Turkish-backed militia detains, tortures disabled civilian in north Syria

RAS AL-AIN (Kurdistan 24) – A Syrian Kurdish disabled young man has been abducted and tortured by radical Turkish-backed armed groups in Syria’s northeastern town of Ras al-Ain (Serekaniye in Kurdish), his mother said on Friday while calling upon human rights organizations to help in the effort to secure his release.

Mahmoud Hassan Omari, a 25-year-old man with cerebral palsy, was detained and severely beaten by a group of Turkish-backed militants while he and his mother were returning to their home in Ras al-Ain last month, his mother told Kurdistan 24.

When Mahmoud was abducted, his family, who are displaced from the city of Qamishli, at first refused to tell his story to the media out of fear that it could potentially result in him being treated even worse. However, after a month of desperation at failed attempts to communicate and negotiate with the Turkish-backed groups that are ruling Ras al-Ain, they have finally decided they had no option left but to speak publicly.

“Once we arrived at our house, a patrol of four men from the Turkish-backed militias came toward us and prevented us from entering our house, saying it was emptied and no longer ours,” Mahmoud’s mother said.

“But my son, who is sick and exhausted, insisted that he would go in the house and was then detained just as he was speaking.”  

“They beat my disabled son in front of my eyes. It was so severe that he could not move and then they took his half-dead body and left in a car,” the bereaved mother said, in tears.

She added that some of her Arab neighbors who stayed in the town witnessed the detention of her son and shouted at the militants, telling them that he was sick and disabled, but their efforts were in vain.

After the initial beating and abduction following being blocked from entering her family's house, the mother stayed for two weeks within the town at a neighbor’s residence.

“I headed to the points and bases of the militants in the town, asking about my son, but nobody cared about him or his critical situation,” she said.

Additionally, a doctor who has been treating Mahmoud for the past 20 years spoke to Kurdistan 24 about his patient, saying he would be in serious danger if left without medical attention. He added that, even if Mahmoud received basic medical care, such mistreatment would undoubtedly have a significant negative impact on his health.  

“Even if he receives medication but continues to remain in prison, living under fear, hunger, and torture, then the medication will not be effective,” the doctor explained.

Meanwhile, Mahmoud’s father said that he has contacted several community leaders from the local Arab population who have remained in the town and they have confirmed that the young man was still in detention.

According to information from the leaders, his son is kept in Ras al-Ain with a group known as Hamzat affiliated to the Turkish-backed militia with the misleading name, the Syrian National Army (SNA). It is openly and directly supported by Anjara as part of its offensive against the border towns of Ras al-Ain and Tal Abyad, causing large numbers of residents to seek shelter in displacement camps with inadequate services. 

Read More: Syrian Kurds say aid for those displaced by Turkish attack 'not enough'

Since the Turkish cross-border invasion on Ras al-Ain began in October, scores of violations against local civilians have been consistently and credibly reported by residents and observers. Moreover, many who have attempted to return to their towns under Turkish control faced brutality, arrest, and torture, especially members of the Kurdish population.

Turkey launched its so-called “Peace Spring” Operation on Oct. 9, causing the displacement of hundreds of thousands and the death of at least dozens of civilians.  

The campaign was put on hold after the US and Russia struck separate deals with Erdogan to allow the withdrawal of Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) from a planned buffer zone Ankara refers to as a “safe zone.”  

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has recently said that Ankara aims to resettle up to one million Syrian refugees in the buffer zone now under its control, many of them from other parts of the country.  

Local Kurdish populations and multiple international observers see this as an intentional effort by Turkey to ethnically cleanse Kurds from areas along its borders. The United Nations has said there are strong indications that Turkish and Turkish-backed forces have already enacted such a campaign of forced demographic change in the Kurdish-majority city of Afrin.