Danial Saud: Turkey, its cooperating gangs committed international crimes in Afrin

QAMISHLO

The events of the third and final day of the International Forum on "Ethnic Cleansing and Demographic Change in Afrin", held in Amouda, continued. As a result of the circumstances, the head of the Committees for the Defense of Democratic Freedoms and Human Rights in Syria, Danial Saud, was unable to attend and sent his report to the forum and read by his representative Masoum Ibrahim.

The report, which contained several recommendations, states:

A look at the grave violations and crimes committed in Afrin and its villages by the Turkish aggression forces and the Syrian fighters who cooperate with them.

Introduction speech:

The United Nations delayed and colluded most of the world by remaining silent about the Turkish attacks on Syrian territory since 2011 until the invasion and occupation of Afrin since January 20, 2018. Most of the governments of the world stood silent about the Turkish occupation army carried out by Syrian armed forces belonging to opposition factions, with the dubious complicity of most international political circles, the Turkish aggression continued all its attacks on Syrian territory using the latest types of ground and air weapons and in flagrant violations of all principles and rules governing international humanitarian law.

In Afrin city the same community forces that fought the forces of terrorism and its organizations, which resisted and dealt with the Turkish aggression and the militants who are fighting with them as they have committed many of the individual and collective violations against the people of the villages and the city of Afrin, in addition to the massive volume of destruction and the fall of hundreds of civilian victims where many civilians were martyred and wounded.

However, the invasion can turn into an occupation, as happened in Afrin, which was occupied by the Turkish occupation forces with the armed mercenaries cooperating with them from the Syrian opposition in 2018, when the enemy forces are not limited to crossing the region but settle down and maintain their powers within it.

Commitment to the provisions of international humanitarian law

Which means that international humanitarian law considers that a signatory or non-signatory to international conventions of a humanitarian nature is obliged to respect the rules of customary international law that it contains. It bears the responsibility of non-compliance, but all states are supposed to ratify conventions on international humanitarian law to break the cycle of doubt and for the sake of all humankind. National liberation movements that resist colonialism, occupation and racial discrimination must also abide by the rules of international humanitarian law so that their armed struggle does not become a terrorist act.

Mass violations of international law and international humanitarian law

However, these specific violations of gross violations do not cover all violations, which means that there may be violations under international humanitarian law, public international law and human rights law, such as attacks on religious sites such as cemeteries, places of worship, cultural places and hospitals, It is also taking place in Afrin city and its villages. Therefore, I do not overlook the violation of the principles and provisions of human rights law and other laws, as well as violations committed by the Turkish occupation forces under international humanitarian law.

The Turkish aggression and its collaborators of Syrian opposition fighters on Afrin in northern Syria

The Turkish occupation forces invaded the border section of Syrian territory in defiance of international public opinion and humanitarian organizations. The deployment of Turkey to its forces in Idlib province was based on an agreement with Russia and Iran aimed at making Idlib an area of ​​tension. And the establishment of three military bases in Idlib overlooking the area of ​​Afrin. The Turkish war on Afrin was called the "Olive Branch", which is the symbol of world peace, which turned the region into blood and bones torn by its use of internationally banned weapons.

The occupation of Afrin and international and humanitarian law

Once the conflict in Syria reached the point of non-international armed conflict, many legal situations have arisen in the areas of that conflict and all have resulted in the development of the rules of international humanitarian law.

The current disputes in the Syrian territories are non-international armed conflicts according to international standards and the provisions of international humanitarian law . The valuation of the situation in the Syrian territories must be based on the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the customary law of wars to identify violations of international humanitarian law of that conflict.

We refer to some practices of the armed forces of the Turkish occupation army and its collaborators:

1. Racial persecution

2. Committing genocide

3. Violations of women's rights

4. Murder and mutilation

5. Trials outside the law

6. Booty and confiscations

7. Burning books, documents and historical relics

8. Destruction and bombing of places of worship

9. Kidnapping, enforced disappearance, torture and assassinations.

10. Kidnapping children and holding them hostage

11. Kidnapping and extortion: an important source of funding for terrorism

12. Random bombardment and bombings.

These forms of acts are war crimes and international crimes against humanity, they are serious violations of human rights committed by the occupation army and gangs collaborating against civilians, the Turkish occupation army and its armed opposition gangs, committed war crimes against civilians in Afrin on a daily basis in his war blindly against civilians, which constituted a flagrant violation of international norms and the laws of war. These criminal acts constitute a grave violation of the Geneva Convention of August 12- 1949, that amount to the level of international criminal offenses.

Conclusion:

In accordance with international standards and, in particular, the provisions of international humanitarian law, the principles of general international law concerning goodwill  relations among states in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, the purposes and provisions of the Charter of the United Nations, the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights and the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination Of the United Nations No. 1904 (Session 18) on 20/11/1963, the Turkish violations in Afrin as a city on the one hand, and its population of Kurds and Arabs, as stated above, since its military occupation, on the other, can be adapted to Hague Convention on the Respect of the Laws and Customs of War on land, held on October 18, 1907,

The provisions of the four Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 1949 and Protocol 1 to the four Geneva Conventions, as well as to the principles of international law concerning friendly relations between states in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and contrary to the provisions of the International Covenants on Human Rights, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted on December 10- 1948 by the General Assembly of the United Nations, is also contrary to the purposes of the United Nations and violates the provisions of the charter.

Recommendations

We consider the occupation of Afrin illegal and contrary to the principles and purposes of the United Nations and international law, and condemn all practices of the Turkish occupation forces, we call for:

1) To demand that the Turkish occupying forces and their collaborators withdraw immediately and unconditionally from Afrin and all the Syrian territories it occupied.

2) Expose the dangers of the Turkish occupation of Afrin and the result of the Turkish military operations in Afrin, northern Syria, violations against the Syrian civilians and their exposure to massive displacement and serious humanitarian risks.

3) work quickly to uncover the fate of the kidnapped and release them all, women, children and males, in the Turkish occupation forces and in the armed factions cooperating with the Turks, unconditionally. And oblige the occupying forces to provide adequate and prompt compensation for the harm caused to victims of abduction and enforced disappearance.

4) To act quickly to immediately identify the fate of missing persons, and to declare who remains alive or who has been killed and liquidated for political or non-political reasons.

5. Establish an independent, impartial, and transparent judicial commission of inquiry with the participation of representatives of the Syrian Federation for Human Rights and human rights and women's rights organizations in Syria. It must disclose all violations committed in Afrin and its villages since the beginning of the Turkish aggression in late 2018. Officials of the occupation forces who caused casualties (dead and wounded), in order to refer them to the local, regional and international courts and hold them accountable.

6. call on Syrian human rights and civil society organizations to cooperate in the investigation and documenting the various crimes against humanity committed by the Turkish occupying forces in Afrin and its villages since the beginning of the Turkish aggression in late 2018 and until now in order to build a legal file that allows the prosecution of all perpetrators, Turks or Syrians cooperating with them, some of these violations amount to the level of crimes against humanity and require referral of the perpetrators of the International Criminal Tribunals and international justice.

7) The return of displaced civilians and those who fled Afrin and its villages, and remove all obstacles to their return to their villages and homes and the need to secure those roads, and ensure that they are not attacked and their property, as well as demining, and thus enable the people of Afrin economically and socially to manage their affairs.

8- Calling upon the international bodies and institutions concerned to meet the economic, humanitarian needs of Afrin city and its damaged villages and the displaced people of Afrin, and to provide them with all necessary needs.

9) Popular and legal action of all the original components of Afrin people to confront and stop the growing dangers resulting from the practices of the racist occupation forces which adopted the forced and violent displacement and ethnic cleansing and to stand firmly against all practices that depend on changing the demographic structures to achieve racial goals and interests that strike all the foundations of civil peace and co-existence.

A.H

ANHA