Turkey should investigate killings in Afrin: HRW

“These killings follow over five years of unaddressed human rights abuses at the hands of Turkish forces and the local Syrian factions they empower.”

Mourners gather during the funeral of Kurdish victims killed the previous night by Turkish-backed fighters amid Newroz New Year celebrations, in Jindiris, rebel-held province of Aleppo on March 21, 2023 (Photo: Omar Haj Kadour/AFP)
Mourners gather during the funeral of Kurdish victims killed the previous night by Turkish-backed fighters amid Newroz New Year celebrations, in Jindiris, rebel-held province of Aleppo on March 21, 2023 (Photo: Omar Haj Kadour/AFP)

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Turkey should investigate the killing of four Kurds in the Jindiris district of Afrin, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday.

Three members of an armed faction group belonging to the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) opened fire on a Kurdish family in the northern Syrian town of Jinderis on March 20, 2023, as they were celebrating Newroz, the Kurdish New Year.

Three brothers and one son were shot dead, while one relative is in serious condition, and two others lightly injured.

“These killings follow over five years of unaddressed human rights abuses at the hands of Turkish forces and the local Syrian factions they empower,” said Adam Coogle, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch in a press release.

“Turkey has allowed these fighters to abuse people living in the areas under their control with impunity, making itself complicit in the violations.”

HRW said that Turkey is obliged to investigate these killings and ensure that those responsible are held accountable. “Turkey should also sever all support to SNA factions implicated in recurrent or systemic human rights abuses and international humanitarian law violations.”

HRW said the four civilians were killed when a verbal dispute erupted between a member of the Jaysh Al-Sharqiyah faction and a Kurdish family.

Read More: PM Barzani condemns the killing of four Kurdish civilians in Afrin

PM Masrour Barzani strongly condemned the atrocity and called on the local authorities to hold the perpetrators accountable and bring them to justice.

Moreover, HRW said that Turkish military incursions into northern Syria since 2016 have been fraught with serious human rights abuses. The Kurdish region of Afrin has been occupied by Turkish-backed groups since March 2018.

“Turkey and the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army in Afrin have consistently failed to protect civilians in northern Syria,” Coogle said. “Ensuring that these killers are held to account in a fair and transparent manner would be a step in the right direction.”

Read More: Turkish-backed groups continue to commit torture, rape, cruel treatment, and other war crimes: UN report

The latest report by the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria also documented how SNA members continued arbitrary arrests and detention, including enforced disappearances, torture, including rape, and ill-treatment, hostage-taking and pillage.

Musa Ahmed, the head of the Barzani Charity Foundation (BCF), told Kurdistan 24 that they have conveyed the concerns of PM Masrour Barzani regarding the incident to the relevant parties in Turkey.

This while the Barzani Charity Foundation thanked the Turkish authorities for allowing the Barzani Charity Foundation to provide aid to victims of the recent earthquake in Afrin.

The local branch of the Kurdistan National Council (KNC), an umbrella group of Kurdish parties, in a statement called for all armed groups to be expelled from Afrin and all innocent prisoners, who were abducted by armed groups, to be released. 

Moreover, it also called for the perpetrators of the crime to be brought to justice and handed over to an international court, and to return all the properties stolen by armed groups to their original owners.

The KNC also called for “international protection for the Afrin region.”

Read More: Thousands mourn Syria Kurd civilians killed by pro-Turkish fighters

Local protests in Jindiris have called for the entry of Peshmerga forces to Afrin and to hand over the administration of Afrin to its local population. 

The Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), the political branch of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in a separate statement also called for expelling armed factions from Afrin and handing over security and the administration to “its original local population”. 

The SDC also called for the release of all abductees and prisoners.