“The U.N. report named two rebel groups formerly backed by the United States, the Sultan Murad Division and the Hamza Division, as some of the worst torturers in Afrin.
Yet more indication that the U.S. has no business being involved in Syria and is not on the side of the good and right there.
Meanwhile, the militia man’s statement about Yezidis being infidels underscores yet again the Islamic motivations underlying this conflict, which Western establishment analysts are determined to ignore. That willful ignorance leads them again and again to misunderstand the problem and prescribe remedies that only make matters worse.
“Turkish troops present at Afrin torture sites, U.N. says,” by Matthew Petti, Ahval News, March 4, 2021 (thanks to Henry):
Turkish officials were present during the torture of prisoners at Syrian rebel bases, several survivors have told a United Nations commission.
The U.N. Commission of Inquiry of the Syrian Arab Republic released a draft report into detention and disappearances on Monday.
The report includes several damning findings over the conduct of rebel groups occupying Afrin, a historically Kurdish region now controlled by Turkey.
A Turkish invasion of Afrin in 2018 expelled the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), and handed the territory over to an alliance of militias known as the Syrian National Army (SNA). Since then, the SNA has been accused of ethnic cleansing, mass looting, and human trafficking.
Hundreds of Afrin’s civilians have been reported kidnapped or disappeared after rebel militias began holding locals for ransom, a practice which gradually evolved into a systematic operation to extort Afrin’s Kurdish population, according to the U.N. report.
Survivors say their captors dished out “frequent and severe beatings” while demanding detainees confess links to Kurdish political factions. Rebel groups also sexually assaulted and abused women in their detention, kidnapping some and marrying them off by force.
The SNA has particularly targeted Afrin’s Yezidi religious minority. Yezidi shrines have been looted, and Yezidi families subjected to “exorbitant” ransoms, according to Wilson Center fellow Amy Austin Holmes.
“Even if they survive, this is a way to force demographic change, to force those few remaining Yezidis who still live in Afrin to leave,” Holmes told the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in June 2020. “This is a way to engage in ethnic cleansing and demographic change without actually killing people.”
One Yezidi woman told U.N. investigators that rebels beat her with cables while threatening her life. “Yezidis are infidels. We will kick you out from your land. You will die here,” a militia member allegedly told the woman.
Turkish troops were frequently present at rebel detention centres and attended torture sessions, according to the testimony of survivors cited in the U.N. report.
The Turkish Embassy in Washington described the U.N. allegations against Turkish forces as “baseless”.
“The Turkish Armed Forces fully respect the international humanitarian law at all times,” the embassy said in a statement to Ahval. “The Turkish Armed Forces did not get involved, directly or indirectly, in any incident of violation in Syria.”…
On the other side of the front lines, the U.N. report named two rebel groups formerly backed by the United States, the Sultan Murad Division and the Hamza Division, as some of the worst torturers in Afrin.
The Sultan Murad Division received anti-tank weapons as part of a covert CIA program to fight the Syrian government. While the Hamza Division was vetted, trained and armed by the United States as part of a now defunct Department of Defense program to forge a rebel army against the Islamic State. Both groups later joined the SNA….
“Unless Turkey withdraws from the areas that it occupied, including Ras al-Ayn, Tal Abyad, and Afrin, it is unlikely that the original inhabitants – regardless of their religion, regardless of their ethnicity – will ever return to their homes,” Holmes said during her commission testimony.
“It is unlikely that the Yezidis and Christians who lived there for hundreds of years will ever be able to return home unless Turkey withdraws.”
BlackSabbath says
Remove Turkey from NATO
juleonly says
It is stories like these that make me wish I had become an assassign. If only I were not 70 I quess I would use Drone since they target so well ( not torture…I have too much good in me but quick anialations .Zero in on all who worked in these brutal mediaevil black sites and prisions. and sadistic doctors who try to keep them alive and concsious long time. I missed mu calling. Year to see them quickly and quietly exterminated as if they never existed.
born saturday says
brutality and barbarocity is traditional for the nomadic customs… it is no surprise by some that have lived close to islam. this is what is introduced in europe and the world now everywhere, initially behind closed doors, and then eventually out in the open… it is not their fault that all this muslims do what they do it is the people in the west that have allowed them to…. people in each country who still boast their opinion whithin the west… the modern ottomaniac chalifate meant exactly this brutality and barbarocity it doesnt only mean geographic expansion but an expansion in those particular rights that the modern ottomaniacs take by holding their nomadic traditions…..
born saturday says
the turks, traditionally have mercenaries in their wars since the ottomaniac empire and it is those who commit the worst attrocities against civilians. the massive massacre of civilians in minor asia in the 19th century was such one amongst many of a country that has a criminal record, rather than history…..
End PC says
“Islamic motivations underlying this conflict, which Western establishment analysts are determined to ignore. ”
The Western establishment analysts, like the MSM here & Catholic Church (see “What Catholics Need to Know About Islam” by William Kilpatrick), are enablers of Islamic jihad & infiltration.
If you want to be able to comment on the original sites that don’t allow comments then download from Dissenter.com the Dissenter Browser that comes with an extension to comment at any site. Check it out.
gravenimage says
The Catholic Church is not intrinsically Islamophilic–but the current pontiff is.
juleonly says
If the Catholic Church read the qur’an/Hadis and history if Supremist Islam using their own member to to do the dirty work. I they read the things that Mo did in comparison to Jesu they wold freak. Islam is not from Abraham. Much was copied from but the main point was for Warlords to spread Supremacist Islam by the sword, by fear and terror Every country is now seeing this.Qur’an=Warlord Manual to conquer and have complete control of all its members to to the dirty wiok in holly war for Allah (the warlords) Islam is not an Abrahamic religion..
Mark Spahn (West Seneca,NY) says
Are we missing the larger story here? Note the advertising efforts by Big Pharma to get poor municipalities to change the name of their town to help advertise their products:
https://www.drugs.com/cdi/afrin-nasal-spray.html
What’s next? Maybe an endorsement by the Prophet (pbuh) to tout the devil-dispelling utility of
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbVxQUI9FaE
gravenimage says
Very funny!
Boycott Turkey says
Turkey continues its ethnic cleansing Syrian mercenaries are puppets of Erdogan he used To ethnic cleanse Armenians in Artaksh to I don’t see any difference between the Turkish army and isis same ideology same victims Yezidis Kurds and Christians i remeber the world was outraged how isis treated the yezidis so how comes Turkey is allowed to get away with it ?
oskar says
Why don’t the European countries ban the terrorist organization “Grey Wolves”? Sultan Murad brigade is the Syrian military wing of the “Grey Wolves”. They are islamist pigs who subscribe to the misogynist islam. Their strength is only for women. They have no change against the Kurdish PKK men. Terrorist state of turkey is responsible for all of this.
gravenimage says
Turkish-backed ‘rebel’ tortures Yezidis in Syria, says: ‘Yezidis are infidels. We will kick you out from your land.’
…………………
Hideous. Why are we still pretending that Turkey is an ally? They should have been kicked out of NATO long since.