Syrian Women's Council: 119 women have been abducted in Afrin

QAMISHLO - Syrian Women’s Council has issued a press statement and says Turkish army and its backed groups have inhumane practices such as ethnic oppression, massacre, breaking women's rights, torturing the prisoners, attacking on dead bodies and looting. The council also reports that 119 women have been abducted until now and they have been subjected to sexual abuse and assault.

Syrian Women’s Council has issued a press statement on inhumane practices of Turkish army and its backed groups in Afrin. Many female members of the council attended the press statement took place at Diplomatic Relations Hall of the Movement for a Democratic Society (TEV-DEM) in Qamishlo. Syrian Women's Council General Coordinator Lîna Berekat read the press statement.

‘Turkey has deepened the Syrian war’

Lîna stated that the demands of the Syrian people have been turned into a regional war by the support of regional and international states directly or through gang groups. Indicating that Turkey’s ‘Ottoman occupation’ policies carried out in the region cause the war in Syrian to deepen, Lîna said, “Turkey has caused hundreds of thousands civilian to be killed or forcibly displaced with its invasion attacks on different places of Syria and the support of gangs groups.”

‘Silence gives courage’

Underlining that Turkey has carried out inhumane and immoral attacks on Afrin and has changed the demographic structure of the city in order to be permanent in Afrin, Lîna emphasized that Turkey takes courage from the silence of the world public opinion.”

‘Torture, looting, sexual assault, massacre…’

Stating that the biggest attitude in the city is against women, Lîna emphasized that at least 119 women have been abducted, subjected to sexual abuse and assault until now.

The statement lists the practices of Turkish army and its backed groups as follows;

* Ethnic pressure

* Massacre

* Attitude against women’s rights

* Torturing and killing of prisoners, attacks on dead bodied

* Unlawful trials

* Looting

* Burning books and historical documents

* Destruction and bombardment on religious temples

* Abduction and killing of civilians

* Child abduction

* Bombardment on cemeteries

* The bombardment on Heyva Sor Headquarters and Avrîn Hospital

* Bombardment on Meydankê dam as well as electricity and water treatment plants

* Bombardment on mills and bakeries

* Using of forbidden weapons

* Bombardment on civilian convoys and using civilians as human shields.

Emphasizing that a crime against humanity and war crime have been committed in Afrin, Lîna said that 259 civilians, including 56 women and 46 children, have been killed since January 10 and that 707 civilians, including 104 women and 155 children, have been wounded in the Turkish airstrikes. Lîna also recalled that hundreds of thousands of the people of Afrin have been forcibly displaced.

The Syrian Women’s Council condemned the practices of Turkish army and its backed groups in Afrin and they called on International organizations, institutions and communities to not stay silent against what is going on in Syria and to condemn the attacks of Turkey and its backed groups on civilians.