The Kurdish-led autonomous administration in northern Syria on Saturday called on the international community to impose targeted and severe sanctions against Turkish officials in response to Turkey’s ongoing attacks, reports ANF.
Turkey sees the Kurdish armed groups in Syria as a threat to its national security and has ramped up the shelling of Kurdish-controlled territories since November, claiming that Kurdish groups in northwest Syria orchestrated the deadly blast in İstanbul in that month.
Just before the earthquakes on 6 February that rocked southern Turkey and northern Syria, Ankara had been planning a ground operation into northwest Syria. The seismic shock that affected a total of 18 million in both countries did not deter the Turkish armed forces, which nevertheless launched 18 ground attacks and two air strikes against the region, exacerbating the already existing humanitarian aid crisis in the war-torn country.
“Ankara has been allowed to get away with far too much all these years,” said Bêrîvan Xalid, the co-chair of the autonomous administration’s executive council.
“It is therefore hardly surprising that there is no outcry of indignation from the international community even now,” Xalid said.
Recalling the tens of thousands of deaths, thousands of injured and tremendous destruction after the devastating earthquakes of 6 February, Xalid said that such attacks should be considered as barbaric acts.
“We consider it unacceptable that the Erdoğan regime is using the earthquake to continue the war against us and bomb our people,” Xalid said, referring to the Turkish president and his government. “Likewise, it is unacceptable that the world remains silent,” she added.
“The world must finally take action to put an end to this injustice,” she stated, reiterating the autonomous administration’s call for the international community to impose targeted and severe sanctions against Turkish officials.