AANES official welcomes US Treasury sanctions on SNA in Syria’s Afrin
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – We welcome the recent decision made by the US Department of the Treasury to sanction some “mercenary factions for committing war crimes in Afrin,” said Badran Chiya Kurd, co-chair of the Foreign Relations Department of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) on Friday.
“The decision is a positive step towards achieving justice, but it remains insufficient regarding the rights of the people of Afrin and bringing the desperate situation to an end,” Chiya Kurd tweeted in Arabic.
On Thursday, the US Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated two factions and three leaders of the Turkish-backed armed opposition factions, aka the Syrian National Army (SNA), for committing serious human rights abuses against those residing in Afrin region, north of Aleppo, particularly the Kurds.
The OFAC designated Sultan Suleiman Shah Division (al-Amshat), Hamza Division, al-Amshat leader Muhammad Hussein al-Jassem (Abu Amsha), his younger brother Walid Hussein al-Jassem, Hamza leader Saif Abu Bakr, and the Istanbul-headquartered al-Safir Oto, a car dealership owned by Abu Amsha, for committing “serious human rights abuses” against the people of Afrin, mainly the Kurds.
Chiya Kurd added that in addition to those criminals, there hundreds of the factions’ leaders who are involved in terrorist actions and war crimes including killing, looting, capturing women, abduction, and smuggling people and drugs.
He called on the international community to send an international commission of inquiry to Afrin and all the occupied areas in Syria to prosecute all the criminals. “Their practices amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
“Bringing justice for the civilians and achieving security and stability in those areas can be done through ending the occupation and expelling all the extremist-terrorist groups in addition to preparing for a safe return for all the refugees and the displaced,” the AANES official stressed.
Afrin has been under the occupation of Turkey and the SNA factions since 2018 following a military operation dubbed “Olive Branch” against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) under the pretext of preserving Turkey’s national security.
Badran Chiya Kurd concluded his tweet by holding the international community responsible for all the practices done in the occupied areas demanding the international community to protect the laws and conventions they had invented to protect the rights and dignity of the human being.