NE Syria entities call on international powers, organizations, and Iraqi authorities

34 parties, political organizations, and civil society groups in NE Syria have issued a joint statement regarding Turkey's ongoing and escalating attacks on NE Syria, as well as on the Mediya defense areas and other regions in S. Kurdistan.

The statement, which was shared with ANHA agency, reads: "Amid various challenges, chaos, and instability affecting the region and its societies and countries, Turkey continues its hostile policies and military attacks against the Kurdish, Arab, Assyrian, and other communities in Iraq and Syria. This aligns with the Milli Pact project and the new Ottoman mentality, in addition to its internal practices in Turkey and its interventions in the internal affairs of neighboring countries."

The Turkish state was founded on massacres and genocides against various peoples and communities, particularly Kurds, Armenians, Arabs, and Assyrians in the last century. It continues to uphold the same supremacist, exclusionary, authoritarian, and chauvinistic mentality, aiming to kill, assimilate, and exclude anyone who demands their legitimate rights, even if peacefully and democratically. It is now marginalizing and imprisoning those who won recent municipal elections in Turkey, using fear tactics against anyone who resists its control over peoples and communities.

Turkey is conducting occupation campaigns and threatening Kurds, Arabs, Assyrians, and other communities in northern Syria, seeking to occupy more of their land, displace native populations, and resettle mercenaries and terrorist families in their place, as seen in Afrin, Serê Kaniyê/Ras al-Ain, and Girê Sipî/Tal Abyad. Turkey now threatens to occupy remaining cities and areas, forcibly displacing populations and altering demographic compositions through various means, including returning refugees to areas other than their original homes under the pretext of normalizing relations with the Damascus government, at the expense of the relative stability in NE Syria. Turkey also seeks to exploit remaining opposition groups and hand them over to the Damascus government.

Similarly, in the Northern Iraq/Kurdistan Region, Turkey has been occupying large areas under false pretenses for years, advancing its agenda to annex these occupied regions to its political borders and implement the Milli Pact project by incorporating Northern Iraq/Kurdistan and Northern Syria into Turkey. Recently, Turkey has launched major attacks, deploying hundreds of tanks and thousands of soldiers and mercenaries from its occupied northern Syrian areas to wage its futile war in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. This has been done with some Kurdish groups’ complicity and coordination with Baghdad at times, and Iraqi government silence at other times.

Turkey continues its attacks on the Kurdistan Region of Iraq by targeting villages, cities, forests, and farms to empty and burn them, threatening and terrorizing civilians to abandon their homes and turn the region into a military zone under the guise of national security and fighting the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). However, these justifications are mere lies. It is known that PKK fighters played a crucial role in fighting ISIS in Syria and Iraq and protected Yazidis from complete genocide, while Turkey was supporting ISIS and al-Qaeda and still does.

As representatives of parties, civil society organizations, academics, politicians, intellectuals, and media professionals from all communities and societies, we reject these systematic attacks. We call on the Baghdad government, the parliament, and Iraqi national forces to assume their humanitarian, ethical, legal, and sovereign responsibilities regarding these violations, inhumane crimes, and environmental destruction. We demand an end to these blatant and ongoing aggressions by Turkey. We urge the international community and relevant institutions to take all necessary measures to prevent these brutal occupation attacks to preserve Iraq’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and protect all its people.

We express our solidarity with the Iraqi people in rejecting Turkey’s actions in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, including arson, displacement, and killing of civilians. We call on the Arab League, all Arab countries, and various national and legal institutions to raise their voices and take action. They should fulfill their responsibilities to stop Turkey’s occupation of northern Iraq and Syria and its interventions in Arab countries, regardless of the pretext. Occupying a country like Iraq, or any country in the region, is an occupation of all countries and the entire region. Similarly, the stability of any country is the stability of all the peoples of the region.

 The statement was signed by 34 parties, political organizations, and civil society groups in the NE Syria region, including:

1. Kurdistan National Congress (KNK)

2. Democratic Union Party (PYD)

3. Democratic Green Party

4. Democratic Peace Party of Kurdistan

5. Kurdistan Liberal Union

6. Kurdish Democratic Party – Syria

7. Syrian Kurdish Democratic Party

8. Leftist Kurdish Party in Syria

9. Democratic Leftist Kurdish Party in Syria

10. Syrian Future Party

11. Democratic Change Party of Kurdistan

12. Kurdistan Renewal Movement

13. Kurdish Union Federation

14. Arab National Body

15. Modernity and Democracy Party for Syria

16. Syrian Kurdish Democratic Reconciliation Party

17. Reform Movement – Syria

18. Assyrian Democratic Party

19. Kurdistan Brotherhood Party

20. Roj Democratic Kurdish Party in Syria

21. Democratic Society Movement

22. Star Conference

23. Conservative Party

24. Democratic Struggle Party

25. Kurdish Future Movement

26. Democratic Party of Kurdistan – Western Kurdistan

27. National Coordination Body – Democratic Change Movement

28. Syriac Union Party

29. National Kurdish Gathering Party

30. Kurdish Democratic Party in Syria (Barzani)

31. Kurdish Democratic Unity Party in Syria (Yekiti)

32. Revolutionary Leftist Movement in Syria

33. Suraya Party

34. Syrian Homeland Party

 A-H

ANHA