Outrage against the killing of four people celebrating Kurdish Newroz in the Jindires district in northwest Syria’s Afrin grows with protests in Syria and beyond.
Following mass protests in Afrin and political parties in northern Syria calling on the United Nations to put the Turkey-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) on the terrorism list, dozens of Kurds organised a demonstration in Brussels on Friday, demanding that the European Union intervene in northwest Syria.
“Today we have gathered here to protest Turkish invaders in the Afrin region and the massacre in Jindires. We want to take this to the European Union and its member states so that they can pressure Erdoğan to completely withdraw his army from Syrian Kurdistan, especially Afrin,” a protestor said, referring to the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Meanwhile, 155 Syrian organisations signed a petition condemning the killing of Kurdish people in SNA-controlled Afrin and called on the United Nations to take necessary measures to protect civilians.
“It is not the first time Afrin -occupied by Turkey and its proxies SNA factions since March 2018- has witnessed crimes and human rights violations. Several independent local and international organisations and UN commissions have documented repeated and systematic patterns of human rights violations, such as murder, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, ill-treatment, torture, looting, and property seizure, in addition to forcing the Kurd inhabitants to leave their houses, obstructing the return of the native people and practices of Turkification and demographic changes,” the petitioners said.
The petition called on the United States government and the European Union “to operationalise the sanctions against entities and commanders of the armed Syrian factions involved in committing human rights violations and extend the sanctions to include the rest groups and individuals responsible for the violations in northern Syria, including Turkish officials who effectively run those areas.”
It also called on the International Independent Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic to release a briefing on the human rights situation in northern Syria, particularly in the areas under the effective control of Turkey, including Afrin, Ras al-Ayn/Serê Kaniyê, Tall Abyad, A’zaz, and al-Bab.
Meanwhile, Stefan Schneck, German Envoy to Syria, condemned the attack of SNA militants on people igniting a symbolic fire to celebrate Newroz on Twitter.
“We extend our deepest condolences to the families of the victims and call for an immediate investigation into the actions of Ahrar al-Sharqiya,” Schneck said, referring to the SNA faction responsible for the attack.
“There is no place for violence in celebrations of hope and renewal,” the diplomat said.
