'Turkey should be classified as an occupying country and put more pressure on it.'

Afrin Lawyers Union called for sending independent human rights organizations to investigate Turkey's crimes committed in Afrin, classifying Turkey as an occupying country and exerting more pressure on it.

18 January, 2021 11:22

AL-SHAHBA

The statement was delivered in front of the Office of Social Justice in Tal Sawsan village in al-Shahba region by the co-chair of the Afrin Lawyers Union Nariman Hussein, in the presence of a number of lawyers from members of the union and members of civil society organizations in al-Shahba region.

At the outset, the statement recalled the violent Turkish attack on Afrin in January 2018, using its full military land and air force and its mercenaries who brought them from all sides of the Syrian geography, committing the most heinous massacres against the people of Afrin, especially children and women, and thousands of them were displaced.

"Since the first day of the occupation and the enforcement of its law, the Turkish occupation has practiced murder, torture, retaliation, forced abduction, theft, deportation, forced displacement, confiscation and seizure of private and public property, and also destroyed facilities, properties, cultural and archaeological monuments in Afrin," the statement added.

The statement also touched on the policy of demographic change adopted by Turkey in Afrin, where the indigenous people were displaced and mercenary families settled in their place and imposed the circulation of the Turkish currency and the Turkish language in schools in a step to impose Turkification policy on the region and change its features and identity.

The statement explained, "Turkey's goal is not merely expansionary colonial ends through which it seeks to occupy part of the lands of another country and gain legitimacy and sovereignty over it, but the goals are far and more dangerous than them. Turkey is targeting a specific people that are made up of the original Syrian components on their historical land."

"The Turkish occupation state was able to implement its borders with its mercenaries and terrorists' agendas and to occupy large areas of Syria, starting from Afrin to Ras al-Ain and Tal Abyad, passing through Azaz, Jarablus and al-Bab."

The statement emphasized that Turkish practices in Syria represent a clear violation of the United Nations Charter and the rules of international law, which stipulate that international law guarantees states all the right to sovereignty over their territories, and also according to the United Nations Charter issued in the year (1945) which stipulated principles governing relations between states. These are binding principles, the most important of which is the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of states, the principle of respect for regional sovereignty, as well as the principle of equal legal status for states, as what is happening in Afrin is a violation of the United Nations Charter and the rules of international law.

The statement condemned, "We in the Lawyers Union of Afrin region reject these policies altogether and we demand that Erdogan and the terrorist mercenary factions loyal to him be tried as war criminals and internationally prosecuted for being the official financier and sponsor of terrorism in Syria and making Turkey a passage for these terrorists from ISIS and its supporters."

The statement called on the international community, the Security Council and the Human Rights Council of the United Nations to carry out their responsibilities in the face of what the Turkish occupation army is doing.

And also demanded, “We demand that independent international human rights organizations be sent to Afrin to investigate the violations committed by Turkey and its terrorist factions, classify Turkey as an occupying power and exert more pressure on it, and demand Turkey to end its illegal military presence in the Syrian regions and leave it with its mercenaries, and to demand the Security Council by placing these areas under international protection until a comprehensive political solution is found and the return of the indigenous people to their areas is guaranteed. "

T/S

ANHA