Eighteen civil society organisations write to ECHR and CoE

Eighteen civil society organisations have written a letter to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe and the President of the European Court of Human Rights to denounced the Turkish military operations in northern Syria.

In the letter the organisations underlined how the “region has turned into a hotspot full of all forms of human rights violations: displaced civilians, theft, robbery, plunder, confiscation of property and crops, arson destroying forests, abduction of civilians, arbitrarily arrests, destruction of cemeteries and cultural symbols.”

The organisations underlined that Turkey and its mercenary allies are trying to force a demographic change and are carrying out war crimes and crimes against humanity. “These systematic crimes have been proved and confirmed by reports of governmental organisations, and nongovernmental organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, as well as the reports of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry for Syria.”

The letter ended with the following appeal: “We are asking you to urge Turkey to end the occupation and ensure the safe return of the displaced people to their homes; to take all possible measures that guarantee the justice of the victims and those who are affected by the Turkish policies, and allow them to access justice in order to protect their rights and receive compensation.”