Syrian Kurdish opposition party calls for end to human right abuses by PYD, Turkish-backed groups

“All ethnic and social groups were subjected to increasing oppression at the hands of regime and terrorist forces, and Kurdish people suffered the most of the oppression.”
Logo of the Kurdish National Council (KNC) (Photo: Kurdistan 24).
Logo of the Kurdish National Council (KNC) (Photo: Kurdistan 24).

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdish National Council (KNC) on Friday called on the UN and international community to help end human rights abuses in areas controlled by Turkish-backed groups and called on the Democratic Union Party (PYD) to release political prisoners and abducted children.

In a statement marking International Human Rights Day, the KNC said the Syrian people have long been persecuted by successive regimes.

“All ethnic and social groups were subjected to increasing oppression at the hands of regime and terrorist forces, and Kurdish people suffered the most of the oppression.”

“The people of Afrin, Ras al-Ain (Serekaniye) and Tal Abyad have also been subjected to brutal abuses by armed groups, such as killings, abductions, expulsion and seizures of civilian homes and property,” the KNC said, referring to militias backed by Turkey.

The international community, the KNC added, must stop Turkey's acts of aggression, remove Ankara's proxy militants from areas they have occupied, and facilitate the return of the original residents.

Turkish-backed factions have controlled Afrin since March 2018, when the Turkish army launched a cross-border offensive to target the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which held the area from 2012 till then.

In October 2019, the Turkish army and their affiliated Syrian rebel groups, known as the Free Syrian Army (FSA), now renamed the Syrian National Army (SNA), launched a military operation and pushed the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) from the border towns of Ras al-Ain and Tal Abyad.

Turkish-backed groups in Syria’s Serekaniye, Tal Abyad, and the Kurdish-majority region of Afrin have been accused of several human rights abuses.

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The KNC also called on the PYD to release prisoners, stop child recruitment by armed factions, and end the arrest of political activists. The KNC previously held seven months of talks with its rival the PYD-affiliated Kurdish National Unity Parties (PYNK).

The PYD is also the leading component of the political wing of the SDF, the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC). Talks have been suspended since the US Presidential elections in November 2020 and have not resumed yet.