435 people abducted in Turkish-occupied Afrin in 2023
According to the Crime Documentation Centre, the occupying forces have abducted 435 people in Afrin since the beginning of 2023.
The Turkish state and its army recruited from ISIS and its affiliates are committing crimes against humanity in Afrin, which they occupied in 2018. According to the statement made by the Crime Documentation Centre on Friday, the Turkish state and its gangs have abducted 435 citizens in the city since the beginning of the year.
In recent days, 6 more people have been kidnapped by gangs in different parts of Afrin.
The Crime Documentation Centre said the gangs often raided houses, broke down doors, committed theft while they kidnapped residents.
Among the 435 people abducted were children and 180 sick civilians in need of urgent treatment.
Afrin Canton was the westernmost canton of Rojava and North and East Syria, home to 200,000 ethnic Kurds. Though the population was overwhelmingly Kurdish, it was home to diverse religious groups including Yazidis, Alawites and Christians alongside Sunni Muslims.
On 20 January 2018, Turkey launched air strikes on 100 locations in Afrin, as the onset of an invasion they dubbed ‘Operation Olive Branch.’
The Turkish Airforce indiscriminately shelled civilians as well as YPG/YPJ positions, while a ground assault was carried out by factions and militias organised under the umbrella of the Turkish-backed National Army.
By 15 March, Turkish-backed militias had encircled Afrin city and placed it under artillery bombardment. A Turkish airstrike struck the city’s only functioning hospital, killing 16 civilians.
Civilians fled and the SDF retreated, and by 18 March Turkey was in de facto occupation of Afrin. Between 400 and 500 civilians died in the invasion, overwhelmingly as a result of Turkish bombing. Other civilians were summarily executed in the field.
Prior to the Turkish invasion, Afrin had been one of the most peaceful and secure parts of Syria, virtually never seeing combat during the civil war bar occasional skirmishes between YPG/YPJ and jihadi forces on its borders. As a result, Afrin offered peaceful sanctuary to over 300,000 internally displaced people from elsewhere in Syria.
