The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria Executive Council co-presidents Abdulhamid El Mihbaş and Bêrîvan Xalid held a press conference on the Turkish state’s invasion attacks and recent developments in the region.

The press statement read by co-president Abdulhamid El Mihbaş reads as follows:

The attacks and massacres of the invading Turkish state and fascist mercenaries against the people of North and East Syria continue. The people of Rojava and North and East Syria, who have paid the greatest price in the fight against ISIS, are today under the attack of the invading Turkish state with ISIS and al-Nusra remnant fascist mercenaries with the approval and encouragement of the US and Russia, and they continue to pay heavy price.

The occupation forces are bombing and burning down villages, cities and living areas. Human rights are trampled on and war crimes committed on daily basis. Politician Havrin Khalaf, Qamishlo Armenian Church priest Hovsep Bedoyan and his father were murdered, hundreds of women and children were massacred and internationall banned weapons were used.

As the US and Russia made their attitude clear and remain silent, UN Secretary General António Guerres has also given legitimacy to the massacre of civilians and changing of the demography in Rojava and North and East Syria. This attitude only encourages Erdoğan, the fascist of the century.

The invading Turkish state’s acts in Afrin are known to all. The Kurdish people were displaced in hundreds of thousands and ISIS and al-Nusra mercenaries called Syrian National Army were settled in their place. Hundreds of women and children were abducted in Afrin where measureless looting and theft was committed. However, the United Nations and international forces continue to remain silent on the massacres against the Kurdish people and the demographic change in Afrin.

The goal of the century’s fascist Erdoğan and the invading Turkish state is to settle their mercenaries, who are made up of ISIS and al-Nusra remnants trained under the Turkish state’s roof, in the lands of Rojava-North and East Syria, primarily in Serekaniye (Ras al-Ain) and Gire Spi (Tal Abyad).

The whole world is a witness to the fact that it is the very self of the Turkish state that has trained, organised and supplied the ISIS. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in the Turkish-controlled Idlib territory, 5 km to the Turkish border. ISIS Spokesman al-Muhajir was killed in Jarablus, which Erdoğan calls “the safest area in Syria”, while his sister was arrested in Azaz and his wife turned out to have been arrested by Turkey one and a half years ago. All available information shows that Erdoğan and the Turkish state are the partners of ISIS and al-Nusra, and threaten Europe and the world with ISIS mercenaries and refugees. Erdoğan grants himself the right to show his invasion plan map in the US before the eyes of the whole world, and to voice his decision to invade Rojava-North and East Syria and massacre the peoples living in the region. This is a great shame for the Syrian state, values of humanity and democracy and not a single person has responded to the desires and threats of fascist Erdoğan.

Separately, Turkey has pursued a quite deliberate policy and strategy on refugees. Opening its gates to refugees knowingly, the Turkish state has regularly settled them in the country. With this immoral and unprincipled method, he uses refugees as a means of threat and blackmail to humanity and Europe. Our call to the world and humanity is  to raise their voice and adopt a stance against the invasion and attacks targeting Rojava-North and East Syria, the demographic change and atrocities committed in the region.

It is clear that the invading Turkish state gets strength from the Erdoğan-Trump meeting. Erdoğan can easily tell Washington his plan to “settle one million refugees in Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor”. Erdoğan regards North and East Syria as his own lands and Syria as an Ottoman province. While Trump is supposed to tell Erdoğan that he has no right to invade the lands of another country, to change the demography, to displace and massacre Arab, Kurdish, Armenian and Christian peoples, he says that the ceasefire with the Kurds is holding very well. Before anything else, this has nothing to do with the truth. Nobody is happy about the massacre invasion. Hundreds of thousands have been forcibly displaced and people massacred with the Turkish state’s tanks, artilleries and fighter jets. The ceasefire decision will not be appreciated unless the occupation forces leave the lands of Kurds, Arabs and Christians they have invaded.

More than 10,000 ISIS mercenaries are arrested in detention centers across North and East Syria. The Kurdish, Arab and Christian people have sacrificed over 10,000 martyrs in their fight against ISIS that was also supported by the international coalition forces. Nobody other than the peoples of Rojava and North-East Syria should give themselves the right to make a plan over ISIS prisoners. Everyone should know that the true ISIS danger will emerge after today unless the Turkish state’s invasion attacks and massacres against our people are brought to an end.

To make sure that ISIS doesn’t constitute a renewed threat against humanity and is not revived by the Turkish state’s invasion attacks, we call upon the US, Russia, the International Coalition, European Union, Arab League, United Nations and Syria to respond to the Turkish invasion attacks and drive the occupation forces from our lands as soon as possible.

We have a call to the Syrian state. We hope that the Syrian state and Assad develop a solution-oriented attitude. As the peoples of North and East Syria, we never had an intention to split the Syrian lands. Claims and discourses that we seek to split the country do not reflect the truth. On the contrary, it is indeed us who counter such attempts. We have defended the Syrian lands and unity against invading ISIS/Al-Nusra gangs for 8 years. This victory is an honor for all the peoples in Syria. Nobody should have a plan on Syrian lands as we don’t, and Syria should remain as it was 8 years ago. The rightest thing is to accept and embrace each other, and to develop a language of solution. We are ready to do our part in order for all the peoples in North and East Syria to be granted their identities and rights.”