The Sara Organization to Combat Violence Against Women, the Free Women's Foundation in Syria (WJAS) and the Women's Council in the Islamic Democratic Conference issued an urgent appeal calling on all humanitarian and human rights organizations, the international community, the guarantor states, and all women's organizations concerned with women to intervene quickly to secure the supplies of those forcibly displaced from their areas and provide them with assistance and work to end the crimes and violations, to finally and forever put an end to the immoral practices against peoples.

The joint statement by women’s organisations includes the following:

“We would like to draw your attention to the actual situation in Syria. As you might have seen, Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) and The Syrian National Army (SNA) started to attack Aleppo, Shehba and Tal Rifaat on the 27th of November. These forces, which are sometimes described as ‘rebel’ forces or ‘opposition’ forces, are in fact jihadist forces. Hayat Tahrir Al Sham is a jihadist force aligned to Al Qaida and is found on international terrorist lists. The SNA are jihadist forces directly aligned with Turkey, though both forces are being supported by Turkey. More than 200,000 people - mainly refugees from Afrin, for the first time forcibly displaced in 2018 - have been forced to flee again.

These attacks are connected with the international and regional situation in Syria, as it includes the conflicting superpowers and regional powers, who all strive to gain influence. The Turkish state supports these groups in order to eliminate the democratic self-administration project in North and East Syria (DAANES) and to occupy new lands in Syria. In the democratic self-administration, people of all religions and ethnicities live peacefully together and women have equal status and equal possibilities as men. Now for all minorities and all women, dark times will begin if we do not stop this.

Today, we see the 2018 scenario being repeated against our people in Shehba and Tal Rifaat, which has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of displaced persons, including women and infants, who are now again displaced. It is still not clear how many civilians have been killed when still stuck in Shehba and when stuck on the road; old people and small children have died because of the cold. In particular, Yazidi, Kurdish and people of other minorities are being targeted and killed. Still, thousands of people are being trapped in Shehba. News is coming of thousands of people deliberately being starved, killed and kidnapped.

After only a few days of attacks, many aggressive and criminal acts have been carried out by the terrorist Al-Nusra Front and the Syrian National Army, like beheading, looting, torture - which is far removed from human and moral values. This is not new, as many crimes have been documented in the occupied areas like Afrin and Serekaniye, as well as in Idlib. The history of these groups is full of massacres against civilians, women, children, and genocides against the people in general.

Therefore, we, as women's organizations in the northeastern region of Syria, the Sara Organization to Combat Violence Against Women, the Free Women's Foundation in Syria and the Women's Council in the Islamic Democratic Conference, condemn and denounce the attacks of the Turkish state and its mercenaries on the areas of Aleppo, Shehba and Tal Rifaat. We call on all women to adopt a global and unified stance against these terrorist attacks. We also call on all humanitarian and human rights organizations, the international community, the guarantor states, and all women's organizations concerned with women to intervene quickly to secure the supplies of those forcibly displaced from their areas and provide them with assistance and work to end these crimes and violations – to finally and forever put an end to these immoral practices against peoples.”