Military council calls for release of Syriac fighters illegally held by Turkey
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – On Tuesday, the Syriac Military Council called for the release of three Syrian nationals illegally arrested and detained by the Turkish state.
Syrian citizens Jamil Gerges, Muhassan al-Okla, and Emad al-Saud, all members of the Syrian Democratic Forces-affiliated defense militia known as the Syriac Military Council, were captured by Turkish-backed armed groups during the latter’s invasion of northeast Syria’s Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) and Tel Abyad regions in October of 2019. The men’s court documents labeled the location of their alleged crimes as in Sanilurfa, Turkey, despite the description of the event being described as Resulayn (Sere Kaniye), Syria. They were charged with attempting to destroy the unity of Turkey, attempted murder, and membership in a terrorist organization.
The men had been beaten and tortured in Syria by the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) militias which captured them. They were later abused in the Turkish detention system as well; they were reportedly not allowed to speak to an attorney and were forced to sign documents in Turkish, a language they do not speak or understand, according to a May 2021 report by American researcher Amy Austin Holmes.
According to the statement, the three men were tried in Turkish courts in Turkey’s Urfa region and sentenced first to seven and a half years and recently retried and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits the mass or individual forcible transfer and deportation of protected persons from occupied territories to the territory of the occupying force for any reason, the statement adds.
The statement concluded, “We, in the general command of the Syriac Military Council, denounce these hostile and inhuman acts of violation of international laws…we are requesting that all major countries, especially those concerned with the Syrian situation and from all human rights organizations[,] to immediately intervene with the Turkish government and urge it to immediately release our fighters.”
Human Rights Watch published a report in February which stated that over sixty Syrian nationals have been forcibly and illegally transferred from Turkish-occupied areas of Syria to Turkey, though there may be hundreds more that have not been documented. Cicek Kobani, an SDF volunteer captured in Syria’s Ain Issa and illegally transferred to Turkey in late 2019, was given a life sentence for crimes including attempting to destroy the unity of Turkey and attempted murder.