QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – In a virtual meeting of United States Congress’ Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission held on Tuesday, US officials and organizations condemned Turkey’s violations of religious freedom in northern Syria.
Nadine Maenza, chair of the US Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), testified that in Iraq and Syria, “Yazidis, Christians, and others displaced by genocide seven years ago [are] still unable to return because of threats from Iranian aligned militias, Turkey, and a reemergence of ISIS cells.”
Maenza, who has visited northeast Syria multiple times and testified to what she termed “remarkable religious freedom conditions” there, urged the Biden administration to recognize the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) politically, lift sanctions from AANES areas, and include them in future political talks on Syria.
Additionally, the organization In Defense of Christians (IDC), a non-profit organization which focuses on protecting Christians in the Middle East, drew attention to human rights violations committed by Turkey after the Turkish invasion of northeast Syria in 2019.
IDC also mentioned Turkish violations of the US-brokered ceasefire, the illegal arrest, trial, and imprisonment of three Syriac Military Council fighters in Syria, and Turkey’s use of Syrian mercenaries against Armenia in the conflict in the disputed Armenian-majority Artsakh/Karabakh region.
The Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission is a bipartisan commission established by the US House of Representatives in 2008.