Seventh anniversary of the occupation of Afrîn

On the occasion of the seventh anniversary of the Turkish occupation of Afrîn in northern Syria on March 18, 2018, the human rights organization Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) calls on the German Federal Government to demand Turkey to withdraw its troops from the region and to advocate for safe return routes for the Kurdish people of Afrîn.

“Following the fall of the Assad regime and the takeover by the Syrian Islamists in Damascus, many Arabic settlers who had settled in Afrîn have left the Kurdish region again. Some of the Kurds have already returned to their homes – but the settlers are demanding large sums of money for the return of their houses and land, threatening to make houses and apartments uninhabitable,” reported Dr. Kamal Sido, the STP’s Middle East Consultant.

“The German Federal Government must use its connections with the Turkish state, which is baking the Islamist in Syria, to ensure that the settlers’ practices are stopped. The settlers must leave Afrîn so that the people can return without fear. Further, Turkey must withdraw from the region and stop its attacks in Northern Syria,” the Middle East expert emphasized. “With regard to a peaceful future for Syria, the new constitution will have to guarantee linguistic rights for the Kurds and the Assyro-Arameans, as well as religious freedom and local self-government for the Druze, Alawites, and other minority groups. Christians, Yazidis, and other religious minorities must be granted the right to freedom of religion, without restrictions. Also, women’s rights must not be neglected in the constitution. Germany should support the Syrian Democratic Forces in enforcing such a constitution for Syria.”

“The new Islamist rulers in Syria must not succeed in their plan to establish a Sunni-Islamist regime there. With their massacres and ongoing attacks against the Alawite people in Syria, they have shown their true face. Thus, they must not be trivialized by politicians or the media,” emphasized the human rights activist, who was born in Syria.

On March 18, 2018, following a roughly two-month-long defensive struggle, Turkey had invaded Afrîn with its Islamist militias. Around 400,000 Kurds were displaced, thousands were killed, and all Kurdish schools as well as the first Kurdish university in Syria were destroyed. Religious sites of the Kurdish Yazidis and Alevis as well as Kurdish cemeteries were destroyed or desecrated, and the small Christian community of Kurdish converts was destroyed as well. Seven years after the beginning of the occupation, there are still approximately 25 Turkish military bases. Some of the villages, places in which the Turkish armed forces are stationed, cannot be entered the Kurdish residents.

“Although the Scientific Service of the German Bundestag had classified the Turkish invasion of Afrîn as a violation of international law, the government under Angela Merkel (CDU) and Sigmar Gabriel (SPD) had supported the Turkish state politically, diplomatically, and with weapons. The German Federal Government should apologize to the Kurds for this,” demanded Dr. Kamal Sido. “Turkey’s argument that it is fighting the PKK in Syria was a pretext to destroy the Kurdish self-administration in Afrîn and to rid all of Afrîn from the Kurds. The German Federal Government must finally acknowledge this publicly.”