Turkey accuses Kurdish YPG of crimes at UN

Turkey called on the United Nations on Monday to investigate crimes of ethnic cleansing it alleges Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) had committed in Syria.

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – Turkey called on the United Nations on Monday to investigate crimes of ethnic cleansing it alleges Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) had committed in Syria.

Permanent Representative of the Mission of Turkey to the UN in Geneva Mehmet Ferden Carikci gave a speech at a UN Human Rights Council meeting, according to the Turkish state-run Anadolu news agency.

The Chair of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro presented his latest report on human rights violations at the Council.

The Turkish representative Carikci accused the Kurdish YPG of engaging in a campaign of demographic change in the areas it had captured from the Islamic State (IS).

The charge had been denied repeatedly by Kurdish forces who collaborate with Arab and Assyrian fighters.

Carikci also demanded the UN investigate YPG’s “attempt to divide up Syria.” 

Turkey deems the United States-backed YPG a terrorist organization for ties with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) waging a decades-long guerrilla warfare against Turkish troops for Kurdish rights.

With air support from the US-led international anti-IS coalition, the YPG and its Arab allies of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have proven to be the most effective ground forces against IS in Syria.

The group has achieved consecutive victories against IS over the course of the last two years.

Recent Kurdish expansion and self-rule in Syria and further territorial gains in Iraq have alarmed Turkey who is fearful of a similar scenario within its borders in dozens of Kurdish-majority provinces.

Last week, the Turkish ambassador slammed the UN for not referring to the PKK as a terror group as recognized by Turkey’s NATO ally the US and the European Union.

PKK is not listed as a terror organization by the UN.

 

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany

(Reporting by Ari Khalidi)