translated from https://rojavaazadimadrid.

Introduction

translated from Rojava Azidi tweets/photos from ICafrinresist

The defeat of the IS in Syria and especially after the liberation of Raqqa in October 2017, the Turkish state intensified its threats and attacks against the Federation Democratic Federation of Northern Syria.

In this context, the Turkish invasion war against Afrin began on January 20, 2018 violating international law and the sovereignty of its neighboring country.

The Turkish army has launched this war in cooperation with jihadist groups from the ranks of the FSA. Many of them are former members of Al-Qaeda or EI.

Since the beginning of March, all districts and the city center of Afrin have suiffered intense aviation and artillery bombardments and drone surveillance that the Turkish army has carried out, especially against civilians. On March 18, more than 200,000 people.



They left the center of the city and were evacuated to avoid physical genocide. Since then, the majority of refugees remain in the Shehba region without security guarantees or international support.

In this new phase, the confrontation between the international powers and their interests is increasing throughout Syria.





The developments of the last week in Afrin



After 97 days of resistance against the second largest army of NATO, hundreds of thousands of people from the Afrín canton are still displaced and face difficult conditions.

The Turkish army and its allies of the FSA are implementing policies

of ethnic cleansing, assimilation and colonization, preventing the population from returning to villages and continue preparations to annex the Afrin region to the territory of the Turkish state.

The resistance of the YPG-YPJ forces in all the districts of the Afrín Canton persists, as well as the resistance of the displaced Afrin in the Shehba region.

The tensions between regional and international powers have resulted in aerial attacks by the USA, the United Kingdom and France against Syrian installations.

Afrin



The Turkish army and the FSA forces continue their policies and practices of abuse of the population i n Afrín

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights , that was observ ing the Afrin area for 5 weeks, reported that the forces of the “Olive Branch “continue to rob and loot, as well as kidnapping civilians who they torture and free in exchange for large sums of money [1]

Within the city of Afrin,



L ocal sources report that the Turkish army and the forces of the FSA are forcing the women to wear the veil and clothes the same as that imposed. by ISIS.

Women have been prohibited from wearing pants or going out without hijab.

They are also forbidden to leave home alone; so they have to always go accompanied by a man of the family [2]

.

According to local sources in the Jinderese district, the Turkish army continues to arrest civilians [3]

. Other sources reported that recently the Turkish army has opened a prison in the village of the Koran. In this same town, they torture civilians and force parents to teach Islamic prayers, especially in the Ezidi community.

Another source reported that in the Rajo district the FSA forces and the Turkish army bring together the villagers and force them to work recovering the corpses of the forces of the FSA in the areas where there were clashes.

In addition, they are forcing the villagers to clean the streets and eliminate the rubble. Others reports document that SA forces have burned houses of the civilians that were participating with the Autonomous Democratic Administration [4]

.

An older man who escaped on foot from Afrin reported: “They took my brother from his house, tortured him and brought him back about three hours later because he had refused to leave his door open at night “. [5]

# Tortures by cigarettes burns reported in # Afrin , committed on civilians by # Turkish backed forces.



On April 21, the Afrin occupation forces kidnapped four women in the Shekhutka village – District of Mabeta. Two of them were released subsequently, their names are unknown.

Of the other two, one was responsible for Kongra Star and another was a conciliation counsellor.

According to local sources, in the town of Hasa “Mir kan “- district of Mabeta – the occupation forces gathered the men in the courtyard of the primary school, where they were insulted and beaten, and one was taken to an unknown location and all their properties were put at the disposal of the leaders of the FSA [8].



The YPG Press Office reported that many actions against the Turkish army and the FSA forces in the canton of Afrin were carried out between 17 and 22 April, and 12 Turkish soldiers and FSA members were killed. The Turkish military officer Taner Cobanoglu died in the center of Afrin on April 17. [9].

Sheba and northern Syria

In the Shehba region, Afrin’s displaced population, especially children, suffer from a difficult hygienic situation, lack of water drinking water, medical devices and medical supplies. [10]

Cases of leishmaniasis have been reported. To help cope with the difficult situation, many people from all over North Syria have sent blankets and ohadas to support Afrin’s displaced people, because international aid organizations are not yet acting. [11]



At present, 2,184 families -12,241 estimated people- of Afrin are staying in Babens village, in the Shehba region. In 2016, this town was destroyed due to the war in Shebha, but now the town is being organized . [12]

After a long period during which the children were not able to go to school and one month after the displaced were forced to leave Afrin, the school was opened in the Berxwedan camp. [13]

On April 19, from Azaz, the Turkish army bombarded Til Rifat with artillery, where many of the displaced have found refuge. [14]

Shervan Derwish, spokesperson for the Minbij Military Council, has been discharged from the hospital after the failed assassination attempt in March 2018. [15]

On April 20, the official website of the YPGs was blocked and showed a Turkish flag, an explicitly Turkish-nationalist attack against the Kurdish self-defense units. [16]

On April 21, the The Turkish army bombarded the Saeediya oil station in the village of Kerdim with mortars, it is 15 km north of Tirbê Sipîyê-canton Jizire. As a result, the station was damaged.

Alina Sánchez’s family, Legerin Çiya, traveled to Rojava to participate in the funeral of the Argentine martyr. The ceremony took place on April 20 in Derik. Alina Sanchez served as an internationalist combatant in the YPJ, as a doctor, where she saved many lives and played a central role in the construction of a revolutionary health system for Northern Syria. [17]

On April 21 a tribute was paid to the international women martyrs Alina Sánchez and Anna Campbell. [18]

Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Iran Erdogan advanced the presidential and parliamentary elections to June 24, 17 months ahead of schedule. At the same time, the Turkish Parliament approved to extend the state of emergency for three more months, granting legal coverage to the continuation of the repressive policies of the Turkish state. Erdogan said: “The state of emergency only affects terrorists, it is now avoiding labor strikes, like the Bursa strike, we stopped immediately, it is a fight against terrorism” [19]

The governor of the province of Ankara banned the march of International Workers’ Day on May 1. The governor said that the event could lead to disturbances of peace. [20]

According to the Ministry of the Interior of Turkey, between April 16 and 23, 710 social media accounts were investigated and 208 users of social media networks processed legally. [21]

A Turkish court asked Twitter to remove all records showing the execution of a civilian carried out in Afrin on February 22 by the forces of the FSA. [22]

It was announced that Selahattin Demirtash will be the candidate of the HDP (Party of the People’s Democracy ) to the presidential elections in Turkey. He has currently been incarcerated for more than 17 months, while his trial has not yet ended.

On April 21, all Kurdish cities in Iran went on strike. The strike was due to the closing of borders with Iraqi Kurdistan, unemployment and widespread poverty. [23].

On April 25, the head of the municipality of Qandil (South Kurdistan – Iraq), MohammedHassan, said that Turkish fighters attacked the village of Gali Badran. [24]

Alexander Mekhiev, director of the Russian arms export company Rosoboron export, said that Russia begins to produce S-400 anti-aircraft defense systems for Turkey and that “the production process has started, there are cycles and stages, all the details have been agreed upon ” [25]

Solidarity for Afrin

On April 17, a feminist action in Hamburg took place in solidarity with the Afrín Resistance and the #WomenRiseUpForAfrin campaign. The women demanded the end of the Turkish occupation and the femicides in Afrin committed by the Turkish army and the FSA forces. [26]

Activists and academics, such as Debbie Bookchin, Noam Chomsky, Judith Butler and DavidHarvey, wrote an open letter calling for the defense of Rojava’s young democracy. [28]

There were also demonstrations of solidarity with the struggle of the Kurdish people in Euskal Herria, where support signs appeared on April 21. [29]

On that same day, in Valencia, thousands of people commemorated on April 25, remembering the freedoms that the Valencian people have lost due to the Spanish occupation and showing solidarity with the Kurdish struggle against fascism.

On April 22, in Duisburg (Germany) an action was carried out in remembrance and respect of all the civilians killed by the Turkish army and the FSA in Afrín.

The hunger strike announced by NAV-DEM as part of the “Freedom Campaign” took place in several cities such as Strasbourg, Berlin, Cologne, Hannover and Bremen between April 24 and 27. via IC AFRIN

Reportage on Corrine Moreldarleux ( @ cmoreldarleux), French regional deputy that went to # Jinwar (women village in # Rojava)and she speak about the women village project as an real utopia building up in the heart of Middle East # Syriahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCP8KT6FA5E&feature=youtu.be … Also in Toronto (Canada), 10 co-spokespersons of the Assembly of the Kurdish People of Toronto held a hunger strike until the 25th of April for the freedom of Abdullah Öcalan.

On April 25, the global campaign Siamo Afrin started from Italy to raise funds for the displaced from Afrin in the Shehba region. The money raised will be used to buy medicines, food and many other basic necessities to provide care and support to the people of Afrin.

[30]

Declarations and analysis

The National Congress of Kurdistan (KNK) denounced the massacres committed by the Ottoman Empire in 1915 and demanded that all parties and institutions involved recognize this massacre. [31]

The US Congress reiterated its threats to punish Turkey for the detention of North Carolina pastor Andrew Brunson, as well as other US citizens and Turkish officials of the US diplomatic missions, whom they consider to be treated as “political pawns.” [32]

An interview with Fox News before his trip to the United States, where he will meet with President Donald Trump, Macron said: “If we leave, we will leave the field to the Iranian regime, Bashar al-Assad, and these guys, and they will prepare for a new war, they will give incentives to the new terrorists. ” [33]

The Turkish and FSA forces are implementing policies to permanently control Afrin and are imposing Islamic FSA rules on the population and especially on women. Erdogan’s sudden advance of the presidential and parliamentary elections to June 24 increases tensions with European countries and the United States.

As these tensions increase, Turkey can be temporarily encouraged to move forward with its measures in Northern Syria. In addition, the withdrawal of HPG units from Sinjar leaves no legitimizing excuses to launch a military operation there.

Thus, the Turkish army could focus on Iraq and South Kurdistan, where it continues to carry out military operations and establish advanced positions in the Hakurk region, next to the Qandil mountains.

translated from Rojava Azidi tweets/photos from ICafrinresist

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