Women's Council: Settlement project in Afrin has nothing to do with humanitarian action

After the Turkish occupation of Afrin canton, the Turkish occupation army has recently started building settlements in the Yazidi village of Shadereh in Sherawa district, with the aim of settling the families of its mercenaries as well as the Palestinians.

To condemn this, the Women’s Council in North and East Syria made a written statement to the public opinion, stating,

"The Turkish state, in continuation of its expansionist project to control the region, continues to implement settlement projects in a systematic and deliberate manner aimed at complete demographic change in the areas it occupies in Syria, especially Afrin region."

The Turkish state and its mercenary factions are changing the real features of the region, abolishing its Kurdish identity, and erasing the identity of the villages and areas it occupies, forcing the population to believe in the Islamic religion, striking all the international laws and norms that stipulate the obligation to respect the religion, belief, and existence of any human group in their areas of residence.

Recently, the Beyaz Eller Association, funded and supported by Turkish intelligence, implemented a new settlement project in the area in the Yazidi village of "Shadereh" by building / 96 / apartments to settle the families of the factions controlling the area, while the majority of the indigenous population are living in displacement camps in al-Shahba and the rest of the areas in north-east Syria. It is worth mentioning, and it is regrettable that the United Nations is the main financier of the organization.

Therefore, we in the Women’s Council in North and East Syria condemn and denounce this new settlement project that Turkey is implementing through suspicious organizations and entities. We also denounce the practices ongoing against women in Afrin despite reports and information documented by independent international bodies and local organizations working secretly there.

We call on the international community and all human rights and women organizations to put pressure on the Turkish state to put an end to its colonial settlement project, and we also demand the United Nations to stop support for this suspicious organization.

The duplication of which the United Nations deals with human rights issues in the world is a dangerous retreat of all human and moral values in the face of violations and crimes against humanity.

D.H

ANHA