Children from Afrin and Shehba: Listen to your conscience
“These children also belong to the world and they want those responsible for what has been done to them to be brought to justice. Listen to the voice of your conscience.”
On 2nd December, the Turkish army carried out a massacre of refugees from Afrin who had sought shelter in Til Rifat in the northern Syrian canton of Shehba. Eight children between the ages of 3 and 15 and two adults were killed and more than ten civilians were injured in Turkey's attack on a residential area. The people of the region are furious at the silence of the international community.
Children from Afrin and Shehba have taken to the streets today in protest at the massacre of their peers. During the march from the Berxwedan Camp to the Russian base, children displayed banners of the children killed in Til Rifat massacre and chanted slogans condemning the Turkish state and its genocidal attacks.
The students read a press statement in Kurdish and Arabic when they reached the Russian base. The statement said the following:
“We, children from Afrin, have been forcibly displaced from our villages and towns. Our playgrounds and our schools were bombed, invaded and our dreams stolen. We opened our eyes into the world with the sounds of bombardments, fighter jets and bullets. Now we are living under challenging circumstances to meet our basic needs. They are fighting against our existence, our dreams and our consciousness. They are killing whatever we have, murdering our innocent peers.
Parents, legal organisations and human rights organisations in the world; hear our screams and do not turn your back on our pain. Understand the dreams of us, children massacred in Afrin. These children also belong to the world and they want those responsible for what has been done to them to be brought to justice. Listen to the voice of your conscience.
We call on the Russian state and the Syrian regime to fulfill their responsibilities towards children. We are living on the lands they say are under their control. How could children ever be massacred on their lands? Who are the murderers?
You should protect the children to offer them a peaceful ans safe life, and adopt a serious stand on what the children of Afrin have been through.”
After the press statement, children left a black wreath in front of the Russian base.
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