The People’s Council of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiya released a statement regarding the latest situation in the two neighborhoods which have been under attack for four days.
The statement on Friday includes the following:
“Since January 6, our neighborhoods have been under heavy artillery and heavy bombardment. Mosques, schools, mosques, civilian homes and service institutions have been completely targeted in these attacks.
Our people and our security forces are putting up great resistance to these attacks.
These attacks are aimed at starting a massacre and a new wave of migration against our people in these neighborhoods, who have lived and are residents of these neighborhoods for hundreds of years. In other words, the demography of our city and neighborhoods is intended to be changed. Also, these attacks in every way mean the invalidation of the April 1 agreement and a violation of the agreement.
The interim government in Damascus is carrying out these attacks under the name of the new Syrian Army and with the support of the Turkish state and its affiliated gangs, and is emboldened by this. We also strongly condemn the silence of the international powers that were present as guarantors and observers for the March 10 and April 1 agreements.
The attacks and the threat of massacre against our people in Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiya continue to this day.
The call that the forces of the interim government in Damascus are making to the people and our security forces is an imposition of surrender, but our people in these neighborhoods are determined to stay in their neighborhoods and defend their neighborhoods.
In the current situation, massacres are being committed against civilians where the gangs have advanced. In other words, the same acts and massacres that were committed against the Alawites and Druze are also being carried out in our neighborhoods.
Everyone knows that there are hundreds of thousands of civilians in these neighborhoods and that dozens of our people have been injured as a result of the heavy shelling against civilians. Many of those injured are women and children. Our neighborhood police officer named Khalid Fejir, who already had very limited resources, was attacked and severely bombed. This constitutes a war crime. In the current situation, the police officer is completely out of service. There are no longer any opportunities for the wounded to be treated in our neighborhoods. There is a serious humanitarian crisis. As the public knows, our neighborhoods have been under siege for a long time and humanitarian supplies have been prevented from entering the neighborhood. In addition, the winter situation makes the current situation even more difficult.
As a result, the forces of the interim government and their gangs are calling for surrender in our neighborhoods and want the people to leave these neighborhoods. The surrender of our security forces is also demanded.
As the leadership of the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiya councils, we do not accept pressure on our people and our neighborhoods. Due to the actions of the Damascus government against the various components and diversity of Syria since it came to power, and especially the indiscriminate bombings and massacres against our people in the past few days, we do not believe that we can hand over our security and our neighborhoods to them. For this reason, it is impossible for us to take a step back in securing the security of our neighborhoods. We have decided to stay in our neighborhoods and protect our neighborhoods.
Finally, we call on our people in Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiya to turn to Mustafa Khalid Fajir to take care of their wounded and mobilize to protect their neighborhoods.”