Turkish Occupation of Efrin (20 January 2018) скачать в хорошем качестве

Turkish Occupation of Efrin (20 January 2018)

Three years ago today, the Turkish army and the Syrian National Army (SNA) started the occupation of the Kurdish Efrin District under the name “Operation Olive Branch”. On many occasions, Turkey declared that the Kurdish Autonomous Administration in Rojava is a threat to its national security and threatened to occupy it. Under the pretext of fighting against “terrorists”, while using Islamist groups such as Ahrar al-Sham, Sham Legion, and ex-ISIS fighters, Turkey had a concrete plan for Efrin. This involves the demographical transformation of Efrin by displacing Kurds and resettling Arabs and Turkmens there. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, about 300,000 Kurds were displaced. Between 400 – 500 civilians were killed. War crimes were recorded such as Turkish-backed SNA fighters disfiguring the corpse of a Kurdish female fighter. Turkey has allegedly used chemical gas and indiscriminately shelled Kurdish positions which led to the killing of numerous Kurdish civilians. In the meantime, opponents to this occupation were silenced and hundreds of politicians and journalists were imprisoned in Turkey. The state used the whole media to make propaganda in support of an illegitimate war against a so-called enemy, that never attacked Turkey from Western Kurdistan, Rojava in general, or from Efrin in specific. Occupying Efrin while using the term “Olive branch”, which is a traditional symbol of peace, was misused by Turkey for unpeaceful purposes because that was not in accordance with the practices Turkey followed after controlling Efrin. Since 2018 Turkey has been transporting olive oil treated in Syria to be bottled in Turkey then be branded as a Turkish product and sold via Turkish agents. Since its occupation, Kurds who remained in Efrin experienced all kinds of discrimination by Turkey and the resettled Arabs and Turkmen. That includes forbidding the Kurdish language as an official language, the systematic plundering, and the destruction of archeological sites, which are part of erasing the Kurdish identity of the region. In numbers, 98 percent of Efrin’s population were Kurds before the Turkish occupation, while now it is about 30-35 percent. Thousands of displaced Kurds from Efrin are living now in difficult conditions in IDP camps such as in Al-Shahba, while foreigners are occupying their lands and homes. Kurds still hope to finally get solidarity from the wide international community to be able to finish the Turkish occupation and go back to their homes.