Erdogan’s militias continue to arrest and kidnap Afrin Kurds

Ali Ragab

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s militias continue to commit crimes of murder, theft and kidnapping in Syria in light of a strange international silence, and the armed factions supported by Ankara continue to tighten the screws on the people of Afrin through royalties and continuous thefts, as well as arbitrary arrests, to make money with the decline in Turkish financing, the collapse of the Turkish lira, and a deep economic crisis in Erdogan’s government.

The Violations Documentation Center in Northern Syria has documented the arrest and disappearance of at least 105 people in Afrin, including four women, since the beginning of December.

The prevalence in this region has become daily systematic looting, appropriation of people’s homes and properties, olive seasons, logging and other activities, in addition to daily arbitrary arrests, kidnapping of people as hostages in exchange for ransoms, and harassment of the population.

Since the Turkish forces took control of the city of Afrin and their incursion into northern Syria, 7,083 people were arrested, 1,041 of them were tortured, 133 of them were killed, and about 5,000 of them were released, while the fate of the rest of the detainees is still unknown. The number of those released after payment of a ransom reached 1,180 people. In addition, 2,261 people were killed as a result of combat operations, bombings, assassinations, and battle remnants of unexploded mines.

The continuous Turkish shelling targeting the Tal Rifaat and al-Shahba area in the countryside of Aleppo and areas in the countryside of Ain Issa in the Raqqa governorate, causing civilian casualties, as at least one person was killed and 15 others were wounded during November. The indiscriminate bombing targeted the Ain Issa Electricity Station on November 28, damaging infrastructure and civilian homes. In addition, the mines that the pro-Turkish factions are planting in the vicinity of the M4 road and the countryside of Ain Issa caused more civilian casualties, most of them sheep herders or farmers.

Ibrahim Sheikho, director of the Human Rights Organization in Afrin, said that the kidnapping of civilians in Afrin and its countryside has not stopped since its occupation by the Turkish government and the Syrian armed groups in March 2018 with flimsy charges and arguments, most of which focused on accusing them of dealing with the previous Autonomous Administration, whether they were children, women or adults.

Sheikho pointed out to the Islamic Movements Portal that the most prominent crimes that are being violated by the Syrian factions loyal to Turkey are kidnapping, torture, and murder by launching indiscriminate attacks on homes of civilians and forcibly displaced persons, or booby traps that kill dozens of civilians, including women and children.

The Kurdish activist continued, saying, “Likewise, looting, appropriation of property and deprivation of liberty is arbitrary and in repeated and systematic patterns by the various army brigades of the so-called Syrian National Army of the Turkish occupation, especially in the regions of Ras al-Ain, Afrin and Tal Abyad, in addition to forced displacement by forcing the population, especially the Kurds to “leave their homes by means of threats, material extortion, murder, and other methods that were mentioned earlier… and seizing their homes and housing their families and other recruited persons.”

Sheikho added that Turkey pursues a policy of widespread violations against religious minorities in the regions of northern and northeastern Syria, which is the forced displacement of more than 25,000 Yazidis, in addition to more than 1,000 citizens of the Christian faith, out of fear for their lives and safety and forcing the remaining Yazidis and Christians to convert to Islam in various ways and means. Even Muslims are not safe from them, because they have extremist approaches that moderate Islam does not accept, as they stand against every Muslim who does not follow their methodology and beliefs, as they claim.

He stressed that Turkey’s crimes in Syria amount to war crimes, as an occupying power, and it is obligated to implement all relevant international covenants for any country that occupies civilian populated areas from another country, but Ankara has not abided by these covenants and charters, as the opposite is always its directives for all armed factions. Its Syrian affiliates suggest that Ankara seeks to permanently leave the areas it occupies and annex it to Turkish lands, and this is considered a crime under the four Geneva Conventions of 1949, especially Article 42 regarding the responsibility of occupation and its consequences.