NGO denounces violations of Turkish border guards against Syrians
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Human Rights Watch (HRW) denounced on Thursday the indiscriminate shooting at Syrian civilians on Syrian-Turkish border, and the torturing and using excessive force against Syrian asylum seekers, trying to cross into Turkey by Turkish border guards.
The HRW called on Turkey, in a press release, to investigate and hold the guards accountable for these violations.
“Arbitrary killings of Syrians are particularly egregious and part of a pattern of brutality by Turkish border guards that the government has failed to curb or investigate effectively,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at the HRW.
Since the beginning of 2023, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has recorded 11 deaths and 20 injuries along the Syrian-Turkish border caused by the Turkish border guards, according to the source.
In early March 2023, the HRW documented 277 individual incidents between October 2015 and April 2023. It also recorded at least 234 deaths and 231 injuries, the vast majority of which occurred while victims attempted to cross the border.
Twenty-six incidents involved children, with at least 20 killed and 15 injured. Significantly, at least 6 people who were not attempting to cross the border were shot dead and another 6 were injured.
On March 11, the border guards arrested 16 Syrians, including women and children, while they were trying to cross to Turkey from Kherbet Eljoz west of Idlib, northwest Syria, as well as, two young men were wounded.
On April 10, Turkish border guards attacked a group of Syrians on their attempt to cross the border from the countryside of Afrin, northwest Syria.