Ilham Ehmed, Co-Chair of Foreign Relations for the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, issued a statement on social media regarding the Syrian Transitional Government’s increasingly ongoing attacks on the Kurdish neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyah in Aleppo.
Ehmed stated: “The Syrian Transitional Government’s Ministry of Defense has declared war on the densely populated neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyah. This is a war of annihilation against the Kurdish people, who were also subjected to oppression by the former regime. The vast majority of the neighborhood residents are people who were forcibly displaced from Afrin.”
The statement continued: “These two neighborhoods had already been under a suffocating siege by groups affiliated with the Ministry of Defense for a long time. Although the neighborhood administrations remained committed to the April 1 agreement, the transitional government did not comply with it. We made serious efforts to participate in the negotiations, but the Ministry of Defense refuses to engage in dialogue.”
Ehmed concluded: “We call on government officials to take responsibility for what is happening in the mentioned neighborhoods and to find realistic and lasting solutions to the problems through dialogue, avoiding war and violence. The Syrian people have suffered enough from wars. We call on all Syrians, especially Syrian youths, to reject violence, stand for justice, and renounce war.”
On the other hand, in a statement signed by the “Syrian Arab Army Military Operations Command” and published by the Damascus-based news agency SANA, the SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces) military positions in the mentioned neighborhoods were declared “legitimate military targets.”