Hisham Arafat
SEREKANIYE, Syria (North Press) – A Syrian Kurdish disabled young man has died under torture by radical Turkish-backed armed groups after nine-month detention in Syria’s northeastern town of Serekaniye, his family said on Friday.
Mahmoud Hassan Omari, a 25-year-old man with cerebral palsy, was detained and severely beaten by a group of Turkish-backed militants while he and his mother were returning to their home in Serekaniye in October.
Hassan Omari, Mahmoud’s father, told North Press they learned about the death of their son few days ago from sources in the town of Serekaniye.
In October, the Turkish military launched an assault lasted about three weeks against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a key ally of the US in fighting the Islamic State (ISIS) group.
The operation which led to the displacement of about 300,000 pushed the SDF from a strip of the Syrian territories in the country’s north near the border with Turkey, namely about 130 km including both towns of Serekaniye and Tal Abyad, and 30 km depth to the south.
DETENTION & TORTURE
Mahmoud and his family were among the displaced by the Turkish assault.
After spending about three weeks far from their home town, Mahmoud and his mother returned to the town after it was seized by Turkish military.
“Once we arrived at our house, a patrol of four men from the Turkish-backed militias came toward us and prevented us from entering our house, saying it was emptied and no longer ours,” Mahmoud’s mother said in a previous interview.
“But my son, who is sick and exhausted, insisted that he would go in the house and was then detained just as he was speaking.”
“They beat my disabled son in front of my eyes. It was so severe that he could not move and then they took his half-dead body and left in a car,” the bereaved mother said, in tears.
After the initial beating and abduction following being blocked from entering her family's house, the mother stayed for two weeks within the town at a neighbor’s residence.
“I headed to the points and bases of the militants in the town, asking about my son, but nobody cared about him or his critical situation,” she said.
GLIMMER OF HOPE
When Mahmoud was abducted nine months ago, his family at first refused to tell his story to the media out of fear that it could potentially result in him being treated even worse.
But after a month of desperation at failed attempts to communicate and negotiate with the Turkish-backed groups that are ruling Serekaniye, they have finally decided they had no option left but to speak publicly.
“Before telling the story to the media, I even contacted commanders of the Turkish-backed militia via mediators, and the commanders said several times that my son was safe, and many times they told the mediators they handed the disabled detainee to his family,” the father said.
“They were telling fake stories to the mediator to hide the truth which was that my son was under torture.”
The father said he hoped telling the story to the media may put some pressure on the Turkish-backed armed groups of the Syrian opposition and thus mitigate his son’s suffering.
“I had a glimpse of hope that no force in the world may torture a disabled person,” he said.
“But the Turkish-backed militia torture and abuse even women and children, so the sick and disabled will not be an exemption,” he added.
Over several months, Mahmoud’s father said that he had contacted several community leaders from the local Arab population who have remained in the town and they have confirmed that the young man was still in detention.
According to information from the leaders, his son is kept in the town with a group known as Hamzat affiliated to the Turkish-backed militia with the misleading name, the Syrian National Army (SNA).
This group is openly and directly supported by Turkey as part of its offensive against the border towns of Serekaniye and Tal Abyad, causing large numbers of residents to seek shelter in displacement camps with inadequate services.
The father further explained that he had never lost hope till he received confirmed information from the town that his son had died under torture.
“We finally lost hope as we are sure he is dead and nobody knows where is his body,” he said on Friday while receiving the relatives and friends who were offering their condolences to the bereaved family.
Since the Turkish cross-border invasion on Serekaniye began in October, scores of violations against local civilians have been consistently and credibly reported by residents and observers.
Moreover, many who have attempted to return to their towns under Turkish control faced brutality, arrest, and torture, especially members of the Kurdish population.
Local Kurdish populations and multiple international observers see this as an intentional effort by Turkey to ethnically cleanse Kurds from areas along its borders.