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Turkey’s aerial operation against Syrian Kurdish-held territory further threatens religious minorities in the region, United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) cited Commander Frank Wolf as saying as they published a report on religious freedom in Syria.
“USCIRF is deeply troubled by Turkey’s recent military escalation in northern Syria which threatens the existence of religious minorities already decimated by years of attacks from Turkey & ISIS,” Commander Wolf said.
The USCIRF recommended in their report that the US government designate Syria as a country of particular concern, or CPC, for “engaging in and tolerating systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom”.
The religious freedom watchdog also called on Washington to also “exert pressure on Turkey to withdraw from all territory that it occupies as a result of cross-border operations into north and east Syria”.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a Turkey-backed al Qaeda offshoot, “restricts the religious freedom of non-conforming Sunni Muslims and threatens the property, safety, and existence of religious minority groups”, USCIRF said.
“HTS’s cultivation of a mutually and politically expedient relationship with Turkey—which itself represents a distinct threat to vulnerable religious minority groups via its military incursions in northern Syria—compounds the perilous religious
freedom conditions in and near Idlib,” the group continued.
“HTS forces continue to harass religious minorities and prevent them from the free practice of their religion”, USCIRF said, adding that the group forced conversion to Sunni Islam and banned visible Christian worship.
HTS’s authoritarian and ideologically driven governance “puts northwest Syria’s religiously diverse population at continued risk”, USCIRF said. “For some of these religious communities, challenges to freedom of religion or belief amount to threats to their very existence.”
Nadine Maenza, former chair of USCIRF and current president of IRF Secretariat also drew attention to Turkey’s planned incursion into North and East Syria and the effect it will have on the religious and ethnic minorities in the region.
If #Turkey takes planned 30-km (20-mile) deep “safe zone,”it will include most of the religious & ethnic minorities in NE #Syria per @RojavaIC map.#Syriac–#Assyrian #Christians, #Yazidis & #Kurds were victims of horrific crimes in past invasions & will be again if not stopped. pic.twitter.com/RqScSLu1OH
— Nadine Maenza (@nadinemaenza) November 30, 2022
The 30 km deep safe Turkey plans to establish along its border with Syria will include most of the religious and ethnic minorities in Syria, Maenza said. “Syriac-Assyrian Christians, Yazidis & Kurds were victims of horrific crimes in past invasions & will be again if not stopped.”
Turkey launched an aerial campaign into northern Syria, dubbed Operation Claw-Sword, on 19 November.
The HTS was formed in 2017 and is among the groups Turkey authorised to control swathes of northwestern Syria, and Idlib province in particular, since 2018.
