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Kurds in way: Witness account of
atrocities as Islamic Al-Nusra Front asserts
northern Syria position
10.8.2013
Russian TV Novosti |
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Fighters of the Arab-Islamic jihadist group Al-Nusra
Front linked to al-Qaeda hold position on April 4,
2013 in the Syrian village of Aziza, on the southern
outskirts of Aleppo.
Photo: AFP
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August 10, 2013
Witnesses are starting to emerge with grisly tales
of kidnapping, rape and murder of Kurdish minorities
in the north and north-east of Syria. Clashes
between Al-Qaeda-linked militants and soldiers of
the Kurdish Front have sunk the region into chaos.
“When civilians escaped, they were shot, and militia
raided houses, blowing up some and robbing others…
they still have more than 200 civilian hostages,”
Zakaria Mohammed said speaking exclusively to RT
Arabic about the violence that started out with an
assault on four towns in the north of Syria.
Mohammed is a speaker and activist for the Kurdish
Front, who bore witness to events that began one
weekend in late July, as several battalions of FSA,
Al-Nusra Front and Islamic State of Iraq and the
Levant fighters surrounded their headquarters in the
town of Tal Hasel.
The clashes quickly spread to Tal Aran, Tal Abyad,
and Serekaniye. As a result of there not being any
reinforcements to support Kurdish troops’ smaller
numbers, the civilian withdrawals resulted in
massacres and the kidnapping of over 500 people.
According to Mohammed, those who had managed to
escape are currently in safe houses in the city of
Afrin. Telecommunications with Tal Aran and Tal
Hasel have been severed. Many people, however, are
still in danger as violence may once again flare up.
Jabhat Al-Nusra Front, together with the Islamic
State of Iraq and the Levant, control the area.
Some have since returned to their homes, facing
strict checks by Al-Nusra Front, to determine if
they belong to any specific political grouping.
Those that do are killed. In any case, one major
theory of Islamist anger at the Kurds is the
latter’s unwillingness to partake in the wider
Syrian conflict. Their ethnic and cultural identity
has left Kurds on the sidelines of the wider Syrian
conflict.
The Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) is issuing
reports that “hundreds of Kurdish civilians have
been kidnapped, tortured and their houses have been
looted and burned down. These ongoing brutal
massacres are targeting all Kurdish civilians in
Qamishli, Kobani and Afrin areas.”
The events that started in mid-July have culminated
in the carnage of August 5, when 450 people were
allegedly killed in Tal Abyad and the surrounding
area, with horrific footage emerging from Iranian
channel, Al-Alam.
Although the media still has no information on
either numbers or the particulars of that day, some
Kurds are coming out with very similar reports of
recent lootings and attacks on their settlements by
Islamic extremists and FSA troops.
“The Al-Nusra militants and other rebel forces
surrounded the village,” Yasin Tarbush, a relative
of one of the Kurdish attack victims, told RT on
August 7. “They started going door to door, entering
every house. If there were any men, they killed them
and took the women and children hostage.”
Implications and prognoses
Rumors abound of a plan for genocide of the Kurds at
the hands of Islamic extremists seeking control of
the area, as the minority appeals for help from the
international community. However, it is a tricky
situation, as the northern-Syrian Kurds are sealed
off from the rest of Syria by Al-Qaeda-dominated
areas to the south, and Turkey – the biggest
opponent of Kurdish independence – to the east.
Further complicating an objective approach to the
Kurdish question is the fact that Turkey is an
important NATO member, and secondly, that terrorist
gangs may well be cooperating with fighters of the
Free Syrian Army – a force backed by Western and
regional powers in their attempt to topple Syrian
President Bashar Assad.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has spoken on
the matter, urging quick action on the part of the
UN to condemn the alleged atrocities and bring
extremism in Syria under control before hundreds
more Kurds are killed.
A Kurdish source at the PYD told RT that, despite
Turkish denial of any support to Al-Nusra Front and
other militants, it has been carrying out logistics
operations across several of its border crossings
with northern Syria.
The appeal to ‘Defend the Kurds in Syria from
massacre and ethnic cleansing’, written by an
organization called ‘Peace in Kurdistan’, clearly
outlines the Kurdish position:
“Peace in Kurdistan supports the proposals for a
comprehensive peace settlement in Syria put forward
by the PYD and supports the right of the Kurds in
Syria to exercise democratic self-government in the
region” and “the release of any civilian hostages
held by rebel groups and urges an immediate halt to
the arms supplies to these factions who are turning
their weapons on innocent civilians and carrying out
war crimes.”
It remains to be seen how this incredibly volatile
situation will play out in the coming weeks. As a
lecturer at the American University in Washington
DC, Edmund Ghareeb, told RT, Syria’s civil war has
already become more complex even without the Kurds
participating in it, and that these latest
happenings may go a long way toward creating a
dangerous power vacuum in north-eastern Syria.
“The Kurds are becoming concerned over the growing
power of [radicals Islamists]… Both sides are trying
to control this area, which is close to Turkey,www.ekurd.net
which has its own problems with its own Kurdish
minority and is becoming very concerned with the
events in Syria – since it supports the opposition
in Syria – and is very much concerned that the
vacuum near the border could spill over into its own
territory and inflame the situation further than
it’s already inflamed in Turkish Kurdistan… it’s a
very complex, multi-sided conflict.”
Yet, a new complication has arisen with the takeover
of the area of Kobani by Al-Nusra Front – an event
that has sparked Kurdish protests all the way in
Iraq, asking the Kurdish regional government there
to aid the Kurds in Syria. All this is threatening
to pull Iraq into the mix, and has become a “very
fluid, complicated and volatile” situation, Ghareeb
sees it.
Following a letter by the PYD to the international
community, the UN Human Rights office in Geneva has
promised an investigation into what many are already
calling a plan for genocide of the Kurds. However,
no punishment or accusations will emerge until (or
unless) the organization decides that the events
actually constitute a war crime.
Copyright ©, respective author or news agency,
rt.com
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