Lelun Afrin
Member of the Lelun Association for Victims, Mr. Kawa Omar, participated in the sixteenth session of the Forum on Minority Issues in Geneva, which was held over in 30 November and 1 December 2023.
The representative of the “Lelun Association For Victims” delivered his speech at the forum, noting the violations that the Afrin region has witnessed since its occupation by the Turkish “Olive Branch” operation on 18th March 2018, which include arrests and torture in prisons, the seizure of property and the imposition of financial royalties on the population; the indigenous Kurds and the agricultural seasons belonging to them, and imposed financial ransoms in exchange for the release of detainees.
He also mentioned in his speech examples of these violations, including: the Jenderes incident, in which four Kurdish young men were killed on the eve of Newroz night last 20th March, the killing of lawyer “Luqman Hanan” under torture. As well as the loss of the Yazidi citizen “Arin Deli” of her fetus as a result of torture on the background of her religious affiliation in the prisons of the armed factions affiliated with the Syrian National Army which is belong the opposition Syrian National Coalition.
He pointed to the suffering that the forcibly displaced people of Afrin have faced since 2018 in the displacement camps in the “Shahba” region, north of Aleppo, as a result of the siege imposed by the Syrian government, and their lack of the most basic necessities of life in light of the bitter cold.
In his speech, “Omar” explained the Turkish role in coordinating it with the armed factions with the aim of attracting their families and other settlers to house them in the homes of forcibly displaced people and settling them in the Afrin region, working through it to bring about demographic change in the region.
In addition to the double discrimination and persecution suffered by the religious minorities, Christians and Yazidis among the remaining indigenous Kurds in the Afrin region, forcing them to convert to the Islamic religion and destroying their monuments and shrines.
Omar urged the international community to put pressure on the Turkish government, as an occupying state, to carry out its duties to put an end to the violations taking place in the region until comprehensive transitional justice for Syria is achieved.
It should be noted that the participation of the “Lelun Association For Victims” in the sixteenth session of the Forum on Minority Affairs was an appropriate opportunity to highlight the suffering of the indigenous people in the Afrin region, which suffers from multiple and repeated violations under the control of armed factions affiliated with Turkey. As well as the deteriorating conditions that the displaced are suffering from forced displacement in places as a result of the ongoing siege by the Syrian government, in addition to conveying the voice of the victims and their suffering to international forums.
The United Nations Human Rights Council holds the Forum on Minority Affairs in Geneva, Switzerland, annually to discuss human rights issues and the persecution of minorities around the world, with the participation of human rights experts and activists of multiple nationalities, aim to addressing the issues of minorities that are exposed to discrimination and race, religion, gender and sexuality -based violence.