Turkish border guards “gendarme” killed a citizen in Tal Abyad, north of Raqqa province, and seriously injured a woman.
The gendarmerie targeted Hussein al-Sukhni, 33 years old, with a sniper weapon and he was killed instantly, while Susil al-Hamad was wounded and stayed for hours until the paramedics were able to reach them for fear of being targeted by gendarmes.
Turkey closed its border four years ago to Syrian refugees fleeing the war zones in their country, where Turkish gendarmes target refugees with live bullets or arrest them for assault and return them back to Syrian territory.
According to statistics from the VDC-NSY, the Turkish gendarmerie has so far killed 432 people (76 children under age of 18 and 40 women) and 291 injuries. According to the statistics also prepared by our Centre, the number of victims who lost their lives by the Turkish army was 11, with 16 people in 2018 and 2019.
Cases of “gendarmerie” targeting Syrian refugees trying to cross the border from Syria to escape the war in their country are frequent, and they have built a separation wall along its 911-km border to prevent the entry of refugees, resulting in continuous civilian deaths and injuries.
In Idlib on Monday 11 February, the bodies of 10 civilians were found on the border strip, near Zarzour town, north of Idlib, in Drkosh area, west of Idlib. Most of the bodies remained inside Turkish territory, including children and women…
In last June, three civilians, including a 10-year-old girl, were shot dead by Turkish “gendarmes” while attempting to cross from Drkosh area of Idlib countryside into Turkish territory.
At the beginning of July, HTS ( Haiet Tahrir Al Sham) had arrested a trafficked person for allegedly murdering three people, including a woman, near the town of Drkosh, and he was executed a few days ago.
The most notable of the previous incidents were in June 2016, when 11 people, including women and children, were killed near Khirbet al-Jouz crossing in the western Idlib countryside, and nine civilians, mostly women, were killed on 9 February 2019.
