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A brief overview of the recent developments in Syria:
- A civilian was killed and another one was wound due to an explosion of explosive device planted in a car in Afrin;
- The Russian Military Police conducted a patrol in the vicinity of Tal Tamr in northern Hasakah;
- 3 explosions were heard in Tal Abyad after mortar shells landed in the town center;
- A Turkish military convoy entered Syria via the Kafr Lusin border crossing and moved towards Idlib. The convoy consisted of at least 25 armored vehicles;
- The Russian President declared that it’s needed to find wats to support Syrian people despite the US and EU sanction pressure on Syria.
Human rights groups decry Turkish ‘war crimes’ in northern Syria
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – More
than a dozen organizations have signed a letter to European human
rights officials detailing abuses committed by Turkey and Turkish-
backed groups in northern Syria.
“Since the start of Turkish military operations on the areas of Kurdish
origin in northern Syria, the region has turned into a hotspot full of
all forms of human rights violations,” reads the letter addressed to
Marija Pejčinović Burić, Secretary General of the Council of Europe and
Robert Ragnar Spano, President of the European Court of Human Rights.
The 18 signatories have unanimously accused Ankara and its Syrian
proxies of committing“war crimes, crimes against humanity, as well as
crimes of ethnic cleansing and genocide.”
Turkey and its Syrian proxies launched a military operation against the
Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northern Syria in October
2019, seizing control of a stretch of northern Syria, known to Kurds as
Rojava, including Sari Kani (Ras al-Ain) Gire Spi (Tal Abyad). Hundreds
of thousands of civilians were displaced in the offensive.
The military offensive, dubbed “Operation Peace Spring”, followed the
March 2018 invasion of Afrin, in Aleppo province, which came under
control of Turkish forces and their Syrian militia proxies following two
months of intense fighting with the Kurdish People’s Protection Units
(YPG). Since then, human rights monitors have accused these groups of
serious violations against locals.
“The opposition prevented the displaced civilians from returning to
their homes, practiced theft, robbery, plunder, armed robbery,
confiscated property and crops, burned them, burned forests, abducted
civilians, and arbitrarily arrested them. Cemeteries and cultural
symbols were destroyed,” the letter added.
Violations have been “confirmed by reports of governmental
organisations, and non-governmental organizations such as Amnesty
International, Human Rights Watch, and the reports of the Independent
International Commission of Inquiry for Syria.”
According to numerous organizations, Turkish-backed armed groups in
northwestern Syria have committed repeated violations against the local
population with impunity, including killing, kidnapping, and sexual
violence.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a late November report that pro-Turkish
militiamen prevented Syrian Kurds from returning to their homes.
Instead, they “looted and unlawfully appropriated or occupied their
property.”
“Executing individuals, pillaging property, and blocking displaced
people from returning to their homes is damning evidence of why Turkey’s
proposed ‘safe zones’ will not be safe,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at HRW.
Prominent war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) confirmed to Rudaw English that it had signed the petition.
Other signatories include the Kurdish Committee for Human Rights,
Association for the Defense of Human Rights in Austria, The Committee
for the Defense of Human Rights in Syria (MAF) and Kurdish Civil Society
Organization in Europe.
Turkey blocked the water supply from the Euphrates into Kurdish-held areas in northeast Syria last week, according to local officials.
Ilham Ahmed, president of the Executive Committee of the Syrian
Democratic Council (SDC) said that Ankara “intentionally” withheld the
water to induce “a real drought in Syria.”