Human rights organization reveals Turkish violations in Syria’s Afrin during 2021
ALEPPO NORTHERN COUNTRYSIDE, Syria (North Press) – A local human rights organization documented yesterday, the outcome of the violations committed by Turkey and the affiliated opposition factions in Afrin region, northern Syria, during the year 2021, calling on the international organizations to carry out their duties regarding these violations.
The Human Rights Organization-Afrin revealed through a statement delivered in the Sardam camp for the Afrin IDPs in the northern countryside of Aleppo, that 51 people were killed, including 14 women and 13 children, while 718 others were kidnapped, including 82 women and 25 minors.
17 archaeological sites were vandalized and looted, the statement said.
Regarding olive trees, 23,500 trees were cut down by the opposition factions, and thousands of forest and fruit trees were burned and cleared by those factions with the aim of establishing settlements.
Financed by Turkish, Qatari and Kuwaiti associations,30 settlements were built in Afrin, the most prominent of which were the settlement of Kuwait al-Rahma, al-Qarya al-Shamiya and Basma village.
160 homes were seized and more than 75 others and dozens of shops were sold by the Turkish-backed factions during this year, the organization added.
It called on the international, human rights and humanitarian organizations to carry out their moral, humanitarian and legal responsibilities regarding the violations committed in Afrin.
The organization also demanded pressure on the Turkish government to stop its violations against the residents of Afrin.
Furthermore, it called on the international community to take action against those involved in committing crimes and violations throughout the areas run by Turkey and the opposition factions backed by it, and to refer them to the International Criminal Court.
“The proportion of Kurds in Afrin is now less than 25%, in the largest process of demographic change after the displacement of more than 300,000 civilians since March 2018,” it said.
In the statement, it revealed the outcome of violations committed by Turkey and the opposition factions in Afrin since March 2018.
Nearly 400,000 settlers have been resettled in the villages and districts of Afrin, 500 families from Palestinian Arabs, according to the organization.
More than thirty camps and settlements have been established throughout the region.
More than 8,063 civilians were kidnapped by the Turkish-backed factions; the fate of more than a third of them is still unknown.
The organization documented the killing of 84 women, including six suicides, and 70 cases of sexual assault.
More than 655 civilians were killed, including 498 cases due to the bombing operations of the Turkish forces and the opposition factions, while 696 others were injured in the bombing, including 303 children and 213 women, the organization documented.
90 people were tortured to death in the factions’ prisons, and 217 explosions took place in Afrin, the organization said.
It documented the cutting of more than 333,900 olive and forest trees.
More than 59 archaeological sites and hills and more than 28 religious shrines were either destroyed or looted by Turkey and its loyal factions, as well as the deliberate sabotage of cemeteries, according to the organization.
The Afrin region includes 56 archaeological sites registered with Syrian government departments, in addition to more than 40 archaeological sites documented by the Antiquities Directorate in the Autonomous Administration of Afrin between 2014 and 2018.
In July 2019, the General Directorate of Antiquities and Museums in Syria called on international organizations, international legal and academic figures interested in culture, and all those interested in human civilization to intervene in order to protect Syria’s cultural heritage, and put an end to what it had described as the unjust aggression of the Turkish military on the archaeological sites in the Aleppo countryside.
The city of Afrin and its villages, north of Aleppo, have been controlled by Turkish forces and the affiliated factions since March 2018.
The Afrin region has been witnessing cases of killing, kidnapping and arrest, in addition to frequent bombings, amid the inability of the factions controlling it to settle the security in the region.