Refugees, weapons are among main causes of international silence about Afrin

QAMISHLO

On Sunday, December 2, the first session of the International Forum on Ethnic Cleansing and Demographic Change in Afrin was held under the auspices of Rojava Center for Strategic Studies. The Forum was attended by hundreds of local, regional and international political figures and dozens of civil society organizations and focused on the political side of the Turkish occupation of Afrin.

This forum is the first forum in the areas of North-East Syria and the world in Afrin to search for the causes of violations against the people of Afrin by the Turkish occupation authorities and mercenaries who launched an aggressive attack on the canton on 20 January, 2018 amid shameful silence by the international countries and even international organizations concerned with human rights and children, and the media blackout is also the first of its kind so that countries that are among the most powerful countries in the world will launch attacks on a canton of an area of 3,850 km 2 which is about 2% of the area of Syria.

The first session included delivering lectures by the former French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, the Director of the Peace Program David Philip, the head of the Diplomatic Committee of the Democratic Society Movement Aldar Khalil, the professor in Modern and Contemporary History and the specialist in the Iranian, Turkish and Middle East issues Dr. Farah Saber, the co-chair of the Federal Democratic Council Hadiya Youssef who was sent to the Forum, the professor at the University of Vienna, Political Science Department Thomas Stendker. The  discussion was opened.

The participants in the Forum explained through their discussions that the Turkish occupation and during the aggression on Afrin committed several massacres and destroyed the schools and archaeological sites and places of worship and everything sacred in Afrin, and the Turkish aggression resulted in displacing tens of thousands of Afrin people from their homeland. The participants pointed out that Turkey practiced and still practices murder and displacement and adopted the policies of the demographic change against the people of Afrin, and what Turkey is doing mount to war crimes, massive and cultural genocide.

It is noteworthy that during the discussions, the discussions focused on the fact that the international press did not follow the situation of Afrin and did not even mention it because of the pressure exerted by the Turkish occupation on the European and international countries and the media that followed it in addition to Erdogan repentant statement that include, "Any country that deals with the Turkish aggression on Afrin, the door to the migration of Syrian refugees to it will be opened." The discussions also explained that Turkey is using the Syrian refugees as a pressure card, and explained that Turkey prevented the free press from entering Afrin to prevent the disclosure of violations there, and any one published information about they were arrested.

The participants, who joined the Forum through Skype, also pointed out that the second reason for the silence of the European countries over the aggression and violations carried out by Turkey against Afrin is that Turkey is a member of NATO, which is guaranteed by a number of European countries, and buys them weapons in large quantities so that no position has been seemed so far.

As for the third reason, the audience made clear that the Turkish community in Europe conducted great propaganda and defamation campaigns during the Turkish aggression on Afrin and caused a disturbance in European public opinion.

The participants noted that the Turkish occupation of Afrin came in light of the green light of Russia after the agreements made between them so that Turkey withdraw all the mercenary groups from the vicinity of Damascus and its countryside, Aleppo and Homs and gathered them in Idlib, and after the completion of the agreement, Russia opened air airspace to Turkey to launch the aggressive attack on Afrin.

The participants stressed the need to confront the Turkish threat to the peoples of the area.

A.H

ANHA