New atrocities against the Kurds in Syria

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) calls on the German government to condemn the atrocities committed against Kurds in Aleppo by the Syrian regime. "In Aleppo, the Kurdish population was deliberately targeted. People were thrown alive from high floors. Hospitals were attacked and people who were in their homes or in hospitals were executed. I knew some of these people personally and visited them in April 2025. Among them were doctors, pharmacists, and police officers who ensured the safety of the people. Their only crime was that they wanted to live freely in their homeland. For this, they are being killed, injured, or displaced by the Syrian regime," reported STP representative Dr. Kamal Sido today in Göttingen.

The human rights organization supports the peaceful protests of Kurds, Alawites, and Druze in exile, who have been protesting for days against the atrocities of the Islamist regime in Syria, and calls for a vigil in Berlin. On Tuesday, January 20, 2026, from 1 to 2 p.m. at the Brandenburg Gate (Pariser Platz), the STP will draw attention to the current crimes of the regime in Syria and commemorate the eighth anniversary of Turkey's attack on the Kurdish region of Afrin in northern Syria (January 20, 2018), which violated international law.

"We call on politicians and the media to condemn the ongoing occupation of Afrin and the new crimes against the Kurds. In recent days, the Islamist regime in Damascus, with the support of Turkey and the tacit approval of the US and Germany, has once again displaced hundreds of thousands of Kurds and committed the most serious crimes against them. Many of them come from Afrin and have already been displaced several times in recent years by Turkey and the Islamist militias it supports. Now they have to flee again. They cannot return to their homes because the northern Syrian region of Afrin is still occupied by Turkey. One of many occupied villages is the Kurdish village of Basilê (Baselhaya), which is completely sealed off by the Turkish occupiers," says human rights activist Sido.

“Many Kurds are desperate because they believe that the Islamist regime in Damascus is taking revenge on them for having fought and continuing to fight against the Islamic State (IS) and other radical Islamist groups,” says Sido. The extent of the Islamists' crimes and the incitement against other ethnic and religious communities are unprecedented in Syria's history. “Never before has blind violence been perpetrated against non-Arabs and non-Sunnis on this scale. The criminal Islamist regime in Damascus is now completing what Assad started,” says the Middle East consultant and historian.

"The Kurdish, Alawite, and Druze populations of Syria fear that the US, NATO, and Germany will abandon their country to radical Islamists and jihadists, as happened in Afghanistan. There is much to suggest that the West wants to win over the Syrian Islamists in the global competition against Russia and China. However, the facts show that the Syrian regime – like the Taliban in Afghanistan – has come to terms with Russia, China, and NATO and is using this to consolidate its own power and keep the persecution machinery running," says the human rights activist, who spent four weeks in Syria in the spring of 2025, including in Aleppo.

This press release was translated from German to English using AI. If you come across errors or ambiguities, please contact us at presse@gfbv.de.