The occupation of Afrin entered the third year without a specific horizon for the end of the catastrophe that afflicted or a date for the return of its indigenous people to their homes. Hundreds of thousands of forcibly displaced people are still scattered in the displacement camps, villages and towns of Al-Shahba, Aleppo and other Syrian districts, and the restrictions continue on those remaining of Afrin families.
Ankara has rewarded the mercenary factions that it fought with by looting Afrin, its suppression, and the practice their sadism in it. Today, Afrin has become a region outside all laws and customs governed by the gangs’ behavior of mobile killing groups, which often involve in fighting among themselves to share the spoils and plunder according to their logic.
Our familys’ faint voices from Afrin say that they have become hostages in their homes and villages, and they are appealing to the rest of the human conscience to save life in its simplest form. What happens is genocide and an ending to existence, as all forms of violations and aggressions are practiced against them, such as murders, kidnappings, forced arrests, and asking for ransoms, and no one knows the number of security headquarters, special detention centers, and what happens in them, while it conceals many violations of property and symptoms. Today, the indigenous people of Afrin no longer secure themselves to walk in the streets or staying at their homes, as the acts of taking over homes and expelling their owners from them are continuing unabated.
In light of the occupation, it became common for a corpse to be found in the open or find a man or woman killed or slaughtered in his house. In Afrin, settlers of sheep herdsmen scream at the old landowner: “The land has become ours and you have to go out.” The old man dies as a martyr following other elderly people who have already been killed. We must know that the last killings of the elderly persons is aiming the last line of defense for Afrin with its history and specificity.
What is happening in Afrin is a cultural genocide, as the operation of changing the cultural and social identity of the region continue by turkifying it by imposing the Turkish language, beliefs, customs and traditions, imposing Islam with its Muslim Brotherhood approach and changing educational curricula. Violations included the destruction of religious shrines and Islamic and Yezidi cemeteries at the charge of atheism, after being completely stolen.
Demographic change is not only a result of aggression and occupation, but also one of its most important goals. What is required is to evacuate the region from its Kurdish people by displacing them, and this has started during the aggression and it has escalated by raising the Turkish flag on public institutions and facilities, declaring the occupation, and day after day the structure of the population changes by bringing settlers, and settling them in forcibly displaced people houses. While those who remain in their houses are obliged to pay a rents to the militants
As for people livelihood, the acts of tightening, impoverishment and intentional starvation continue to be practiced by the imposition of royalties and unjust fines, the confiscation of property and the uprooting of olive trees and the arbitrary logging and burning of forests. Besides, the water of the Maydanki Dam is stolen by channel diversion to Hatay State in Turkey.
Ankara’s preparation for the aggression was not restricted to the military side, but also included the preparation of a pre-map of the ruins and hills in which the presence of archaeological finds is possible. Under the occupation, the process of excavating and bulldozing the land continues in dozens of sites, and the archaeological pieces were looted and taken to Turkey, in an effort to erase the historical identity of the region.
Afrin is an issue that has more than one dimension, the first of which is its Kurdish ethnicity, and this imposes a direct and historical responsibility on the Kurds today represented by parties, forces and important personalities, and they are required to agree and arrange their ranks to confront the mass and systematic campaign of genocide, and bandaging the wound of Afrin bleeding for more than two years.
We, the undersigned, intellectuals and cadres, on behalf of ourselves and on behalf of thousands of voices who have communicated with us from our families inside of Afrin, forced displaced people in camps, and Syrian cities. Believing that the issue of Afrin determines the fate of all Kurds in their present and future and is at the same time as a part and parcel of the Kurdish issue within the Syrian solution process. We strongly join in the calling of the SDF, on the political forces to unite the ranks, bypassing attitudes of courtesy and blessing, and taking full responsibility before the Kurdish society.
Today, it’s directly asked from all Kurdish political forces, intellectuals, and educated cadres with different intellectual orientations, in front of the people inside Afrin and in displacement camps and areas, to take a firm stance and get out of the circle of theoretical talk, answer the direct question of the fate of the people of Afrin, and finding ways to end the occupation and stop the violations practiced against them. That is their essential mission, as long as they consider themselves representatives of the issue of the Kurdish people, and no form of compromise or justifications for procrastination is accepted.
We also head to the international sponsoring parties to make the issue of Afrin and other occupied areas a top priority and formulate a clear-cut work program and road map to end the entire Turkish occupation, ensure the dignified return of the forcibly displaced, clarify the fate of thousands of missing persons, work to liberate the detainees, bring the perpetrators of violations before justice, and offer just compensation to the families of the victims.
- Dr. Abdullah Mohamed – Doctor at the University of Nantes
- Abdullah Shkaki – Writer and Researcher in History
- Abdeen Mustafa – Fine Artist
- Dr. Abdulqader Hasco – Doctor
- Abdulrahman Haji Othman – Director of the Tirej Afrin Website
- Prof. Dr. Adnan Mamed Ibish – Professor – PhD in Mathematics
- Ahmed Hasan Akash – Journalist
- Ahmed Kitma – Journalist
- Ahmed Youssef – Academician – PhD in Economic Development
- Akhin Walat – Poet
- Dr. Akram Nassan – Emergency Medicine Doctor
- Ali Iso – Director of Izdina Media and Juridical Foundation
- Amina Ala – Lawyer
- Amina Misto – Journalist
- Angela Rasho – Pharmacist
- Aslan Mamo – Fine Artist
- Badredin Bilal – Judge and Adviser
- Brivan Hamoush – Fine artist
- Chalang Omar – Academician and Economic Researcher
- Dildar Mitani – Researcher and Notary of Digital Archives
- Dr. Faek Manla Ali – Academician – PhD in Economics
- Dr. Fakhry Abdo – Doctor
- Dr. Farhad Nasan – Doctor
- Firas Mahmoud – Theater Actor
- Gulê Ghazal – Engineer
- Gulistan Sido – Academician – Director of the Relations Office at Rojava University
- Haider Omar – Critic and Researcher of Kurdish Folklore Literature
- Hamrin Habash – Activist in Documentation and Translation
- Hanif Hamo – Fine Artist
- Hevin Haso – Poet
- Hikmat Jamil – Singer and Musician
- Hozan Abdo – Film Director
- Hozan Afrini – Writer and Journalist
- Hussein Habash – Poet
- Hussein Norlo Naasu – Lawyer and Politician
- Ibrahim Sheikho – Spokesman of the Human Rights Organization in Afrin
- Idris Mamed – Novelist
- Imad Sheikh Hasan – Attorney – Lekolin Center for Legal Studies and Research
- Jamil Rashid – Political Writer and Journalist
- Kamal Ahmed – Writer and Researcher
- Dr. Kamal Sido – Middle East official for the Defense of Endangered Peoples Organization
- Kamiran Ali – Attorney
- Khalil Khamgin – Singer and Musician
- Layla Al-Turk – Antiquities Restorer
- Maha Hasan – Writer
- Mahmoud Chaqmaqi – Writer and Cinematographer
- Mahmoud Kalash – Researcher in Yazidi Religion Affairs
- Mamdouh Tobal – Engineer
- Dr. Mamed Jimou – Academician – PhD in Eastern Languages
- Manan Jaafar – Lecturer at Rojava University
- Marwa Brim – Writer and Poet
- Marwan Barakat – Researcher and Novelist
- Mitra Youssef – Singer
- Mohamed Belco – Musician
- Mohamed Blou – Journalist
- Mohamed Habash – Journalist
- Mohamed Hamo – Writer and Poet
- Mohamed Khalil – Retired Chemical Engineer
- Mohamed Sharif – Media Presenter
- Mohamed Zadeh – Poet
- Mohamed Zeno – Writer – PhD in Sociology
- Mohyadin Arslan – Theater and Film Director
- Mustafa Shan Nabo – Co-President of the Yazidi Union in Afrin
- Newroz Rasho – Journalist
- Nihad Al-Turk – Fine Artist
- Dr. Nouristan Memo – Academician – PhD in Chemistry
- Dr. Nuri Sheikh Qanbar – Doctor
- Pir Rustom – Writer
- Pir Shamo – Social Researcher in Yezidi Affairs
- Rawan Gumi – Master of Archeology
- Refat Zuhair Al Amo – Bachelor in Political Science and International Relations
- Rima Barakat – Lawyer
- Robar Ibish – Legalistic
- Rohan Mustafa – Academician – Co-Presidency of Rojava University
- Rokan Akash – Singer
- Dr. Sabri Hasan – University Professor
- Salah Bayram – Singer
- Salah Sino – Specialized in Archaeology and Museums
- Salah Youssef – Poet
- Salam Hussein – Writer
- Sheikho Blou – Legalistic
- Dr. Sido Hamo – Doctor
- Tammuz Shamali – Writer
- Tara Ibo – Writer and Poet
- Walat Afrini – Journalist and Writer
- Walid Bakr – Kurdish Language Researcher
- Youssef Bakr – Fine Artist
- Zakaria Afreeni – Poet
- Zinar Ala – Journalist
- The name is hidden because he is inside Afrin
- The name is hidden because he is inside Afrin
- The name is hidden because he is inside Afrin
- The name is hidden because he is inside Afrin
- The name is hidden because she is inside Afrin
