The Human Rights Organisation-Afrin-Syria (HRO-A), in cooperation with the Syrian Democratic Council (MSD), organised a forum in Shahba on 10 May to discuss the crimes committed by Turkey and Turkish backed forces in Afrin.
Prominent politicians and human rights advocates from Syria and other countries attended the International Afrin Forum, according to Hawar News Agency (ANHA).
The forum aims to convey the voice of Afrin’s internally displaced people (IDPs) in Shahba Canton to the international arenas and relevant human and legal rights foundations and associations, Ibrahim Sheikho, spokesperson for the HRO-A, said.
Turkey’s aim is not only to destroy the Democratic Union Party’s (PYD) forces but to change the demographics of the region, the Commander-in-Chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Mazlum Abdi said in the forum.
Abdi called for resistance against what he called Turkey’s occupation.
He added that Turkey cannot legalise its attacks because it commits war crimes and human rights abuses and so, called on the Syrian people that they “should not remain silent about what Turkey is doing in their country carrying out destruction, devastation, killing and extermination.”
The latest situation in Afrin is reminiscent of the Armenian genocide, which resulted in the death of some 1.5 million Ottoman Armenians in 1915, Arief Kasabian, the administrator of the Armenian Community Council in al-Hasakah said.
The participants from Syria and abroad confirmed that Turkey is one of the most dangerous countries that interfered in Syrian internal affairs, the Secretary-General of the Syrian National Democratic Alliance Party, Ahmed al-Araj, told ANHA.