President Joe Biden should urge Turkey to avoid confrontation, respect the territorial integrity of neighbouring countries and cease destabilising cross-border military operations.
Turkey has imposed a 20 km ‘security buffer’, where its jihadi mercenaries continue to attack the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the United States’ boots-on-the-ground. Similarly, the 2018 Turkish invasion and occupation of the neighbouring Afrin region killed hundreds and reduced Kurds from 90 percent to less than 15 percent of the local population.
An accountability mechanism is urgently needed for jihadist mercenaries – Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Syrian National Army (Hamzat, Sultan Murad, and Al-Amshat divisions), and Samarkand – who loot, extort, rape and commit murder. The U.N. Commission of Inquiry reports more than 150 cases of abduction, rape and/or murder in Afrin, including the rape of 30 women in February 2020.
Turkey blocks humanitarian aid to northern Syria and disrupts water and electricity supplies to the local population. It is also pushing for the SDF to be excluded from international peace negotiations, including the U.N.-led Constitutional Committee. And at the same time, Turkey is discouraging U.S.-backed unity talks involving the SDF and the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Syria.
We hope the US President pressures Turkey to stop its ongoing military attacks against the region and put an end to the human rights violations against the Syrians in areas occupied by Turkey and its Syrian proxies. The United States should enforce a no-fly zone in the skies above Northern Syria (AANES ).
