Rojava Information Center

25/07/2024

"The newly opened Raqqa bridge is essential for connecting the North and South of Raqqa Canton. It enhances movement and trade across the region". RIC interviewed Ihab al-Hamed, an engineer and the manager of Raqqa’s new bridge project.

"The original bridge was destroyed during the war [with ISIS]. After Raqqa's liberation in 2017, the responsibility for rebuilding the city fell on DAANES." The reconstruction of the bridge began in 2022 and faced several challenges, including delays due to equipment shortages and mine clearances".

"The project was realized through DAANES’ funding and support. The new bridge is build on the remnants of the old, and as per the people’s wish, the bridge kept its old name."

"The DAANES remains dedicated to reconstructing major destroyed sites and initiating new projects. The successful completion of the bridge stands as a testament of our resilience".

19/07/2024

"Our work aims to provide moral support and encouragement to all women, motivating them to participate in creative tasks."

RIC interviewed Gina Abdel Rahman, a member of the Foundation of Free Woman in Syria (WJAS).

WJAS organized an art exhibition in Qamishlo the last two days.

"We held this exhibition to celebrate July 19th, the anniversary of NES' revolution. Our exhibition includes handicrafts that reflect the diversity of this region, made by women from Qamishlo, Raqqa, and Kobane."

01/07/2024

Kurdish Peace Institute (KPI) organized a panel on “Elections in North and East Syria: Opportunities and Challenges” in Qamishlo.

“We aimed to start a diverse conversation about how NES can hold the strongest local elections possible in a way that contributes to stability, democracy and peace internally and regionally and to share the findings of that conversation with decision-makers, the public, and the international community.”

RIC interviewed Meghan Bodette, Director of Research, Kurdish Peace Institute.

“Elections are important for developing the DAANES' federal, democratic system, responding to public demands and increasing public participation in local affairs, and preparing NES and its people to play a role in a political solution in Syria.”

“During our event and in other KPI research we found that challenges include Turkish threats; siege, embargo and economic crisis; lack of support from Coalition countries; and deficiencies in skills and knowledge about how to hold a meaningful election on the part of the administration, parties, and the public due to inexperience.”

06/06/2024

Yesterday, to mark the World Environment Day, a bike demonstration took place in Qamishlo.

"We wanted to draw attention to the pollution that takes place here. Our city is full of cars that produce too much smoke and use unrefined oil, while bikes do not pollute the air."

"Women launched the 'Wishing for bikes' initiative, which goes back many years. It is still rare to see a woman riding a bike here, this initiative was launched aiming to increase the number of women riding bicycles."

"We, the Green Trees Organization, are concerned with ecology, therefore we co-launched this event."

https://greentress.com/about-us/

06/06/2024

NES' Electoral Commission has again postponed the municipal elections to August, citing that the decision is a response to the requests of the political parties & alliances participating, and in order to ensure democratic elections.

Political parties and the two participating alliances submitted their request, stating:

📌 The time allocated for the campaigning period has not been sufficient for all candidates to present themselves properly.

📌More time is needed to ensure the participation of international organizations to monitor the conduct of the electoral process in NES.

Previously, the elections were postponed from May 30th, to June 11th.

The elections are being prepared amidst a climate of heightened tensions and Turkish aggression against NES.

03/06/2024

"Turkiye is burning these lands in order to starve the people, the loss caused by these attacks on the agricultural lands is estimated in the billions"

RIC interviewed Hawas Abdul-Razzaq, a local farmer who witnessed the Turkish attacks.

Yesterday, Turkiye shelled fields west of Qamishlo, which subsequently caught fire.

In the last weeks Turkish and SNA shelling has intensified in the Manbij, Shehba and Ain Issa regions, destroying large quantities of the wheat and barley harvest.

"The fire was not extinguished until this morning. Six fire engines arrived at around 1:30 am, trying to put out the fire until the morning. After they left, the fire re-started and we had to put it out ourselves. In the current heat fires spread rapidly and re-start easily."

"I think that the elections are the main reason for these attacks, as Turkiye does not want success for this region, they want it to be a destitute region that suffers from hunger and makes its people poor, but we are a struggling people and steadfast no matter what happens."

Yesterday, demonstrations took place in Til Hamis condemning the current Turkish airstrikes, which followed Turkish president Erdogan's statement that the upcoming municipal elections organized by the DAANES threaten Turkiyes "national security".

19/05/2024

"We aim to meet our community's needs, organize and protect our existence on our ancestral lands. Historically, Yazidis have suffered so much, with their identity erased."
In NES, the Syrian Yazidi Union unites local Yazidi organizations and links them with the diaspora abroad.

Jazira Canton 'Yazidi House' was founded in 2012. Amude hosts its main center, with branches in Heseke, Tirbespi & Darbasiyah. The Sere Kaniye branch was forced to close in Turkiye's 2019 invasion. All Yazidis in 13 villages near Sere Kaniye fled (UN: https://bit.ly/2VB2Pft).

"All Yazidis here can become members of the Yazidi house. If non-Yazidis want to participate in the work and activities of the House they are welcomed, but they cannot become members," says co-chair Nalin Resho [pictured].

The Jazira Canton 'Yazidi House' [pictured] has two co-chairs and two deputies, each of whom is responsible for the work in one of the four branches. Each of the four branches elects eight people to be on the 'Yazidi House' Administrative Council.

In Afrin, efforts to unite, organize and educate the Yazidi society began in 2008, Mariyam Jindo, co-chair of the Yazidi Union of Afrin, tells RIC. "Then in 2011, we founded the Yazidi Association in Afrin, and opened our first center in the village of Basofane."

"In 2016, we changed our name to the Yazidi Union of Afrin, as the term "association" made us sound like a charity. In 2018, Turkiye invaded Afrin. We were displaced. Our work moved to Shehba and we opened a center in Tel Rifaat. In Shehba there are roughly 450 Yazidi families."

"Yazidi villages, shrines and graves in Afrin have been looted and and violated by Turkish forces and the SNA. This photo is of our former center in Afrin [pictured]. When Turkiye invaded this center was completely destroyed by airstrikes."

Rohseen Musa, Aleppo's 'Yazidi House' co-chair tells RIC that not all of the 1,000 Yazidi families in Aleppo live in the two DAANES-linked neighbourhoods of the city (Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyeh), but all are invited to become members of the House.

In 2018, the Yazidi Union of Aleppo was founded, and at the time it was organizationally directly linked to its counterpart in Afrin. "In 2023, we changed the name to Aleppo Yazidi House and we became more autonomous in our work," says Musa.

The Yazidi Women's Union has branches in Shehba, Aleppo and Jazira. "The geography is vast; coming and going is tricky; having decentralization is important," says Hedia Shamo, Union spokesperson, "but we see the need to bring together all the Yazidi women, organized as one."

"We coordinate with Kongra Star, as they are the overall umbrella organization for women’s organizations here. Plus we are included within the Syrian Democratic Council and within the Women’s Council of NES."

The Union of Syrian Yazidis connects Yazidi organizations and centers in Europe to those in NES. All Yazidis in NES and those who are from Syria but have left to Europe can join. The Union aims to open a center in NES within the next few months, to be located in Qamishlo.

"Many European Yazidi organizations are under our umbrella. We have a main center in Berlin," says Fewzi Choli, Union spokesperson. "As Yazidis we need unity and organization. We also want to be officially recognised and protected within a future Syrian constitution."

10/05/2024

[SLEEPER CELL REPORT]

📌25 sleeper cell attacks in NES in April; just down from March's 27

📌10 military personnel killed and 11 injured, 6 civilians killed and 2 injured in ISIS attacks

📌80 suspected ISIS members arrested; far up from March's 31

📌Repatriations from Tajikistan and Iraq

📌DAANES issues response to Amnesty International report on NES camps and prisons

📌In interview with Al-Monitor, SDF Commander-in-Chief, Mazloum Abdi, criticizes the Coalition's counter-ISIS efforts in Syria

Read full report: https://rojavainformationcenter.org/2024/05/april-sleeper-cell-report/

16/01/2024

[UPDATE REPORT]

📌Turkish airstrikes target >50 locations in NES, systematically hitting essential infrastructure

📌2 million people without power and water, after Turkish strikes put 7 key electricity stations out of service

📌Turkey conducts repeat strikes on locations, targeting first responders who arrive after the initial strike.

📌RIC is available to provide on-the-ground comment, photos & videos from airstrike sites, contact to political representatives and humanitarian personnel for comment.

[embeddoc url=https://rojavainformationcenter.org/storage/2024/01/Second-Report-1.pdf download=all viewer=browser] Across 4 days, Turkey targets over 50 locations across North and East Syria (NES), conducting airstrikes on key electricity and oil infrastructure, as well as industrial sites, Asayish....

31/12/2023

2023 RIC DRONE DATA:

📌Turkey conducted 198 drone strikes on NES in 2023.

📌These strikes killed 105 people and injured 123 (including 31 and 63 civilians respectively).

📌Twice in 2023, Turkey conducted multi-day aerial assaults systematically targeting essential infrastructure.

📌2023's 198 strikes: 44 within Turkey's Christmas infrastructure attacks, 64 within Turkey's October infrastructure attacks, 90 individual incidents.

📌Now accounting only for the 90 drone strikes Turkey conducted outside of its 2 infrastructure destruction campaigns:

📌Just over 1/3rd targeted a vehicle, however 89% of strikes on vehicles resulted in casualties while 39% of non-vehicle strikes left casualties.

📌Most were FWD (fixed-wing drone) strikes, but Turkey occasionally used much smaller su***de drones to conduct attacks on the contact lines separating NES from the Turkish-occupied areas.

📌Most were FWD (fixed-wing drone) strikes, but Turkey occasionally used much smaller su***de drones to conduct attacks on the contact lines separating NES from the Turkish-occupied areas.

📌63% of FWD strikes left casualties, compared to 29% for su***de drone.

📌Just over 1/4 of Turkey's drone strikes on NES resulted in civilian casualties.

📌Jazira canton saw the highest number of strikes.

24/08/2023

Yesterday, a Turkish drone targeted a car of JinTV on the Qamishlo-Amude road. The driver, Nejimedin Feysel Hej Sinan, was killed & one JinTV reporter was injured.

This is 2023's 49th Turkish drone strike in NES and brings the total number of civilians killed to 15 (RIC data).

This is not the first time media workers in NES have been targeted in Turkish attacks.

Last November, an ANHA reporter was killed in a Turkish strike in Teqil Beqil. https://twitter.com/RojavaIC/status/1594377647592964099

RIC also documented the targeting of press workers and obstruction of information-gathering during Turkey's 2019 M4 Strip invasion.

https://rojavainformationcenter.com/2019/12/report-turkeys-war-against-civilians-1/

https://twitter.com/RojavaIC/status/1256971602530574337

21/08/2023

RIC connected El Pais with the Syrian Democratic Council co-chair, Ilham Ahmed, discussing the issue of the upcoming ISIS trials in NES.

https://elpais.com/internacional/2023-08-21/juicios-en-el-kurdistan-sirio-para-los-excombatientes-del-estado-islamico.html

The article also features RIC data:

"Los varones extranjeros sospechosos de haber integrado el ISIS son el extremo más espinoso ―y políticamente tóxico― de la situación, como muestra que solo 74 hayan sido repatriados desde la derrota geográfica del Estado Islámico, en 2019".

El Gobierno ‘de facto’ en el norte de Siria anuncia procesos “transparentes” y sin pena de muerte. Más de 60.000 sospechosos y sus familiares llevan detenidos indefinidamente desde 2019

14/08/2023

NES' Democratic Islam Congress seeks to promote an accepting & cooperative culture of religious practice & theory in a religiously diverse context. Last winter saw the first graduation ceremony of NES' Democratic Islam Academy. RIC spoke with students & teachers about their work.

"Religions are against injustice. Ethics in religions are a benefit for society, but when you see people being murdered in the name of religion, you know that oppressors are taking advantage of a religion", says Muhammad Mulla Kharzani, co-chair of the Democratic Islam Congress.

"Democratic Islam is about people accepting one another, respecting each other's rights, discussing, and making dialogue. We believe in our holy book and prophets, but just as Muslims have rights, so do other religions. People can have their own beliefs", he adds.

"We established the Union of Muslim Scholars in 2014, 2015. Then we started the Religions Forum - a meeting that gathers all religions in this region to work together. Then, in 2018, the Democratic Islam Academy was set up to teach students."

51 students were at the academy's first graduation ceremony. The classes at the academy are taught in Arabic and are free for the students, with food and accommodation also provided. The students are from all across NES.

"We studied for 4 years in the academy, women and men being educated together. Our religion, Islam, offers rightful ethics for life, but in ISIS' time Islam was used in an awful way", says Ali after the ceremony.

"I hope that every society can understand Islam as I understand it now. In the future I want to work more in the sphere of Islamic religion and remove this idea that ISIS represents Islam from people's minds", says Rozelim, a new graduate from Derik.

The Religions Forum has now held three conferences in NES, bringing together not only a range of regional religious leaders and representatives but also featuring online participation from religious figures in other countries.

"We lecture on co-existence & how religions here can work together to re-build this country. We also prepare Islamic school books, teaching students about peaceful co-existence in a religiously diverse environment. We worked on them with AANES' Education Board", says Kharzani.

The Democratic Islam Women's Council was set up in 2018, focussing specifically on how women's perspectives, understandings, and practices of religion can be discussed and deepened. "Religion is a communal system, entailing dialogue with one another, and this has a key role in communities. When positive interpretations of religion spread, it positively affects society. We say 'there is no coercion in religion'. Islam should not impose itself on people. Coercive actions are not according to the Quran", says the co-chair.

06/08/2023

ISIS have announced the killing of their leader, Abu Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi, in "direct clashes" with HTS in Idlib, without saying when, & have named Abu Hafs al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi as new leader. This is the 4th ISIS leader killed since the 2014 "caliphate" declaration.

HTS, however, "categorically deny this claim", spokesman General Security Diaa al-Omar is quoted as saying, adding that if they had been behind the killing they would have announced it directly.

For more information about HTS' activities in Syria: https://rojavainformationcenter.com/2023/06/when-jihadism-learns-to-smile/

On April 30th this year, Turkey announced that they had killed al-Qurashi. At the time, Al-Monitor quoted a US official as saying "we have no information that would support this claim." https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2023/05/us-does-not-confirm-turkeys-claim-killing-islamic-state-leader-syria

The Global Coalition acknowledged ISIS' announcement without noting any details of the killing.

03/08/2023

On August 3rd, 2014, ISIS attacked Iraq’s Sinjar region Yazidi community, committing massacres, torture, and sexual violence. Over 3,000 Yazidis were killed in the initial assault. 6,417 were enslaved and 2,693 remain unaccounted for, according to the Free Yezidi Foundation.

https://freeyezidi.org/missing-yezidis/

400,000 Yazidis were displaced from their ancestral home. Many Yazidis still have not returned, due to security concerns and a lack of infrastructure/services as the Sinjar area was destroyed. 180,000 remain internally displaced, in 15 IDP camps in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

Two days ago, the UK formally acknowledged this genocide, with Minister of State for the Middle East, Tariq Ahmad, stating: "Justice and accountability are key for those whose lives have been devastated."

In 2021, the world's first criminal trial addressing ISIS' Yazidi genocide occurred in Germany. It was also the first trial based on the principle of universal jurisdiction, addressing crimes under international law committed abroad by a non-German perpetrator who was extradited to Germany on the basis of an international arrest warrant.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2021/11/germany-iraq-worlds-first-judgment-on-crime-of-genocide-against-the-yazidis/

02/08/2023

[SLEEPER CELL REPORT]

📌10 confirmed ISIS sleeper cell attacks in July, a decrease from 24 in June.

📌3 military personnel killed, 1 military personnel injured, 1 civilian killed, 1 civilian injured in ISIS attacks.

📌In 7 SDF raids and strikes, 4 members of ISIS were killed and 12 were arrested.

📌Strong psychological warfare of ISIS leads to rise of impersonation in Deir ez-Zor.

📌UN representative visits NES and renews calls for repatriation.

📌France ends its repatriation process, leaving many French ISIS members in custody of the Autonomous Administration.

https://rojavainformationcenter.com/2023/08/july-sleeper-cells-report-isis-psychological-warfare-remains-strong-in-deir-ez-zor-un-joins-calls-for-repatriation/

29/07/2023

2 recent Turkish drone strikes in NES bring 2023's total to 35, as per RIC data:

27th: 2 cars hit in Tirbespi countryside, killing 3, wounding 2, as per Asayish reporting.

28th: 1 car hit near Khirbi Khoy village, Amude, killing 4 military personnel, as per SDF reporting.

Turkish drone attacks in NES this year have killed 55 (13 civilians) & injured 41 (13 civilians).

Turkey's drone strikes contribute to destabilization in NES - a region still recovering from the war against ISIS - and hurt ongoing counter-ISIS efforts.

https://rojavainformationcenter.com/2023/03/incessant-war-turkeys-drone-campaign-in-nes-2022/

Turkey's Baykar drones are becoming internationally powerful, with at least 30 countries having signed export deals with the company to purchase the popular Bayraktar TB2s, amongst others, with Saudia Arabia the latest.

https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2023/07/saudi-arabia-signs-major-deal-turkey-acquire-baykar-drones

Canada, meanwhile, is under pressure to lift its arms embargo on Turkey, which has existed since 2021 and aimed to stop the transfer of Canadian drone components, with Turkey charged by several human rights monitors of failing to discriminate between combatants and civilians. Kelsey Gallagher and Cesar Jaramillo for The Globe and Mail:

"Turkey has displayed [...] little regard for international law or the protection of civilians. Reinstating arms exports to Turkey would mark a disheartening step backward for Canada’s arms controls regime."

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-canada-risks-letting-turkey-off-the-hook-by-prioritizing-politics-over/

26/07/2023

The Arab Weekly, featuring RIC data:

ISIS "intentionally holds back from publicising its own attacks" hence "analysts solely relying on the number of claimed attacks will not get an accurate measure of a militant group’s strength".

https://thearabweekly.com/isis-shows-signs-division-over-propaganda-strategy

Leaked documents suggest tensions between ISIS’ media department and military commanders in Syria regarding publicization of attacks. ISIS itself has also acknowledged its strategy of under-reporting. In 2022, RIC recorded that out of 285 ISIS attacks, the group only claimed 185.
RIC’s monthly and yearly ISIS sleeper cells reports based on OSINT research and local sources in NES can be found here:

https://rojavainformationcenter.com/category/report/sleeper-cells/

The documents reveal contrasting perspectives between media and military commanders in Syria regarding which attacks should be publicised.

12/07/2023

NES' 'Lausanne Treaty' international forum saw 150 researchers, journalists, and political party, civil society, and AANES representatives discuss the historical context & implications of the 1923 Treaty on the Middle East in the 100 years since, with a focus on the Kurds.

Leyla Qahreman, of the Syrian Democratic Council, told RIC: "We see how much the Treaty influenced the existence and unity of the Kurds in the past 100 years, with the continuous violence against the Kurds as they were not granted a state. The nation-state system means that some people are protected and others are oppressed. The Assyrian, Kurdish, and other peoples were cut out of the maps with the Lausanne Treaty. Now, the AANES instead is trying to unify the different peoples who live in this land, in all their colours."

AANES' Berivan Khaled told RIC, "AANES is for the rights of all the people here. This is a different path to that started by Lausanne". She referenced the "Lausanne mentality" of erasure of identities, languages, and cultures existing outside the form of a nation-state.

"Lausanne is why some people in this region have no formal rights or identity. The richness of diversity was quashed. We can live together as peoples; we did it before. But the politics of the nation-state hamper this", Abir Assaf of AANES' Women's Council stated to RIC.

In her speech, NES' Democratic Union Party co-chair Fawza Yussof stated: "The Kurds were excluded in the Treaty [... which] was called a peace treaty but in reality was a treaty of war", with reference to genocides of Kurdish and Armenian populations in the decades that followed.

SDF commander-in-chief, Mazloum Abdi, participated in the conference remotely, and spoke of the need for dialogue between different Kurdish political parties in order to unite efforts to ensure that the oppression of the Kurds which Lausanne opened the doors to is not continued.

Walid al-Sheikh, a member of the Rojava Center for Strategic Studies, which organized the conference, said that the bloody outcomes of the Treaty for the Middle East underlined "the importance of the participation of the Kurds in the political process for the future of Syria".

Austrian political scientist Thomas Schmidinger, one from a small group of international participants, told RIC:

"To speak at such a conference, to me is a sign of solidarity. [...] But the big danger at the moment is that Europe and the international community just forget".

Schmidinger told RIC, "the sheer existence of the AANES, the sheer fact that there is still a territory of Syria not controlled by the regime nor Islamist militias is a reason to hope. That is what we have at the moment and it needs to be defended".

10/07/2023

The earthquake that hit southern Turkey and north-west Syria on Feb 6th 2023 with a magnitude of 7.8 was the strongest in the region since 1939. The official death toll increased to almost 60,000 and is estimated to be significantly too low.

The natural disaster collided with a situation already characterized by devastating living conditions in Afrin and Shehba. While Afrin has been occupied by Turkey and controlled by Turkey’s proxy force, Shehba faces a severe economic siege imposed by the Government of Syria.

After the earthquakes, as this report will document, no sufficient amount of humanitarian aid reached the affected areas in northern Syria within the first 72 hours after the earthquake, which is the crucial time frame for deploying search and rescue operations.

Furthermore, there was widespread blocking of humanitarian aid, military attacks on NES by Turkey, and theft of humanitarian relief supplies by the occupying Turkish proxy militias.

Alongside the apathy of the international community, the situation after the earthquake was a continuation of, and in the case of seizing humanitarian aid an extension of, the previous human rights abuses conducted by Turkey and its proxy SNA forces.

The report concludes that the people living in Shehba and Afrin are widely affected by what can be characterized as “weaponizing“ of humanitarian aid and furthermore focuses on the post-earthquake challenges for the region.

Read the full report:

After the Earthquake: Impacts of the Natural Disaster Within War-Torn AANES TerritoriesAfrin, Indepth Dossiers, News, Report, Shahba Loading... Taking too long? Reload document | Open in new tab Download [5.29 MB] The earthquake that hit the regions of southern Turkey and north-west Syria in the ear...

04/07/2023

[SLEEPER CELL REPORT]

📌24 sleeper cell attacks in June, up 85% from May.

📌11 military personnel killed, 5 injured, 4 civilians killed, 5 injured in ISIS cell attacks.

📌1 ISIS member killed, 18 arrested in 8 confirmed SDF raids.

📌Iraq and Denmark repatriate from prisons and camps, Canada refuses.

📌US soldier pleads guilty to aiding ISIS.

📌AANES announces trial of foreign ISIS fighters.

https://rojavainformationcenter.com/2023/07/june-sleeper-cell-report-trials-of-foreign-isis-fighters-to-commence-amid-repatriation-woes-us-soldier-pleads-guilty-to-aiding-isis/

03/07/2023

Due to the recent water cut-off from the Turkish controlled Alouk water station, today the local water directorate of the AANES declared the Heseke Governorate a disaster area.

Co-chair of the directorate, Issa Younes, called the cut-off "a crime against humanity."

In 2019 the Turkish army and the so-called SNA, its proxy-militias, occupied the M4-Strip including Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) and its countryside, where the station is located.

According to Issa Younes, since then Turkey has suspended the water supply via Alouk station 40 times.

In its Cholera situation report from Nov 2022, the UN stated that "about half a million people in Heseke city and neighbouring areas are still not receiving sufficient quantities of safe water" due to the insufficient waterflow from Alouk station.

The cities of Heseke, Tel Tamir and two IDP camps near Heseke are severely affected by the water shortage.

"Turkey is weaponizing water to reach its political ends" Issa Younes characterized the situation.

https://npasyria.com/en/100410/

02/07/2023

"The U.S. must recognize that its current policy of encouraging other nations to follow suit [with repatriation] is not working"

RIC's repatriation data shows 74 foreign male ISIS fighters have been repatriated since 2019 - just 4% of the total number.

https://www.kurdishpeace.org/research/security-and-defense/justice-after-isis-statistics-show-need-for-new-approach/

Journalist Matt Broomfield writing for Kurdish Peace Institute: "Western powers [...] continue to adopt the policy of either repatriating only orphans, or only women and children, leaving behind the most dangerous male ISIS members in NES."

"Given international powers’ politicized decision not to repatriate their nationals", the US should be "either supporting the AANES in their domestic legal efforts or finally taking the initiative to establish a new, specialized justice mechanism to try foreign ISIS members".

Security and Defense Justice After ISIS: Statistics Show Need for New Approach By Matt Broomfield on June 30, 2023 Share Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on LinkedIn Share with Email Just four percent of foreign ISIS fighters held by Syrian Kurdish authorities have been repatriated since 201...

02/07/2023

The latest report from Syrians for Truth and Justice covers torture of civilians in the Turkish-occupied, SNA-controlled M4 Strip area, based on 62 testimonies from survivors of SNA torture.

https://stj-sy.org/en/torture-in-the-peace-spring-strip-a-tool-for-persecution-and-the-perpetuation-of-forced-displacement/

Key findings:

📌SNA arrests are frequently followed by torture and ransom demands.

📌Victims are sometimes coerced into surrendering their properties to the SNA.

📌Hamza division is a key perpetrator in the M4 Strip (comprising 20 out of the 62 cases).

📌SNA arrests are often accompanied by the theft of money and valuables from the victims' homes.

The detailed accounts documented in STJ's dossier are consistent with the findings of RIC's Occupation Reports, which track reports of rights violations, including torture and unlawful arrest, in NES' occupied territories.

https://rojavainformationcenter.com/2023/02/state-of-the-occupation-q1-q2-2022-lack-of-accountability-of-sna-crimes-hts-incursion-in-afrin-isis-in-turkish-occupied-territories/

STJ concluded with the recommendation that, "the international community, especially members of the UN Security Council, must act immediately to stop acts of torture and cruel and degrading punishments committed in the Turkish-backed SNA-held areas".

This follows the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria's report this March, which stated that, "SNA members [...] commit torture, including r**e, and cruel treatment, murder, hostage-taking and pillaging, all of which may amount to separate war crimes."

The UN report also remarked that, "the presence of Turkish officials during [SNA] interrogations, some involving torture or ill-treatment of detainees, continues to be documented".

https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G23/010/21/PDF/G2301021.pdf?OpenElement

The most recent US Department of State report on human rights practices also drew attention to Turkey's "support for Syrian opposition groups that perpetrated serious abuses in conflict", in reference to the SNA.
https://stockholmcf.org/us-state-department-annual-report-details-turkeys-human-rights-abuses/

Executive Summary This report is based on 62 testimonies collected over 2022 by Syrians for Truth and Justice (STJ) from survivors of torture in the areas of Ras al-Ayn/Serê Kaniyê…