The three-day scandalous “International Forum on Ethnic Cleansing and Demographic Change in Afrin” that was launched on Sunday was held in the Syrian town of Amuda, located in the Al-Hasakah governorate, which is within close proximity to Turkey’s border.

Former co-leader of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) Salih Muslim and Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Polat Can, as well as over 60 academicians, politicians, military officials and bureaucrats from France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark and the U.S., were among the participants of the forum. The Turkish Interior Ministry has offered a bounty of nearly $1 million for Muslim, listing him as a most-wanted terrorist.

Former French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who played an active role in the Kurdistan Regional Government’s illegal independence referendum in 2017, attended the forum.

“We must stand against Turkish occupation,” said Kouchner, adding: “The beginning of peace is a suffering in itself because you have to confront your enemy and converse it at the same time.”

The former foreign minister emphasized that Turkey’s activities in Syria’s north were “illegal.”

“We must stand against violent practices of Turkish occupation. We repeat our promise once again that we will always be with the people of Rojava,” Kouchner said.

Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch on Jan. 20, 2018 in Syria’s northwestern region of Afrin to eradicate the area of terrorists belonging to the PKK’s Syrian offshoot, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), following Turkey’s seven-month Euphrates Shield Operation which succeeded in clearing large swathes of Syrian territory from Daesh.

David L. Phillips, who is the head of the Program on Peace-building and Rights at Columbia University and a former senior adviser to the U.S. Department of State, also addressed the forum.

Phillips said he stood by those who were trying to form a “Kurdish state,” and called on the West and particularly the European Union to “intervene.”

Many so-called PKK leaders from various cantons also took the stand to ask for support from the West during the forum organized by the Rojava Center for Strategic Studies.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the European Union and the United States. The PKK has been conducting armed violence in the southeastern part of Turkey since 1984. More than 40,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the three-decade long conflict.

Forum protected by U.S. forces

The forum was protected by the U.S. army. Guests from the West who were transported from Iraq by the U.S. Air Force were protected by the Pentagon’s forces.

Some of the participants, including Kouchner, visited PKK terrorists stationed in Amude and al-Malikiyah. They then visited schools and churches opened in the area by missionaries, as well as a cemetery while accompanied by PKK terrorists.

Turkey 'neutralizes' 515 PKK terrorists in 2018 autumn Turkish security forces neutralized 515 YPG/PKK terrorists over the last three months in counterterrorism operations at home and abroad.“Neutralize” is the word Turkish authorities often use in their statements to imply that the terrorists in question either surrendered or were killed or captured.Between Sept. 1 and Nov. 30, 17 security guards were martyred in YPG/PKK terror attacks.The attacks also left three civilians dead and six others injured.Nearly 1,400 PKK suspects -- including former deputy and mayors of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), an opposition party in Turkish parliament, -- were detained during anti-terror operations across Turkey. A total of 347 suspects were jailed.Turkish jets 'neutralize' 4 PKK terrorists in N. IraqSenior YPG/PKK terrorists among neutralizedSenior terror operatives in the terror group including many on the wanted list of Turkey’s Interior Ministry have been neutralized in operations within and beyond Turkish borders.The wanted list is divided into five color-coded categories, with red as the most wanted, followed by blue, green, orange and grey.Deniz Yuksel, codenamed Haki, who was sought on the green category of the list, was neutralized in southeastern Diyarbakir province.Fatih Ozden, codenamed Bager Andok, was neutralized during a counterterrorism operation in the southeastern Hakkari's Yuksekova district on Sept. 3.Turkey approves prison sentences for HDP’s Demirtaş, ÖnderOzden, one of the so-called heads of the terrorist group, was in the red category of the Interior Ministry's wanted list.Mehmet Y., a convicted member of the PKK terror group, was arrested by Interpol in Bulgaria upon Turkey’s request on Sept. 5.A total of nine YPG/PKK terrorists, who were behind the attack that martyred two Turkish soldiers during Operation Olive Branch in northern Syria, were brought to Turkey on Sept. 14.The terrorists were caught in a joint operation by Turkish National Intelligence Service (MIT) and the Turkish gendarmerie forces in Syria's Afrin city.They were involved in Jan. 23, 2018 terror attack in Rajo area of Afrin that left Lt. Oguz Kaan Usta and Specialist Sergeant Mehmet Muratdagi martyred.Turkey strikes blow to YPG/PKK at home, abroad in Nov.The terrorists had taken away with them the body of the lieutenant which could only be found after 58 days.Murat Akdogan, codenamed Ali Gever, who was marked orange in the Interior Ministry list, was neutralized during an operation in northern Iraq on Sept. 15.Also, Sabri Kartal -- who was on the grey list -- was arrested in an operation in Yuksekova on Sept. 16.Terrorists neutralized in OctoberOn Oct. 9, the police arrested a senior PKK/KCK member, identified as Devlet Aslan, in cooperation with the National Intelligence Service, in the southeastern province of Batman.Aslan is reportedly among the so-called heads of the terrorist group’s Belgium branch.Turkey 'neutralizes' 14 terrorists over past weekSerbest Paksoy, codenamed Rezan, and Selcuk Kose, codenamed Mahir Botan, were neutralized on Oct. 11 at Mt. Gabar of the southeastern Sirnak province.Yusuf Tunc, who was in the grey category of the Interior Ministry list, was killed on Oct. 17 in a counterterrorism operation in the southeastern Adiyaman province.Known by the initials K.B., a PKK terrorist who killed security guard Mehmet Paksoy in 2017, was arrested during an operation in the Uludere district of Sirnak on Oct. 24.Turkish security forces arrested Emrah Nayci, the terror group's so-called senior representative of Gabar, in an operation in the rural areas of Sirnak on Oct. 31.Terrorists neutralized in NovemberIlyas Karakoc, codenamed Baran Amed Kino, was revealed to be among the four terrorists who were neutralized in the rural part of the Lice district in Diyarbakir on Nov. 1.PKK terrorist Selim Demiroglu, codenamed Firat Celi, was neutralized on Nov. 3 in Sirnak.Terrorist Ali Akbas, codenamed Zinar Amed, who had a 300,000 Turkish liras ($57,400) bounty on his head, was killed in an operation in the eastern Mus province on Nov. 27.Muhammed Kaya, who martyred Gendarme commander Mj. Arslan Kulaksiz in 2015, was also neutralized in the same operation.In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU -- has been responsible for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people.The YPG is its Syrian branch.

Local leader slams forum

Raqqa Local Council President Fayez al-Ghada said the Westerners speaking at the forum were the spokespersons of terror because they disregarded more than two million civilians displaced by the PKK.

“It is a limited approach for the Westerners discussing Afrin to refuse to see that al-Hasakah, Kobani, Qamishli, Ras al-Ayn, Tell Abyad, Manbij, Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor were evacuated by the PKK. This forum is an international crime,” Ghada said.

Turkish jets 'neutralize' 4 PKK terrorists in N. Iraq At least four PKK terrorists were neutralized in air operations carried out in northern Iraq on Monday, the Turkish army said on Wednesday.Turkish authorities often use the word "neutralized" in their statements to imply the terrorists in question either surrendered or were killed or captured.The terrorists preparing for an attack on Turkish bases were neutralized by airstrikes carried out in northern Iraq, the Turkish General Staff said on Twitter.The terrorists were spotted during the army's reconnaissance and surveillance activities, it added.In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU -- has been responsible for the deaths of some 40,000 people, including women and children.

Shocking U.S. claims

U.S. special representative for Syria James Jeffrey scandalously claimed on Monday that the Astana and Sochi talks were “rather strange” and unsuccessful.

“Our suggestion, and I think I would reflect the views of many of the other major UN countries that are concerned and interested in Syria, is that we do not continue with this rather strange Sochi/Astana initiative, for them to take over the job of putting together a constitutional committee and presenting it on a platter to [UN Syria envoy Staffan] de Mistura. They tried and they failed, or at least up to this point they failed. And if they are still failing by the 14th, the U.S. view, as we indicated in Heather’s [Nauert] comment or Heather’s press release on Thursday, is let’s pull the plug on Astana,” Jeffrey said at a U.S. Department of State briefing on Monday.

Russia, Turkey and Iran failed to make any concrete progress in setting up a Syrian constitutional committee at a meeting in the Kazakh capital Astana on Thursday, the office of U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said last week.

However, Astana talks between Turkey, Russia and Iran delivered a ceasefire in Syria in January 2017, so it cannot be said that the meetings have not yielded any results.

Sochi talks have also been successful. Following a meeting on Sept. 17 between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the two sides agreed to set up a demilitarized zone in the last opposition-held stronghold of Idlib.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011 when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

When Jeffrey was asked whether he had personally ever spoken to YPG/PYD terrorists, he replied: “I talk to whoever I need to talk to to accomplish my job.”

Jeffrey also claimed that 50 groups had left Manbij, which is still under PKK occupation, however he did not specify which organizations had left. He also said that such areas were “quite secure.”

Turkey opens new health center in Syria's Afrin Turkish Health Ministry opened a new health center in northwestern Syrian city of Afrin, which was purged of YPG/PKK terrorists in Turkey's Operation Olive Branch.The health center -- established in Raju town -- is facilitated with internal medicine, dentistry, women's and pediatric outpatient clinics, as well as a blood test laboratory and a pharmacy.Turkish institutions have established medical clinics in several areas in rural Afrin to provide free medical services for local people, for the hospitals in the region do not operate.Video: Turkey opens new health center in Syria's Afrin“It’s hard to reach Afrin city center when you are sick. With this new health center, it is easy for locals to get treatment in their own town. We thank Turkish authorities especially the Health Ministry,” said Saad Ahmed, the director of the center.Turkey’s Health Ministry also set up a mobile hospital and two mobile health service vehicles in Afrin.A health center in the rural of Jinderes town treats up to 70 patients a day.Turkey on Jan. 20 launched Operation Olive Branch to remove YPG/PKK and Daesh terrorists from Afrin.On March 18, Turkish troops and Free Syrian Army members liberated the town of Afrin, on the 58th day of the operation.

UN says Daesh terrorists execute people in Syria's Deir al-Zor The United Nations has reports of Daesh terrorists executing people perceived as cooperating with opposition fighters in Deir al-Zor governorate in eastern Syria, the U.N. human rights boss said on Wednesday.Michelle Bachelet, speaking to a news conference in Geneva, voiced deep concern for 7,000 civilians who she said were trapped between Daesh terrorists preventing them from leaving Deir al-Zor and air strikes by a U.S.-led coalition."We also have reports of Daesh executing people perceived as cooperating with SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces) or other parties to the conflict," she said, adding that civilians were being used as "pawns and bargaining chips" in the conflict.

Russia agrees on new Syria summit with Turkey, Germany Russian, Turkish, German leaders agreed to hold a new quadrilateral summit on Syria if need be, a Kremlin spokesman said on Tuesday.Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov said: "We agreed both with [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan and [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel that when it is necessary, one more forum can be convened with the participation of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, Erdogan, Merkel and [French President Emmanuel] Macron.”The consensus was reached during separate meetings of Putin with Erdogan and Merkel on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Argentina’s capital Buenos Aires, Ushakov said.He added that Putin did not discuss this issue with Macron yet.The place of a new meeting will be defined when the date is set, according to the aide.On Oct.27, Istanbul hosted the first ever quadrilateral summit on Syria. Turkish, Russian French and German leaders examined the situation in the country and offered a plan for the crisis resolution.The council stressed that the issues agreed on at the summit would contribute to peace in Syria and the region, as well as provide a permanent cease-fire by demilitarization in the northwestern province of Idlib.Syria has only just begun to emerge from a devastating conflict that began in 2011 when the Assad regime cracked down on demonstrators with unexpected ferocity.