Activists call for making Afrin case a priority for Kurdish rapprochement agenda

North-Press Agency

On Wednesday, activists from the Afrin region appealed to Kurdish political forces in Syria to make the Afrin issue a top priority in the Kurdish rapprochement agenda, currently unfolding in northeastern Syria under international auspices.

The appeal, entitled The Cry of Olives, included the signatures of 94 academics, writers, politicians, media professionals, and human rights activists.

The appeal called on international guarantors to make "the issue of Afrin and other occupied areas a top priority", stressing the necessity "to formulate a working program and a road map to end the Turkish occupation and ensure the dignified return of the forcibly displaced, clarify the fate of thousands of missing persons and detainees, prosecute the perpetrators of violations and fairly compensate victims’ families.

The appeal affirmed the support for the Syrian Democratic Forces’ invitation to unify the Kurdish position, stating that Kurdish political forces, intellectuals, and educated cadres with different intellectual orientations are required to take a firm stand and answer the direct question about Afrin’s fate.

They stressed "finding ways to end the Turkish occupation and put an end to the cruel suffering of the people of Afrin,” rejecting any form of compromise or justifications for procrastination.

During a series of meetings with Syrian Kurdish political parties, the delegation of activists and writers from Afrin declared that if any political understanding between the Kurdish parties did not guarantee the endeavor to "end the Turkish occupation of the Afrin region and the return of its displaced people, it would be incomplete."