrian state border, where thousands of refugee families from all over Syria are now living. In the south of Afrin, Turkish rockets hit the village Basuta. According to first information, the 13-year-old girl Haifa Kallahu died, and eight other members of the Kallahu family were seriously injured. There are many members of the religious community of the Yazidis living in Basuta. Since the beginning of the Turkish war of aggression against peaceful Afrin, at least 183 civilians got killed, 431 were injured, and around 70,000 were forced to flee.

Kamal Sido, who was born in Afrin, talks to eyewitnesses in northern Syria over the phone every day. The people there have repeatedly confirmed the indiscriminate attacks of the Turkish Air Force against targets in the city of Afrin.

“Russia and Iran have repeatedly tried to cover up the atrocities of the Assad regime,” the human rights activist criticized. “It would be a feeble ‘tit-for-tat’-response if the US and other states were to back up their NATO partner Turkey and cover up war crimes by the Turkish military.”

Header Photo: Kurdishstruggle via Flickr