Rojava Orgs' report: All orgs must stand with oppressed by Turkish occupation, waken up from slumber

QAMISHLO

The fourth session of the International Forum on Ethnic Cleansing and Demographic Change in Afrin was resumed on Tuesday morning. The fourth session focused on the juristic aspect of the ethnic cleansing and demographic change in Afrin. Before the session, the report of Rojava Organization for Relief and Development that documented violations committed by the Turkish occupation army and its mercenaries was read, and the report of the organization included,

Firstly

Since the beginning of the Olive Branch operation by the Turkish state and its armed groups and the Syrian opposition coalition on 20/1/2018, Afrin area has been witnessing a real humanitarian disaster because it has led to a number of crimes and violations committed against civilians. These crimes amounted, for the most part, to war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and ethnic cleansing because of the fact that they included murder, psychological and physical torture, poisoning of internationally banned poison gas, forced displacement, looting, looting, burning of property and money, destruction of infrastructure, kidnapping and spreading organized crime, in light of the total absence of the law by occupation in conjunction with international silence. Therefore, in light of our humanitarian duty, we, as a human rights organization, documented and monitored these violations as much as possible, despite the difficulty of the mission because of the strict security imposed on the city of Afrin and its countryside by the Turkish state, the complete absence of the role of independent human rights organizations and free media, deliberately cutting off various means of communication by the Turkish state, and the danger that threatens the activists and their lives and safety. The extent of all the crimes committed by the Turkish state and its associated groups in Afrin is known to the extent of the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and the European Convention on the Human Rights Court, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and all international covenants, Crime of demographic change carried out by the Turkish state with its agents openly and continuously. Since the first day of the occupation of Afrin area on 18/3/2018, the Turkish state has based on completing the chapters of this crime in parallel with other crimes on a daily basis to the same size as the geography of Afrin which is / 3,850 / km2, horizontally and in an unprecedented manner in ancient and contemporary history.

Afrin was chosen to commit this major crime against it, its nature and population because it was one of the most stable areas rich of natural resources in Syria, and forms a model of co-existence ethnically and religiously, and a green page of Kurdish privacy.

It is known that the population of the region of Afrin before the Turkish occupation was about 900,000 thousand people, including about 300,000 thousand Syrians displaced from Aleppo and its countryside, and how this number became the result of a series of Turkish crimes against civilians since the first day of the Turkish bombardment of the city of Afrin, where the residential areas were targeted, resulting in the martyrdom of civilians and the wounding of others. It has been documented that there were (512) victims, including 223 men, 164 women and 125 children, and the result of all other crimes, especially the crime of demographic change committed by the Turkish state against this number of indigenous people, whose final chapters have not yet been completed. A report has been prepared on this crime, starting with forcing 350,000 civilians to leave the city of Afrin and its countryside so that their fate is to be distributed to the camps established with their arrival in the areas of al-Shahba and Tal Rifat and in areas within al-Jazeera and the Euphrates, while others left to the neighboring countries and to European countries, which led to the departure of about 80% of the indigenous people from the city of Afrin and the survival of 20 and this percentage suffers from continuous violations for being forced to leave the city, and what is said in this regard applies to all villages, districts in Afrin city, especially the villages and farms that have been subjected to material damage in terms of the burning of olive and pomegranate trees which go back to decades. Two reports have been prepared for this latest case, which reached a record above all appreciation. The number of cases documented by our organization has reached 20 cases in a relatively limited period.

The names of villages and squares in the city of Afrin and its districts have been changed into Turkish names, such as the installation of a board in Janders area in the name of Hatay and a board in the name of Seljuk Obasi in the village of Qastal Meqdad in Bulbul area, and the destruction of Kawa al-Haddad in one of the squares of the city of Afrin, and the designation of this square as the Olive Branch adopted by the Turkish state slogan for occupation, with the installation of the Turkish flag in the middle of the city, in addition to changing the name of the Government Building Square in the city of Afrin to the name of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, changing the boards of hospitals and schools. A report has been prepared on forced displacement, seizure of property and preventing residents from returning, including the names of the villages and towns where they were displaced. Where more than 100 villages, towns and villages have been documented, and Janders area, in vicinity of Atma crossing and the camps of the displaced people comes first. The number of houses that have been settled has been documented after they have been looted and robbed since 18/3/2018, and Bulbul and Shera constitute a unique case of demographic change because the Turkish state and its armed groups have prevented returning of any individual of the 20 villages, all of which constitute a systematic method of ethnic cleansing and genocide through the dekmstruction of the culture of the other. Targeting the places of worship for Yezidis, Alawites and Christians in the sites of Brad and Mobata and Qastal Jando are examples and have been documented in detailed reports in addition to the complaints of affected civilians. Here, we note that the information in these reports was adopted after being verified by field activists who rely on direct observation after meeting the casualties, displaced persons and by the organization when the displaced presented  formal complaints based on direct narrations happened with them within the series of forced displacement or stories received from their relatives who are suffering from all the crimes of the Turkish occupation, including the crime of demographic change.

Where more than 1,500 complaints were documented on cases of looting, stealing and forcible displacement accompanied by the name and surname of the person seized on their property, the description of the property and the date of seizing the property and the party that seized the property with the notes.

In addition to documenting the number of detainees, abductees and missed persons in Afrin area that reached 623, including 50 women, 560 men and 13 children and the date of abduction and the violating party with additional information.

The cases of raping against women were documented with 55 cases in addition to killing women cases that reached 207, wounding 128 and kidnapping 50. The male victims' number reached 783 including 63 killed, 160 wounded, 560 kidnapped. The number of the victims among the children reached 138, among them 54 killed, 71 injured and 13 kidnapped. . All these documents constitute a flood of excesses committed by the Turkish occupation state and its agents throughout Afrin region.

Afrin people are still living under domination of Turkish state and armed factions loyal to it. Cases of great fear and chaos, lawlessness, enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests, abductions, sexual assault, looting and stealing of property and imposing of curfews and organized killings witnessed in the area.

There is no doubt that all these crimes with their chronological order have been committed by the aggressor and the occupier defining the occupied geography as a land and people rooted in their land and for all humanity and all international covenants.

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in its four parts, in particular Article 1, which constitutes the whole of the first part, insofar as it is not permissible to deprive a people of their own means of living in any way; and articles (1/2/3/4) that forms the part II to guarantee rights without distinction as to political race, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

All articles contained in Part III of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, such as the right to life as provided for in article 16 of the Covenant in time of war the right to freedom, security, freedom of thought, conscience, religion, freedom of movement, freedom of opinion and expression, freedom of private life, the right of the family to protection, care and the right to life, The right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of the State, the right to property, the right to work, housing and the rights of national, religious and linguistic minorities, which are internationally recognized by the United Nations General Assembly in 1992.

- The 1993 International Convention, which entered into force in 1976, which suppressed all crimes of apartheid, which international law defines as crimes against humanity.

Declaration of the General Assembly of the United Nations of 14 December 1974 on the violation of the rights of children and the elderly and women and the 1924 Geneva Declaration, which is the first document on the rights of children and the principles of the United Nations adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1991 in violation of the right to protect funds and property from looting and direct attacks or the right to protection from occupation, demolition of houses, sources of life, revenge and targeting and the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities, all with fire, and by using terrorist groups of the first pattern, which directly and directly from terrorism, and from the second pattern, which forms the backbone of the first format and the crane, from different areas of the areas that were under the control of armed gangs and settling them instead of the indigenous population in Afrin.

Secondly

The report of Ms. Ursula Mueller, the assistant of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for Humanitarian Affairs confirms the transfer of 71,000 people from Eastern al- Ghouta and Eastern al-Qalamon in the Damascus countryside to Afrin area since March 2018 as evidenced by documents and videos transmitted by the means of social communication and local and regional media as well as activists, especially the network of Afrin activists, which we attach a file of their files with this report. This report includes methods of demographic change by the Turkish occupation state in Afrin word and image and the monitoring of Afrin before and after the aggression and the Turkish occupation.

In this regard, we draw the attention of Ms. Ursula Mueller, the assistant of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for Humanitarian Affairs to the importance of what her report included on the legal value of what she had reached condemning the Turkish occupation state for the crime of demographic change in Afrin area.

Thirdly

The Turkish occupation state has transferred the ownership of the residential and agricultural lands located within and outside the areas of urban organization in Afrin and the civil areas, villages and farms to the names of the Turkish state's mercenaries after extracting the ownership documents from the owners who are indigenous in Afrin area  and the completion of the sale and purchase operations under pressure in addition to the settlement of 41,485 members of the groups of the Turkish state and advanced from the southern countryside of Damascus and the eastern countryside of al-Qalamoon and the Eastern and Western al-Gouta in Afrin area. this is a direct indication of the extent of the demographic change in Afrin and of committing this crime in all its material and moral aspects. The crime of demographic change is the result of murdering, destruction and systematic forced displacement.

Fourthly

The crimes committed by the Turkish occupation state in terms of demographic change in the Afrin area is an international crime by all standards. It is a crime against humanity and war crimes at the same time because it includes extensive housing in the land without the consent of its owners to alter the demographic structure of the targeted geographic patch after it was emptied by killing and eliminating operations. Then, the occupation circulates the nationality of its state to the settlers and the rest of the indigenous people from which the Turkish occupation state was taken a model confirms the disagreement about what is said about the occupation and its consequences, especially to deny the policy of systematic displacement and the existence of a local desire to occupy, and deny all that are reported about the crimes that have been taking place from the beginning of the aggression. Thus, the completion of the separation of fraud against international law which condemns such a crime and considers it the crimes of apartheid, genocide and crimes against humanity. This condemnation is involved in 5/6/7 items of the Rome Basic System of the International Criminal Court adopted on 7 July 1998, which considered the forcible transfer of civilians from the area in which they were lawfully existed an expulsion or any other unjustifiable act permitted under international law as an international crime, as well as crimes against humanity, genocide and apartheid, because the process of systematic demographic change is carried out by an attack directed against a civilian population with repeated and systematic political status and by a state that has decided. This policy has been strengthened and committed by reality and is the result of systematic persecution and systematic control by one ethnic group against other ethnic and religious groups and in order to perpetuate the regime of the occupier.

Fifthly

The act of the Turkish occupying State in terms of demographic change in Afrin is considered a crime against humanity according to article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court adopted in Rome on 17 July 1998, Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 and Article 1 / of the 1937 International Convention and the Rome Charter of the Exclusive Convention on all war criminals, the Hague Convention of 1970, the Montreal Convention of 1973 and the 1977 European Convention.

The crime of demographic change that continues to be perpetrated by the Turkish occupation state in Afrin poses a direct threat to the international peace and security, which together constitute a justification for the birth of the Charter of the United Nations, which the Turkish occupation state violated all its items.

It is time for all International Human Rights and Humanitarian Organizations to wake up from their deep slumber, put all political and economic considerations aside, preparing to play their legal, human and human rights roles and stand by the oppressed of the Turkish occupation and all its crimes of apartheid, genocide and crimes against humanity as the occupation not only aims at killing, destroying and the extension of hegemony over geography, but it also has additional goals represented by creating hostility and hatred and planting them to remain after the aggression and occupation in the future, and to establish a state of division and fragmentation among the components of the Syrian society, in addition to creating deep cracks in the structure and composition of its regions. So the local, regional and global scene will be fed up with the daily violations of the right of the people of the Turkish occupation against the peoples of the region, especially as the Turkish occupation state openly renounces its occupation and other areas in the world, especially the civilized parts of it. In the minds of extremism and atonement or direct occupation and after the investment of mental invasion in preparation for the military invasion.

After the completion of the third session, the closing session, which will be attended by one representative of the sessions held in the last two days to discuss the solutions and proposals and come up with a number of recommendations to address the effects of ethnic cleansing and demographic change in Afrin. The Forum will conclude with a final statement.

(T/S)

ANHA