Lelun Afrin
Renouncing the Killings of four Kurdish civilians on the 2023 Newroz Eve in Jinderes town by members of the al-Sharqiya Army faction, after they lit Nowruz fires in front of their house, a number of Syrian and Kurdish activists around the world organized several initiatives and various activities across European and Arab capital cities.
These activities included peaceful protests and demonstrations in front of Turkish consulates, embassies, United Nations headquarters, and international organizations. They raised Kurdish banners, flags, pictures of the victims, and chanted slogans calling for justice and protecting civilians in Afrin from the repeated violations they have been suffering for the past five years. The protestors also carried olive branches to express their condemnation of the massacre and their solidarity with the families of the victims.
Invitations were made by Kurdish activists on social media to hold protests in various places with Syrian and Kurdish communities after the crime of Jinderes. Most of the gatherings took place across European countries, especially in front of Turkish embassies and consulates, including those in Austria, France and Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and the Netherlands. The participants traveled long distances coming from different regions to partake in the protests, among them women who came with their young children.
Large-scale protests took place in the Middle East as well, especially in Syria. The governorates and cities of Aleppo, Raqqa, Hasakah, Shahba, Amuda, Kobani, Qamishli, and Darbasiyah witnessed similar protests.
Several cities in the Kurdistan region, such as Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, and areas in Lebanon also witnessed protests. The protesters raised pictures of the martyrs, and denounced the violations committed by the armed groups, calling on the international bodies and the competent committees to take the case to international courts in order to be fair to the victims and to achieve accountability and justice. They also urged the United Nations to intervene to protect the rights of indigenous people to a dignified and safe life and also to safeguard the property rights and cultural identity of the people of the region.
The protesters, in the name of the people of Jindires and Afrin, also demanded that the killers and those who protect them be held accountable, all armed factions of the “Syrian Interim Government” leave Afrin and handover the administration of the region to its people, and that the administration of Afrin be placed under international protection, so as to ensure the safe return of the indigenous people to their villages from the areas they fled to during previous hostilities and return of seized property to lawful owners.
Since Turkey and affiliated armed opposition groups occupied the Kurdish/Syrian region of Afrin in 2018, the region has witnessed widespread and repeated violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, the most recent of which was the Jinderes crime. The killings have caused the pressure in the region to explode, causing a massive wave of anger and indignation across Afrin’s local community. The victims’ relatives held a large-scale protest in Jindires town despite all the death threats they faced from the armed factions. The local protests then spread to most of the places where Syrian Kurds are located in Europe and the Middle East.