The Turkish state knows no bounds in carrying out massacres against Kurds. The invading army which has received serious blows from the guerrilla forces has been specifically targeting the border cities of Rojava, the cities of Sulaymaniyah, Duhok, Zaxo and affiliated villages in South Kurdistan as well as civilians in Maxmur and Shengal. Dozens of civilians lost their lives, and several others were injured in the regions that were constantly bombed by fighter jets and drones.

The attacks to complete the Kurdish genocide are continuing as part of the “Collapse Plan” introduced by the Turkish state in September 2014. The first targets of this plan were the cities where the resistance got a foothold and the demands for self-government were articulated. Apart from fighter jets and tanks, all kinds of weapons were used in the attacks that killed hundreds of Kurdish youth, including infants and the elderly. Taybet Inan (57), the mother of 11 children whose corpse was left to rot on the street for 7 days, 10-year-old Cemile Çağırga whose body was kept in a freezer because state authorities did not allow her family to bury her, Muhammet Tahir who was only 35 days old when he was killed and hundreds of people who were brutally burned to death in the basements of Cizre are imprinted on the public memory.

The Turkish state and government risked everything so that the Kurds would not have a political status. The AKP-MHP fascist government which has increased the crackdown in northern Kurdistan is attacking the Kurds living in the big cities of Turkey with its fascist groups and paramilitary forces. The attack on the HDP İzmir Headquarter, the racist massacre in Konya, and the "Kurdish hunt" during the forest fires also developed as a part of this attack concept.

GENOCIDE UPGRADED

Increasing its attacks on North-East Syria, the Turkish state occupied Afrin and its districts in 2018, and Girê Spî and Serêkaniyê in 2019. The attacks of the Turkish army and its proxy mercenaries against the Autonomous Administration territories and civilian settlements under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) continue unabated. In the occupied areas, cases of rape, murder, kidnapping, extortion and torture are reported on a daily basis. According to the information provided by Şîrîn Hesen, a member of the Afrin Canton Kongreya Star, 196 people, 15 of whom were women, were kidnapped in Afrin in August. The aftermath of 35 families who were targeted by the Turkish army and its mercenaries is unknown.

Southern Kurdistan is another part of Kurdistan where occupation and annexation are put into effect simultaneously through land assaults and air strikes. The Turkish state launched an air-supported invasion attack in 2017 against Xakurkê, a part of the Medya Defence Zones controlled by the PKK and against Heftanîn in June 2020. Despite a partial occupation, clashes have continued in Xakurkê for 4 years, and there has been guerrilla resistance that continued throughout the summer of 2020 and was named "Cenga Heftanîn" in the history of Kurdish resistance.

CENGA XABUR AND BAZEN ZAGROSÊ CAMPAIGNS

Earlier this year (February 10, 2021), an air-supported invasion operation was launched in the guerrilla-controlled Garê area. The occupation attacks were frustrated by the resistance of the guerrillas on February 13. The Turkish army's bombing and killing of prisoners held by the PKK and the failure it experienced had significant repercussions in Turkey and around the world. The government and military officials had difficulty in explaining the situation.

With the support of the KDP, Turkey introduced new attacks on Metîna, Zap and Avaşîn on the night of April 23-24. Against these attacks, the PKK started new resistance campaigns. The People’s Defence Forces (HPG) initiated the guerrilla countermoves called Cenga Xabur and Bazên Zagrosê in Avaşîn, Zap, Metîna, Heftanîn and Xakûrkê.

Despite its advanced warfare, international and regional support from the KDP, the Turkish state has remained unsuccessful for months during its invasion and annexation attacks in both North-East Syria and Southern Kurdistan.

A FOUR-MONTH BALANCE SHEET OF WAR

According to the data regularly released by the HPG, 579 Turkish soldiers were killed and hundreds were injured during the war in the last four months (April 24-August 23). Dozens of armoured vehicles, helicopters, and drones were either destroyed or hit. Hundreds of military positions were destroyed, and a large quantity of military equipment was confiscated.

The guerrillas carried out 458 actions during this period of time. Along with numerous air strikes against the war positions and tunnels of the guerrillas, the Turkish army committed 132 war crimes with chemical weapons and gases. These attacks are still continuing. 70 guerrillas have been martyred as a result of all the attacks and clashes.

A CONFESSED DEFEAT

The heavy losses and the defeat of the Turkish army can be seen from the statements made by the Turkish state officials as well as the balance sheets released by the HPG and the media outlets in the regions where the war is continuing. Turkish Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu disseminated contradictory figures over guerrilla casualties and mispredicted PKK's dissolution each year. Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar evaluated the attacks that started on April 24 at a meeting and confessed that despite its drones, rockets, tanks and artillery, “Turkish helicopters cannot land on the ground”. Despite the air-supported ground attacks that have been going on for more than four months, the Turkish forces could not enter the areas which they had originally planned to "enter in a few days". It seems that all kinds of attacks including the use of chemical weapons against war positions and tunnels could not break the resistance of the guerrillas.

In order to overcome this unexpected situation, the Turkish state targets civilians by bombing the cities, towns, villages and highlands of North-East Syria and Southern Kurdistan, and burns forests and agricultural areas.

CIVILIAN MASSACRES INCREASED IN JUNE AND AUGUST

According to the June 2021 report of the SDF Military Observation Centre, Jabhat Al-Nusra and other mercenary groups were responsible for 13 attacks, bombings and clashes that caused 21 deaths and injuries in the areas occupied by the Turkish state in June.

16 civilians lost their lives, and dozens were injured during the attacks of the invading Turkish army on civilian settlements under the control of the SDF. In August alone, 11 people lost their lives, and dozens were injured in the attacks on Zirgan, Til Temir, Eli Fero road, Ain Issa and Manbij.

14 civilians, including children, lost their lives and 13 others were injured in the attacks on civilian settlements in Southern Kurdistan.

The attacks carried out by the invading Turkish army against civilian settlements between April 24, 2021 and August 31, 2021, which caused civilian casualties or injuries, are as follows:

*On May 20, four guerrillas, Dilgeş Serhad (Mehmet Emin Alkaş), Zagros Glort (Selahattin Dede), Dara Bêrîtan (Babek Ebdiselendeci) and Fırat Şoreş (Anter Fırat), who were returning from hospital treatment, were martyred in an air attack near the village of Mangişkê in Duhok.

* On 24 May, one civilian was seriously injured in an airstrike in the Deşiş village of Kanimasi.

* On May 26, brothers Hesen Muhsin and Ali Muhsin, who are shepherds in Derkar district of Zaxo, were seriously injured in an airstrike.

* Remezan Elî was injured as a result of howitzers in the village of Hiror in Kanîmasi, fired from one of the border posts of the Turkish army forces. Another civilian was injured in another airstrike.

* On the night of June 4, a teenage girl named Zeynep Hisen İbrahim was killed in the artillery attacks on the Kilûtê village of Afrin's Sherawa district.

* On June 5, KDP members named Hejar Subhi Amedi (35), İmad Marûf (36), Qaid Reşid Kelekçi (35), Karwan Tofiq Dinarteyî (34), Nezwar Abdulrahman (44) were killed following the shooting of a military convoy of KDP forces in Metîna and 4 others were injured.

* On June 9, Ehmed El-Xezel was murdered in Serêkaniyê.

* On June 13, four people, including Ebubekir Towfiq and Ebas Îbrahîm Mehmûd were killed as a result of the bombing of a civilian vehicle in the Pişdêr region of Sulaymaniyah.

* On June 19, East Kurdistan Defence Units (YRK) guerrillas Ekin and Adar were martyred as a result of the shooting down of a vehicle in Sarbajêr in Sulaymaniyah.

* On June 21, Turkish soldiers killed 20-year-old Eziz Mihemedzade, a kolbar (a worker who is employed to carry goods on his/her back across the borders of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey) from Makû at the border.

* On August 4, Turkish tanks targeted the house of Zêdan Xelef El-Îsa who lived in the Sefawiyê village of Ayn Issa. Father Zêdan Xelef El Îsa (54), his children Ziyad (12), Mûne and Huda were killed in the attack.

* On August 13, İbrahim Hesen was killed in an airstrike in the Deşişê village of Kanîmasi.

* On August 16, Turkish drones targeted a vehicle in the old bazaar in Shengal downtown. Shengal Resistance Units (YBŞ) Commander Seîd Hesen and YBŞ fighter İsa Xwedêda were martyred in the attack. Media Qasim Simo, Şamir Abbas Berces and Mirza Ali were injured.

* On August 17, a hospital in the village of Sikêniyê, near Shengal Mountain, was bombed by Turkish fighter jets, leaving 4 YBŞ fighters and 4 health workers dead, and 4 civilians injured.

* On August 17, a child and a woman were killed in the attacks on Til Temir, Zirgan and its countryside.

* On August 19, Turkish drones hit the vehicle of SDF commander Rênas Roj on the Eli Fero Road, leaving the commander martyred.

* In another attack carried out by the Turkish army on the same day, four members of the Tell Tamer Military Council, YPJ Council member and SDF member Sosin Bîrhat and Egid Girkê Legê, Rûbar Hesekê and Seyfullah Ehmed were martyred, and 3 other fighters were injured.

* On August 22, the Turkish state targeted a vehicle in front of the House of the Wounded in Qamishlo, injuring two civilians.

* On August 22, Turkish soldiers killed Hemadî Ebîd El Hisên who sought to cross the Dirbesiyê border to Bakûr (North) Kurdistan, and tortured Mihemed Letif El Ezawî.

* On August 22, Ehmed Şakir (40) and Yusif Umer (26) who came to the region as tourists from Mosul were killed following the bombing of a civilian vehicle by fighter jets in the village of Bankê in Batufa district of Duhok.

* On August 26, 23-year-old Eli Mihemed Hemreşo lost his life after an explosion of a mine laid by the Turkish state's mercenaries in the Sherawa district of Afrin.

* On the evening of August 30, a Turkish drone bombed the Qadiya Yazidi camp in Zaxo, Southern Kurdistan. A 12-year-old girl and a one-month-old baby died in the bombing, and Hesen Ibrahim and two children aged 4 and 9 were injured.

Sources:

ANF

ANHA

ROJNEWS