Six anniversary | Displaced people from Afrin tell of details of atrocities they endured during Turkish invasion
On January 20, 2018, Turkish forces started their invasion in Afrin canton, which lasted for 58 days and led to the occupation of the canton by Turkish forces and their proxy factions. On the first day of the invasion, Turkish aircraft executed over 70 airstrikes, while in less than three months, Turkish forces and their proxies committed scores of war crimes, including killing innocent and unarmed civilians, destroyed schools and civilian houses and forced most of the indigenous inhabitants to displace. However, no international powers or authorities take an action or exerted any efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice.
SOHR activists have interviewed several displaced civilians from Afrin who told off tragic stories and atrocities they endured with the beginning of the invasion.
Speaking to SOHR, a displaced woman from Afrin known by her initials as K. A. said “for six years after our displacement, Afrin always remains in mind and we are sure that we will return to our land. January 20, 2018, was a bloody and tragic day when Turkish aircraft executed 74 airstrikes on residential areas. Before the beginning of the Turkish invasion in the region, Turkish-backed factions were stationed in areas along the border wall between Turkey and Afrin canton, where they were chanting threatening slogans, such as ‘we are coming, pigs.’ Those factions destroyed and looted our properties, after having forced us to displace. Turkish aircraft committed a horrific massacre in Tarandah village in Afrin countryside where Turkish airstrikes on the very small village, which did not host camps and was away from frontlines, killed children under the age of 16. Is not it time to hold the criminal accountable. We resisted the invasion for 58 days, while the international community and human rights authorities have chosen to keep silent and turned a blind eye to the war crimes committed by the Turks and their proxies. The international laws do not protect civilians, but they serve interests.”
Another woman from Afrin city known as H. M. who have been forced to displace during “Olive Branch” operation told SOHR “after disparate resistance, we were used as a bargain chip under a deal between Damascus and Moscow on one hand, and Ankara on the other. We witnessed the withdrawal of Russian forces from their bases in Kafr Jannah in Afrin countryside only one day before the beginning of the Turkish invasion. Although we have been forced to displace to north Aleppo countryside and despite the tragic situation, we are adherent to return to our land.”
In a testimony to SOHR, a young man known as D. H. said “I witnessed the massacre which was committed in Al-Mahmoudiyah neighbourhood in early March 2018 when Turkish aircraft mercilessly struck civilians, who were moving to safer areas, leaving tens of casualties. I could neither forget the cries of injured people in Al-Mahmoudiyah neighbourhood, the images of the remains of corpses which were scattered everywhere in the neighbourhood, nor the loud and horrific sound of the fighter jets, as if it was the dooms day. The city of heaven has been turned into a city of the hell.”
Since the first day of the Turkish invasion in Afrin canton, the region’s inhabitants have been all along calling for expelling Turkish forces and their proxy factions from the region and secure a safe return for them under protection by international authorities.