PYD’s co-chair Aisha Hessou heads a delegation that conducts a series of meetings in Europe under the name of (The Afrin Delegation)to expose the practices of the Turkish occupation in Afrin of killing, displacement, demographic change, kidnapping and torture, as well as to explain the situation of Afrin’s people who displaced to the areas of al-Shahba, who bear the harsh conditions of displacement, and decided to reject the Turkish occupation of Afrin, as well as their knowledge that the Turkish occupation and mercenaries will commit genocide massacres against them if they return.
On this meetings, Aisha explained in an interview conducted by ANF agency the Turkish occupation plans in the region, as well as the problem of Daesh mercenaries who were arrested by SDF in the north and east of Syria, referring to the attempts of the Turkish state to isolate Afrin canton from geographically, as a prelude to annex it to Turkey, as well as to break the will of the people of Afrin in the camps of al-Shahba who persist in spite of all the harsh conditions they are subjected to continue the struggle and resistance until they return to their land.
On the issue of the formation of an international tribunal in the north and east of Syria to try the Daesh’s detainees there, Hessou stressed the role and responsibility of the international forces on this issue, stressing the need to find a solution to the problem of elements and families of Daesh’s detainees in the region and the need to develop a strategic plan to eliminate the Daesh’s thought which poses a danger to everyone.
The text of the interview:
You have been holding meetings in Europe with many parties, What are the parties that you met? what results have you achieved so far?
We considered the need for meetings at the international level. The first meeting we held was in Sweden We met with officials of the Left Party, parliamentarians and officials of the ruling Swedish Social Democratic Party. During our meetings, we focused on two main points, the first, we exposed Turkey’s intentions and objectives of the occupation of Afrin and highlighted the violations and crimes of the Turkish state.
And the second: the situation of displaced people in the camps of al-Shahba, where hundreds of thousands of Afrin residents today live in the camps under tragic humanitarian conditions.
In Germany we also met with many officials and political party leaders, officials of foreign relations, representatives of civil society organizations and mayors. We referred to the German government’s support for the occupation of Afrin by sending weapons to Turkey, which was killing the people of Afrin and destroying its villages and towns. They agreed with us in this view and called on them to put pressure on the German government to change its position and break its silence, and the need to take practical steps to put pressure on Turkey to stop practicing violations in Afrin. In fact, Turkey is trying to isolate Afrin and annex it to Turkey.
Hessou added in the same context: Turkey occupies Afrin and raises its flag over it. The Turkish language is also imposed in transactions and schools. In contrast, the Kurdish language, which is the mother tongue of the people of the canton, is prohibited. We have prepared a document and submitted it to the competent authorities we met, we have asked them to intervene and declare their position on these policies. On this framework a strongly worded statement of the German Left Party was issued and condemned the Turkish violations, and called on the German government to stop providing arms and ammunition to Turkey, and we held mass meetings in Germany and Sweden and talked to them about the second phase of the resistance against the Turkish occupation in Afrin.
Turkey today is working on building a wall inside Afrin canton to isolate its areas from each other. What is the purpose of building this wall from your point of view?
Turkey’s policies towards Syria have begun to collapse. Since the beginning of the Syrian crisis, in 2011, Turkey has been trying to restore the borders of Turkey’s national compact and to revive the Ottoman Empire amid the chaos of the region, so that the occupation of Afrin is revenge for Daesh.
Because Turkey went crazy after an embarrassing defeat in Kobanî, al-Raqqa, and al-Tabqa, and began to think of retaliation for the failure of the scheme, so resorted to the meetings of Sochi and Astana, and one of the results of Astana was the agreement to occupy Afrin with the green light of Russia.
What we focus on in our meetings with international bodies is that the intervention and occupation of the canton of Afrin which is not a temporary operation. Turkey is aiming to annex Afrin to its territory and to ensure the implementation of this project Turkey resorted to the construction of this wall to disrupt the canton.
Hessou added, “The issue of building the wall is new, but in all our meetings with the German party, we explained to them that when Turkey launched its attacks on Afrin, it was arguing that it wanted to eliminate terrorism, but all the world knows very well that the most extreme terrorism today is Jabhat al-Nusra, Turkey sponsors this militant group and gathers its fighters and sends them to Afrin, and is working today to create strife among the people of Afrin and deepen it among the Syrian components, and this through ethnic cleansing and expulsion of the people of the region and the settlement of mercenaries, Erdogan threatens on a daily basis the north and east regions of Syria, although it is a NATO member, it violates NATO agreements through rapprochement with the other pole (Russia), seeking a deal S-400 missiles.
The Autonomous Administration of northern and eastern Syria presented a proposal calling for the formation of an international tribunal in northern and eastern Syria to try mercenaries of Daesh, to what extent has this proposal been accepted and at what level is being discussed on the international scene?
The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, on more than one occasion, we have called for the establishment of a strategic plan for the elimination of Daesh terrorism. We have called for the formation of an international tribunal, and all parties must shoulder their responsibilities towards this issue. The issue of the trial of mercenaries must be a matter of the same level, and we must work towards resolving it. The question of the formation of an international tribunal should be considered seriously and discussed at all levels. We say: Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and (YPG / YPJ) worked to eliminate this terrorism, so when we call for the formation of an international tribunal we insist on the formation of this court on our territory, and the international powers must shoulder their responsibilities in this regard, what we have seen in Sweden is that the public and the Swedish government afraid of the issue of the return of mercenaries to their country, in the sense that the danger is still existent, what is the solution?
No one can say that terrorism has been eliminated in Syria, and the mercenaries who control Afrin and Idlib today are the remnants of Daesh, and the world public opinion knows that the remnants of mercenaries arrived in Idlib and Afrin, so we emphasize the need to resolve the issue from a strategic perspective, This international tribunal, and that the international community should shoulder its responsibility and resolve this issue. This international tribunal must be formed and the international community must assume its responsibility and resolve this issue.
