Şexo: Afrin was made a pilot site of genocide

The Kurdish population in Afrin has been reduced from 95-96 per cent to 15-25 per cent as a result of the invaders’ systematic ethnic cleansing and demographic change policies over the last four years of occupation. While the Turkish state carried out atrocities as part of the invasion attack that began on 20 January 2018, it began to escalate its massacres of civilians on 15 March. It was in order to avoid further massacres that the Afrin Democratic Autonomous Administration evacuated the city, under attack by the Turkish state. Due to the occupation and atrocities, 300,000 Afrin residents were forced to evacuate the city between 16 and 18 March.

The Turkish state’s attacks against Afrin citizens who remained in the city as well as against those who migrated to Shehba are still going on. While the Turkish state and its mercenaries subjected the people of Afrin to terrible crimes including killing, plunder, torture, kidnapping, and rape, the residents of Afrin who migrated to Shehba were bombarded almost every day.

676 CIVILIANS WERE KILLED

According to the Syrian Afrin Human Rights Organization, the invaders have murdered 676 Afrin citizens since the assault attacks began on 20 January 2018. Of these, 501 were murdered as a result of the bombardments, while 92 Afrin residents were tortured to death. More than 700 people have been injured by the invaders’ bombings and torture since the occupation began, including 303 children and 210 women.

A FEMICIDE CENTRE HAS BEEN CREATED

Afrin, which was the city of ‘firsts’ in terms of women’s liberation and institutionalization, has been turned into a centre of violence against women. Under the Turkish state’s support, Afrin women are subjected to harassment, rape, kidnapping, and forced marriage by “National Army” (SMO) gangs.

84 WOMEN WERE MURDERED

While pregnant women died in Afrin prisons as a result of MIT and gang torture, it was recorded by human rights organizations that at least 84 women were murdered by the invaders. According to Afrin Human Rights Association figures, six of these women died as a result of the invaders’ sexual attacks.

THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE HAVE BEEN ABDUCTED

The invaders have kidnapped, tortured, detained, or murdered at least 8,328 persons in Afrin since 20 January 2018. While the fate of 35% of those abducted is still unknown, it has been proven that at least 1,000 of those abducted were women.

As the Turkish occupation of Afrin approaches its fifth year, the city’s Kurdish population has decreased to 15-25 per cent in the 1995-1996 period. Around 400-500 thousand migrants were brought from other countries to reside in Afrin. They were placed in the homes of people who had to migrate within the city, in tens of tent camps set up in the city, and in camps.

With a population of nearly one million people, including 400 thousand refugees prior to the occupation, in Afrin, the centre of freedom of peoples, women, and beliefs, instead of democratic administration and institutions, the Turkish state’s tyrannical military administration, women’s murder, and genocide institutions have been built.

Syrian Afrin Human Rights Organization spokesperson Ibrahim Şêxo told ANF about the Turkish state’s and its mercenaries’ occupation tactics.

‘CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY’

Pointing out that the Turkish state has carried out the invasion of Afrin by committing murders and crimes against humanity, the spokesperson of Afrin Human Rights in Syria İbrahim Şexo said: “We, the people of Afrin, put up a great struggle for 58 days. Civilian massacres occurred during Turkey’s invasion attack, which began on 20 January 2018. They used excessive force. Afrin was assaulted by 72 planes, tens of tanks, 25,000 gangs, and thousands of army. In some cases, they also employed chemical gas. However, in the latter days of the occupation, they committed mostly civilian atrocities. People had congregated in the city centre. Because the Turkish state deliberately and purposefully targets civilians, the autonomous government has chosen to evacuate the residents from the city. Afrin’s population of 300,000 people had to flee the city. The fact that so many people had to leave the town as a result of the atrocities and occupation was already the first leg of the Turkish state’s demographic transformation plan.” 

THE FATE OF 35 PERCENT OF ABDUCTEES ARE STILL UNKNOWN

Ibrahim Şêxo said that “fate of the 8,328 people abducted in Afrin throughout the occupation process that has lasted four years is still unknown and stated: Their families had no idea what happened to them. The kidnapped people are tortured. Some are left in return for monetary compensation. Then, for money, they are abducted again by other parties. This year, some people who were seized by the invaders and never heard from again called their relatives. There was no information about them until this year. After many years, gangs finally agreed to allow them to call their families for a minute in exchange for money. Many women who were kidnapped by invaders were imprisoned with their children and tortured. In the ninth month of 2021, for example, the invaders arrested and tortured a woman named Arin Dilê Hesên. They tortured and murdered their unborn child in early 2022. She was released in the year 2022. Due to an explosion in Afrin in 2021, they accused a woman named Nimet Şêxo, who was from the village of Dimiliya. They tortured her to death in the Afrin prison.”

A PILOT SITE FOR GENOCIDE

According to Şêxo, the Turkish state’s full takeover of Afrin on 18 March 2018, and the atrocities committed in the city over the last four years are far more terrible than in areas such as Jarablus, WEU, Idlib, and even Serêkaniyê and Girê Spi. Expressing that before the invasion, at least 95-96 per cent of Afrin was Kurdish, the Turkish state put into effect systematic special policies that were not found anywhere else in the city, İbrahim Şêxo said, “A policy of ethnic cleansing and demographic change against Kurds has been carried out in Afrin for 4 years.”.

Şexo continued: “In the Syrian topography, only Afrin had such demography. In none of Rojava’s cities did this many Kurds coexist; they did not constitute 90 per cent of the population. Following a law enacted during the dictatorship in 1963, 3% of the Arab region was allocated to the region. In 1979, they were transferred to Afrin. They took away the Kurdish people’s lands. They moved here very often, especially because Cindirês has fertile soil, and Arabs settled in the swamps. However, little demographic change occurred during the regime’s reign. The Arabs who settled in the area assimilated into the city’s cultural fabric and lived side by side in harmony with the Kurds and other locals. While conducting the invasion attack, the Turkish authorities sought to ethnically cleanse the Kurds and change the demographics of the city. They declared Afrin to be a national security issue. However, no bullets were fired from Afrin to Turkey. In fact, the reason they reacted so ruthlessly against Afrin is that they do not accept Kurds and insist on Kurdish genocide in all of Kurdistan, just as they did in Turkey.”

‘AT LEAST 70% ARAB AND TURKMENS ARE RELOCATED’

Ibrahim Şexo mentioned the difficulties in obtaining precise and unambiguous information from Afrin, noting that the Kurdish population in the city has decreased by 25 to 15%, based on the information acquired.

Stating that after the 4-year occupation process, more than 70 per cent of the city’s population has been converted to Arabs and Turkmens, Şêxo said: “Due to the invading attacks and massacres, 300,000 people fled before the invasion began. Some of them couldn’t stand leaving the city, their memories, and their land, so they returned. Those who couldn’t take it any longer and return to their homelands had to leave the city because of the invaders’ systematic murder, torture, rape, kidnapping policies. According to information we got, 450 thousand Arabs and Turkmens from various places like Syria’s Damascus, Aleppo, Idlib, Dera, Hama, and other cities, were taken to Afrin and placed in Kurdish houses, tents, and briquette camps.”

‘BEING A KURD IN AFRIN IS A CRIME’

Noting that the Kurds residing in Afrin were subjected to torture, massacre, and plunder by the invaders after the occupation, they were unable to conduct any protest action, Şexo continued as follows: In Jarablus and Bab, we occasionally see actions against the invaders. This is not the case in Afrin. There were barely intermittent actions at the start. These were created by the city’s Arab residents. However, the Kurds are unable to speak out. Because the invaders consider being Kurdish to be a crime. Autonomous administration was its own administration that was adopted by the entire population. Today, the occupiers consider employment in any self-government institution to be a ‘terrorist act’. They kidnap people, take their money, torture them, and imprison them in prisons by saying, ‘You work with the Autonomous Administration, with the PKK,’ whether they work in the Autonomous Administration or not. Therefore Kurds cannot speak up and are forced to leave the city.”

‘THERE IS A MILITARY GOVERNMENT INSTEAD OF A CIVIL ONE’

Ibrahim Şexo underlined that the so-called ‘civil assembly’ set up by the Turkish state in Antep on the day Afrin was occupied, under the authority of MIT, and the ‘Afrin Local Assembly’ in April 2018, had no involvement in Afrin administration.

Pointing out that Afrin is being managed by Turkey, especially by MİT and the army, Şêxo shared the following details regarding the occupation management and inhumane order in Afrin: “The Turkish intelligence service is the most active institution in Afrin. They established two occupying police formations: military and civilian. The invading formation, known as the ‘Military Police,’ was formed in accordance with the terms of the war and had specific apabilities. Those admitted to this institution are also chosen from gangs. Afrin is divided into about 50 gang groups.

Afrin was assigned to the Governorate of Hatay. Actually, the MIT governs Hatay’s governor. The Governor of Hatay visits the city twice a week.

It is located in the heart of Afrin. This governor issued commands to all armed groups and so-called local councils. They also set up an occupation court. MIT and Turkey control the courts, military discipline, interrogation rooms, and prisons. International reports have reported several things. It has also been established that Turkish intelligence directly interrogated and tortured the people of Afrin. ”

‘THEY DO NOT ACCEPT COLLABORATIVE KURDS’

Ibrahim Şêxo stated that the local councils in question were composed of settler Arabs, Turkmens and some Kurds from ENKS. “However, because Afrin is recognized as a Kurdish city, they aim to portray these councils as largely Kurdish. They force them to speak in front of the press. However, it is governed by MIT. Consider that there is also a threat to the Kurds who are members of those assemblies and work with them. They had previously been arrested. However, the number of arrests climbed in 2022. Because the Turkish government will not accept anything regarding Kurds. ENKS announced its participation in the invasion attack with four gang groups, but it was unable to create an office in Afrin in the four years since the Turkish invasion. Independent Syrian Kurds Association, founded by Abdulaziz Temo, who claims to operate on behalf of the Kurds in Afrin, established an office in Afrin in 2018. They are those who have worked with the Turkish government from its inception. They serve the Turkish state’s policy of Kurdish genocide in Afrin.

There is also the so-called ‘Afrin Civil Council’, which was formed at an MIT-controlled conference in Antep on the day Afrin was entirely occupied. They’ve all already left Afrin. Only a few members of this parliament have travelled to Afrin. In short, Turkey used them against the Kurds but refuses to accept them, no matter how much they use them. They have no say in the process.”

‘THE EDUCATION LANGUAGE IS TURKISH AND ARABIC’

Noting that there has been no Kurdish education in Afrin for four years and that the occupants have made Arabic and Turkish the language of instruction, Ibrahim Şêxo stated: “They do not state that Kurdish is forbidden. But the Kurds are subjected to such torment that no one could declare, ‘I will send my child to school in Kurdish.’ Because both their child and themselves would be tortured. Invaders spread lies claiming that education in Kurdish is available in Afrin. This, however, is a lie. The exams are also entirely in Turkish and Arabic. The school names were made in Turkish and Arabic. In truth, if they could, they would not take Arabic; they would complete all of their education in Turkish, but they are unable to do so because the majority of people settled in Afrin are Arabs. They are still attempting to promote Turkish education. They bring them to Turkey, where they train Turkish teachers and start courses. In fact, the Turkish flag was hung on schools. There are Erdogan posters everywhere. Education is governed by the Turkish Ministry of Education’s curriculum. Families leaving Afrin are making their way to Shehba. Imagine you have a child who is 2-3 years old when the occupation begins; then he comes to Shehba at the age of 6-7, but he forgets Kurdish. He always talks about the Qur’an.

‘THE FEMALE TEACHER TORTURED AND FIRED BECAUSE HER HEAD WAS NOT COVERED’

Noting that the invaders tortured and expelled 65 teachers in Afrin over a four-year period, saying that “you were working with the autonomous administration,” Ibrahim Şêxo went on to explain: “There was a female teacher in Mabata. She was not wearing a hijab and was Kurdish. She was a member of the invading forces’ ‘Mabata Local Council.’ They threatened her merely because her head was uncovered. This occurred in the year 2020. Another female teacher was tortured in Afrin because her head was not covered. They were fired.

People who saw these events began refusing to send their children to school. Children who attend these schools and Quran courses founded by the invaders, on the other hand, is a place for assimilation. As they moved away from Kurdishness, they grew up with an Ikhwanist religious understanding.”

‘AFRIN HAS BEEN TRANSFORMED INTO AN ISIS CENTER’

Ibrahim Şêxo said that the Turkish state has not only turned Afrin into a Kurdish genocide centre, but also a centre of terrorism and radicalization.

Şêxo said: “The Turkish state and more than 50 gang groups are doing all kinds of torture in Afrin. They are also trying to form a gang against people’s children. However, ISIS members are present in various gang organizations as well as in Afrin. For example, 15  days ago, 25 ISIS members escaping Baxoz travelled from Turkey to Idlib, and then to Cindires, carrying the Ehrar El Arqiye banner. Turkey uses them against the Kurds and dispatches them to a variety of locations from Afrin. Libya, Azerbaijan, and so on. They dispatched these gangs to various locations.”

Stating that the Turkish state uses these ISIS members and ISIS derivatives for the ethnic, religious assimilation and forming of gangs of Kurdish children in Afrin, Şexo said that “a lot of training is given by jihadists under the name of ‘Cause’. These are the remnants of ISIS, Al Nusra. Many of them were former ISIS gang leaders. Young children are especially educated under the name of ‘Sufism’ and ‘religion’. They talk about Salafi-jihadi Islam by dressing them in religious clothes. They want children to grow up like that. They built training places in homes and mosques. They established a mosque in each village. In some villages, there were two mosques. Turkish foundations and the Muslim Brotherhood are sending aid from outside for the establishment of these training places and mosques. Palestinian organizations also set up camps consisting of briquette houses in Afrin. There are over 18 such camps in Afrin. And in these camps, there are mosques, schools and military headquarters. Some of them are newly established.”