20 civil and human rights organizations issued an urgent appeal to the United Nations to put an end to the crimes and violations committed by the Turkish occupation and its mercenary groups against the people of Afrin.

The text of the appeal to Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, Michelle Bachelet, High Commissioner for Human Rights and Paulo Pinheiro, Chairman of the Commission of Inquiry on Syria, includes the following:

“The violations and crimes against the defenseless civilians in the Afrin region reached the most dramatic and horrible intensity, and offend human dignity, without the slightest consideration or respect for religious and international laws. Those abhorrent actions and abuses committed by the Syrian armed factions that the Turkish intelligence services unleashed to commit all kinds of violations, including moral ones against the Syrian Kurdish residents of Afrin, men and women, elderly and children, with the aim to force them to leave their homes in order to complete Turkey’s plans to change the demography of the region and obliterate its Kurdish identity.

After revealing such heinous crimes committed by these mercenary factions, especially against Kurdish girls and women, and the repeated killings of the elderly, yesterday, a number of women who had been considered kidnapped and missing for a long time were found in the prisons and basements of Al-Hamzeh Division, after they were broken into and taken over by Al-Ghouta settlers and Ahrar al-Sham factions. The women were in a pitiful state, which no laws, norms or human values would find acceptable.

Therefore we, the civil and legal organizations, signatories of this document, urgently appeal to you to take the following actions:

Form a committee to investigate the facts related to the daily crimes and violations committed in Afrin and other areas occupied by Turkey in order to document and refer them to the relevant international authorities to put an end to such crimes and to hold the perpetrators accountable.

Exert more pressure on Turkey to carry out its duties and fulfill its responsibilities as an occupying power in providing security and protection for civilians. 

Demand Turkey end its illegal military presence in the Syrian areas and exit with its mercenaries and armed factions, and ask the Security Council to put those areas under international protection until a comprehensive political solution to the Syrian problem is found.”

The Signatories:

1- The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR)

2- The Kurdish Legal Authority

3- Defense Society for Threatened Peoples-German Branch

4- Kurdish Organization for Human Rights in Syria (DAD)

5- Kurdish Committee for Human Rights (Al-Rased)

6- Violations Documentation Center in North Syria

7- Mahabad Human Rights Organization (MOHR)

8- The Association for the Defense of Human Rights in Austria

9- The Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Syria (MAF)

10- Lequlin Center for Legal Studies and Research

11- Yazdina Foundation for Media and Human Rights

12- Syrian Center for Defending Human Rights

13- Human Rights Organization in Syria (MAF)

14- Human Rights Organization-Afrin

15- Afrin Post News Network

16- Afrin Media Center

17- Human Rights Defense Initiative-Syria

18- Human Rights Organization in Al-Jazeera

19- Human Rights Organization in the Euphrates region

20- Hevi Kurdish Association in Belgium