Turkey should cut all support to SNA factions – Watchdog
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Killing four members of a Kurdish family in the northwestern Syrian town of Jindires as they were celebrating Newroz, the Kurds’ New Year, comes after five years of human rights violations that have been committed by the Turkish forces and their affiliated armed opposition factions, also known as the Syrian National Army (SNA), said Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday.
“These killings come after over five years of unaddressed human rights abuses at the hands of Turkish forces and the local Syrian factions they empower,” said Adam Coogle, deputy Middle East director at HRW.
He added, “Turkey has allowed these fighters to abuse people living in the areas under their control with impunity, risking making itself complicit in the violations.”
On March 20, three militants of the Turkish-backed Ahrar al-Sharqiya, a faction affiliated with the SNA, shot to death three brothers and a son of one of them from the Othman family in Jindires as they were igniting Newroz flame.
The city of Afrin and its countryside have been under the occupation of the Turkish-backed SNA factions since March 2018 following the so-called “Olive Branch” operation to push away the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) under the pretext of protecting the Turkish “national security”.
Since then, the factions continue to commit grave human rights abuses including extrajudicial killings, pillaging and unlawfully seizing properties, and enforced disappearances, the HRW said.
The organization confirmed that Turkey has done little to prevent abuses or improve the factions’ behavior despite exercising military control over them.
“Turkey has allowed these fighters to abuse people living in the areas under their control with impunity, risking making itself complicit in the violations,” Coogle noted.
“Turkey and the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army in Afrin have consistently failed to protect civilians in northern Syria,” he said.
The HRW ensured that Turkey, as “an occupying power and as a backer of the local factions operating in areas in northern Syria, is obliged to investigate these killings and ensure that those responsible are held accountable.”
The HRW also noted that Turkey should also cut all support to SNA factions that are practicing “systemic human rights abuses and international humanitarian law violations.”
“Ensuring that these killers are held to account in a fair and transparent manner would be a step in the right direction.”