A Kurdish bar association in Turkey has filed a complaint to the United Nations and the International Criminal Court (ICC), calling for accountability over alleged war crimes committed by Islamist group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in northwest Syria.
The Human Rights Centre of the Diyarbakır Bar Association, based in the Kurdish-majority southeastern province of Diyarbakır (Amed), submitted the applications on Friday, urging both bodies to launch investigations into what it describes as widespread and systematic attacks against civilians—particularly members of the Alawite minority and other ethnic and religious groups—across areas controlled by HTS.
HTS is a former al-Qaeda affiliate that has established a de facto administration in parts of Syria’s northwest following the collapse of the Assad regime in December 2024. In the absence of a functioning national government, paramilitary groups such as HTS and the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) have expanded their control over contested regions.
The submission to the ICC included documentation of alleged abuses such as the destruction of cultural and religious sites, the targeting of schools and hospitals, and the use of drones and heavy weapons against civilian infrastructure. The Bar Association cited reports from human rights organisations and testimonies from local journalists and witnesses, suggesting the violence could amount to crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.
The group urged the ICC Prosecutor to open a formal investigation and issue international arrest warrants for those involved. It also called on the United Nations Security Council to facilitate the referral process, given that Syria is not a state party to the Rome Statute, the ICC’s founding treaty.
Among the centre’s requests were the creation of humanitarian corridors, the deployment of international observers, and the establishment of safe zones for civilians. It also called for diplomatic and economic sanctions against groups found responsible for the attacks.
Speaking to Mezopotamya Agency’s Rukiye Payiz Adıgüzel on Saturday, Baver Mızrak, the Coordinator of the Diyarbakır Bar Association’s Human Rights Centre, said that thousands had been killed and many more displaced since a new wave of attacks began on 6 March. He described the situation as a “major humanitarian crisis”, noting that access to basic necessities had been severely restricted and that a humanitarian aid convoy from North and East Syria had recently been blocked.
Mızrak also commented on Turkey’s role, saying Ankara had neither condemned the violence nor supported efforts to hold those responsible to account. While he stopped short of alleging direct involvement, Mızrak said Turkey’s longstanding support for opposition groups in Syria, including the SNA, had helped create the conditions for the current situation.
“There has been no meaningful international response to the massacres carried out by HTS and affiliated jihadist groups,” he said. “We are pursuing every possible avenue to ensure that these crimes are recognised and prosecuted on an international level.”
He added that the Diyarbakır Bar Association would continue lobbying the Council of Europe and other UN human rights mechanisms to expand international pressure and oversight.
The recent massacres of over 1,000 people—mostly Alawite civilians—in Syria’s coastal regions have been linked to the Amsha and Hamzat divisions of the Turkey-backed SNA, both of which have a documented history of atrocities, including in Afrin (Efrin). These attacks, described as some of the worst violence since the Syrian civil war began, involved mass shootings, village burnings, and the execution of wounded fighters.
Foza Yusif of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) condemned the atrocities, comparing them to past genocidal campaigns against Yazidis in Sinjar (Şengal), and warned of a coordinated effort to destabilise Kurdish-Arab unity. She stated that a humanitarian delegation sent by the AANES found villages destroyed and signs of mass killings, calling for urgent international action to protect civilians and hold perpetrators accountable.
