Translation from Arabic: @mekut_mallet
What’s the state of what they once called “the revolution of freedom and dignity” eight years later
With the Syrian crisis entering its ninth year, and in light of the the local, regional and international shifts related to this crisis, it appears that there is no short-term solution for it.
While some Syrian forces claimed from the beginning what they called the “Syrian revolution” a revolution of freedom and dignity, it has dramatically changed into a rebellion dominated by sectarianism, even to the extent that those same actors who called for freedom and dignity, committed more horrific crimes than those committed by the Syrian regime in the areas they took over; starting from Damascus countryside to northern Syria, then rampaging through the Kurdish region of Afrin.
Our Center (Violations Documentation Center in Northern Syria) has documented various crimes and violations committed by Turkish forces and Turkey-backed Syrian armed factions in the period between March, 2018 and February 2019.
Which include:
Killing 717 civilians, from Afrin natives and the settlers who were deported to northern Syria in a deal between the Syrian regime and Turkey, under the auspices of Russia, including eighteen cases of murder by torture.
The detention of 4680 people, of whom 580 suffered torture.
Kidnapping civilians to demand ransoms from their families in return for their release. Our center documented 326 kidnap cases.
We also documented 1088 injury cases resulted form beatings or house raids conducted by the Turkish army and its extremist Islamist proxies.
1051 air raids were conducted by the Turkish air force in assisting the armed factions, and 34 mortar attacks on residential areas by the Turkish forces.
Turkey-backed backed militia also often fight each other in attempts of expanding their area of control and confiscations of civilian property. We have documented 101 case of such infighting, which has caused the death of civilians, because the clashes mostly happen inside residential areas.
Turkish border guards also killed and wounded 427 Syrians who attempted to flee the war by crossing the border into Turkey. Among those are 78 minors and 52 women. 331 people were wounded by bullets or were physically assaulted by Turkish border guards.
Turkey’s armed proxies came to northern Syria after giving up the regions they were controlling elsewhere in Syria, after an agreement between the Syrian regime and Turkey under auspices of Russia. Once they came to northern Syria they started looting and confiscating civilian property.
We have documented:
1291 cases of confiscation of civilian property, including houses and other real estate, of which they’ve turned some into jail houses, military barracks or mosques.
60 cases of deliberate burning of civilian property from homes, shops to orchards.
53 cases of destruction of houses.
1250 cases of desecration and destruction of graves.
50 schools and learning centers turned into military bases.
And after all these crimes, some of which reach the level of crimes against humanity ‒in addition to the demographic change in the city of Afrin‒ what does remain of which once was called the (revolution of freedom and dignity)?
Muhemed Hesen – Kobane
