Syria says Turkish establishing “safe zone” crimes against humanity
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said on Wednesday that Turkey’s endeavor to establish “the so-called safe zone” amounts to be war crimes and crimes against humanity.
This came in a letter by the ministry to both the UN Secretary-General and the president of UN Security Council regarding the recent statement by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to launch a new invasion of areas in northeast Syria.
“We will soon take new steps regarding the incomplete portions of the project we started on the 30-km deep safe zone we established along our southern border,” Erdogan said on May 23.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry said that “what the Turkish regime is doing through its seeking to establish a so-called ‘safe zone’ on Syrian territory is an aggressive and a colonial activity.”
“The government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan seeks to establish an explosive area inside Syria and to continue sponsoring, arming and operating armed terrorist organizations to be used against the Syrian people,” the ministry added.
Since the start of the Syrian crisis, Turkish forces and their affiliated armed opposition factions, also known as Syrian National Army (SNA), occupied several regions in northern Syria such as Azaz, al-Bab, Jarablus, Afrin, Tel Abyad and Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain).
The Foreign Ministry stressed that the Turkish ethnic cleansing policy in the occupied Syrian territories amount to be described them as war crimes and crimes against humanity.