According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), Turkey is implicated in serious human rights violations and demographic change in Afrin (Efrîn), Syria, as detailed by Louis Charbonneau, the United Nations director at HRW, in a recent interview.
The Turkish military and its allied Syrian National Army have been accused of displacing Kurds and settling Arabs from other parts of Syria into Afrin. “We are seeing abuses committed not only by the Syrian National Army but also directly by Turkish forces,” Charbonneau stated. This operation appears to be an attempt to alter the demographic makeup of the region, a move condemned by HRW and international observers.
Charbonneau also addressed the broader context of the violence in Syria, which has seen a resurgence since last fall. Despite the global focus on other crises, such as Gaza, the situation in Syria remains dire with ongoing violations against civilians. “Syria is facing a massive upsurge in violence… a very horrific situation for civilians,” he explained.
The discussion further highlighted the treatment of minorities in Iran, particularly after the death of Kurdish-Iranian woman Jina Mahsa Amini at the hands of the country’s ‘morality police’, which sparked nationwide protests. Charbonneau called for international attention and action against the abuse of minorities in Iran, emphasising the need for accountability and justice.
Below is a summary of the interview with Louis Charbonneau:
Escalating violence in Afrin:
“Syria is facing a massive upsurge in violence that we’ve seen since last fall, since September and October. There has been a severe increase in attacks on civilians. Now, the Commission of Inquiry has been in place since 2011, and here we are in 2024, they have documented many violations of international humanitarian law, crimes against humanity, and now they’re saying that the situation is getting worse again.”
ISIS resurgence:
“People are tired, they have spent nearly the last 13 years seeing news about the horrific violence in Syria—chemical weapons attacks, abductions, torture. The fact is, ISIS is still a force in Syria. They are not gone; they may have lost a large piece of Syria and Iraq that they once had, but they have not disappeared. We know that they are still capable of committing acts of horrific violence.”
Impact on civilians:
“Turkish forces are in northern Syria. It’s really a very horrific situation for civilians; often there’s nowhere to go. We’ve seen Syrians being sent back into Syria in an unsafe situation, and there is absolutely no justification for that.”
Crimes carried out directly by Turkish forces:
“The forces of Turkey have been essentially working with the Syrian National Army (SNA). It’s a de facto proxy of the Turkish forces. But it’s not just that the Turkish forces are turning a blind eye to what the SNA and other forces that are aligned with Turkish forces are doing. We are seeing abuses also being committed not only by the SNA but also by Turkish forces. This has been going on for some time. We know that Turkish forces have been enabling the removal of olives and olive products from Afrin where they are famous for their olives, and products using those olives have been sold in Turkey. The explanations that we’ve heard are really not credible. Turkey says If they didn’t do it then revenues would end up in the hands of the PKK. This is pillaging, it’s an unjustified taking of resources that belong to the population.”
Demographic change:
“I don’t know if we would call it systematic, but there have been clear, intentional demographic changes in Afrin. The Turkish forces and the SNA are removing Kurds who are living in these areas and then replacing them with Arabs who were living in other parts of Syria. This is again something that should not be happening. These are people who are from this area; people should be allowed to go home. We’ve also seen Syrians moved out of Turkey and into this area. Turkey had let in large numbers of Syrian refugees, and now, as we know, they are sending many back. They’ve created what they say are “safe zones” in Syria, but they are not safe. They are moving Kurdish families out of particular areas and then moving other people in there, and it is clearly an attempt to change the demographics of the area.”
