Turkey stands as the primary instigator of the human rights abuses perpetrated against Kurdish residents of northern Syrian regions under control of the Turkish government and its allied armed factions, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Saturday, in a statement applauding the United States for its resolute actions against Turkish-backed armed groups.
According to the SDF, Turkey has “transformed the occupied areas into a safe haven for terrorist and criminal organisations, including the Islamic State (ISIS).”
The SDF’s statement comes in response to recent sanctions imposed by the US Treasury Department on two Turkish-backed armed factions and their leaders. These sanctions were a direct response to severe human rights abuses committed against Kurdish residents in the Afrin (Efrîn) region of northern Syria.
In their statement, the security forces of the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) lauded the United States for its designation against the Suleiman Shah Brigade and the Hamza Division. The SDF further expressed confidence in the capabilities of American institutions to improve methods of holding these extremist groups accountable and efficiently tracking their operations.
However, the SDF also emphasised that the reported acts perpetrated against the local populace were not isolated incidents but were part of a systematic and strategic campaign orchestrated under the auspices of Turkey.
The SDF asserted that Turkey has spared no effort in furnishing these extremist groups with the necessary resources and support to execute activities such as demographic manipulation, forced displacement, abduction, sexual abuse, and property theft. Moreover, the Kurdish-led forces accused Turkey of attempting to establish an international legal framework that conceals these acts, which is defined as terrorism in the statement.
The statement concludes with an urgent call to relevant international organisations to confront the Turkish government itself and ensure that those responsible for such crimes are held accountable. The SDF advocates for a robust response that addresses the underlying factors that seeks to dismantle the environment that allows the sanctioned acts to persist.
