Kurdish National Council condemns violations against Kurds in Afrin
North-Press Agency
In a written statement on Monday, the Kurdish National Council (ENKS) condemned the horrific and systematic practices and violations against Kurds and all the people of Afrin by Turkish-backed armed opposition groups.
The Council’s official website published a statement saying, “The regions of Afrin, Tel Abyad (Gre-Spi) and Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) are suffering from continued serious violations of some factions and armed groups that entered with the Turkish forces, especially in Afrin.”
The statement added that the Afrin region “is exposed to crimes and practices incompatible with human values, in addition to theft, looting, robbery, burning homes and shops, bulldozing olive fields, seeking demographic change in the region, arresting young people, and torturing them to the extent that some of them died.”
The Council, which is included in the Turkish-backed Syrian National Coalition, described the practices committed by these armed groups, including the kidnapping of Kurdish women, as practices against humanity.
ENKS demanded the international community and the Turkish state stop these violations immediately, and also demanded that perpetrators be held accountable and receive the highest punishments. They also called for the expulsion of these armed groups from the cities, towns and villages and that they be administrated by local residents.
The General Secretariat of the Council called on concerned countries, the United Nations and humanitarian organizations to stand with the Kurdish people in their suffering and to allow international human rights organizations and international media agencies to cover and document daily violations and work to provide security and safety for these areas.
On Sunday, Kurdish parties (the Kurdish Democratic Progressive Party in Syria or PDPKS and Yekiti Kurdistan Party – Syria or PYKS) condemned "violations and daily crimes committed against Kurdish civilians in the Afrin region,” demanding the formation of an independent international fact-finding committee.
Also on Monday, dozens of displaced women from Afrin called on the international community to form an international investigatory committee to investigate abuses against kidnapped women in the prisons of the Turkish-backed armed opposition groups in Afrin.
Since March 18, 2018, Turkish-backed armed opposition groups have been committing violations and abuses against the indigenous residents of Afrin, from forced displacement, kidnapping, and financial extortion to field executions and resettlement of settlers in local residents’ homes, all of which are documented by international reports, videos, and photos published by human rights organizations and local media.