Turkish forces kill, injure 888 civilians in Syria in first half of 2023

Introduction and Methodology:

Turkey stands accused of committing large-scale systematic violations against the Syrian people for more than five years. This began with the invasion of Afrin in 2018 and continued with Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) and Tel Abyad in 2019. Turkey brought the Turkish-backed opposition factions, also known as the Syrian National Army (SNA), into these regions. As a result, the populations’ human rights were violated, starting with their right to life. Turkey bears responsibility for the violations committed by its forces in Syria, including killings, arrests, and assaults on asylum seekers at the Syrian-Turkish border. Additionally, Turkey is responsible for the illegal bombardment of north Syria and for the violations committed by the SNA factions. As the supporter and funder of these factions and having control over the region, Turkey must be held accountable for its actions.

Turkish authorities have consistently claimed that they are fighting “terrorism” in Syria, using this justification to carry out unlawful shelling on civilians and infrastructure, invasions, displacement of original inhabitants, and demographic engineering in Afrin, Sere Kaniye, and Tel Abyad. Additionally, they have conducted arbitrary and discriminatory arrests of locals based on their political, national, religious, and ethnic affiliations. Turkey has also unlawfully transferred detainees in SNA prisons to Turkish territories without revealing anything about their fate and has neglected to address the human rights violations committed by these factions, thereby facilitating impunity.

The civil, cultural, social, political, and economic rights of the original people of Afrin, Sere Kaniye, and Tel Abyad have been clearly and blatantly violated over the past five years amid inaction and absence of accountability from the international community, particularly in emergency situations, such as the Feb. 6 earthquake.

This semi-annual report, issued by the Monitoring and Documentation Department of North Press, is based on its databases that record and document violations committed by Turkish forces against Syrians on Syrian territory. The report also uses information received directly from field correspondents, as well as news articles and reports released by the agency, testimonies from victims and their relatives, and security and human rights sources.

This report presents Turkish violations committed within Syrian territory, including extrajudicial and willful killings, direct attacks on asylum seekers, arbitrary arrests, and the transfer of detainees to Turkish territories. Furthermore, the report documents the illegal bombardment of northern Syria and the systematic violations of the cultural, social, and economic rights of Syrians, such as settlement construction and cutting off water.

Excess use of force against asylum seekers

The violations of the Turkish forces against Syrians began after 2011, coinciding with a large-scale influx of refugees towards Turkey. Turkish border guards have used excessive force against asylum seekers, including directly shooting, assaulting, arresting, and subjecting them to torture in inhumane conditions.

As of the first half of 2023, the number of affected Syrian asylum seekers has reached 452 individuals, including 20 children and 26 women. Tragically, 25 people were killed and 121 others were injured during direct targeting by live bullets while attempting to cross the Syrian-Turkish border. In addition, Turkish border guards have assaulted and beat 306 individuals and have used excessive force to prevent them from crossing the border.

Turkish border guards have also arrested 242 individuals and detained them for several days. These individuals were then sent back to Syria, where they were once again arrested, assaulted, and extorted. It has been reported that they were only released from detention after paying a sum of money, with amounts starting from 200 Turkish liras.

During the first six months of 2023, many cities under the control of Turkish-backed SNA factions have witnessed multiple protests calling for an end to the violations committed by Turkish border guards. These protests were sparked by incidents of assault and killing against young men and children who were attempting to cross the border.

Turkey has the right to control and safeguard its border with Syria, but its attacks on Syrian asylum seekers represent a clear violation of international law, human rights laws, and various treaties and covenants. These include the United Nations Refugee Convention, the Convention against Torture, and other international human rights instruments that prohibit states from returning asylum-seekers to their countries of origin when doing so would put them at risk of harm.

Illegal shelling

Following its invasion of Afrin, Sere Kaniye, and Tel Abyad, Turkey continued to threaten to invade new cities and regions of northeast Syria. However, these threats were met with international rejection. As a result, Turkey began managing its military operations from outside Syrian borders by conducting illegal and indiscriminate shelling using drones and artillery against areas held by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) and the Syrian government. Turkey has claimed that these operations are aimed at fighting “terrorism.” Despite Turkey’s claims, our department has recorded that over 30 percent of the victims of Turkish shelling during the first half of 2023 were civilians.

During the first half of 2023, Turkey targeted a total of 257 positions, including 141 residential locations, with 1160 strikes. Of these, 37 strikes were carried out by drones. The attacks targeted 124 positions in Aleppo northern countryside with 979 strikes, 89 positions in the city of Raqqa and its countryside with 108 strikes, 17 positions in Hasakah and its countryside with 28 strikes, nine positions in Qamishli with 10 strikes, 10 positions in the city of Kobani with 18 strikes, and eight positions in Manbij with 17 strikes.

The indiscriminate shelling carried out by Turkish forces resulted in a total of 122 military and civilian casualties. Of these, 74 individuals were killed and 48 were injured. The number of civilians killed reached 15, including five women and one child, while 25 were wounded, including one woman and four children. Regarding military casualties, 27 members of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were killed, and eight were injured, while 31 soldiers of Syrian government forces were killed, and 12 were wounded. Additionally, one member of Russian forces was killed, and three others were injured.

Turkey’s targeting of civilian individuals and property through the use of force and indiscriminate bombardment is a clear and stark violation of international humanitarian law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention. These legal frameworks prohibit assaults against civilians and the indiscriminate shelling of cities and villages. They also emphasize protecting civilians and prohibiting violations of their basic rights, including the right to life.

Arrests

During the first half of 2023, Turkish forces arrested 305 Syrians in Turkish-backed SNA-held areas or at the Syrian-Turkish border. These arrests represent a clear violation of international human rights law and have contributed to the broader human rights crisis affecting Syrian refugees.

The number of asylum seekers arrested by Turkish border guards has reached 242 individuals, including 15 women and 21 children. Most of these individuals were subjected to beatings, torture, and detention for several days in Turkey before being deported back to SNA-held areas where they once again faced torture, abuse, and arbitrary arrests. They were released after paying 200 Turkish liras.

Turkish intelligence forces have also been involved in the arbitrary arrest of 72 individuals, including a woman and three men of non-Syrian nationalities, including a French, an Egyptian, and a Saudi. Two men were also arbitrarily arrested in Afrin. These individuals were transferred from the prisons of SNA and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) to Turkish territories, with their destination and fate remaining unknown.

The transfer of detainees from one country to another, where they may be subjected to torture or inhuman or degrading treatment, is a clear violation of international humanitarian law and the European Convention on Human Rights. These actions underscore the urgent need for action to address the human rights abuses committed against Syrian refugees and non-Syrian nationals.

Cutting off water

Since January 2019, Turkey has been withholding Syria’s share of the Euphrates River water, weaponizing it against the AANES. However, the most affected individuals are civilians, particularly farmers, as the decline in the river’s water levels and the drying up of some of its tributaries has affected agricultural production, particularly after farmers were prohibited from irrigating their crops with water from the river due to the low water levels and the spread of cholera.

The drought that has occurred in the region has had a direct impact on the food security and economy in Syria, causing a high surge in the prices of vegetables and bread across the country. Turkey’s actions in withholding Syria’s share of the Euphrates River water represent another blatant violation of human rights, depriving the Syrian people of their right to safe water and affecting food security.

Cutting off the Euphrates River water is not the only violation committed by the Turkish government. It is also responsible for the actions of SNA factions, who since 2019 have systematically cut off water coming from the Alouk water pumping station, located in Turkish-held Sere Kaniye, to the city of Hasakah. Issa Younes, co-chair of AANES General Directorate of Drinking Water of Hasakah Governorate, northeast Syria, said that “Turkey, through its factions, has cut off water over 40 times from the Alouk water station, which provides water to the city and countryside of Hasakah, home to about one million individuals, including IDPs.”

According to the United Nations, “54 of 73 water stations along the western bank of the Euphrates were significantly or severely affected by critically low water levels.” This has had a severe impact on the availability of drinking water in Hasakah, Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor, and Aleppo, further exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in these areas.

The decline in water levels of the Euphrates River has contributed to creating a health crisis in the region, leading to the spread of diseases and epidemics such as cholera, hepatitis C, and typhoid fever. The number of fatalities caused by these diseases has increased since the river and its tributaries dried up.

In 2020, Turkish authorities opened drainage passages in the Maydanki lake dam in Afrin to extract water to the Reyhanli Dam in the Turkish Province of Hatay. So far, it has extracted over 50 percent of the lake’s water.

These discriminatory practices by Turkey represent a violation of the cultural, social, and economic rights of local communities and directly impact their right to life.

Turkey must stop withholding, cutting off, and transporting water, and to work in line with UN’s General Comment No. 15 regarding the right to water and ensure that individuals have access to a minimum amount of water on a non-discriminatory basis.

Building settlements

After Turkish forces and their affiliated SNA factions entered the Afrin region in 2018, following a Turkish military operation dubbed ‘Olive Branch’ which displaced around 300,000 original inhabitants from the Kurdish-majority Afrin, Turkey began implementing its plan to bring about a demographic change in the area. This was done by establishing settlements for the factions, their families, and IDPs who were forcibly deported from Turkey. Many countries, such as Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, are involved in this process through organizations that fund local associations, which sponsor the construction of these settlements.

Since then, Turkey has built 112 settlements in the area, according to the department’s records. In the first half of 2023 alone, and taking advantage of the earthquake situation, Turkey supported the construction of 11 settlements – 10 in Afrin and its countryside and one near the city of Azaz, consisting of over 2,500 housing units.

Turkey uses local organizations and SNA factions to implement the demographic change process. It gets rid of Syrian refugees on its lands by settling them in these settlements, which are marked with the Turkish flag.

The construction of settlements is considered a violation of international humanitarian law, which prohibits their construction in occupied territories. This is also prohibited by the Fourth Geneva Convention, which also prohibits demographic change.