In a written statement, MSD condemned the Turkish army’s killing of 11 Syrian civilians including women and children trying to cross the border from Xirbet El-Coz village to Turkey on June 19. MSD called on the UN to launch an investigation on Turkey’s civilian massacres.

“The Syrian people and all international forces are witness to the killing of civilians on the Turkey-Northern Idlib borderline two nights ago. 11 of our civilian people, most of whom were women and children, were killed in this incident. This is undoubtedly not a first, we know similar incidents have taken place in Efrin, Kobanê, Cizîr and Şehba regions’ border lines due to documents and footage that have emerged,” read the statement, and continued:

“We would like to express that this massacre is against international law and this so-called defense should be focusing on protecting and defending the civilians, not killing them.

At the same time, we see that Turkey claiming to defend its borders has crossed into the Rojava-Northern Syria lands repeatedly. Despite documents and media reports proving terrorist organisations crossing Turkey’s border into Syria, this situation continues and the public is outraged.

We as the Democratic Syrian Assembly condemn Turkey’s enmity towards the Syrian peoples and call on the UN to launch immediate investigations on this matter and other similar matters. We call on Turkey to stop these massacres on the Syrian civilians and invasion attempts immediately. We hereby offer our condolences to the families of our massacred citizens and all the peoples of Syria. We hope that international human rights organisations and primarily the UN will take action on stopping the passage of terrorist groups and ending the war in Syria and take political action for the solution of existing problems.”