​​​​​​​ Continuing efforts to document Turkish crimes in occupied Afrin

 The lawyer and member of the Administrative Committee of the Kurdish Legal Commission in Europe, Hussein  Naaso, clarified, in a telephone call with our agency, about the position of international human rights and humanitarian organizations in the Afrin file, and the results of the human rights movement in northern and eastern Syria in Europe, after 4 years of the Turkish occupation of occupied Afrin  Since March 2018.

 Despite the documented crimes committed by the Turkish occupation state and its mercenaries in occupied Afrin, the international human rights and humanitarian organizations did not move a finger in the face of these crimes.

 And what the occupied Afrin has witnessed since the beginning of this year, the Human Rights Organization Afrin - Syria confirmed the killing of 10 citizens by the intelligence of the Turkish occupation state and its mercenaries, in addition to the kidnapping of 96 citizens, including 11 women and 5 children, as well as the cutting down of more than 5,000 olive trees.  destroying 9 archaeological sites and building mosques in Yazidi villages with the aim of displacing them;  To change the demographics of the region.

 War crimes under the 1998 Rome Statute

 Jurist Naaso believes that what the Turkish occupation state and its mercenaries are committing in occupied Afrin amounts to war crimes.

 Regarding the silence of international human rights organizations concerned with the Syrian issue on the documented Turkish crimes,  he stressed, "So far, they have not moved a finger."

 He added, "Since its occupation of Afrin, Serêkaniyê and Girê Spî, Turkey has committed and continues to commit the most heinous crimes against the Kurdish civilian population in those areas, which amount to war crimes, according to Article 8 of the Rome Statute of 1998, and with the testimony of reports of international human rights organizations and on the  chaired by the International Commission of Inquiry on Syria.

  Naaso has returned the silence of society and international forces, foremost of which are human rights organizations, to the association of its political and economic interests with the Turkish occupation state, in addition to Turkey's membership in NATO, along with its "geographical location that secures immunity from accountability."

 He described the current dealing with double standards in dealing with peoples' issues by the international community, saying: "The balance of political and economic interests dominates the balance of human rights and people's freedom, and the best example of this is the Russian-Ukrainian war."

 Afrin, the mercenary export point

 On the dangers of what the occupied areas are witnessing, especially Afrin, which has been turned into a point for the export of mercenaries, the human rights defender Naaso said, "After the occupation of Afrin, Turkey brought in tens of thousands of militants and terrorists and their families who rejected settlements with the regime in the countryside of Damascus, Homs, Hama and Aleppo and gathered them in Afrin.  And I settled them in the homes of the displaced Kurds, to change the demographics of the region and obliterate its Kurdish national identity on the one hand, and turn it into a hotbed for terrorists and extremists on the other.”

 "Not a day passes without armed fighting between mercenaries taking place in Afrin, in addition to the kidnapping of dozens of civilians for ransom, in addition to armed robbery, torture and murder, all under the direct supervision of Turkish intelligence," Na'so noted.

 He stressed, "Turkey has turned these militants into paid mercenaries to serve its agendas, as it plunged them into the war in Libya, Nagorno-Karabakh, and now Ukraine, which prompted Russia to use the Syrian factions close to the regime to use them as mercenaries in its war against the Ukrainians."

 The necessity of exposing Turkish crimes

 Lawyer and member of the Administrative Committee of the Kurdish Legal Commission in Europe, Hussein  Naaso, stressed the need to continue the human rights endeavor to expose and expose the crimes of the Turkish occupation, before international human rights organizations and institutions, particularly the International Commission of Inquiry on Syria and the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and to provide it with all files and evidence of  Crimes committed in Afrin and facilitate their access to live testimonies.

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ANHA