What has not Turkish occupation done in Afrin yet?

JAFAR JAFO/ AFRIN

On the 20th of last year, the Turkish occupation army launched an attack aimed at occupying Afrin. After almost two months of aerial bombardment, artillery shelling and destruction of villages, the Turkish occupation army and its mercenaries occupied Afrin on 18 March 2018.

The residents of Afrin have been forcibly evicted from their homes, but it has not stopped there. Many children have been disabled, the child Juma Abd al-Qadir, who has lost both eyes, is the best proof of this, these disabilities summarize what the people of Afrin were exposed to, which accommodated 300 000 displaced people from various Syrian regions before occupying it.

Observers believe that Turkey aims to empty Afrin of the Kurds, any of its indigenous people, and sources say that 10% of the Kurds have remained in Afrin, after it was 90%, and sources confirmed that three quarters of Afrin city is inhabited by families of Gouta and Daraa. The demographic change is not different from the genocide and the project of uprooting and expelling man from his land and homeland is more dangerous than killing.

Following the policy of demographic change and displacement of indigenous people, Turkey settled about 40,000 families from the eastern Gouta, the villages of Hama, Homs and some other areas in the houses of Afrin residents.

A source from Idlib said that 1000 mercenaries of Ahrar al-Sham mercenaries headed to Afrin with their families, under an agreement between them and the mercenaries of al-Nusra south of Idlib.

Also, the Turkish occupation changed the names of villages from Kurdish to Turkish, such as the village of Qastal Mekdad to Seljuk Obasi and Kutana to Zaher Obasi and Karzilla to Jogar Obasi.

Beside the demographic change, there are cases of kidnapping, torture and daily killing in Afrin. There are Kurd civilians whose fate is still unknown.

On the occupation day of Afrin center "18th of March", the Turkish occupation destroyed the statue of Kawa the Blacksmith, which is a moral symbol of the Kurds, it also has looted the houses and shops like locusts. Sources say that the property of the people of Afrin is sold in the markets Azaz, al-Bab and Jarablus cities.

Not to mention the destruction of shrines and archaeological sites, the most important of which was the destruction of the archaeological hill of Ain Dara, which dates back thousands of years.

Under international law, it is prohibited to destroy the property which is not justified by military necessity and this is what the Turkish State has been violating: robbing civilian property till this day.

The school of Martyr Dilsoz, which is located west of Janders district also transferred to a military headquarter, and the Turkish flag was raised there, also the school of the martyr Ronahi in Janders has been turned to a field hospital for its mercenaries, and the school of martyr Azima transferred to intelligence headquarter.

In talking about schools it is necessary to mention that the Turkish occupation prevented the Kurdish language and imposed the Turkish language on the people of Afrin, as Erdogan's pictures and Turkish flags have been raised above schools.

H/S

ANHA