Witness from Afrin: Even 12-year-old children are tortured

Witness from Afrin: Even 12-year-old children are tortured
A young civilian who managed to flee from Turkish occupied Afrin told about the atrocities he went through and witnessed in the city. He said even 12-year-old children are tortured by the occupation forces.

Since January 20 when Turkey launched an invasion operation against Afrin, civilians, civilian infrastructures and civilian properties are systematically targeted as part of the savage war crimes perpetrated by the invaders. More reports of abduction, looting, rape, torture, harassment and execution are coming from the city on daily basis.

Young civilian M.Q. who has managed to flee from his village only recently after the invasion of Afrin on March 18, told ANF about the inhumane crimes against humanity committed in Afrin.

“MY COUSIN IS STILL MISSING”

M.Q. stated that they were in Keferşînê village when the gangs entered it, telling the following; “We couldn’t get out. Then I came to Afrin and stayed there for 40 days but I couldn’t return because I heard that the gangs were looking for me. According to what I heard, they circulated my photographs on Facebook as they looked for me. They tortured a relative of mine, forcing him to tell where I was. When he refused to talk about me, they took him away. We don’t know where he is at the moment. In Afrin, they are constantly torturing people. They are breaking into people’s houses and battering them, accusing them of organizing other people against them, and then taking them away, regardless of whether they indeed have relations with the Kurdish forces or not. They are torturing 12-year-old children even, committing atrocities against people without distinguishing children and elderly. In our neighborhood, they arrested over 20 friends of mine. They took a friend away. His wife was a teacher, who managed to escape but my friend remained in their hands. Our village was full of gangs and I couldn’t live with them anymore. I was always seeking a way to escape, even if it would cost me my life.”

ID CARDS FOR TURKISH ELECTIONS

M.Q. also stated that the Turkish forces and gangs are seizing the fields of the local people, and renting them back to their owners in return for money. M.Q. continued;

“The Turkish state issued identity cards for the people to “provide convenience for those who would stay in Afrin or want to go to other countries”. When elections were held in Turkey, all those people who were given ID cards were granted the right to cast a vote. It later came out that these ID cards had actually been issued for them to vote in Turkey’s elections. Some families in Afrin are left without a home now. Owners of fields are forced to work in their own properties like servants in return for a little amount of money.”

"FSA AND ENKS ACT TOGETHER"

M.Q. told that FSA (Free Syrian Army) gangs and ENKS (Syrian Kurds National Council) were accomplices to the crimes committed in Afrin.

“In some villages, they are making the people work for them. If some happen to refuse to do so, they get tortured. Soldiers of the Turkish army are acting together with FSA and ENKS. They are touring the villages and arresting almost everyone on grounds of being members of the Kurdish organization.”

anf