AANES commemorates 8th anniversary of establishing Autonomous Administration in Syria’s Afrin
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) said on Saturday that its democratic project would not be complete and successful without the liberation of Afrin and all other occupied areas.
This came in a statement published by the AANES on its official Facebook page, on the occasion of the 8th anniversary of the establishment of the Autonomous Administration in Afrin region, north Syria.
On January 29, 2014, the establishment of the Autonomous Administration in Afrin was announced, days after the establishment of the Autonomous Administration in the Jazira and Kobani.
In its statement, the Autonomous Administration stressed the necessity of the return of the displaced from Afrin to their region, adding that “this is at the core of our struggle and our insistence on liberation.”
On January 20, 2018, the Turkish forces, accompanied by the affiliated armed opposition factions, launched a ground and air offensive on Afrin under the pretext of expelling the “terrorist” groups and protecting their national security.
It should be mentioned that the non-stop 58-day artillery and aerial bombardment killed 498 civilians and wounded more than 696 others, including 303 children and 213 women, according to what was documented by human rights organizations and centers operating in northeast Syria and the northern countryside of Aleppo.
The Turkish invasion also led to the displacement of more than 300,000 civilians from the area, according to the statistics of the Autonomous Administration of Afrin.
Although four years have passed since Turkey have taken control of Afrin, the issue of Afrin and the safe return of the displaced are not included in the agenda of the Syrian government and the countries concerned with the Syrian issue.
The government ignores the issue of the occupation of Afrin. It does not consider it a Syrian issue and it is not among its priorities, amid the absence of any new proposals for a political solution in Syria and the failure of the international community to intervene to stop the daily violations that the region is witnessing.