The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) criticizes that, while the German government and the CDU/CSU opposition have engaged in a veritable contest over terms such as “admission stop”, “deportations”, or “border control”, they are paying little attention to the causes of forced displacement. “A large number of people are fleeing to Germany seeking protection from persecution, oppression, and war. While a heated debate on migration is taking place in Germany, people are continuously persecuted and driven out of their home countries – for example in Syria. Combating the causes of forced displacement must become the central issue of the political debate,” demanded Dr. Kamal Sido, the STP’s Middle East Consultant, in Göttingen today.

 “Yesterday, September 15, Islamist mercenaries occupied – on behalf of the Turkish occupying forces – the village of Kaxrê in the Kurdish region of Afrin in the north of Syria, terrorizing the Kurdish population there all night long,” reported the human rights activist and STP Middle East Consultant, who was born in Afrin. According to unconfirmed reports, two Kurdish women were killed because they had protested against the arbitrary imprisonment of their husbands. As a reaction, Turkish Islamist mercenaries had fired shots into the air, injuring several people. 40 women were said to have been rounded up and held in a mosque. Further details about the events are not yet available, as phone and internet connections were partially disrupted.

Kaxrê is located around 28 kilometers to the west of Afrin City, and it is one of the 400 Kurdish villages and towns in northern Syria that were occupied by Turkey in 2018. Since the beginning of the crisis in Syria in 2011, many people from Kaxrê have found refuge in Germany. “As long as the illegal occupation continues, it is out of the question for the displaced persons to return to Kaxrê. As long as the arbitrary attacks of the Turkish occupying power and its Islamist allies continue, the remaining Kurds in the region are thinking about fleeing as well,” the Middle East expert explained.  

“The German government and the CDU/CSU opposition should end the blatant and populist debate about immigration and Islamism, and initiate concrete measures to combat the causes of forced displacement and Islamism instead,” Sido demanded. “Anyone who does not want more and more people to seek protection in Germany must also address the causes of forced displacement and combat them effectively. This would include forcing Turkey to change its policy on Syria. Turkey must refrain from supporting Islamist attacks against the Kurdish people – and stop contributing to further destabilization,” the human rights activist emphasized.

Before the Turkish occupation in 2018, Kaxrê was entirely inhabited by Kurds. Around two thirds of them have already been expelled or forced to flee. They were intentionally replaced by Islamist settlers. Turkey is aiming to rid the occupied region of all Kurds, Yazidis, Alevis, and Christians. Currently, a kind of “census” is being carried out in large parts of the Syrian-Kurdish region of Afrin – not only to find out how many people live in the respective villages, but also how many people have fled and what land and other property such as houses, shops, and olive presses they left behind. According to local sources, pro-Turkish militias are confiscating the people’s property. Thus, the few remaining Kurds are robbed of their belongings.