#Berlin March 3, 2018: Together against the Turkish attacks on #Afrin! – Enough is Enough!

21.2.18

#Berlin March 3, 2018: Together against the Turkish attacks on #Afrin! – Enough is Enough!: Since January 20, 2018, the Turkish military is attacking the Afrin area in Rojava, northern Syria, along with Salafist or jihadist groups. Kurds of Muslim, Alevi and Ezidi faith make up the majority of Afrin’s population. In addition, it is home to Christian Assyrians and Syrian Arabs as well as occasionally Armenians. The city of Afrin with its surrounding villages in northwestern Syria has been able to maintain relative stability and peace since the beginning of the war, despite repeated attacks by the Nusra Front, the Islamic State (IS) or other Islamist groups, and the Turkish military. Even more, from 2015, Afrin has been safe haven for hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people from Aleppo and the surrounding areas despite embargo and isolation. The Turkish army and allied Salafists or jihadists under the label of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) not only target refugees, but also cause new displacements currently.

The attacks by the Turkish military from the ground and from the air have so far [as of 6 February 2018] killed 148 civilians, including 17 children. The number of wounded is currently 365. A large proportion of these civilian casualties are Syrian internally displaced persons. Civilian residential areas are bombarded with artillery and bombed from the air, entire villages are razed to the ground and infrastructure is systematically destroyed, such as water treatment plants. Video footage documents war crimes such as torturing of YPJ fighter Barin Kobane’s dead body and the torture and ill-treatment of captured Kurdish people’s defenders and displaced civilians.