Names different but crimes are same... Turkey, ISIS, and Nawaf al-Bashir's mercenaries

Martyrdom is a sacred value for all human groups, regardless of their ideas, religions and nationalities. On the other hand, the martyrs and their shrines are a target for all groups hostile to human values.

In Syria and Iraq, many martyrs' shrines and religious shrines have been desecrated by mercenary groups supported by the Turkish occupation state and the Damascus government.

Over the years, ANHA agency and human rights organizations have documented hundreds of crimes committed by the Turkish occupation state and its mercenary groups, including ISIS.

After the Turkish occupation of Afrin Canton, the shrines of the martyrs were destroyed in Janders district of Shra district, and the shrine of the martyr Avesta, which was established prior to the Turkish occupation of the Canton on March 18, 2018.

The Turkish occupation state and the mercenary groups dug up the graves in the shrine of the martyr Avesta and turned it into a livestock market, in a deliberate move to desecrate the values of the Kurdish people.

The Turkish occupation state also destroyed the shrine of the martyrs in the occupied Serêkaniyê region in August 2020, and turned it into a military headquarters.

The tombstone of the mother of a Kurdish poet was destroyed in the village of Mamala in Rajo district, just because Kurdish phrases were written on it.

Destroying cemeteries and shrines

In August 2018, the mercenaries destroyed the tombstones of Nuri Dersmi and his wife, in the Hanan cemetery in Shra district.

In Janders district of Afrin Canton, the mercenaries destroyed the cemetery of the village of Qurbê, in addition to bulldozing the graves of civilians in the village of Kafr Safra, and bombing the shrine of "Abdul Rahman Ibn Auf" in the village of Kani Kawarki.

As for the shrines belonging to the Yazidi community, the number of shrines destroyed by the Turkish occupation state and the mercenary groups in occupied Afrin reached 9 shrines in 2020, according to the Yazidi activist Suleyman Jaafar.

Destroyed Yazidi shrines

The destroyed shrines are: the shrine of Sheikh Barakat on the top of Mount Sheikh Barakat, south of Semaan Castle, the shrine of Sheikh Hamid, the shrine of Parsa Khatoun in the village of Qastal Jendo, the shrine of Sinka village, the shrine of Qara Jarna near Maydanki in the district of Shra, and the shrine of Malak Adi in the village of Qibar in the city of Afrin, the shrine of Sheikh Junaid in the village of Faqira in the district of Jandersah, the shrine of Sheikh Rekab in the village of Shaderi in Sherawa, and finally the shrine of Sheikh Ali in the village of Basofan in the district of Sherawa.

In mid-September 2014, ISIS blew up a number of shrines for Sufi sheikhs, in the countryside of Deir ez-Zor.

The targeted shrines are: "Ain Ali", located in the countryside of the town of al-Quria in Deir ez-Zor, the shrine of "Sheikh Anas", the shrine of "Sheikh al-Shibli" and the shrine of Sheikh Mahmoud al-Antaky, in the city of al-Mayadeen, which was occupied by ISIS, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

In January 2015, the Secretary-General of Shiite shrines in Iraq that year, Abbas Al-Saadi, stated that ISIS mercenaries destroyed 17 Shiite shrines, including 4 shrines in Nineveh Governorate, in the north of the country.

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ANHA