"Turkey violates international conventions and commits war crimes and genocide in NE Syria"

In the presence of dozens of lawyers and judges, the Lawyers Union and the Social Justice Council in the Al-Jazira Canton made a joint statement regarding the Turkish occupation state's targeting of civilian and infrastructure of the NE Syria.

The statement was read in the city of Qamishlo in Arabic by Khaled Omar, member of the Al-Jazira Canton Lawyers Union, and in Kurdish it was read by the co-chair of the Social Justice Council in the Canton, Walaa Abd al-Baqi. In the city of Hasaka, in Arabic by the co-chair of the Lawyers Union in North and East Syria, lawyer Bashira Jamal al-Din, and in Kurdish by the judge of the People's Court in the city of Hasaka, Rody Kurdi.

The text of the statement reads:

"Despite the departure of the head of the authoritarian regime in Syria, and the absence of any justification for the continuation of military actions there, the Turkish state, through its mercenaries, continues to launch attacks on the Tishreen Dam, the Qaraqsaq Bridge, the countryside of Tal Tamr and other areas.

These targets of the Turkish state are not the result of recent circumstances and events, but that Turkey, from the beginning of the Syrian revolution, has targeted the peoples of the region, its geography and its democratic project. And it is no secret to anyone the unlimited support provided by the Turkish state to the terrorist organization ISIS, and its occupation of parts of Syria and changing the demographics of those parts, in addition to the factions affiliated with it committing the most heinous crimes and violations against the people, geography and environment of those areas.

The continuation of the Turkish state itself and through its mercenaries in launching attacks on NE Syria constitutes the crime of aggression in accordance with Article 1 of the Charter of the United Nations of 1945 and is punishable under international criminal law in accordance with Article 8 bis of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court of 1998. 

Its targeting of civilians in particular, constitutes a war crime in accordance with Article 8 of the Rome Statute, in addition to the possibility of the collapse of the dam and the resulting disasters that will also constitute the crime of genocide according to Article 6 of the Rome Statute, where civilians continue to lose their lives as a result of being targeted with various types of Turkish weapons. 

In general, the Turkish state's violations of international law against the peoples and geography of the region constitute grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, and that these violations are also war crimes in accordance with Article 8 of the Rome Statute.

The United Nations should have sent a fact-finding committee to our regions, As well as the International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, especially after the fall of the Assad regime, and the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court should start its work on Turkey's crimes, and because the Turkish state's violations of international law constitute a threat to international peace and security, the UN Security Council should have acted under Chapter VII of the 1945 Charter of the United Nations.

The violations of the Turkish state, if they continue, may create the appropriate environment for the revival of the terrorist organization ISIS, which makes it imperative for the United States of America and the rest of the countries of the international coalition to combat terrorism, to put an end to Turkey's violations against our regions.

The United States of America and the Russian Federation are the guarantors of the 2019 ceasefire agreements between the Syrian Democratic Forces and the Turkish state, and therefore America and Russia have the guarantor obligations, but their positions never rise to the level of what happining.

We, the lawyers and judges of the Al-Jazira Canton, appeal to the relevant international bodies to move quickly to put an end to the crimes of the Turkish state against our regions and hold them accountable for their crimes, and that we will interpret the international silence on these crimes as participation with Turkey in committing them." 

Sh-S

ANHA