European MPs call for investigation into Turkish war crimes in Syria
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Nearly 70 European Parliament (MEPs) lawmakers in a letter posted on Tuesday called on the body’s president David Sassoli to form a delegation of their colleagues to travel to northeastern Syria to investigate allegations of human rights abuses and possible war crimes by Turkish-backed forces described in a new UN report.
Following the report of @UNCoISyria on war crimes in Northern #Syria, 68 MEPs have written a letter to the @EP_President.
— EUTCC (@EUTCC1) October 20, 2020
? call to form a special delegation of elected parliamentarians to travel to the regions of the Autonomous
Administration of North-East Syria (1/2) pic.twitter.com/8RfsP3oT32
A report released in September by the UN Commission of Inquiry documented multiple human rights abuses by militias supported by Ankara operating in northern Syria, including “systematic looting, sexual violence, and property appropriation” as well as “widespread arbitrary deprivation of liberty.”
The findings were presented to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Aug. 14, after which the UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet called on Ankara to investigate the allegations and bring those responsible to justice.
Read More: UN human rights chief calls on Ankara to investigate war crimes by Turkish-backed groups in Syria
In Tuesday’s letter to European Parliament President David Sassoli, 68 lawmakers said that “victims of these violations complain about various atrocities ranging from rape and sexual violence to abductions and extrajudicial killing, etc.”
“The, mostly Kurdish, victims who could flee from these atrocities are currently located in the regions of the Autonomous Administration of North-East Syria,” they continued, calling “on the Turkish military and their auxiliary forces to end their illegal occupation in North-Syria and retreat from the region.”
It was necessary, they argued, for Sassoli “to form a special delegation of elected parliamentarians to travel to the regions of the Autonomous Administration of North-East Syria as soon as the corona-related travel restrictions are lifted and health concerns while traveling no longer exist.”
“The goal of sending a delegation on the spot is to gather further information on the situation, start a dialogue with the political body of the Autonomous Administration of North-East Syria (AANES), and to engage in talks with people who fled the contested areas under Turkish occupation.”
In last month’s report, the UN High Commissioner also voiced continued concern over repeated water disruptions caused by Turkish-affiliated groups from the Alouk water station, which affected access to water for up to one million people in the city of Hasakah and surrounding areas.
Read More: Turkish-backed groups continue to cut water to thousands in northeast Syria amid COVID-19
“As we have previously warned, impeding access to water, sanitation and electricity endangers the lives of large numbers of people, a danger rendered all the more acute amid fighting a global pandemic,” said Bachelet.
The appointment of the European Parliament delegation, concluded the letter, would allow the MPS’s “to investigate the UNHRC reports and to identify possible responsible figures of these atrocities, to start prosecutions within the framework of the International Criminal Court (ICC).”
Turkey, however, has not signed the Rome Statute related to the ICC so it would likely prove exceedingly difficult to prosecute Turkish officials or Syrian rebel commanders backed by Turkey under its legal framework.
Editing by John J. Catherine