Stop Turkey’s war crimes and crimes against humanity in Afrin

Until Turkey stops committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in its invasion and occupation of Afrin in northern Syria, and withdraws its military and proxy forces from Afrin, Kurdish Lobby Australia calls on the Australian Government and others in the international community to:

Call for impartial investigations into war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Turkish armed forces and proxy forces in Afrin since January 20;
Discuss the evidence of these crimes with Turkish Ambassadors and leaders;
Call for an immediate ban on all co-operation with Turkey’s military and security personnel, including a ban on armament sales to Turkey, until Turkey withdraws from Afrin;
Use all means available at the United Nations and other international organisations to protect the rights and needs of the citizens of northern Syria living under Turkish occupation, and those displaced by the occupation;
Contribute humanitarian aid for those displaced by Turkey’s occupation;
Use international forums to discuss the need for a no-fly zone and a multinational peacekeeping force along the Syrian – Turkish border.

Between January 20 and March 18, 2018 Turkey used its army and air force, and Syrian Islamist extremist militias, including ex-ISIS fighters, to invade the Kurdish-majority district of Afrin in the province of Aleppo in northern Syria. Defending Afrin from this invasion were the People’s Protection Units (YPG), Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). During this period of armed conflict, numerous media sources reported war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Turkey’s military and proxy forces, describing how they:

Killed civilians, using airstrikes, artillery and other means;
Tortured and killed prisoners-of-war;
Mutilated the corpses of Syrian Democratic Force fighters;
Threatened to behead Yezidis and Christians who did not convert to Islam;
Moved Arab and Turkmen families into deserted villages, after the Kurdish inhabitants were displaced by armed conflict or forced evacuations;
Indiscriminately bombarded residential spaces, health centres and schools. For instance, Turkey targeted Afrin hospital, killing between 15 and 37 civilians, on February 13 and March 16;
Used banned cluster bombs on villages around the town of Jinderes;
Used napalm on civilians on 27 January;
Used chlorine gas in artillery shells on February 6 and February 16;
Cut Afrin city’s water supply from March 9, leaving the city without water until now.
Destroyed archaeological sites, including a 3,000-year old temple and one of the oldest Christian churches in the world.

On March 18, Turkey took control of Afrin city, after the Kurdish defence forces and up to 200,000 civilians evacuated the city in the preceding four days. Between 50,000 and 70,000 civilians remained in the city. Turkey’s army and Turkey-backed Islamist extremists now occupy the district. Turkey has cut internet services and banned outside journalists from entering Afrin. Recently, some international humanitarian representatives gained limited access. In Afrin, Turkey’s ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity include:

1. Executing civilians in the street;

2. Ethnic cleansing and forced demographic changes, with the UN and US State Department claiming at least 137,000 internally displaced civilians are being refused re-entry into Afrin. In addition, those in Afrin continue to be subject to forced evacuations. Meanwhile, Islamic militants and their families, Syrian refugees from Turkey and IDPs from eastern Ghouta (including Jaish al-Islam and Faylak al-Rahman militants) are being settled in vacant houses and farms.

3. Establishing a local police force and Sharia court system using Islamist extremist militants in Faylak al-Rahman;

4. Violation of women’s rights, including abduction and rape, and women not being allowed out in public places;

5. Violation of children’s rights, including abduction;

6. Violation (or fear of violation) of the rights of Christians and Yezidis, including forced conversions and the destruction of churches and temples;

7. Arbitrary detention of at least 3,000 civilians by the Turkish army;

8. Detention, torture and murder of prisoners;

9. Financing of terror through kidnap and ransom;

10. Theft and confiscation of civilian property, including homes and businesses, unprecedented in extent, with militias intermittently fighting between themselves over the spoils of war;

11. Burning of books and documents and the destruction of graveyards;

12. Using Turkish teachers and a Turkey-designed curriculum in schools, including teaching the Turkish language, and forcing school children to wave Turkish flags, and chant pro-Turkish and pro-Erdogan slogans (as has occurred in the Turkey-occupied Azaz-Jarablus-Al-Bab triangle).

Turkish political leaders vow that Turkey will never return the district of Afrin to the Assad Government. In campaigning for Turkey’s June 24 elections, which are being held under a state of emergency and on-going purges, Turkey’s President Erdogan repeated his promise to expand Turkey’s occupation of northern Syria.

We call on the Australian Government and international community to use all means, including international law, to stop Turkey’s human rights abuses in Afrin, and its aggressive occupation of Afrin and other Syrian territory.