Under the silence and with the de facto approval of the international community, the invasion of Afrin, which was contrary to international law, was launched in early 2018 by the Turkish army and allied Islamist militias. Two months later the occupation of the northern Syrian canton was finalized - hundreds of people were dead, hundreds of thousands displaced.

Since then, Afrin, once the safest region in the whole of Syria, has been a living space for standards as once under the rule of the "Islamic State" (ISIS) in Raqqa. The militias, who are highly armed by Turkey and tolerated by the NATO alliance, have de facto divided the canton into geographical zones of influence. Destruction, attacks, torture and inhuman and degrading treatment against the inhabitants have long been part of daily life. Those affected repeatedly described the chaotic security conditions, the general absence of the rule of law and repeated cases of kidnapping, torture, extortion and murder - often of people of Kurdish origin from Afrin. 

Afrin Canton Council held a press conference on the Turkish state’s inhuman acts and crimes in the occupied Afrin territory.

The press statement made at the Veger Camp in Ziyaret village of Sherawa district on Tuesday was read by the Council vice co-president Mihemed Ebdo in Kurdish and by Council member Xatun Siltan in Arabic.

The statement remarked that the Turkish state continued its attacks against the Kurds in spite of the international calls for a global ceasefire in the midst of a worldwide battle against coronavirus pandemic.

The statement said; “The people of Afrin who were displaced from home and forced to move to Shehba are on alert against coronavirus pandemic on one hand, and are subjected to the attacks of the Turkish state on the other hand.”

Denouncing the ongoing looting and demographic change by the Turkish regime in occupied Afrin, the statement continued; “The Kurdish population in Afrin dropped from 97 to 25 percent. The Yazidi places of worship are destroyed and people from different faith groups are forcibly converted to Islam. Once a mosaic of faith and belief groups, Afrin is under a total destruction and plundering at the moment.”

The statement said; “The international community maintains its silence in the face of the inhuman acts and crimes of the Turkish state while Turkish President Erdoğan must face trial as a war criminal.”

The Council also called for pressure to be put on the Turkish state in order for its occupation of Syrian lands to end and Turkish troops to be retreated from Syrian soil.

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