MSDTwo years have passed since the Turkish occupation of the Syrian city of Afrin that has a Kurdish identity .The self-administration that had been established since the beginning of year 2014, had embraced thousands of Syrians displaced persons who fled from violence and destruction in other Syrian regions, where the population during the Turkish attack reached about one million people, half of them were displaced persons. The Turkish state and its mercenary groups have begun to attack the city, whose sons and daughters had shown heroic resistance that had no equivalent, despite the Turkish state using of all types of weapons, including internationally prohibited ones during its flagrant aggression, warplanes that took turns bombing the safe population, and participating of thousands of terrorist elements from ISIS and Al-Nussra, the resistance lasted for about 60 days. During which the People’s Protection Units(YPG) and Women showed brave heroic resistance in the face of aggression. This campaign ended with catastrophic consequences that constitute a stain shame on the forehead of international community, leading to displacement of more than 350 thousand indigenous people, and martyrdom of about 1500 people, including 534 civilians. / 54 / cases of murder under torture, / 670 / wounded as a result of systematic bombing, depriving / 50 / thousand students of education, cutting and burning about / 200 / thousand olive trees. Not to mention thefting of personal property, the seizure of people’s capabilities, thefting Afrin antiquities which are around ten thousand years old , destruction of mosques, churches, and houses of worship of Yazidi component.
From the time of occupation to present day, Afrin region has been subjected to most heinous crimes of ethnic cleansing, reshaping the demographic demography and genocide against indigenous people of the region, as well as confiscation of their properties and housing mercenary families in their homes and lands. In addition, the policy of Turkification was applied , erasing the identity of the region and cutting it off from its Syrian affiliation. All of this happened in front of the world’s view in an integrated process of invasion and annihilation that the Turkish occupation called it “the olive branch”, but it was only intended for returning of the Ottoman Sultanate after demolition and destruction of what was built from equitable gains achieved through civil and democratic Self-Administration which was formed at the beginning of the year 2014.
We in the Syrian Democratic Coumcil (SDC), while we salute the resistance of the age in Afrin and remember its martyrs, Avista Khabour, Barin Kubani and other martyrs, we condemn in the strongest terms the crimes of the Turkish occupation and confirm that without liberation of Afrin and its return to before January 20, 2018, and without ending the entire Turkish occupation of other Syrian regions, it is not possible to talk about a sustainable solution to the Syrian crisis. In this regard , the United Nations, the International Security Council, the Arab League, the Human Rights Organization, all civil society organizations and institutions in Syria, the Middle East and the world, and all who are interested in solving the Syrian crisis, are called upon to take their human and legal responsibility towards the sufferings of the entire people of Syria, in particular what is happening in Afrin, and that quick steps shoud be be taken to end the Turkish occupation, judging perpetrators and bringing them to justice as war criminals. We confirm once again that liberation of Afrin, Tal Bayd, Sri Kaniye / Ras Al-Ain, Jarabulus, Al-Bab and Idlib is one of our most important national principles that we cannot deviate from, and without them, it is impossible to take a real step towards resolving the Syrian crisis, according to path of a political solution and guiding by relevant international resolutions, especially the resolution 2254.
Mercy for themartyrs, .
Long live Afrin resistance
March 17, 2020
The Syrian Democratic Council
