August 2 , 2018
According to human rights reports, that were issued inside the Syrian region of Afrin, related to violations which are being done by Turkey-allied factions of Syrian opposition, the situation points to a real disaster on Afrin citizens.
Attempts to bring about demographic change in the region are associated with increasing cases of human rights violations from abduction to torture, murder, burning, confiscation of property and so on.. The documented rights and information reports periodically published by Violations Documenting Centre in Northern Syria (VDCNSY) through the testimonies received and field monitoring by the Center’s coordinators and relying on the testimonies of the local population and the forcibly displaced. Dozens of media reports issued about Afrin unequivocally prove that what is happening in Afrin is violations that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity that will not be subject to statute of limitations under international law and the perpetrators will not be save from punishment.
Violations committed by the Turkish occupation forces with the Syrian groups affiliated with them, which were fighting under the banner of the Free Army in Afrin during the period from 1 June to 31 July of this year amounted that:
(95) killed civilians, including elderly persons, 5 women and 11 children, and documented (394) cases of abduction and arrest. And (138) cases of injuries as a result of raiding houses or explosive shrapnel or as a result of being beaten by militants.
In addition to documenting 21 cases of internal fighting between armed groups in residential neighborhoods, documenting the transformation of 33 educational and civilian centers into military headquarters and confiscating 35 houses and turning them into prisons or military centers. 13 cases of fire were documented of Residential property (houses, shops, orchards). And documented the demolition of 16 houses. (500) graves, and the residents of dozens of villages were not allowed to return to their homes occupied by settlers. And (11) cases of bombing by Turkish aviation near a populated place.
In addition to the imposition of royalties under the name of Zakat, the displacement of the population from their homes to be converted to a mosque, forcing the Yezidi to pray, prevent the people from going to the orchards and prevent harvest, sources of land and investment and the seizure of their property and homes.
Violations amounting to war crimes and humanitarian crimes under international law will not be subject to statute of limitations and the perpetrators will not escape their penalties.
Cases documented by name, photographs, and certificates do not account for 30% of the volume of violations taking place on the ground. Arab settlers are also involved the Syrian armed forces in the attacks, the seizure of civilian houses, the refusal to evacuate them, the harvesting of their land and the reaping of their crops and trees. They are considered participants in these crimes and will bear their legal and moral consequences.
VDCNSY warns against continuing these crimes and calls on the international community to intervene to save the lives of hundreds thousands of people displaced from or returned to Afrin despite the Turkish invasion and the daily crimes against them. These practices are only an integral part of the Syrian government’s so-called census project against the Kurds in 1962, which resulted in the confiscation of three million acres of land in the province of Hasaka, and two million and two hundred thousand acres in the areas of behavior and Tal Abyad and Ain Issa, Which belonged to their Kurdish owners in the east of the Euphrates River where the lands were granted to farmers from outside the province within the framework of the Arabian Belt Project, which will deepen the gap between the Syrian people and lead to further difficulties.
From the point of view of international law and international conventions; the loyal Syrians to the Turkish factions and partner organizations in these violations and crimes, bear any legal and penal consequences and bear the same responsibility for the crimes against civilians. Arab settlers who have accepted housing in the homes of displaced Kurds and seized their property Their crops and lands are partners and bear the legal and moral consequences of this.
The Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, 1949 (Part I), Article 33
“No protected person may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.”
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights also states in the text of Article 17 that:
(1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.
Turkey has failed repeatedly since they colonized its neighboring Syrian lands and its sovereignty was violated. Also, it failed to restore security and peace to the areas it occupied for the sake of protecting the population, while it contributed in bringing more tragedies to the population, violated international charters and conventions, and it has not been able to fulfill its commitments to the world against its flagrant violation of international and humanitarian values and conventions and the rights of neighboring countries.
Since last March, the violations, arrests and abuses against the residents of Afrin, who have remained under the oppression of Turkish guns and the whip of the factions under his command, have not stopped. These violations, which escalated in the beginning of June against the citizens of the people of the area of Afrin, and assault them. The factions operating in the city of Afrin and rural villages deliberately continue to trade civilians by arresting, transporting them to their headquarters, severely beating them, torture and ill-treatment, and imposing a sum of money to release them.
The release process is carried out after payment of money, and sometimes killings of civilians arrested as a result of the horrific torture or inability of their families to secure the amount required for release by the factions of Operation “olive branch”, the last of which killed a civilian and tortured his brother after raiding their house and stealing their property from And one of them was taken away and released after the property of the detainee and his brother were stolen. He died after he could not be treated as a result of the brutal beatings he suffered.
As well as the resettlement of displaced people from the East of Ghouta to the villages of Afrin, and refused to return the residents to their villages and turn houses into secret prisons or military headquarters in addition to the distribution of houses to the families to militants, in conjunction with the seizure of more civilian property from agricultural land and farms, houses, cars and other property . Where complete seizure of property is taking place, while furniture, machinery, jewelry and electronic equipment can be looted.
Some factions deliberately set fire to property belonging to citizens, in response to the parents’ refusal to pay royalties to the factions in their areas of control in the vicinity of the city of Afrin and the areas of Balbala, Raju, Shirawa, Shara, Jenders, Maabitli, Midan and Ikbis. Where hundreds of olive trees were set on fire, and the farms ignited the resentment of the people, who, in their eyes, were considered to be the perpetrators of violations without deterring any faction.
The opposition factions at the checkpoints on the roads and at the entrances to cities and towns harass and search women on the pretext that they have weapons, directs prostitutes and racist words, insult passengers as they pass through the checkpoint and deliberately delay them for hours under the pretext of being searched and searched for their cell phones.
