Turkey is committing cultural genocide in Afrin, too

AFRIN

Since the Turkish state of occupation began its attacks on Afrin canton on  January  20-2018 after Russia gave it the green light to attack in the framework of agreements between the two countries to change the Syrian demographics, genocide attacks continue on the Kurdish people.

The beginning was to attack a very safe area compared to other areas of Syria that were witnessing war, destruction and displacement. This safe area was receiving tens of thousands of refugees from other areas of Syria. The Turkish aggression against Afrin committed a crime against peace, because crimes against peace include planning, preparing for an aggressive war, or starting such a war.

During its attacks, the Turkish authorities committed numerous massacres against the population, amounting to crimes of genocide. Because Turkey attacked Afrin with the aim of destroying and killing the Kurdish people, who constituted the vast majority in this geographical area of the Syrian territory. Genocide is a crime committed in an intentional manner and monitored for the total or partial destruction of a national, ethnic or religious group, either through the killing of their members, serious physical or mental harm to them, or deliberately subjecting them to harsh living conditions.

It also committed the crime of mass displacement because its aggression against Afrin forced more than 300,000 citizens to flee their homes because international law considered mass displacement as a deportation of a group of individuals from one geographic location to another, this displacement becomes a crime in the event of coercion without the consent of the displaced.

After the occupation, new crimes were committed against the Kurdish people in Afrin, the crimes of cultural genocide, Turkey prevented Kurdish language education in the schools of Afrin and replaced the Turkish language in addition to the Arabic language, and prevents the local people to speak their language, and changed the names of Kurdish villages and placards to it , and replaced it by Turkish language.

In the context of Turkey's latest cultural genocide, opening of a cultural center for orphans in Turkish, where activists on social networking sites photographed pictures of an orphanage opened in Mariamin village of Shera district in Afrin. It is noteworthy that it was named the center as "Tanzila" mother of the head of the Turkish occupation state Recap Tayyip Erdogan.

The Turkish flags are displayed on the center and next to it in the photo. What is also noteworthy is that it used a cultural name alongside the orphanage, which called the center "Orphans and  Culture Center."

Cultural genocide is a term used to describe the deliberate destruction of the cultures of a people or a nation for political, social, religious, intellectual or racial reasons.

Through this center, Turkey is trying to impose on the children of Afrin a culture that is not their original culture and therefore falls within the framework of massacres of cultural genocide, because this center works to remove the original roots of the children.

Turkey uses its religious institution, known as          "Dianat", to implement the policy of cultural genocide in Afrin, by appointing its preachers in the mosques of Afrin, as well as kidnapping all those who taught Kurdish language in Afrin schools.

Preventing teaching of the Kurdish language in schools is one of the most depressing forms of cultural genocide, and preventing Kurds from speaking their own language and arresting them is one of the most important indicators of genocide against the Kurds.

The new edition of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's Atlas of the World's Languages ​​at Risk of Extermination in Paris has shown that about 2,500 of the world's 6,000 languages ​​are at risk of extinction.

According to the edition, out of the 6,000 languages ​​spoken in the world, about 200 languages ​​have been extinct over the last three generations, 573 are considered as dying languages, 502 are at high risk, 632 are endangered languages, 607 of fragile languages.

It is interesting to note that the report speaks of extinct languages, including the language of "Obekh" in Turkey, which was extinct in 1992, as a result of the policy of "Turkification" followed by the Turkish occupation authorities against the people living in Turkey.

A.H

ANHA