Jurist: Demographic change in occupied cities is war crime

Since the occupation of Afrin, Serêkaniyê and Girê Spî cities by the Turkish state, it has been pursuing a policy of demographic change in it by building settlements, stealing their monuments and changing their features. Moreover, Turkey imposes its currency and language there.

This is taking place in light of the silence of international human rights organizations and institutions, as they evaluate this silence as tacit approval of Turkey's occupation and crimes.

Hawar news agency met Judge at the Social Justice Bureau in Tel Tamr, Zahed Semaila, who spoke about the Turkish occupation's policy of demographic change in the cities it occupied.

He said that the Turkish occupation state and its mercenaries are undergoing demographic change in the occupied cities, especially Afrin city after its occupation, and added, "The Turkish occupation state is trying hard to change the Kurdish identity of those cities by settling the mercenaries' families who have been brought from several areas in these cities."

He added, "The occupation also aims to displace the remaining Kurdish people in this city in various ways, whether militarily or by imposing royalties on them and forcibly removing them from their homes."

A war crime under Article 49

Semaila stressed that demographic change is a war crime, citing "the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and Article 49 which prohibits and prevents the forced displacement of civilians from their villages under being considered a war crime or a crime against humanity."

He pointed out in his speech that "the Turkish occupation state is carrying out its dirty policies; demographic change using the mercenary factions loyal to it through displacement and resettlement, as the occupation and its mercenaries displaced more than 300,000 Kurdish civilians from Afrin and settled more than 400,000 settlers there, with the help of some Kuwaiti, Qatari and Chechen organizations."

Semaila explained that "the policy of forced displacement and demographic change against the Kurdish population from Afrin and the rest of the occupied areas is a violation of international agreements, and the silence of the international community regarding these crimes indicates its complicity with the Turkish occupation and its mercenaries."

He concluded his speech by saying: "We, the jurists of north and east Syria, demand the international community to put pressure on the Turkish occupation state to remove it from the occupied areas and stop its crimes in the region."

D.H

ANHA