Turkish operation to put women at risk – Syria’s Raqqa feminists
RAQQA, Syria (North Press) – On Saturday, feminists from the city of Raqqa, north Syria, voiced concern over fate that awaits thousands of women in areas that Turkey plans to invade in Syria’s north.
Mayson Muhammad, a feminist from Raqqa, said that thousands of women will be arrested, kidnapped and raped by militants of Turkish-backed armed Syrian opposition factions during the military operation that Turkey intends to launch.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has recently announced plans to carry out another major military cross-border incursion into northern Syria. Erdogan specified his targets in the two northern Syrian cities of Manbij and Tel Rifaat.
On July 1, Erdogan said that Ankara’s new military operation in northern Syria could begin at any moment.
“The time has come to clear these lands from the terrorist organizations,” Erdogan threatened during Tehran Summit.
Tehran’s trilateral Summit brought presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey together on July 19 with Syrian issue on the top of its agenda.
Muhammad told North Press that the Turkish military intervention will increase sufferings of civilians in the areas that Turkey plans to hit, similar to those happen in other areas it has occupied previously.
In 2018, Turkey launched Olive Branch operation, with the support of Syrian opposition factions, against the city of Afrin, and it ended with the occupation of the city and the surrounding villages displacing hundreds of thousands of original inhabitants.
In 2019, it occupied the cities of Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) and Tel Abyad, following the Operation Peace Spring that displaced about 300.000 inhabitants.
Syrian women and children are the most affected due to impacts of the long-running war the country has been suffering from for over a decade, according to Muhammad.
She highlighted the importance of access of international human rights organizations to the Turkish-occupied areas in the above mentioned cities to have a full and clear vision about condition the women undergo there and the extent of their sufferings.
The number of detained women in prisons run by the Turkish-backed armed Syrian opposition factions, also known as Syrian National Army (SNA), during the first five months in 2022 has increased to 26, 14 of whom were released after ransoms paid to the SNA factions, while fate of the rest is still unknown.
Sabah al-Jum’a, another feminist from Raqqa, said the potential Turkish invasion of areas in Syria’s north brings greater risks, threatening civilians, especially women.
Al-Jum’a told North Press that the women will face disastrous fate in case Turkey invades Syrian territory and same crimes, which have implemented against women in the Turkish-occupied areas, will repeat.
She sees that international and local organizations as well as feminist movements bear the responsibility of warning international community against the risk of the Turkish military operation against the region.