Turkish border guards reportedly kill Kurdish farmer
At least 448 civilians were reportedly killed by the Turkish security forces on the border since the beginning of the Syrian conflict, including 78 children under 18.
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Turkish border guards on Sunday allegedly killed a Kurdish farmer, Muheydin Abdullah, 50, in the Deruna Agha village near the town of Girkê Legê (Al-Muabbada in Arabic) on the Syrian-Turkish border.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a British-based war monitor, on Monday, said the “victim was killed while working on his land.”
The village is the starting point for joint Turkish-Russian patrols in the area.
According to SOHR, at least 448 civilians were killed by the Turkish security forces on the border since the beginning of the Syrian conflict, including 78 children under 18.
Bassam al-Ahmad, the executive director of Syrians for Truth and Justice (STJ), similarly told Kurdistan 24 that the violations by the Turkish security forces have not stopped since the early stages of the Syrian crisis.
He added that not only civilians were killed that attempted to reach to Turkey, “but also people who were going on with their normal lives.”
“There was never any investigation by the Turkish Government itself to hold those people who did these crimes accountable. However, STJ, HRW, and other human rights organizations did some good work in this regard.”
According to an STJ report from January, at least 12 men and women were shot dead by the Turkish border guards while attempting to access Turkey illegally from the Idlib province between July to October 2019.
A Human Rights Watch (HRW) report from July 2019 suggested that Turkey over the last year has sealed off its border with Syria, while “Turkish border guards have carried out mass summary pushbacks and killed and injured Syrians as they try to cross.”
In May 2016, Human Rights Watch sent a letter to the Turkish interior minister, urging Turkey to investigate the incidents and to order its guards not to shoot at asylum seekers, and to re-open its border to Syrians seeking safety.
Editing by Karzan Sulaivany