A study documents the extent of Turkish humanitarian violations against the Yazidis and other residents of Afrin

A study on the violations of the Turkish occupation in the occupied city of Afrin documented and analyzed the testimonies of 40 victims from the city’s residents, including 10 cases that occurred against Yazidis, 5 years after the region came under the control of the Turkish occupation army along with the opposition armed factions under its banner.

Among the testimonies included in the report prepared by the “Syrians for Truth and Justice” organization during the months of March/April/May of 2023 were testimonies from Yazidi survivors and victims distributed among a group of villages, one of which was the “Pavilion” village, which was completely seized by the “al-Jabha al-Shamiya” faction.

The report also documented seizures of homes, olive groves, and shops, some of which were converted into military headquarters or bases, while some were populated by families of faction fighters and displaced people from northern Syria.

Violations included converting revenues from seized fields, orchards, and homes into sources of income for the factions

While the testimonies confirmed the occurrence of cases of torture after arbitrary arrests, on charges of working within the institutions of the Autonomous Administration that existed in the city before its occupation, they included two testimonies from Yazidi survivors, one of which was of an elderly man who was kidnapped and tortured before being released in exchange for a financial ransom, and the other was of a woman against whom cases occurred. Repeated rape inside a detention center in the city of Azaz, which contained members of the Turkish intelligence service, according to the study.

The armed factions continue to commit many systematic violations in the occupied Afrin region and its countryside since taking control of it in 2018, in light of Turkish silence and complete disregard for all calls made by human rights and international organizations, including the United Nations, which indicates Ankara’s involvement in giving the factions a free hand to commit humanitarian violations in Afrin.

*The Image is from the internet