And now that we have passed the five-year anniversary of Turkey\u2019s sadistic occupation of Afrin in Rojava (March 18, 2018), it is helpful to look back at how this terrifying reality came to be. Not only is the state of Turkey illegally establishing their own terrorist vilayets throughout northern Syria, which feature every human rights abuse the mind can conjure up, but they are doing so as a NATO member and with the acquiescence of Western states who claim to be fighting a \u201cwar on terror\u201d against the very thing which Turkey represents. And since it is in the Kurdish city of Afrin where Turkey\u2019s sociopathic barbarism and pathological hatred of Kurds is most on display, this open-air crime scene is a helpful case study. As if you want to diagnose an illness, you must first understand its symptoms.<\/p>\n
Why Turkey Invaded Afrin<\/strong><\/p>\n The city and lush mountainous area around Afrin have been a Kurdish cultural hub for more than a millennia. Over the centuries, Afrin developed as the center of a distinctive Sufi \u201cKurdish Islam\u201d, which was less conservative, and more secularly tolerant than surrounding regions. In fact, Afrin has always had the fewest mosques of any place in Syria and its inhabitants were typically not strict adherents to religious conventions. Consequently, vibrant Yazidi, Alevi, and Christian communities historically thrived there as well. This embedded culture of accepting diversity was rooted all the way into the present, when Afrin became a welcoming haven for refugees fleeing the violence throughout Syria\u2019s Civil War.<\/p>\n In the spring of 2012, the Syrian Government pulled out of Afrin, which laid the foundation for what would later become the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) to take over in January of 2014. From 2014, until Turkey\u2019s military invasion in January of 2018, Afrin blossomed into a flourishing and peaceful Canton of around 700,000 people. Because of the lack of sectarian tensions and area\u2019s reputation for being accepting of cultural and religious differences, refugees and IDPs of all ethnicities within Syria escaped to Afrin.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, the harmonious social fabric that was being constructed in Afrin was seen as an existential threat by the Turkish regime of Tayyip Erdo\u011fan across the border, for two reasons. For starters, it showed that the Kurdish-led Democratic Confederalist experiment taking place throughout Rojava \/ northern Syria was a viable model for the entire Middle East region. And, secondly, this progressive-minded philosophy was a direct rebuke of the ultra-conservative and nationalist AKP & MHP alliance of Erdogan\u2019s coalition, which was centered around Turkish ethnic chauvinism against Kurds and a fascistic re-interpretation of Salafi Islam, that was embodied by groups such as ISIS and other radical jihadist proxies\u2014who by 2018 were the only allies Turkey had left in Syria.<\/p>\n As a result, Erdo\u011fan decided that he would use the Turkish military alongside a coalition of Islamist jihadists to invade, encircle, destroy, ethnically cleanse, and occupy the Canton of Afrin in January of 2018\u2014with the goal of establishing a semi-annexed Turkified quasi-colony, with outside settlers who were indebted and thus loyal to his regime.<\/p>\n How Turkey Invaded Afrin<\/strong><\/p>\n The Turkish invasion was cynically carried out under the pretext of protecting its national security from the local forces in Afrin. However, the Turkish Government never provided evidence about the existence of any threats to its national security from Afrin, as none had occurred. Nevertheless, because Ankara was averse to risking the lives of their own soldiers, they contracted out Afrin\u2019s invasion to a coalition of radical Islamist groups numbering upwards of 25,000 \u2013 that were trained, armed, and paid by Turkey. These groups included various jihadist militants such as Ahrar al-Sham, the Sham Legion, and ex-ISIS fighters\u2014as was reported<\/a><\/span> by\u00a0The Independent. Behind them were around 6,400 soldiers of the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) and members of the neo-fascist Grey Wolves from Turkey, who relied mostly on artillery shelling, a relentless bombing campaign from Turkish jets\u2014since Afrin had no anti-aircraft defenses\u2014and heavy armor salvoes, since Afrin\u2019s defenders also lacked tanks.<\/p>\n Turkey\u2019s illegal military invasion of Afrin\u2014which was absurdly named \u201cOperation Olive Branch\u201d\u2014officially began on January 20, 2018, and was a flagrant violation of international law, i.e. attacking the territory of a sovereign state without the authorization of the official authorities. To achieve victory, Turkey\u2019s military deliberately targeted densely populated cities and towns, killing around 500 innocent civilians, including women, children, and the elderly in the first weeks. Turkey also indiscriminately shot refugees fleeing from conflict areas and used chemical gas to attack Kurdish resistance fighters. In doing so, Turkey and its affiliated Islamist extremist groups breached the Geneva Conventions and committed a litany of war crimes\u2014as defined by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.<\/p>\n The ideological motivations of Turkey\u2019s invading force was soon evidently clear, as the jihadists who comprised the vast majority of ground troops viewed the Kurdish population of Afrin as \u201catheists\u201d deserving of death. This was portrayed in a series of videos where the Turkish proxies threatened to cut off the heads of Kurds who they described as \u201cinfidels\u201d; or another where several international Islamists sung praises of previous battles where they had fought, including Tora Bora (the former headquarters of Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan), Grozny in Chechnya, and Dagestan in Russia. This aforementioned video was concluded by them declaring \u201cAnd now Afrin is calling to us\u201d.<\/p>\n Then as the fighting began, several videos<\/a><\/span> soon emerged showing Turkish-backed militants mutilating and posing for selfies with the bodies of Kurdish YPJ women fighters, with one in particular portraying a young woman codenamed Barin Kobani, who had her breasts cut off \u2013 followed by chants of \u201cGod is great\u201d. With such heinous beliefs as their driving force and coupled with overwhelming military superiority, Turkey\u2019s military would encircle and fully occupy Afrin after sixty-three days of bombardment.<\/p>\n During those attacks a number of credible observers would warn of Turkey\u2019s abuses, such as The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra\u2019ad Al Hussein, who cautioned<\/a><\/span>, \u201cIn the city of Afrin, which was captured by Turkish forces yesterday, scores of civilians have been killed and injured due to airstrikes, ground-based strikes, and explosive hazards, and thousands have been displaced.\u201d This matched the diagnosis of Human Rights Watch (HRW), which criticized<\/a><\/span> Turkey for having, \u201cfailed to take necessary precautions to avoid civilian casualties\u201d during the offensive, with HRW\u2019s deputy Middle East director Lama Fakih opining how, \u201cIt appears that vulnerable civilians are facing displacement and death because of the way Turkey\u2019s latest offensive is being conducted.\u201d<\/p>\n What Turkey has Wrought Upon Afrin<\/strong><\/p>\n Turkey\u2019s occupation of Afrin and its surrounding 282 towns and villages officially began on March 25, 2018, and the brutal policies and actions of their subjugation in the five years since have turned this once thriving oasis of ethnic and religious solidarity, into a dystopian nightmare where over 300,000 Kurds have been displaced.<\/p>\n The oppression was foreshadowed from the moment the city fell under Turkish control, as the first action of the invading Islamist forces was to destroy Afrin\u2019s statue of the mythical Kurdish figure Kawa the Blacksmith, which is central to the Kurd\u2019s Newroz (New Year) festival, and according to legend symbolizes the struggle for freedom against tyranny. Fittingly, from that day forward, Erdo\u011fan\u2019s regime, the Turkish Army, and their allied militant proxies have carried out a systematic campaign of unrelenting state terrorism.<\/p>\n As I previously noted in my speech<\/a><\/span> from September 2019 before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Afrin\u2019s Kurdish population are suffering social oppression, economic robbery, and cultural annihilation.<\/p>\n Socially, the Kurds of Afrin are suffering arbitrary arrest, assaults, torture, rapes, human trafficking, sexual enslavement, assassinations, enforced disappearances at checkpoints, late-night abductions by criminal gangs, burning down of their villages, and neighborhood demolition to build walls around the city.<\/p>\n Economically, the Kurds of Afrin are suffering looting of stores, seizure of homes, stealing of cars, pillaging of livestock, confiscation of land, forced sharia taxes, extortion of businesses, over 5,000 kidnappings for ransom, deliberate arson of over 11,000 hectares of forest, and the systematic theft of Afrin\u2019s olive oil industry \u2013 which is then illegally sold in Europe.<\/p>\n Culturally, the Kurds of Afrin are suffering demographic ethnic cleansing, Turkification of the education system and street names, destruction of Kurdish cultural monuments, vandalism of tombs, pillaging of grave sites, desecration of Alevi and Yazidi holy shrines, cutting down of sacred ribbon trees, and the archaeological excavation and smuggling of over 16,000 historical artifacts \u2013 which are then illegally sold to museums in Turkey.<\/p>\n On other occasions, Afrin\u2019s residents are threatened by gangs of \u201cbrokers\u201d into obligatory land sales at set prices, which are supervised by MIT Turkish intelligence with the goal of transferring legal ownership to new settlers. Meanwhile, the largest and most luxurious homes are often commandeered by mercenaries under the pretext of turning them into military headquarters or torture chambers, as SDC US representative Sinam Sherkany has spoken about with regards to her own family home, writing<\/a><\/span>:<\/p>\n \u201cMy village home, for which my son had carefully picked out each stone for the masonry, was confiscated and turned into an interrogation center. Some of my former neighbors in the area have told me, \u2018We all know if we are being brought to your house, we will be tortured.\u2019 My family oasis, the rooms where I made so many happy memories, have now been turned into a place of cruelty and agony where they are sadistically tormenting my own Kurdish people.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Moreover, a 2019 report to the High Commissioner\u2019s Office of the United Nations Human Rights Council noted how, \u201cThe victims of abductions by armed groups and\/or criminal gangs were often of Kurdish origin, as well as civilians perceived as being prosperous, including doctors, businesspersons and merchants\u201d, while also noting how, \u201cyoung men arrested on suspicion of being affiliated with Kurdish structures were forced to pay a fine of $400 in order to be released.\u201d<\/p>\n A year later, a September 2020 report<\/a><\/span> of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic was submitted to the 45th <\/sup>session of the UN Human Rights Council. The Commission documented some of the war crimes committed in Turkish occupied Afrin. For instance, it states that Turkey\u2019s \u2018Syrian National Army\u2019 (SNA) fighters: \u201ccoerced residents, primarily of Kurdish origin, to flee their homes, through threats, extortion, murder, abduction, torture and detention.\u201d The report also notes how \u201cthe property of Kurdish owners was looted and appropriated by Syrian National Army members in a coordinated manner\u201d, and discusses a specific incident where one Kurdish family\u2019s home was stolen by the Hamza Brigade, and turned into an institute for Qur\u2019anic studies run by a Turkish NGO \u2013 with its official opening inaugurated by Turkey\u2019s governor of \u015eanl\u0131urfa.<\/p>\n Preying on the Vulnerable<\/strong><\/p>\n But perhaps the most horrifying details in the report are the cases of abuse towards women and children. In that regard, the report describes a specific case where two (presumably Kurdish) prisoners are kidnapped by the SNA and then beaten while being forced to watch the SNA gangrape a minor. As for other children, the report also describes the case of a boy who was held for almost nine months by the SNA, and while in Afrin central prison he was blindfolded, handcuffed, hung from a ceiling, and repeatedly beaten with plastic tubes \u2013 while Turkish-speaking officials dressed in military fatigues were present.<\/p>\n The motivations for all these actions are: terrorizing Kurdish residents to incentivize them to leave in order to accelerate resettlement plans, accruing financial gain to pay off Turkey\u2019s many radical Islamist militias who are motivated by state-sanctioned \u201cjihad\u201d, and obliterating Kurdish cultural identity and archaeological multi-ethnicity to enable a Turkification strategy for a de-facto annexation of Afrin.<\/p>\n With regards to resettlement and population transfers, from the start of Afrin\u2019s occupation the Turkish Army and its allied militants began emptying all Kurdish villages with the goal of bringing in loyal Arab outsiders from other parts of Syria. At least half of these mercenary families numbering over 40,000 were brought to Afrin from eastern Ghouta, eastern Qalamoun, and southern Damascus, and have connections to jihadist factions such as the Al Rahman Legion and the Army of Islam. In other instances, families from Idlib, belonging to the al-Nusra Front and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) have been resettled in Afrin, while families from other Turkish occupied Syrian cities such as Azaz, al-Bab, and Jarablus were given abandoned villages that persecuted Yazidis were forced to flee from. In many of these instances, markings were painted on the outside of stolen homes, which was reminiscent of what ISIS did to the Christians of Raqqa and Mosul.<\/p>\n Turkey Continues the ISIS Legacy<\/strong><\/p>\n Illustrating the depth of Turkey\u2019s state-sanctioned \u201cjihad\u201d, at the onset of Afrin\u2019s assault, Turkey\u2019s Directorate of Religious Affairs (aka Diyanet) called all mosques in Turkey to read The Quran\u2019s chapter 48 on conquest (Al-Fath) and asked that all Muslims pray for invading Turkish soldiers. Fatwas were then issued by the Istanbul-based Syrian Islamic Council supporting various war crimes, such as one in February of 2018, defending the looting of private property as \u201cjihad for the sake of Allah\u201d and merely the \u201cspoils of war\u201d; and ones in May and June of 2018, which describe the mostly-Kurdish PYD as \u201cspiteful\u201d, \u201csecular\u201d, \u201ccorrupt\u201d, and \u201cdeviant\u201d\u2014thereby justifying a range of mistreatment and theft in relation to them. In one case, a Syrian Arab settler brought to Afrin even complained of the lawless chaos being created, remarking<\/a><\/span>:<\/p>\n \u201cIf you come to Afrin, as soon as you walk around you\u2019ll be sure that only the force of arms rules this area. There\u2019s a terrible phenomenon, the spread of stores that sell weapons. Wherever you walk, you\u2019ll find \u2018Hunter\u2019s Gun Store,\u2019 \u2018So and So\u2019s Gun Shop.\u2019\u00a0 It\u2019s a really ugly sight.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Turkey\u2019s Diyanet is also overseeing a coordinated effort to impose Sharia law and strict Islamic dress (veil) on women, similar to what ISIS did, while destroying ancient religious Alevi and Yazidi shrines and replacing them with private mosques\u2014as the first step to forced conversions. At one point it became so egregious that a retired Turkish General himself spoke out, decrying afterwards how, \u201cIt is as if we are preparing the region for militant jihadists [like ISIS], and my colleagues who served in the area suffer from the moral humiliation of the way the operation evolved.\u201d<\/p>\n With regards to Yazidis\u2014who Turkish-backed ISIS already tried to eradicate through genocide\u2014their shrines named after Barsa Khatum, Jil Khaneh, King Adi, and Qara Jerneh, plus Sheikhs Hamid, Gahrib, Barakat, and Manan, have all been destroyed under Turkey\u2019s occupation; while the Yazidi villages of Qastel Jindo, Alqino, Bafalon, Sinka, Qatma, Basoufan, Ghazawiyeh, Iska, Arsh Qibar, Ishkan Sharqi, Shih Al Dir, and Ain Dara have been completely uprooted and emptied.<\/p>\n As for Alevis, the shrines at Yagmur Dada, Ali Dada and Aslan Dada in the Bulbul district were looted and destroyed. In both cases of Yazidis and Alevis, gravesites were vandalized and demolished, because authorities said they violated a new law requiring a lower height, which mimics the legal justifications that ISIS used against idolatry as well. The discrimination and desecration has even extended to the sacred perennial trees in many villages that Alevis tie little ribbons to and make wishes, which Turkey\u2019s Islamists have cut down as a result.<\/p>\n Turkey\u2019s desecration extends to the archaeological realm as well, which began during the invasion when Turkish airstrikes destroyed many ancient buildings including the Julianus Church\u2014which is one of the oldest Christian sanctuaries in the world, the famous Iron-Age Ain Dara Temple, the Syriac Maronite tomb of Saint Maron, and site of Brad (which were UNESCO World Heritage Sites). Less notable Roman-Era Byzantine monasteries and cemeteries were also destroyed, ostensibly because they pre-dated Islam to the 2nd<\/sup>\u00a0and 3rd<\/sup> centuries.<\/p>\n This practice coincides with how Turkey has pillaged through 35 historical mounds in various parts of Afrin including Ereb Shexo, El-Didriye, Zivinge, Ibedan, Sewan, Qurbe, Ster, En Hecere, Kefer Rume, Cumke, Sindiyange, Durumiye and Meydanke. In these situations the grave areas are bulldozed and exhumed in search of gold and precious objects. Politically, Turkey also destroyed the shrine dedicated to the Kurdish revolutionary and writer Mehmet Nuri Dersimi (1893-1973) alongside his wife Farida, showing the ethnic connection to such symbolic defilements.<\/p>\n Turkification for Annexation<\/strong><\/p>\n Lastly, with regards to Ankara\u2019s Turkification strategy, the claim of them liberating \u201cSyrian\u201d territory was called into question from the first moment of conquest in Afrin, when the Turkish military raised the Turkish flag over government buildings and not the flag of their so-called \u2018Syrian National Army\u2019. The Turkish state then began forcing schoolchildren to carry the Turkish flag in propaganda videos, while praising pictures of Erdo\u011fan. Moreover, the mandated Turkish textbooks now glorify Ottoman Empire history and Pan Turkic nationalism, while Afrin\u2019s schools are forced to observe Turkey\u2019s official holidays. Which helps explain why 95% of all school children in Afrin were Kurdish before the occupation, and that number has now dropped to 30%.<\/p>\n This was followed up by changing the official names of places from Kurdish into Turkish, banning the Kurdish language, issuing Turkish ID and temporary residence cards, using the Turkish lira as the official currency, and appointing a Wali (Custodian) and Qaim Maqam (Governor) in Afrin and linking it to the Turkish province of Antakya. Conspicuously, in 2021 when Turkey\u2019s Interior Minister S\u00fcleyman Soylu visited<\/a><\/span> the Turkish Special Forces Command Center in Afrin for Eid al-Adha, behind him hung large portraits of Erdo\u011fan and Atat\u00fcrk.<\/p>\n All of these point to the unfortunate reality that the Turkish state has no intention of ever leaving Afrin, as they intend to permanently occupy it, similar to how they have Hatay (Liwa Iskenderun) since 1939 and northern Cyprus since 1974. Which is all the more reason why the international community must stand up now and demand that Turkey leave Afrin and all the other areas of Syria and Rojava they have terrorized and seized.<\/p>\n However, in case you do not want to trust my words on the situation, I will close with five observations from both other international observers and the victims on the ground themselves. Because the voices in the latter come from a place of pain and displacement, with their trauma serving as the ultimate bibliographical reference.<\/p>\n International Observers on Afrin<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cTurkey is responsible for the actions of the Syrian armed groups it supports, arms and directs. So far, Turkey has given these armed groups free rein to commit serious violations in Afrin and elsewhere. We call on Turkey again to end violations, hold perpetrators accountable, and protect civilians living under their control. Turkey cannot evade responsibility by outsourcing war crimes to armed groups.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u2014 Kumi Naidoo<\/a><\/span>, Secretary General of Amnesty International, (October 18, 2019)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u201cKillings, rapes, kidnaping, extortion, forced conversion, and the destruction of religious sites. Today, it is important that the international community stand up for a free Afrin, and hold Turkey accountable for these crimes.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u2014 Nadine Maenza<\/a><\/span>, Commissioner of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u201cWhat is going on now in Afrin is a deep ethnic cleansing from which Turkey and the brigades profit financially as well.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u2014 Bassam al-Ahmed<\/a><\/span>, founder of Syrians for Truth and Justice<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u201cThe Turkish army and their Islamists allies have left a trail of destruction in the region.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u2014 Kamal Sido<\/a><\/span>, from the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u201cAlso in Afrin, in December 2019, a senior member of another Syrian National Army brigade went from door to door in a large residential building, requesting proof of ownership only from the Kurdish inhabitants. One resident, unable to provide such documentation, was forced to appear at the brigade\u2019s security office, where he was verbally abused and told \u2018if it were up to me, I would kill every Kurd from 1 to 80 years old\u2019. He was also threatened with detention. Fearing for his family\u2019s safety, the man fled shortly thereafter.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u2014 2020 report<\/a><\/span> from the Independent International Commission of Inquiry, to the UNHRC<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Afrin\u2019s Victims in their Own Words<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI do not feel like I belong, and I am unsure what this homeland signifies to me as it does not respect my language. Curricula are part of the political system, and these curricula do not mention the historical presence of Kurds in Syria, urging people to disassociate themselves from the place and revoke affiliation with it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u2014 Kurdish student<\/a><\/span> in Afrin<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u201cWe would get one potato and a piece of bread once a day and they told us that was too much for us and that we were whores and \u2018hungry Kurds.\u2019\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u2014 Kurdish boy<\/a><\/span>, aged 13, describing the prison conditions<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u201cThey kept me like that for an hour or more, and if you\u2019re not answering their questions, they continue torturing you until you’re paralyzed. For almost two weeks I couldn\u2019t eat because my hands were paralyzed.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u2014 Kurdish man<\/a><\/span>, after 23 days in Turkish custody, on how they tied his hands to his legs and hung him from the ceiling<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u201cTurkish authorities kidnapped one of the authors\u2019 interviewees from her house in Afrin and took her to a Turkish detention center where she recounted her experiences. She described an eleven-year-old girl who tried to strangle herself as she heard her mother\u2019s screams from being tortured in a nearby cell. Other methods of torture that she recounted included ripping skin, breaking teeth, cutting hair, and multiple times a day bringing a knife to peoples\u2019 throats threatening to slaughter them like animals. Detainees were also starved, including the elderly, women, and children.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/161-Victims-of-Afrin.jpg\")
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