Turkey kills peace in Syria’s Sere Kaniye – Activist
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Jwan Isso, international law scholar and activist, said on Tuesday that conditions in the city of Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain), northeastern Syria, are dire since Turkish forces and their affiliated armed opposition factions, aka Syrian National Army (SNA) took over the region.
Isso’s remarks were made in an exclusive interview to North Press during his participation in a dialogue session that discussed the state of human rights and violations in Sere Kaniye. The dialogue session was organized by North Press, presenting a comprehensive report on those violations titled “Atrocities committed by SNA in Turkish-occupied areas in north Syria”.
Isso stated that Turkey killed peace in Sere Kaniye and all the region sinks into chaos after conducting the military operation “Peace Spring”.
Sere Kaniye has been under the occupation of the Turkish forces and has been controlled by the SNA factions since 2019 following the so-called “Peace Spring” military operation that aimed to push away the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) under the pretext of protecting the Turkish national security.
“Human rights circumstances are in a bad situation following the arbitrary arrest, killings, systematic policy of forcible displacement, and building settlements in the region. This region has been destabilized particularly after resettlement of families of terrorist factions as a prelude to demographic change,” Isso added.
He also commented that the Turkish practices violate the International Human Rights Law (IHRL), which stipulates the necessity to preserve freedom and dignity of civilians in the occupied region, in addition to the four Geneva Conventions annexed protocols that call for protecting civilians in armed conflicts.
“This kind of forums shed the light on violations took place in the Turkish-occupied territories and debunk violations to give better real picture of the circumstances despite the media blackout and security grip,” the activist added.
In addition, he stressed that NGOs and media institutions play a key role to debunk the size of violations and crimes that are genocides committed against humanity according to the IHRL.